96 hours in New South Wales (2026)! Sydney, Newcastle, the Blue Mountains - what to anticipate?

After a hectic start on day 1 (yes, my flight got cancelled!!!), we finally made it to Sydney! This is a 9-minute travel documentary compiled from ~200 pieces of footage and is carefully selected from 500+ random shots recorded throughout the trip. It covers the interesting things I have seen and encountered over the past 4 days. To provide some context, this was my third visit to Sydney, and this trip was to reward myself for all my hard work in semester 1 of uni. As a travelling enthusiast, of course, I wanted to go somewhere after finishing all the assignments! To be honest, I don't have much interest in Sydney… yet I have always wanted to go to Newcastle as it is crowned as one of the most underrated cities in the world. Also, I have always wanted to visit the Three Sisters/ the Blue Mountains as I reckon it must be stunning to see in real life. And honestly? After this trip, I can confirm that Newcastle is truly underrated. It is such a nice regional city, and probably one of the best in Australia dare I say. So, I chose Sydney as the centre of this trip so that both Newcastle and the Blue Mountains would be easily accessible by train. In this trip, I also explored Manly and Parramatta, the two suburbs that I have always wanted to visit in Sydney but did not get the chance to. Honestly? Manly was pretty good, I liked it more than Bondi, and that ferry ride was unbeatable. What surprised me more was the nightlife at Manly, people always say there's no nightlife in Sydney and everything closes really early. I disagree, it was quite bustling even at night at Manly. Parramatta is probably double the scale of Box Hill in Melbourne, it is a much more developed commercial and residential area, more like another city. Although it’s a suburb, it’s more like another city, which I guess was the purpose that was intended at the beginning! The higher population concentration in Sydney due to its geographical constraints also made it easier to enhance the efficiency of transport services. Many bus routes within 25km of the CBD provide 15-minute or better services throughout the day, I was truly impressed. But I guess different places have different situations. Similarly, the tram services in Melbourne are much better than the light rail in Sydney. Anyway, it was a nice little trip, it’s a nice escape from my routine in Melbourne to get a bit of insight interstate and refresh my mind!