If you are going to be in Sydney for a while, and you like good food, I recommend you stop by a bookshop and buy the SMH good food guide. It's updated yearly, and gives you the place the locals go to. It covers restaurants, bars, and places to shop for good food. Well worth shelling out for.

Any good book shop, Dymocks etc, even some news stands.

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Open 9am-5pm Thursday through Sunday, this market is a great place to pick up cheap ingredients when you’re in Sydney on a budget! Food fish, fruit, nuts etc. but also tourist souvenirs if this takes your fancy (lots of boomerangs in particular!) and handy backpacker essentials like socks and alarm clocks…

In Chinatown on Hay Street

Google map: tinyurl.com/nxbg5w

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Forget shopping centres. Oxford Street, Paddington is definitely the best place to shop in Sydney. It has the odd high street store (Witchery, which is a more expensive version of Zara, and Diesel) but it’s the Australian designers that steal the show: Collette Dinnigan, Morrisey, Satch, Alannah Hill. Not to be missed.

Venture from the main strip to the tree-lined back streets and you’ll find some great boutiques. There are also plenty of chic cafes and restaurants for when you are shopped-out. And keep an eye out for celebs. I saw Britney Spears (pre-baby, of course). Don't drive though: parking is a nightmare. Take the bus.

Oxford Street, Paddington; Catch bus 380 from the city towards Bondi Beach

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These two neighbourhoods in the inner city are trend central. Sydney's inner-city is always interesting, but Darlinghurst and Surry Hills are an easy walk from the city centre. I just love wondering round the back streets finding a mixture of cafes and art galleries and interesting shops. There is also something about the architecture. The old stone houses, and the new apartment blocks – it's a great, exciting mix.

The main shopping street of Surry Hills is Crown Street, and it is here you will find inventive homeware stores. Some of Sydney's best restaurants are here as well.

Walk up Oxford Street from Hyde Park, and on the left is Darlinghurst, and on the right is Surry Hills

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It is a branch of the harbour in the city centre containing wonderful restaurants, a shopping centre, a convention centre, a glamorous casino, a maritime museum, an aquarium, chinese and japanese gardens, an IMAX cinema, and the Powerhouse Museum (a power station converted into a costume museum and other wonders).

via Monorail from the shopping district

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It's a Westfield Shopping Centre but it's honestly got such a huge range of shops from your designers, Australian and overseas (Wayne Cooper, Alana Hill, etc), to chain stores and even a few little quirky ones as well.

Bondi, NSW
Has a main bus stop/ train station next door

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Cabramatta is the centre of the Asian community in Western Sydney, most notably the Vietnamese. Here you can find the most eclectic array of asian food, from Vietnamese through to Laosian. The cost of eating here is amazingly cheap for the quality of food, too.

Up until recently the area was given a lot of bad press, but people have become to realise that the food and shopping (fabrics, ethnic supermarkets, electrical goods) make Cabramatta a different Sydney experience.

Cityrail to Cabramatta – about 30 minutes.

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The Rocks is a small villagey area found on the Opera House side of the harbour. It can be accessed via the Cahill Freeway Walk (on the bridge) and boasts small cafes, beautiful fabric shops and the odd hotel. It is a place frozen in time - shaped by European influence and positioned in one of the best harbours in the world.

The Rocks has markets on sundays, selling GUCCI, DIOR and so on. Simply put, it's a place of refuge for all tourists...so keep it nice!

Walk via Cahill Freeway Walk, down the stairs and follow the street-directions through to the Rocks Square.

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A good place to pick up some more unusual souvenirs - lots of craft stalls here, none of the usual tourist tat - and at decent prices. Or you can just wander around and check out the people, then stop off for a cake from the shop around the corner, just over from the tourist info office. Then, head up to the harbour bridge pylon to check out the views.

The rocks, Darling Harbour

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