What should I avoid in Sydney?

The restaurants lining Circular Quay with Opera House views charge $40-55 for fish and chips that's $18 at the Sydney Fish Market in Pyrmont, ten minutes away by light rail. Same story along Darling Harbour — the waterfront strip between Cockle Bay and King Street Wharf tends to serve reheated pub food at fine-dining prices. You're paying rent, not a chef. For food that's worth what you're spending, walk five minutes inland. Surry Hills along Crown Street has places like Bourke Street Bakery where a pork and fennel sausage roll costs under $10 and the coffee is some of the best in a city that takes its flat whites very seriously. Newtown along King Street runs the same way — Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, all priced for the people who live there. Mind you, Sydney isn't cheap anywhere, but there's a real gap between $22 for solid laksa in Haymarket's Dixon Street food courts and $38 for a bland pad thai on the Darling Harbour boardwalk.

The Airport Link train from Kingsford Smith seems like the obvious move, and it is — but the station access fee catches people. You'll pay around $18-20 AUD for a 13-minute ride to Central or Town Hall, which feels steep for what's a commuter train. That said, it's still faster and cheaper than a taxi or rideshare into the CBD, which runs $45-65 depending on traffic and time of day. The real trap is the private shuttle buses approaching you in the arrivals hall. They quote $25 per person, load six to eight passengers, then spend an hour hitting hotels across three different suburbs while you sit in traffic on the M5. If you're heading to Bondi or the Eastern Suburbs, the 400 bus from the domestic terminal costs $4.80 on Opal and drops you at Bondi Junction in about 40 minutes.

Sydney's ocean beaches can kill you if you don't respect them. Not dramatic — rip currents at Bondi, Bronte, Tamarama, and Maroubra pull swimmers offshore every day in summer. Swim between the red and yellow flags. The flags mark the section lifeguards are watching, and drifting even fifty metres outside them puts you in unpatrolled water where a rip can drag you 200 metres out before you register what's happening. Tamarama — the small cove between Bondi and Bronte on the coastal walk — looks calm from the clifftop but has some of the most dangerous currents on the coastline. Locals call it Glamarama for the sunbathers, but the water is treacherous. If you get caught, don't fight it. Float parallel to shore, raise an arm, let the current carry you past the break. Lifeguards will come.

The UV here is no joke, and it catches northern-hemisphere visitors off guard because the air doesn't feel that hot. Sydney sits under some of the thinnest ozone coverage in the southern hemisphere, and the UV index hits 11-14 in summer — rated extreme by WHO standards. You can burn in 15 minutes on a December afternoon, even through cloud cover. Wear SPF 50+ and reapply after swimming. A hat with a brim is not optional — it's equipment. Worth noting: the UV stays moderate even in winter, so if you're visiting in June or July, sunscreen on your face still matters on a clear day. Summer storms between November and March can also drop heavy rain without warning — 50mm in an hour isn't unusual, and the CBD's lower streets around Pitt Street flood fast when the drains overflow.

Kings Cross has calmed down since the lockout laws gutted its nightlife around 2014, but the strip along Darlinghurst Road still has spots where drinks are watered and prices are inflated for whoever walks in cold. The CBD itself is safe, though the usual rules apply late at night around George Street — phone in your pocket, stay aware. One thing first-time visitors miss: the Opal card caps your daily travel spend at $17.80 on weekdays and $8.90 on weekends and public holidays. Don't buy single-trip paper tickets from the machines — they cost more per ride and don't count toward the daily cap. Tap a contactless bank card or an Opal and you'll hit the cap and ride free for the rest of the day.