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Hello everybody. I hope that you're well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel Backpacking Bananas. I have been living in Sydney, Australia for about 6 months now on my second year working holiday visa. My partner and I are full-time house sitters, so we have been living across a bunch of different houses, across a bunch of different suburbs. I've been super active while I've been here getting out on runs, hikes, exploring. And basically at this point I've got a really good grasp on what Sydney is all about. I bloody love it here, but in this video I wanted to take you through the pros and cons of living in Sydney. Of course, no city is ever going to be completely perfect. The
first pro of living in Sydney is that there are a never-ending number of places to explore. Next week I'm going to the Blue Mountains National Park. We've got the Royal National Parks just an hour south. You've got the Ku-ring-gai National Park, which is bloody stunning. And we have an endless number of beaches, which are so beautiful and so different as well. There's also countless number of sea pools. I have it on my non-urgent bucket list to make it to every single Sydney sea pool, and I think I've only done about 2% of them so far. Every new place that I explore in Sydney, even if I've
traveled less than 30 minutes, I'm like, "I can't believe this is the same city." There's so much diversity, nature, and adventure. And this is probably the biggest reason why I think that Sydney is the perfect place for me to settle. But the first con about living in Sydney is that the weather is very unpredictable. You cannot rely on the weather forecast. Like maybe you can rely on it if it says it's going to be sun the whole day, you probably will get sun the whole day. But if it says that it's going to be partly cloudy, you could have pure sun or it could be torrential rain. Or if it says that it's going to be raining the whole day, it might only drizzle and then be sunny for the rest of the day. You just
don't know. I feel like most days I need to pack for all eventualities. But a pro about the weather, especially as someone from the UK, is that it's warm like 9 months of the year. I can actually count on one hand the number of times that I've even had to wear a jacket this year. And today is one of those days just because I was out on the moped this morning. I am a warm weather thriving in the summer kind of girly, and so I'm thrilled about this. The second con, and I know this because of the house sitting we do and being in different people's houses all the time. The Wi-Fi is not very reliable in a lot of places. I don't exactly know what this depends on, but in a lot of the houses that we've
been in, the Wi-Fi will just cut out randomly, and I have to rely on my data. Which brings me nicely onto the sponsors of today's video, Saylite. I have been using eSIMs for the past few years now, not just when I travel, but also because no longer do I have to faff with switching out the physical SIMs in my phone anymore. Not only that, but when I'm traveling abroad, I don't need to worry about finding a SIM upon arrival in the airport, potentially being scammed. I can literally get data for the country that I'm visiting before I've even arrived there. So, as soon as the plane touches down, I can be connected and do the things that I need to start doing, searching on Google Maps of how to get to the hostel, looking up
cafe recommendations of where I'm going to go get a coffee, booking an Uber, texting my mum to let her know that I've arrived, okay? Or simply whilst living in Australia needing access to data when the Wi-Fi cuts out. Now, there are a bunch of eSIM providers out there, but the reason why Saylite is a step ahead of the game is that you only ever need to download and activate an eSIM once. After that, you quite literally just top up however much data you need for whatever country that you are going to be in. And that process of topping up data literally takes 10 seconds. It could not be quicker. So, make sure you've got Saylite downloaded and ready for the next time that you go abroad.
And don't forget, make a note of this. You can use my code backpacking or head straight to saylite.com/backpacking, and that will get you 15% off all data plans. So, don't forget about that. The third pro of living in Sydney is the early morning culture here. Now, I know this is not for everybody, and truth be told, I don't think I'm naturally a super morning person. I for sure love my sleep. I love my lions. But what I realized that I love even more than a lion is the feeling of waking up before 7:00 a.m. or as the sun is rising, getting outside, getting my body moving, getting a really nice coffee in my system, maybe even going for a swim, getting my day started, and then having
completed so much feel-good, fresh air activities before the work day even starts. Of course, arguably, you could live on this time schedule anywhere in the world, but it is so common to be an early morning person in Sydney. You go to Bondi Beach at 6:30 a.m. and it's the most busy time of the day. But what that means is that it's a lot more encouraging for you to get up at that hour and socialize with your friends at that time. It's so much more common if you want to meet up with a friend that you say, "Oh, do you want to do a coffee before work?" as opposed to saying, "Oh, do you want to do a drink after work?" And I love that so much. I think that's so much healthier. It's so much more
wholesome. Maybe I'm loving that more just because I'm in my 30s now, but I really do love it. The third con is because Sydney is one of the oldest cities in Australia, it does have a lot of old buildings, and I find that most of the flats and apartments that you find yourself living in are not super modern, and they are not insulated. What this means is that in the summer, it is very, very hot, and in the winter, and it hasn't really got to this point yet, but I feel like this week is a bit of a turning point, it is going to get very, very cold. This is going to be my first winter in Australia. A lot of the newer flats do have air con heater units all installed within the building. However,
a lot of them and I'd go as far to say majority of places that we've stayed in do not. And so it can sometimes be a bit tricky to find a comfortable temperature. The fourth pro of living in Sydney is that this is a city for adventurous people. People surf, they swim, they hike, they run, they walk, they rock climb, they bike. Oh boy, do they bike. In fact, dare I say for the first time, I am curious about joining the cycling community. I'm like, "Should I buy one of those outfits? Should I buy one of those bikes?" Literally, whatever it is that you want to do, CrossFit, Hyrox, Pilates, yoga, diving. Almost every single person that you meet here will have their thing, their activity,
but it is a really active and adventurous city, and I love that. The fourth con, however, is that Sydney is so hilly. In particular, the lower North Shore and the Eastern Suburbs. I have to really plan quite meticulously where I'm going to run if I don't want it to include hills. In fact, it's near impossible to have a run that doesn't include hills in Sydney. Unless you kind of travel further up north or further out west. I mean, arguably, the hills will definitely make you fitter, and I do like it for the walking and hiking aspect, but for the running, I don't think it's ideal. The fifth pro about living in Sydney is that most of those adventure activities that I just
mentioned are completely free. Like I said, with communities and clubs, they've got Instagram pages, Facebook pages, and that's how you know to meet up. And then you've just got people to go and do those things with. And most of these activities are just making use of the space that you've got outside. Running in the parks, running on the beach, swimming on the beach, snorkeling from the beach. They're all free areas, so you can have the most adventurous lifestyle and still not be breaking the bank. That's also great for the backpackers coming to visit Sydney. You do not need to spend an arm and a leg to have a fantastic time in the city. The fifth con, it is linked to the weather.
