Two open afternoons, if you want them

1. Book online before you leave the venue, on your phone. Aim for the 4:00pm or 4:15pm tour.
2. Metro from Victoria Cross to Martin Place. Take the Hunter Street exit.
3. Walk down to Circular Quay and around the water to Bennelong Point, about 12 minutes.
4. Meet at the Welcome Centre on the lower concourse, 15 minutes before your tour.
5. Tuesday: skip the trip back to the hotel. Walk four minutes to Circular Quay and meet the group at Wharf 3 for the Manly ferry by 5:50pm.

Tours sell out. You cannot walk up on the day and expect a spot, so book it before 3:30pm.

About 300 stairs and 2.5km of walking. Not the one to pick if your knees are having a week.

1. Metro from Victoria Cross to Gadigal. Follow the signs to Pitt Street Mall.
2. Walk into Westfield Sydney and take the lifts up to the Tower Eye entry.
3. Buy online on the way in. It is cheaper than the door.
4. Allow 45 to 60 minutes, including the short 4D cinema at the start.

Sunset is around 5:20pm. Go in about 4:40pm and you get the city in daylight and then the lights coming on. Best value two hours on this page.

1. Metro to Martin Place, Hunter Street exit.
2. Walk east up Hunter Street and across the Domain parkland, about 10 minutes.
3. Start in the newer building, Naala Badu, and go down into the Tank. It is the bit people talk about afterwards.
4. Cross the walkway to the old sandstone building if you still have time.

Closes at 5:00pm sharp, so you get about 55 minutes inside. Worth it, but do not dawdle on the walk over.

1. Metro to Gadigal, then exit toward Castlereagh Street.
2. Walk south and east to 1 William Street, opposite Hyde Park, about 8 minutes.
3. Head straight for the First Nations galleries and the dinosaur hall. Everything else is a bonus.

Also a 5:00pm close, so roughly 50 minutes inside. Pick two galleries and skip the gift shop.

1. Metro to Gadigal. The exit puts you straight into Pitt Street Mall.
2. Westfield Sydney and the Strand Arcade are both on the mall. The Strand is the 1891 one with the timber and the glass roof, worth five minutes even if you buy nothing.
3. Walk west along Market Street to the QVB, about four minutes.
4. Go up to Level 2 and look back down the length of the building, then find the Great Australian Clock.

The easiest one to do with no plan and no booking. Also the best coffee density of anything on this page.

1. Metro to Gadigal, then walk south down George Street for about 15 minutes.
2. Enter Dixon Street through the lion gates at Goulburn Street and walk the length of the pedestrian mall.
3. Paddy's Markets is at the Hay Street end, underneath Market City.
4. Turn around by 5:05pm to be back at the hotel by 5:40pm.

Wednesday only. Paddy's Markets is closed Monday and Tuesday. Chinatown itself is open every day, but without the markets it is a thinner outing.

1. Walk down from the hotel toward Milsons Point, about 12 minutes and all downhill.
2. Find Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden in Lavender Bay. It was built without permission on railway land after Brett Whiteley died, and nobody has ever had the heart to remove it.
3. Carry on past Luna Park to the water's edge at Milsons Point.
4. Climb the stairs onto the Harbour Bridge footpath and walk out far enough to see the Opera House, then turn around.

Completely flexible. You can turn back at any point, and it costs nothing.

Optional add-on: the ferry from Milsons Point to Circular Quay is about $8 on a bank card, and on Tuesday it drops you exactly where the group meets.

If it is raining, pick something indoors. The garden is all steps and mud.