Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

ACCOMMODATIONS YOU CAN AFFORD 107
inner-city feel, and it’s close to excellent restaurants and cafes around the Kings
Cross/Darlinghurst and Oxford Street areas.
Glebe, with its ethnic restaurants, is another inner-city suburb popular with
tourists. It’s well served by local buses, as well as Airport Express Bus route 352.
If you want to stay near the beach, check out the options in Manly and
Bondi, though you should consider their distance from the city center and the
lack of CityRail trains to these areas. A taxi to Manly from the city will cost
around A$35 (US$23) and to Bondi around A$26 (US$17).
Remember, always ask about discount rates, package deals, and any other special
offerings when booking a hotel, especially if you are traveling in winter
when hotels are less likely to be full.
Almost all hotels offer nonsmoking rooms; inquire when you make a reservation
if it’s important to you. Most moderately priced rooms will have tea- and
coffeemaking facilities, and an iron. Coffeemakers are rare in Australia—you
tend to get a few packets of Nescafe in your room. Like elsewhere, there’s an
increasing trend to rip off guests with pay-per-view movie channels (around
A$16/US$10 per movie), rather than to provide full access to a range of free
cable TV channels. In Australia, by the way, a “double” room means you normally
get one double, queen-size, or king-size bed in a room.
THE ROCKS/CIRCULAR QUAY
The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel Sydney’s oldest pub was established in 1841
after serving as a private residence since its construction in 1836. It’s an attractive,
three-story sandstone building with a busy pub on the ground floor, a good
brasserie on the second, and hotel accommodations on the third. The rooms,
while compact, are spacious enough to swing your bags around without hitting the
walls. From its creaky floorboards and bedroom walls made from convict-hewn
sandstone blocks, to the narrow corridors, the wood fire, and homemade beer
down in the bar, the Lord Nelson positively wallows in colonial atmosphere.
19 Kent St. (corner of Argyle St.), The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000.& 02/9251 4044. Fax 02/9251 1532. www.
thelordnelson.com.au. 9 units, 8 with bathroom. A$120 (US$78) double without bathroom; A$180 (US$117)
double with bathroom. Extra person A$30 (US$20). Rates include continental breakfast. AE, DC, MC, V. No
parking. CityRail or ferry: Circular Quay. Amenities: 2 restaurants; bar. In room: TV, fax, coffeemaker, hair
dryer, iron.
The Russell Finds This is the coziest place to stay in The Rocks, and perhaps
in all of Sydney. It’s more than 100 years old, and it shows its age wonderfully
in the creak of the floorboards and the ramshackle feel of its brightly
Last-Minute Room Deals
If you turn up in town without a reservation, you should definitely make
use of the Sydney Visitors Centre Booking Desk (& 02/9667 6050) in the
arrivals hall of the airport’s International Terminal. It negotiates deals
with many of Sydney’s hotels (but not hostels) and offers exceptional
value discounts on rooms that haven’t been filled that day—you can
save up to 50% on a room. The desk is open from 6am to the last flight
of the day and also offers discounts on tours (to the Blue Mountains, for
example), and cheap tickets for flights within Australia.