Last time we were at Sydney Airport, we took you inside the Qantas First Lounge, with its living plant wall, Neil Perry restaurant, and Payot spa. You didn’t think it was the only Qantas lounge at the airport, though, did you? Oh no—the airline seems to love its airport lounges almost as much as we love visiting them. That’s why, when we were passing through recently, we dropped by Qantas’ Business Class Lounge to spend a few hours working, wine-tasting and washing up before our big hop across the Pacific. ]]> EricRosen 2011-05-31T09:35:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/9/17/84319/2525

Sydney already has plenty of sun and sand, but apparently there’s a need for some fun in the water outside of the area’s famous beaches. As a result, Wet ‘N Wild is spending $80 million to bring slides, tubes, and wave pools to the citizens of New South Wales. This isn’t going to just be some minor attraction either, as they’re promising that this place is going to be one of the top 10 largest water parks in the world.

The park will be located on the western side of the city, and will sit on about 60 acres of land. Builders have signed a 50-year lease for the land, so they’re really committed on this thing being a hit. Let’s just hope that if they build it, they will come.

Unfortunately, things are still a ways off before we’ll be plopping ourselves in the lazy river. The new park probably won’t be ready until the summer of 2013-2014. The place will probably be a hit with the locals, but if we head down under, we’ll probably be skipping the water slides.

[Photo of another down under water park: Jon... In 3D] ]]> kjb 2010-09-17T09:09:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/7/8/203238/8197

One of the most sought-after tourist experiences in Sydney, and one that almost every visitor seems to do while in town, is climbing the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge with BridgeClimb. But it’s not just international travelers that come to admire the breathtaking views from the top of the “Coat Hanger’s” arch. Thirty-five percent of the over 2.5 million climbers who've scaled the structure since BridgeClimb began in 1998 have been Australians. Yeah, they seem pretty proud of it.

However, during a recent visit to Sydney, we were hesitant about booking a climb ourselves since the two traditional experiences—the classic Bridge Climb and the engineering fantasist’s Exploration Climb—last a whopping 3.5 hours. That’s a pretty daunting prospect for the small of bladder and the short of time. So imagine our excitement when we learned that the newest climbing experience at BridgeClimb, the Express Climb, takes only two hours. ]]> EricRosen 2010-07-09T10:44:43-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/6/20/194651/025

As we continue our Airport Lounges Series, we bring you an inside look at Qantas’s much ballyhooed First Class Lounge at the Sydney Airport.

Not only is the luxury oasis a sprawling complex of comfort with two deluxe snack bars, a restaurant helmed by one of Australia’s most famous chefs, and a spa with complimentary treatments designed to ease the stress of long-haul air travel, but the place is also just plain cool to hang out in thanks to its design by Australia’s golden boy designer, Marc Newson, who’s also responsible for the streamlined look of Qantas’ new A380’s.

On our way back from Sydney to Los Angeles last week, we got the chance to go inside the First Lounge and take a look around. Then we made ourselves comfortable, tried out a spa treatment, ordered practically everything on the restaurant menu, tasted all the Australian wines, and played around on the lounge’s free wifi. Yeah, we were a little early. So what? We did it all for you, and we’ve even got a photo gallery to prove it, as well as a video walk-through.
]]> EricRosen 2010-06-21T11:30:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/12/155746/042

Last week, Jaunted Embed markj went on the VAustralia inaugural and then spent a couple days in Sydney waiting to return stateside.

Much like the rest of the world, Australia is feeling this global recession. Let's face it, most folks see Australia as a far away expensive land, so dream trips to Oz are easily dashed during tough times on the grounds of "it is just too far and too expensive."

However, there is no doubt one of the positive bi-products of this "recession which will lift by the end of the year" is that traveling to Australia has never been more comfortable and less expensive for Americans. Fact: Now that VAustralia is flying from LAX to SYD (and Melbourne later this year), Qantas has found itself in a fare war that have lowered USA - AU flights to an astounding $299 or so each way. These prices may even head lower when Delta starts service on these routes in July, so watch your favorite travel sites.

Still not convinced? The Aussie Dollar is at right around .60 cents to ours, and there are rumors that Aussie officials are kicking around the idea of actually paying for your flight. Ok, enough with the hard sell, just take a look at what we learned in Sydney Australia 2.0

· Jaunted has Twitter followers in Bondi Junction, follow @carlyeinfeld.

· Our new travel Twitter friend, @lilyroseallen does a bang up job posting "Killer Hotel Views".

· Flip Mino HD will change the way you feel about lugging around a video camera on vacation

After the jump, enjoy the entire video reel from Sydney. No dramas, mate.]]> markj 2009-03-18T08:27:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/5/0322/03007

We just rode shotgun in a most excellent seaplane tour over Sydney. Before we took off, Pilot Andy let it be known that in his opinion there were few things better than riding in a seaplane, and he was right on. Take off, which you can watch in the above video was smooth and once airborne we put on our headsets and listened to Andy school us on a bit of aviation history as we cruised 1,000 feet above Sydney Harbour.

The quick tour takes you Southeast down the dramatic coastline a bit to Bondi Beach. At Bondi the plane circles back and affords you views of the Northern Beaches and, of course, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. After you pass Circular Quay you begin a quick decent, smoothly splashing down into Rose Bay.

The tour will run you $225 AU and you can get to Rose Bay easily by taking one of the Sydney ferries at Circular Quay (the green & white ones).

If you want to check out the Inner Harbour view video, it is after the jump. If you want to catch up on all our Jaunted in Sydney videos, you can watch them here. ]]> markj 2009-03-05T09:56:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/4/0180/25143

Walking through the Sydney Botanical Gardens after a quick lunch today we heard what sounded like Tucan birds screaming from the trees. With Australia being the land of crazy animals, we figured we weren't hearing your garden variety squawking crow, so we glanced up at the nearest tree and there they were -- tens of giant fox bats, probably over 100 in all.

In perfect Aussie fashion there was a sign under these trees that says:

DO NOT TOUCH THE FLYING FOXES
For many years Grey-headed Flying-foxes have been seasonal visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens. At night these large bats feed on the flowers and fruits of many native plants and they are important in pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds of these species.

However, as you can see by looking around the Palm Grove, the bats that have set up camp in the Gardens are damaging the trees they roost in. For this reason, the Royal Botanical Gardens has been given a license to use non-harmful methods to discourage the bats from roosting here.