Sydney or Melbourne

Sydney is stunningly beautiful. Hills and a lot of bays and sounds. Melbourne is a little bit British classical. Our impression was that people in Melbourne are more approachable, friendly and funny. (Not that in Sydney they were not - well it's in Australia, too).

I would vote for Sydney. Not that Melbourne wasn't great as well. But if you are making me choose, then it's Sydney :) We stayed down near The Rocks and loved the area. There are many things to see and do within walking distance. We went to a show at the Sydney Opera House and had food/drinks at one of the outdoor cafes prior to the show. The ambiance was amazing! We also climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and that was a lot of fun! We took a tour out to the Blue Mountains which are beautiful. We also went to an AFL game.

Depends upon how much time you have. Sydney is great, lots to see and do, but we also love Melbourne and Adelaide. If you only have a few days, Sydney would work for you, and as someone else mentioned, The Rocks, is a great area to stay. Good public transport in Sydney and very walkable.

Melbourne=Boston, Sydney=LA. Fly between both.

Sydney by all means - the most beautiful city on earth. Ride the ferries to the beachside suburbs of Manly and Bondi. Nice day trips to the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley too.
Just strolling from the Rocks over to the Opera House via Circular Quay on a sunny day is one of life's great pleasures.

After many conversations with Australians - good friends, acquaintances and chance encounters - there was never any disagreement . . . . Melbourne is a much better place to live and work, but Sydney is a much better tourist destination - lots more to see and do and generally a very fun place to be. That was my impression when I was there too.

I took a backstage tour of the Taronga Zoo that was wonderful. If you are adventurous, climb the Harbour Bridge. Tour the Opera House. Spend some time around Circular Quay, visit Wildlife World.

I am naturally biased towards Sydney :-). But I also like Melbourne. As a tourist there is no need to drive in either city. In both cities a lot of the attractions are concentrated in and around the CBD (Central Business District). So if you stay in a CBD hotel, then most things will be in walking distance. For places further out, both cities have excellent train systems. Plus Melbourne has an extensive tram network, which can get you to places like St Kilda, a nice beach side suburb. Sydney has a ferry system covering our harbour, and you can use ferries to visit places like Manly (also a beach side suburb) and the zoo.

Also a small correction to what Robert said above. You cannot get a ferry to Bondi. You would need to go there by bus.

Ted is correct - it's the ferry to Manly and the bus out to Bondi.
Since we were last there they've consolidated public transportation with an Opal card, which you can read about here https://www.opal.com.au/
Makes it convenient and pretty cheap to get around the city and the outlying communities using the ferry, bus or train. As was mentioned, you don't need (nor do you want) the hassle of a car in Sydney.

We stayed at Bondi Beach. When we went from downtown to Bondi Beach in rush hour it was faster to go by ferry to Manly and then by bus. Other possibility was to go by bus all the way from downtown or part way by train and then by bus. Both options were slower than combination of ferry and bus. Bus from Manly went against rush hour traffic. Many ferries there are for commuters and to use them is much better than to be stuck in traffic.

Sydney.

But if you have a spare day, Melbourne can visited as a day trip from Sydney. Syd-Mel. is one of the most frequent air routes in the world with flights every fifteen minutes or so. If you book in advance RT fares with one of the discount airlines are very cheap, and both airports are a reasonable distance from the city center.

Depends on what you like and what time of year. Both cities have a lot to offer for arts, galleries, outdoor cinema...

Melbourne...more European feel. Coffee culture, funky laneway art, shops and cafes. Trams are conveinient to get around the city and beach suburb of St Kilda. It gets HOT in summer and can be pretty chilly in winter. Huge for sport. Oct-Nov is spring horse racing. January is Australian Open Tennis. March is F1 car racing. AFL footy April-Sept.

Sydney..gorgeous harbour, Opera House and bridge. Beautiful beaches all around the harbour...coastal walks..Coogee to Bondi walk. Always new pop up bars restaurants and shops. Surry Hills is a fun inner city suburb. Easy to get around by train ferry bus uber and cab....there is construction going on on the rail system but isnt too distruptive.

Both are relatively close to wine country (Yarra Valley in Melbourne) and Hunter Valley in Sydney. Beautiful National parks for bushwalking in Royal National Park in Syd.

I have a bias towards Syd...Ive lived here for 10 years. For me it was the harbour and beaches that did it for me. But Melbourne is such a fun vibrant city as well!

Oh and in Perth check out Cottlesloe Beach, Fremantle and Rottnest Island. Have fun!!

First, these cities have an incessant rivalry, which can be quite silly at times. When my sister expressed concern that the block where her (very pleasant) Melbourne accommodation was located was not well lit at night, the proprietor immediately said, "Well, we're safer than Sydney!" She wasn't sure how or why Sydney suddenly entered the conversation - but that's how it goes there sometimes.

Second, as with all such rivalous city pairs (Munich or Berlin? Tel Aviv or Jerusalem? Rio or São Paulo? Los Angeles or San Francisco? Dallas or Houston?) you will find people who like both, like one but not the other, or dislike both. And you won't know how YOU feel until you actually see both.