It is very, very humid here. I think I have sweat more in Sydney than I have anywhere else in the world. Even if it says it's going to be 20°, and maybe I put on a jacket, I'm like sweating through my top, my back. I've had ringworm, I think like two or three times since I arrived here. I keep having to heal it with antifungal cream, and it keeps coming back. I think the main reason for that is because I'm very active and I go for runs and I go for walks, but then I tend to kind of go about my daily activity, and then the sweat kind of festers a little bit. So, I've gotten used to now having showers several times a day. I do a lot of washing. I have to have like two clothing changes a day because yeah, it's humid as Another pro of
living in Sydney is because it is the most major city in Australia, we have everything here. All of the shops that you could possibly want. If there's any international events going on, they're often happening in Sydney or sports games or your favorite artists will come and perform in Sydney. So, even though arguably, especially compared to London, Sydney feels quite isolated in terms of from the rest of the world cuz we are quite far away. I very rarely feel that when I'm here because anything that I could possibly want to do or see that's within Australia, I can do it in Sydney. But, the next con of living in Sydney because it is a very busy city, the parking can be a nightmare. If we are
staying in a house or apartment where we don't have a dedicated car parking space and most of the time we do not, we could find ourselves spending 20 to 25 minutes circling around the block, the whole suburb for somewhere to park the car. And it might be a 10-minute walk away from where we're staying. Also, just any half popular place on the weekend, even on the weekdays like the beach, good luck finding a free parking spot. Now, I have made this easier for myself now by buying a moped. This is going to solve a lot of my parking problems because I can park the moped almost anywhere. But, I have said to Ben when we do eventually get our own flat, we have to have a dedicated parking space. I don't care if
that costs extra, that needs to be factored into the budget because I can't imagine having to fight for a car parking space every single time that you go home or every time you want to leave the house you have to walk like 15 minutes to go get your car. That to me is not a very homely feel. But, the next pro about living in Sydney is you don't have to drive because there are so many transport options. You've got the bus, the tram, the train, the metro, you've got the ferry, you've even got Lime bikes. The public transport here is super affordable. Even if you were to travel like to the other side of the state, I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost you more than like 15 bucks. Um let me
tell you, England could never. And also with the Lime bikes, this is one of my favorite ways to get around. And normally Lime bikes are quite expensive. I know they are in the UK, and they are not cheap here unless you can get this thing called Lime Prime. I'm pretty sure like everyone in Sydney has it. It's $5 a month, and then any journey that you do that's under 20 minutes is just $2.75, which I think is really good. Or any journey under 5 minutes is $1.50. It's really good, and it makes me so much more inclined to take Lime bikes, which is a really sustainable way of traveling around the city. So, it's just overall
win-win. But the next con, of course, all of these good things do have to come at some sort of price. The rent is very expensive in Sydney. It's cheaper than London, but I'm pretty sure compared to everywhere else in Australia, it's probably the most expensive city to live in. Generally, you're looking at least at $800 a week for a basic two-bedroom apartment. Realistically, we are probably going to be spending closer to $1,000 a week. And that would not be in a super prime location. But I'm willing to pay it when the time comes because my final pro is Sydney is iconic. Come on, being able to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House most days of the week. You're just casually
walking past, and like they are beautiful. They are world-famous icons. Sydney is iconic in so many ways. And I remember growing up hearing things about Sydney, seeing photos and videos of Sydney, and thinking how amazing it looked as a city. And I feel so lucky and happy that it's the city that I now call home. Thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know in the comments if you have anything to add to my pros and cons list for living in Sydney, and I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.
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