Welcome to part one of many of things to do in Australia! My husband, two kids and I traveled there from Denver in May. We spent 5 nights in Sydney and 10 in Brisbane where my husband studied abroad in college. You obviously cannot go to Sydney without stopping by the Sydney Opera House, so let’s dive in!

I wanted to actually see a performance at the Sydney Opera House, so I subscribed to their newsletter months in advance to see when new shows were coming. The problem for our family was, there was nothing I thought the kids would truly enjoy sitting through. Our daughters are 6 and 9 and while we’ve taken them to see shows at the theater, there just happened to be nothing playing that I thought they’d nicely sit through. So we did a tour instead!

To schedule a tour, simply go to their website here. Tickets are $43 per adult and $23 per child. Or, if you have a family of 4, you can buy the 4 tickets for $109 (saving you $23.) Plus, as of right now, the exchange rate is heavily in our favor as Americans. When we were there, it was .66 US to equal one Australian dollar which was fantastic!

The meeting point to tour the Sydney Opera House is at the “Welcome Centre” and it’s signed to make it easy to see where to go. The tour groups are larger and you’ll have one guide. The guide will give everyone headsets to wear so that he doesn’t have to yell at the group when showing them around.

The only downside to when we toured was that it was the first night of Vivid Sydney, a light, music, and food festival. It only runs for 3 weeks per year and we happened to be there on day one. Due to that, all the performers were warming up in every auditorium so were weren’t allowed to take photos. That was a total bummer, because the main one was beautiful! I can only imagine how cool it is for musicians to perform here.

I found it fascinating that the cloth they put on the chairs was made to absorb sound the same way a human body does. It allows the musicians to rehearse and have it sound the same way empty as it does filled with people. My fellow musicians know how great that is!

The photo on the left above is a famous tapestry in the Sydney Opera House. Apparently they wanted a Picasso but instead got this made by Le Corbusier. It serves as a centerpiece in their downstairs cafe. The photo on the right is of Harbor Bridge. You can purchased tickets here to climb it as an activity. I hate heights, so that was a firm “fuck no” for me. Those are people standing under the flags and I had to fully zoom into the bridge to capture them because they are so high up! Um, no thank you!

After the tour, we knew it would be dark within a couple of hours and wanted to stick around to see the infamous light show. Vivid Sydney happens during Australia’s winter time, so dress warm! The show itself only lasts about 10-15 minutes but people start gathering well before that. Seeing the opera house lit up with fireworks behind it was well worth standing in the cold. Their winters are very similar to California winters. Not nearly as freezing as Colorado, but you still need to be in layers!

Even if you don’t tour the Sydney Opera House during Vivid Sydney, it’s fully worth touring during your trip. Stay tuned for more activities to do with your family while in Sydney! And to see the non-negotiables I packed for this trip, check out my blog here! Thanks for reading!