That said, most visitors seem to prefer Sydney, but I preferred Melbourne. If you like a beach-focused and weather-focused city such as Rio or San Diego, you'll definitely prefer Sydney (although there's more to do outside the beach in Sydney than in those other two). I didn't like Rio or San Diego - at all - although I did just fine in Honolulu, which just goes to show how you cannot predict how you will feel about a place until you are actually there. I didn't have good weather in Melbourne, even though it was the start of its summer (late November and early December 1996); apparently, Melbourne is one of those places where the weather changes frequently through the day and it can rain at any time. The day I had planned for the botanic gardens (which several locals said was a real highlight) it was raining too much for me to go. But I enjoyed the city anyway. If Melbourne were closer to New York, I'd probably have gone back several times by now; I don't feel any need to see Sydney again, even though it does have that amazing harbor with its views (don't miss the zoo).

As for getting around, I had no problems with mass transit in either city in 1996, and since then they have extended their systems, so you'll be fine (for instance, in 1996 the train did not go from Sydney to their airport, but now it does). Do look into a pass for Sydney, since the boats can add up. For Melbourne, I just used day tickets. Both cities are walkable within a section, but the sections themselves are too far apart to conveniently walk between.

... or Brisbane ?? (along with Byron or Noosa)

Chani nailed it above.

Sydney has a lot of ‘WOW!!’ and is a great travel experience.
Melbourne is cited as one of the world’s most liveable cities, and attracts visitors for reasons of food, shopping, culture and sporting events.

I lived in Sydney for 13 years, now reside in my birth city of Brisbane, but would move to Melbourne except for its abysmal weather.

Time of year? I wouldn’t consider Melbourne between May and September.

Llja, Melissa, Mother Duck, Suki, Robert, Chani, Ted, Michael, Jenn, Harold, and djp_syd, THANKS SO MUCH for all your information and recommendations about Sydney and Melbourne. We may have to just do both cities...maybe one before the wedding and one on the way home if it looks like we have enough time. They both sound so great. Next we will have to decide what to see as day trips from each.

Suki, I love your comparison of the two cities...although it doesn't make it any easier to pick.

Thanks again.

I don’t know if a Sydneysider would relish one of the world’s most beautiful cities being compared to Los Angeles.

"I don’t know if a Sydneysider would relish one of the world’s most beautiful cities being compared to Los Angeles."
No kidding...

Then again once you get out to western Sydney, away from the harbour, you may as well be in LA.

Book your ticket with a stopover one way in Sydney and on the return in Melbourne (or vice versa) so you don't need to pay for extra travel. Both cities (and Brisbane) have nonstops from California so should be easy on one ticket to do this. Also there's the Qantas nonstop to Sydney from Dallas (and soon United from Houston) so that saves an hour or two in travel if that works out, i.e. you live in the eastern half of N America. If there's not much difference in fare buy the Qantas ticket, it extends the foreign part of the trip a day each way.

Quick, quirky summary:

Perth: In many ways the least interesting, least rewarding Australia city for the tourist, but locals feel it's the best. But paradoxically if you have a short Australia visit of say 10 days, in some ways this is the best choice of all because in a fairly limited geographic area you can easily experience more variety than the other cities offer: tall gum forests, beautiful and vacant beaches, strange geology, coastal towns, and in a place where all the flora and fauna are weird-- well, they're even weirder out here.

Sydney: Like San Francisco or San Diego sure to please, huge numbers of tourists, plenty to see but try to get out of the tourist rut and go to places like North Head. Locals are more snooty than other places in Australia as mentioned above, but it's not a bother.

Melbourne: The other large city, lots of character, a touch of nobility, and the only city in Australia with weeks of both too cold and too hot weather. The former star city (first to host Olympics, original financial center, closer to London by ship) now eclipsed by Sydney.

Adelaide: A charming city with a clear design intent behind the layout.

Brisbane: A pretty city of green hills and wooden houses that's a nice contrast to the parched landscape and brick houses of all the other cities. I sure got sick of brick in Australia. Although not actually tropical it has a strong tropical feel to it.

Tom, nice to hear your varied take on Australian cities. Brisbane is indeed a subtropical city, green at the moment after much needed rain. The wooden houses you refer to are indeed a signature, and a response to the Queensland climate. More information here for those interested ...
https://theconversation.com/sublime-design-the-queenslander-27225

Don't shortchange your time in Perth - one of the best kept secrets in Australia in our opinion. A stroll thru King's Park would make for a great morning, especially if you're walkers, and you'd be guaranteed to see a number of the bouncing and boinging creatures that Australia is famous for.
Any of the pretty beaches to the south of the city can be accessed via the train. Cottesloe gets all of the attention but they're all good.
Would also recommend taking the train down to the port of Fremantle - about as nice as it gets when it comes to seaside suburbs thanks to the general sprucing up it got before it hosted the America's Cup many years ago.
And if you're really adventurous you could catch the ferry over to Rottnest Island. Can rent bikes there to explore the little island, snorkel, and search for the marsupial Quokkas which gave the place it's name.

Have been to both. My preference was Melbourne. To me, Sydney= LA, Melbourne= San Francisco(we are Californians and love San Francisco). We spent three weeks in Sydney so I fell like we have really dug in deep to the city. We spent three days in Melbourne and it didn't feel like enough. We took the train from Melbourne to Sydney (flew from Sydney to Melbourne) and felt like we got to see a lot of the Australian countryside this way. It is a 12 hour trip, so make it during daylight hours.
If this is an either or choice for you, I would say see Sydney.