Exploring The Rocks, Sydney

I never need an excuse for a night away, but this weekend just happened to be my boyfriends birthday so what did we do? We went away. We had been planning it for a while as this time last year we were in lockdown, therefore I really wanted it to be extra special this year. My boyfriend loves the city and particularly wanted to stay in The Rocks area. So that’s where we based ourselves.

We drove into the city on Saturday afternoon and checked into the Shangri La, in The Rocks. Our room on level 21 had a view of both the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and was pretty incredible. We watched the sunset from our room and the city lights come on. Watching the boats travel around the harbour was tranquil and the traffic flowing was pretty majestic from above. We took a cheese platter and some goodies so we could take our time and enjoy the room before going out for the night.

I really wanted to hang out in our spacious room with our incredible view as I often find when we do go away, our hotel room is usually just for us to sleep in and we never have much time to actually enjoy the amazing space. So with our platter and surprise champagne gifted by the hotel, we sat back, chilled and chatted with the tunes on.

My boyfriend loves oysters, so I booked a table at The Morrison Bar and Oyster Room, which was just around the corner. The restaurant photos looked great and the reviews read well, yet when got there, we were slightly disappointing. We were led to a table in the dimly lit glass atrium around the back which is a glass building inside a larger concrete building. A weird concept with no view and it felt a bit sterile. They only had two options for oysters; Natural and Kilpatrick. Again slightly underwhelming. We had our oysters but never ended up staying for dinner as it was so stuffy in there and no atmosphere in the place. It was lacking something so we got out of there pretty quickly.

We walked through The Rocks, which was super quiet, not many people were out at all. We related it to the COVID-19 restrictions at the moment, but the city had a totally different feel to it.

Despite our slow start to the night, the temperature was perfect and it was nice to be out. We ended up skipping dinner and went straight for drinks at The Mercantile Hotel when we heard live music being played. It was fun and something we both had missed. it was a good way to top the night off.

We were up to watch the sunrise over the Harbour on Sunday morning, then decided to take an early morning walk to get breakfast. I hadn’t done much research for breakfast options so we just headed out. We walked up through the back of Circular Quay and to the Botanic Gardens, back past the Opera House and then through Circular Quay to the Rocks. This was all before 9 am and there wasn’t much open. A good reason to sleep in on Sunday mornings. We ended up having a really nice breakfast at Circular Quay while watching the ferries come in.

We had more time to relax in our room before checking out from the Shangri La at 11 am. It was cool to drive through the city checking out all the old and new buildings and the developments with the light rail, before heading to Darlinghurst.

We had the freshest dumplings and handmade noodles for lunch at the Dumpling & Noodle House on Stanley Street. So delish!

I had booked my boyfriend and I in at the Sydney Float Centre for a 1-hour salt bath. They place 500kg of salt in the bath keeping you afloat so you can fully relax. You hop in a pod, in body temperature water, close the lid, turn off the lights and relax. After a little panic at the start, I managed to talk myself into it and I did end up relaxing so much that I fell asleep. My boyfriend on the other hand was not a fan. It can be claustrophobic, and it gets awfully stuffy. So if you don’t like confined spaces, hearing the sound of your own breath or the heat then it is probably not for you. I am always after new experiences and trying out different things so I am glad we did it but is not something I would be rushing to do again.

So that was our weekend. It was pretty special to be able to celebrate my boyfriend and his birthday. What did you get up to on the weekend? Did you do something special to celebrate Mothers Day? Can you recommend a place we should go, if we were to go back to The Rocks? We would love it if you joined the conversation and left a comment below.