We Booked Australia on Monday and Left Saturday

First Lesson: International Travel Can Get Complicated Fast

Our first adventure happened before we’d even left the United States. We were traveling internationally on two related airlines, which meant we had to check in again for the international portion of the trip. My husband was already traveling for work and wasn’t on our reservation, so he had to handle his check-in separately.

And international check-in had to be completed at least 30 minutes before the flight. Cue my husband literally running through Dallas airport to the check-in counter to get checked in before the cutoff. Then we discovered our son’s passport had been scanned under my husband’s name. This is the curse of naming your son after his father.

I swore I wasn’t going to do it. I did it anyway. Pregnancy hormones are wild. Luckily, everything got fixed and we somehow still had about 20 minutes to grab Whataburger before boarding our 16-hour flight.

Never doing that again.

And Then I Got Airsick

I’ve never been motion sick on a plane, boat or basically anything else. Until this flight. I was SICK. Every minute of that 16-hour flight felt like approximately 12 minutes. Luckily, there were enough empty seats that I was able to stretch out across some of the middle seats while my husband took over kid duty.

They had a great flight. Meanwhile, I had decided we’d officially moved to Australia. Ship my belongings. Forward my mail. Tell everyone I work remotely now. I was not getting back on that airplane.

My husband eventually found me motion-sickness medicine, and it was a complete game changer. I used it throughout the trip and for the flight home, and that return flight felt like it took half the time.

Airbnb vs. Hotel: I’m Glad We Chose the Airbnb

I went back and forth on this one. After such a long travel day, I liked the security of knowing that if something went wrong with a hotel room, there would be someone downstairs to fix it. But having a living room and full kitchen ultimately won. I’m so glad it did.

Our Airbnb was on the 32nd floor with an amazing city view. There was a Coles grocery store nearby and what felt like coffee shops everywhere.

Having a real kitchen ended up being one of the best decisions we made. We bought snacks and easy food to keep at the apartment, and while I was recovering from the flight, fresh French bread and cheese was basically my entire diet for the first 24 hours. Sometimes vacation food doesn’t need to be exciting.

Sometimes you need bread.

Do NOTHING Important on Arrival Day

I thought I was the queen of jet lag. I’ve flown to Paris. I can muscle through.

Australia humbled me.

Plan your first day to arrive, get settled, eat something, nap and adjust. At one point I woke up from a nap and found our 6-year-old asleep on the floor on a pallet he’d constructed out of pillows, in a questionable state of dress, with his Toniebox beside him. Honestly, he handled the time change better than we did.

My husband and I kept waking up in the middle of the night because our Central-Time bodies were essentially yelling: GOOD MORNING! THE WORKDAY HAS STARTED! One night we were awake around 2 a.m., answering emails and discussing our plans for the next few days. My husband eventually gave up on sleep entirely and started his day with coffee and one of those delicious peanut-butter brownie treats.

I eventually managed to fall back asleep. We slowly adjusted as the week went on. Just in time to go home and do it all over again.

Taronga Zoo: Absolutely Do It

Our first big outing was Taronga Zoo Sydney. Getting there was part of the experience. We took the ferry across Sydney Harbour, passing the Opera House along the way. We specifically wanted to see animals associated with Australia that we don’t normally get to see at home, including koalas, dingoes, platypuses and Tasmanian devils.

The zoo itself is built on a serious hill. Or mountain. Listen, we’re from Florida. Anything with significant elevation is basically a mountain to us. The layout took some figuring out and involved a little backtracking, but it was completely worth it. One important tip: if you want a special animal encounter, go early.

We arrived around 10 or 11 and the capybara experience was already sold out. Also, think through stroller rental before grabbing one. We considered it, but because we planned to leave from the lower part of the zoo by ferry, returning a rental stroller up top seemed like more work than it was worth.

Whale Watching: Schedule This Early in Your Trip

This was one of the absolute highlights. We booked with Go Whale Watching Sydney and left from Darling Harbour. Here’s my biggest planning tip:

Don’t save whale watching for your final day.

Our guide explained that if you don’t get a qualifying whale sighting, you may receive a voucher to return. That’s great if you’re local and have plenty of time, but when you’re visiting Australia for only a few days, you want another day or two available in case you need a second attempt. Policies can change, so readers should check the company’s current sighting guarantee when booking.

We did NOT need another attempt. We got ridiculously lucky. We were there in July during migration season and saw a pair of whales. And then… One completely breached. I’m talking entire whale out of the water. Head.

Body. Tail. Everything. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. Our guides explained that seeing a complete breach like that isn’t something you can count on, so please don’t book expecting every whale to put on the same show ours did. Our 6-year-old thought it was amazing. And then he was basically done.

He’d seen the whale perform the ultimate whale trick. What else could these animals possibly have to offer him? We are raising children in the age of instant gratification, and apparently teaching patience is going to be an everyday parenting lesson. I’m still learning it myself.

Blue Mountains: Worth the Train Ride

The next day we took the roughly two-hour train ride out toward the Blue Mountains. Honestly? The train was kind of nice. We let our son have the phone and watch some educational videos while my husband and I just sat there and breathed for a while. We went to Scenic World in Katoomba.

This was one of the things I struggled to understand while researching. Was Scenic World the Blue Mountains? Was it a tourist trap? Were we about to ride a train for two hours to visit some rinky-dink attraction?

Go.

There are sightseeing rides that give you incredible views of the mountains and Jamison Valley, along with walking trails and waterfalls. And when I say “rides,” don’t think Universal Studios. Think sightseeing attraction with a little Disney Peter Pan/It’s a Small World energy. One of them—the steep railway down the mountainside—adds a little more excitement when you’re leaning backward and looking through the glass. But you’re there for the scenery, not the adrenaline.

