Where to stay in Sydney, Australia?

August 17, 2013 12:35 AM

I'm going to Sydney for a weekend and I'm looking for your recommendations of reasonably cheap accommodation - either cheapish hotels or hostels. I'm not looking for anywhere with a party vibe, but I'm open to suggestions apart from that. Ta!
posted by EatMyHat to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

What sort of price range are you looking at, and what are you there to do (so as to recommend areas)?
posted by AnnaRat at 12:48 AM on August 17, 2013

Glebe youth hostel is grown up and in a nice spot along a road full of cafes and so forth. It has individual rooms to rent. It's pretty easy to get into town too.
posted by MuffinMan at 12:54 AM on August 17, 2013

Response by poster: @AnnaRat - looking to pay less than $150 per night for a hotel if I can manage it, don't mind staying in a hostel though in which case price doesn't matter. As for what I'll do - probably mainly shopping with a bit of sightseeing thrown in. I'm not bothered about nightlife but proximity to eateries would be a plus.
posted by EatMyHat at 1:08 AM on August 17, 2013

A private room at Sydney Central YHA.

Close to the main train station, and walking distance from the restaurants of Chinatown.
posted by Year of meteors at 1:47 AM on August 17, 2013

I've always had good luck with these guys http://www.yhotel.com.au/. But also check lastminute.com.au and wotif.com.au for their mystery deals if you're booking far enough in advance. I've had a couple of good scores through that.
posted by singingfish at 2:54 AM on August 17, 2013

I stay at the Altamont in Darlinghurst when I visit Sydney. Clean, groovy, quirky, nice staff and very central, close to trains, actually quiet for such a location. You could check any of the hotels in the 8Hotels group.
posted by honey-barbara at 3:13 AM on August 17, 2013

I like the railway square yha
posted by exois at 4:27 AM on August 17, 2013

My favourite is always Billabong Gardens in Newtown. It's an awesome location, very quiet for a hostel, and they have clean private rooms at decent prices too. There's a lovely centre courtyard with a pool and lots of plants.

I recommend avoiding anything too near the railway station. You'll get tons of street noise and weird all-night partiers.
posted by lollusc at 5:17 AM on August 17, 2013

I stayed at the Sydney YWCA. They have two locations, one is in a big downtown-ish building and the other is a bit further out but accessible by bus/cab to other stuff. Both were really reasonably priced. City South was more like a hotel and Hyde park was more like a hostel (bathrooms down the hall, for example). Wotif is good for last minute changes too. I had to get a last minute place in Sydney once because the place we were supposed to be staying didn't have a room with AC and I made a reservation at another place nearby at like 8 pm that night. Very helpful.
posted by jessamyn at 7:18 AM on August 17, 2013

Just chiming in to agree with the Newtown suggestion - I haven't stayed at that particular place, but Newtown would be a great area to base yourself, with great shopping and eating (and very easy transport to other Sydney sights - there are millions of buses along King St that head into the city).
posted by Kaleidoscope at 8:06 PM on August 17, 2013

I was also going to reccomend Billabond Gardens in Newtown.

Newtown has a vibrant night life of bars and resturants.
posted by Burgatron at 10:26 PM on August 17, 2013