Beercentric travels in New South Wales

Any suggestions on best Sydney neighborhoods to stay in for a week w/ no car? We are thinking about renting bicycles. We live in Seattle and ride in the city all the time so it shouldn’t be a big deal (we hope), although I hear Sydney is not that "bike friendly" yet. This true? We’ll probably get a couple City Rail MyTrain weekly passes as well. Can you take bikes on the trains?

Our biggest mistake is we are staying there from Dec 27th to Jan 2nd when it is most expensive. The Rocks seems like the best base for a bike-bound tourist, but reeeaaaallly spendy. Any other good neighborhoods that are still close in, with some cool bars/restaurants, and easy access to public transpo? If getting a car is the best solution then we would do that but it’s not our first choice.

We are also flying to Brisbane & Melbourne on the same trip but those cities are easier to figure out since they are more affordable and we are not staying there over New Years Eve. One other question: Anyone been to the Parkes Elvis Fest? Sounds like fun (Jan 12-13).

I would strongly advise NOT cycling in Sydney, especially in the CBD, unless you’re a crazy kamikaze cyclist type. It is nothing like Seattle for bikes.

The good news is you could readily base yourself in any inner suburb (Surry Hills, Paddington, Glebe etc.) and be able to walk to most of the CBD beer places. Bus/train to places a bit further out. No need for a car in my experience.

Balmain. Easy access to the ferry and bus service. Good restaurants and pubs in Balmain. East Village is a good pub. I am a mountain biker and flat out will not ride my bike on the roads in Sydney. Death Wish. If you want to get robbed stay in Glebe.
Parkes is cool. Did the Elvis Festival 2 years ago and it was fun. Cheesy but fun. Stay in Orange, not Parkes. Better food options there.

Melbourne: it’s pretty damn BIG too. Thought it would be easier to figure out than Sydney. Wrong. Any suggestions where to stay & drink? I count about 15 breweries or so, but which ones are really worth visiting, and what neighborhoods are best to stay in for a central point? Oh yeah, and beer bars. Brewery tours are cool though we’ve done quite a few so we’re more interested in tasting rooms & pub-type environments....and good food. What about beer bars & restaurants? As always we’d like to avoid driving as much as possible. Dare I ask how bike-friendly Melbourne is? Looks like the Metro train routes are pretty decent.

Bikes? We haven’t got any hills but the traffic is fairly uncompromising. There’s a good bike path along the Yarra and another down the beach to Brighton, but I’d be a bit wary of the roads.

City or inner suburbs (Fitzroy, Carlton, Richmond, St Kilda) would be best places to stay. Melbourne may be quite big but it’s easy to get in and out from most places. In general, there’s not as much (or quite as good) high end food as in Sydney, but middle range eating is tremendous in many places (say anywhere outside the CBD but within 10km of it except Lygon St).

Beer? The Local Taphouse in St Kilda. Chapel St Cellars - bottleshop cum cafe/ bar about a km up the road. A bunch of places - Mountain Goat, Slowbeer (shop, now also a bar), heard good things about the Royston. Fitzroyish - Josie Bones is a beercentric restaurant, the Alehouse is new and sounds promising, Temple have been making good stuff in a hurry - but I haven’t been to any of these three.

I cycle almost exclusively around the inner city of Melbourne (which is basically all you’ll want to see), but a big part of it is knowing which roads to use and which to avoid. You won’t have that knowledge, so I’d be cautious in your position.

You can get to basically every worthwhile Melbourne beer place by public transport.

Lygon St, East Brunswick (not Carlton, as noted by Hawthorne) is great for beer and food. Atticus Finch, Alehouse Project, Temple and occasionally Thunder Road for the former; Rumi, 400 Gradi, Bar Idda, Kumo Izakaya for the latter.

All the places mentioned above too. I consider Mountain Goat (Wed & Fri night only) mandatory. Little Creatures is worth checking out if you aren’t going to Perth. Dejavu and Beer Deluxe in the city, plus Cookie if you’re into Thai food.

Good tips. Thanks. Looking forward to hitting all these places. Cookie is part of Rooftop Cinema right? The movie thing looks fun. We love Thai. Maybe we’ll try avoid a busy night when it’s packed with singles. The Cullen Hotel in St. Kilda looks cool.

Taking a moment to thread-jack another recent forum post, I would say black IPA’s are just what they sound like. Ale not lager, very dark grain bill which may or may not be super roasty, 5%-7.5% ABV, 50-75 IBU, and a generous dose of late addition hops for strong aromatics. Anything bigger than that to me becomes an American Strong Ale. Anything weaker than that doesn’t have the hops or ABV to fit standard IPA style guidelines. I’m a fan. We pour a lot of them at my bar in Seattle.

Originally posted by hogfodder
Cookie is part of Rooftop Cinema right?

Only a couple weeks til we come down to check out all your great beer joints! We’ll have our travel tandem bike with us to help offset the calorie intake everywhere we go. Anything cool happening in Melbourne over New Year’s? We hope to ride out to brewery or winery if they’re not too far (25 miles / 40km at the most one way) during our stay. Suggestions? Oh yeah, and swimming holes / best beaches. We don’t get enough of that in Seattle.

Yarra Valley (outside Melbourne) is pretty good for a ride. Take the train to Lilydale and you can ride to Coldstream, Hargreaves Hill and White Rabbit (and possibly Buckley’s).

Same deal for the Mornington Peninsula. Train to Frankston, ride to Mornington, Red Hill and Hickinbotham.

Beaches in Sydney >> beaches in Melbourne.

Follow TheCraftyPint on Twitter for Melbourne events over New Year’s... I think the Alehouse Project is having an event at least.

Nice. Good info. Think we can take a tandem on the trains there? They frown on that in Italy. We’ll definitely hit the beaches in Sydney & Gold Coast. We’re putting in a solid 3.5 weeks in the country. Wish we had time to get remarried at Elvisfest in Parkes but I doubt it. Would be perfect since we got married by Elvis in Las Vegas back in 2000 for real. Next trip!