Sydney stopped feeling expensive once I figured this out

Sydney has a reputation for being painfully expensive and it's half-deserved. The other half is that travellers pay for the same thing two or three times because of one bad choice early in the trip. Here's how to do this city well without feeling like you're scrimping.

First, free is genuinely free here. The walk from the Opera House to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, the Bondi to Coogee coastal track, the Royal Botanic Garden, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay, the harbour ferries that cost the same as a bus. Sydney's best hours often cost nothing.

Eat where locals eat. Anything within sight of a major attraction is a tax on tourists. Walk five blocks inland and prices halve. Spice Alley in Chippendale, the food courts in Chinatown, the dumpling spots in Surry Hills. A good rule: if the menu is in three languages on the door, you're paying tourist rates.

Cook one meal a day. Coles and Woolworths are everywhere, and most hostels have a kitchen. A pasta night you cooked yourself is $6 instead of $30. Doing this every other day saves a hundred-plus a week easily.

Use the Opal card. Tap on, tap off, every transport mode. The weekend cap is $9.65 a day for adults Friday through Sunday and public holidays, no matter how far you travel. Perfect day for the long ferry to Manly or the train out to the Blue Mountains.

Avoid the experiences tax. The Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb runs from around $268 for a night climb up to $408 for a dawn one. It's fine, but the same harbour view is free from Observatory Hill or Mrs Macquarie's Chair.

Now the part nobody likes to admit. Where you stay matters more than any of this. A hostel deep in the suburbs at $35 a night looks great on paper, but if it costs you transport money daily plus another $30 in tourist food because there's nowhere else to eat near the train station, your cheap hostel isn't cheap anymore and you spent two hours a day commuting.

The travellers who keep their Sydney trips affordable stay central, walk most places, cook some of their food, and pay for one or two real experiences instead of trying to do everything.

And yeah, by the way, our four pod hotels are all in walkable parts of central Sydney and include breakfast AND dinner every night, so the food math gets easier without you doing anything. Either way: stay close in, walk a lot, cook (or be fed) a little, and Sydney is very doable.