We just got back from a great trip to Sydney Australia and I wanted to share one of the highlights. We took a day long tour trip with Oz Trails (www.oztrails.com.au). The tourist office in Darling Harbour recommended them. They were just great. We usually aren't the tour group types, but we really enjoyed our day. The bus promptly picked us up from where we were staying, the guide was very friendly and informative and the sights were awesome. We went on their Blue Mountains tour. I would recommend them highly to anyone.

You can also do a DIY tour. Get to the train station and buy the ExplorerLink ticket to the Blue Mountains which is a return ticket on the train then a pass to use the hop on hop off Explorer bus when you get there. Very simple, very easy, and if you like to go at your own pace and explore it's perfect.

Hey Mork
Thanks for your input. We were thinking of doing the tour ourselves. It really is nice the way public transport works in NSW and I agree that it would be pretty easy to do it without a tour group. We were traveling with our two young daughters (ages 2 and 4 years) and we were worried about having to spend a lot of time at bus stops or on crowded buses. For us, the Oz Trails guys worked out great. If my wife and I had been on our own, I think we might have tried doing it differently because we usually don't do the tour bus thing.
We hope to get back to Sydney soon. It really was a great trip.

I love Sydney, it's my favorite city. I don't really understand why so many people prefer Melbourne. We decided it's a blonde vs Brunette sort of thing! One has instant appeal while the other grows on you. I think Sydney had a stunning setting, a great CBD, good beaches and plenty of interesting things to see and do.

I have a brother who lived in Melbourne for a couple years back in the eighties. He also spent some months in Tasmania. He makes Melbourne sound like a cool town. We just felt like we had barely enough time to see Sydney. I think we'll try to get back and see more of the continent sometime in the future.

We were in Sydney for four days over new Year a couple of years ago (saw the fireworks from the Opera house)on the way home from a tour of New Zealand. We enjoyed it so much we decided that Oz deserved its own trip so we went back in December 2006 and had a fantastic time. Queensland is beautiful.