The best time to be in Sydney is when everyone has left. During holiday periods everyone is going somewhere, creating airport congestion, jacking up the price of flights and causing huge traffic jams heading out of the city. So next time why not consider staying put and finding a nice place in your own city.
This Christmas just past I decided to treat myself to a nice hotel stay away from home and enjoy Sydney as if I were a tourist. One of the best things about it was that I knew all the tourist traps to avoid!
A lot of things close during the holiday season, so I wanted to stay close to the city in a part where things never close. The Darling looked nice and is also situated at The Star, so I knew there would always be something open for food.
When I entered the room I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be this big… lounge room, bedroom, bathroom and walk in wardrobe.
Moments later, while I was just getting settled in, I got a buzz at the door… and this got delivered. Pretty nice touch…
The bedroom was a comfortable size with a big screen TV. The blinds are all auto-magic… press a button and it opens and closes. They can also be controlled using the TV remote… fancy shmancy.
Now this walk in wardrobe was just ridiculous… I hardly used it and it was half the size of the bathroom, which was also very big… because it had to fit a huge spa in it.
Sokyo is probably one of the best Japanese restaurants in Sydney at the moment. I had been wanting to try it for a while so finally got the chance considering it was actually in the same building as the hotel – still had to book.
Don’t worry, I won’t bombard you with food photos but suffice to say that every dish was actually very well balanced and presented. There’s also the Sokyo bar right next door if you want to go there before or afterwards.
Verdict. It was definitely a good idea to stay in the city while everyone left and I’d recommend giving it a go if you’ve never done anything like this. I didn’t have to fuss with airport and traffic delays and I felt right at home The Darling without actually being at home.