Spend a little time walking around Katoomba too. It’s a cute town, and we stopped at Coles for snacks before our train ride back. Traveling with my husband and 6-year-old has taught me one very important lesson: The secret to keeping everyone happy is snacks.

SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium: Smaller, But With Some Great Moments

Another morning we had a leisurely breakfast and walked along the harbour to SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium. If you’ve been to something enormous like the Georgia Aquarium, set your expectations accordingly. Sydney’s aquarium felt smaller to us. But it still had some really cool parts.

There were several underwater tunnels, including one where the most gigantic ray we’d ever seen just kept swimming over us.

It took an act of Congress and serious negotiations to get our son out of that tunnel. They also have dugongs—a relative of the manatee—and other Australian marine life. There was a touch area, although our son is on the smaller side and couldn’t really reach much besides the water. And then there’s the penguin boat ride.

My review: No line? Absolutely do it. More than five minutes? I’d skip it. It’s cute, but you can see the penguins elsewhere and I didn’t think the ride added enough to justify a significant wait.

WILD LIFE Sydney & Sydney Tower Eye

We bought a combination attraction ticket that included the aquarium, WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo and Sydney Tower Eye. My husband and son did WILD LIFE while Mom took a very deserved break. Dad was staying in Australia another week for work. Mom was about to do the 20+ hour trip home alone with a 6-year-old and then handle jet lag, school and work solo.

Mom went shopping. Their verdict on WILD LIFE was that it was cool, especially the Tasmanian devil viewing area, but if you’re choosing between it and Taronga? Taronga wins for us. We did Sydney Tower Eye at night because we thought seeing the city lit up would be the best view. It was beautiful. But I’d actually do it differently next time.

If you can, go shortly before sunset. You’ll get the harbour, coastline and buildings in daylight, hopefully catch sunset, and then see the city lights. If I only had one opportunity and really wanted to see Sydney, I’d choose daytime.

A Travel Find That Actually Came Home With Us

What We Ate

Industry Beans on York Street: Good coffee. But the peanut-butter brownie/cake-stick situation? Go for that alone. So, so good. Chuck Trailer’s: Fantastic smash burgers. I was still feeling a little off from the flight, couldn’t finish mine, put it in the refrigerator and ate it cold the next morning. Still good.

That’s a solid burger endorsement.

Sal’s Authentic New York Pizza: We ordered online after taking our son to a park to burn off some energy, picked it up and brought it back to the Airbnb. Delicious. City Extra at Circular Quay: We ate breakfast outside here twice. One morning a gorgeous blue-and-yellow bird landed nearby and looked so exotic compared with the pigeons we’re used to seeing that I briefly wondered whether it had escaped from the zoo across the harbour.

Sydney really knows how to upgrade a breakfast bird. Henley’s Bar & Kitchen: We ate here after whale watching and really enjoyed sitting by the harbour.

One Thing We Didn’t Quite Get Right

We attempted to visit the Australian National Maritime Museum late in the trip because of the ships you can tour. Unfortunately, the ship access ended earlier than we expected, so we missed that part. We walked through the museum itself. It was fine, and there were things our son enjoyed, but without the ships it wasn’t a must-do for us.

If the ships are what interest you, check those hours separately before going.

The Sydney Opera House: Absolutely a Must

Here’s the funny part. We saw the Sydney Opera House constantly during this trip. From ferries. From boats. From across the harbour. From whale watching. And every single time, it was beautiful.

Somehow, though, we didn’t actually walk over and see it up close until our last day. I’m really glad we did. The Sydney Opera House is absolutely a must-do for us. It’s one of those landmarks you’ve seen in pictures your entire life, and standing there looking at it in person is completely different.

We walked around outside, took pictures and enjoyed seeing it up close. We chose not to tour the inside on this trip, and that had much more to do with traveling with a 6-year-old than our interest in the Opera House. If it had been just my husband and me? We probably would have taken the tour.

Sometimes traveling with a kid means seeing the thing you really want to see but changing how you experience it. For us, seeing the Opera House from the water all week and then finally standing in front of it on our last day was perfect.

Getting Back to Sydney Airport: Give Yourself MORE Time

Getting into Sydney had been surprisingly easy. We took the train and got off about two blocks from our Airbnb. Naturally, we assumed going back would be equally simple. It wasn’t. There was work happening on the rail system, which meant connections and eventually a replacement coach to the airport.

Then, despite checking in online and getting our luggage tags, we had another check-in step because we were traveling to the United States. That added another 15–20 minutes to an already tight schedule. Then our gate area wasn’t available for seating, so everyone was standing around a hot hallway near a snack shop with a 6-year-old who had exactly zero patience left and just wanted to board the airplane so he could watch videos.

Sydney Airport was not my favorite part of Australia. My advice isn’t that you’ll experience exactly what we did—the rail issue and gate situation could have been temporary. It’s this: Check your route to the airport on departure day. Don’t assume your arrival route will work exactly the same way in reverse. And give yourself more time than you think you’ll need for an international flight.

Would I Take a 6-Year-Old to Sydney Again?

Absolutely.

He handled the flight and jet lag better than I expected. Sydney had plenty that interested him without making the entire trip kid-centered, which is exactly what I want from a family vacation. We saw animals we can’t see at home. We watched a whale completely breach out of the ocean.

We rode ferries across Sydney Harbour. We explored the Blue Mountains. We stood in front of the Sydney Opera House. We ate really good food.

And somehow, despite booking the entire thing five days before departure, it worked. Would I recommend Australia?

Absolutely.

Did we make some incredible memories?

Absolutely.

Am I currently ready to book another 20+ hour trip with that big of a time difference and a 6-year-old?

Absolutely not.

Give me a minute. Australia was worth the flight. But I think our next few trips can be a little closer to home.