Guide to Sydney: getting there, getting around, hotels, restaurants, Olympic Games venues, city attractions

This section was created prior to the Games and is crammed full of holiday ideas and the best places to stay and attractions to visit. Most of the information is now out of date but can still be used as a guide for anyone considering a holiday in Sydney, Australia

SYDNEY started preparing for the 2000 Olympics in 1993, and even if you didn't intend to be one of the millions of visitors between the opening ceremony on September 15 and the closing on October 1, it was, and still is, possible to reap the benefit.

The Olympic Games provided the driving force behind much of the improvements in the city's infrastructure. New hotels, restaurants and attractions sprung up ahead of the Olympics. The city measures some 44 miles from north to south and 35 miles east to west, and the Harbour alone has 150 miles of beaches, parks, islands, historic houses and gardens.

For the first couple of days in Sydney, you won't really be sure whether you're wide-eyed from the jet lag or the vibrancy of the city. The stunning harbour, with its twin attractions of the bridge (known as "the coat hanger") and the Opera House, is the same, but now a new development - East Circular Quay - has controversially grown up with new bars and even a cinema. Then there is the revamped Darling Harbour, the new Fox Studios and of course, Homebush Bay itself, site of the Olympic Games.

Tom Otley