The Perfect Day Trip to Surry Hills, Australia
It’s Tuesday, February 27th and tonight is our last night in Sydney. We have stayed a total of three nights in downtown Sydney, and tonight will be our second night in Noah’s Bondi Backpacking Hostel (which is still located in Sydney but more of a beachy part of it). This blog post will be about our accommodations in downtown Sydney, and our first day in Sydney, Australia that we decided to spend in Surry Hills.
Our Accommodation in Downtown Sydney:
In our time spent in downtown Sydney, we stayed in Megaboom hotel for three nights. The staff was friendly, and we got super lucky by being able to get an early check in when we first arrived because of our early flight. I would completely suggest when you first fly into Australia, stay in a hotel for the first couple of nights so you have that time to relax, recover from one of the longest flights of your life, and have the luxury of showering in your private, air conditioned room.
Our first day which we spent in Surry Hills, Sydney:
After we showered and freshened up in our hotel, we felt a million times better, but still wanted a little extra touch up. So what did we do about this? Got an Uber to Surry Hills (around a 15-20 minute drive from downtown Sydney), and went to Hair & Harlow for blow outs. The salon is a little smaller but very cute and trendy. Nikki was my stylist and was super friendly, understanding and did a fantastic job. The girls made our visit memorable and Erika and I could even cheers to it with our complimentary glasses of wine. If you’re interested in checking this salon out their instagram is @hairandharlow . I would also highly recommend making an appointment before you visit, so it guarantee’s your spot.
After our blow outs, we walked to a restaurant and bar called The Clock Hotel. They have a super cute patio at the top facing the town of Surry Hills. We learned that to order food and drinks, you go up to the bar, place your order and then seat yourself. Which is different than in Canada where most places you wait to be seated, and then a server comes over and takes your order. The kitchen wasn’t open until 5pm, so we had some drinks until then and then started with their deep fried pickles (I was hesitant when I first saw them but they were delicious), and then we both got the crispy chicken burgers which definitely hit the spot. One thing we learned at the Clock Hotel is that you can’t take your food to go because they don’t have their license to allow that. So if you have the opportunity to check out this awesome restaurant make sure you finish your food because you can’t take it home!
After the clock hotel, we hit up another Surry Hills favourite which is Messina. Messina is a delicious ice cream and gelato parlour with over 30 different, unique ice-cream flavours. I have a severe peanut and nut allergy, so I wasn’t able to try their crazy ice cream flavours but I was super lucky to still be able to try out their gelato. After being able to try almost every flavour before ordering, the caramel and vanilla flavour was definitely my favourite. The staff at Messina was also very friendly and as I just mentioned, they let us try every flavour of gelato to make sure we loved it before ordering. This is another place that if you’re in Surry Hills you definitely can’t miss out on. Just look for the little red Messina canopy above their store and you know you’ve hit the jackpot.
By the time we got back to Sydney, it was only around 8pm, but we couldn’t stay awake a minute longer. You don’t know how badly jet lag is until it’s 8pm in Sydney, Australia and all you want to do is adventure and tour but need to sleep because you can’t keep your eyes open. This was definitely a moment we were more than happy to be staying in a hotel, and ended up being a very good idea to get an early night so we could take full advantage of our next upcoming days in Sydney. Overall, it was a great, low-key first day. Our second day was the exact opposite by walking and hiking over 20,000 steps, having almost over 3 hours of active burn (for those who keep track of these kind of things with Fitbit) , catching our first train ride in Australia to an incredible landmark, and taking one of the most beautiful hikes I ever have taken.
