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Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?

Austin
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Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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There will be three of us, couple with young daughter. Although planning to rent a car for the duration of our trip, we were thinking we might not be "left-drive-ready" after 23 hours in transit. We will arrive on a Sunday.

It appears to me that in order to take the train, we have to ride it back to Sydney's central station.

Thanks

Sydney, Australia
Destination Expert
for Sydney, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands
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1. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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To take the train you would head down to Wolli Creek and change there for a southbound.

They run once an hour at approx 7.50, 8.50 etc from Wolli Creek.

ideally you would need to get one of the ones that leave international a x.34....you dont want to sit at Wolli creek any longer than need ne ...not unsafe it jst you'd be better soing a coffee etc in arrivals!

TBH the drive south is fairly simple and with a lot of freeway/divided road so cant end up on wrong side...takes about an hour...get on Princes HWY and keep going...

Austin
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2. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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Big thanks for the train info and for the description of the drive down Princes Highway. Now I'm leaning towards picking the car up at the airport...

Hakuba-mura, Japan
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3. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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The drive is straightforward, and Sunday is probably best, but after recent trip to France realise what your concerns are about driving on the "wrong" side. I would recommend a GPS, SatNav system which you might be able to add to the booking. It means the passenger can look out for cars hurtling at you from unexpected directions at 110kph, rather than a big fold out map flapping in the breeze. Also, you'll no doubt be glad to hear that the bogong moths which so terrosied one of your countrymen at the Novotel recently are no longer plaguing wollongong. Still got our fair share of bogans, however.

South Pole
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4. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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agree driving is the easiest.

just steel yourself for the left hand driving and make a concerted effort to concentrate. as tempting as it might be leave the sight seeing until later. assume u r arriving sunday morning so the traffic should be light.

and remember when the speed sign on the freeway says 110....that's km/hr not mph/hr!

negotiating the trains with luggage is a pain altho the crowds would be down on a sunday.

btw we had our 6th bogong "attack" of the season last night in ulladulla.

but we had had howling westerlies all day so assume they were stragglers. our windows were completely blacked out.

they were serving bogong frittata at a manuka restaurant this year i hear.

Sydney, Australia
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5. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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I also agree it is a fairly easy and straight drive as once on the Princes Highway, you just follow it all the way through

But as previously mentioned remember the speed limit .. coming into Wollongong there are a couple of fixed speed cameras .. it drops down to an 80 km/hr zone plus this stretch can sometimes be patrolled by our local police officers

When I have travelled to the states and rented a car .. I always thought they could have a sign above the number plate saying overseas visitor so that other drivers are aware that the person driving may be used to driving on the other side of the road

Also on our roads you must stay in the left lanes unless overtaking .. when you are used to driving on the other side that takes some getting used to

Sydney, Australia
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6. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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I also agree it is a fairly easy and straight drive as once on the Princes Highway, you just follow it all the way through

But as previously mentioned remember the speed limit .. coming into Wollongong there are a couple of fixed speed cameras .. it drops down to an 80 km/hr zone plus this stretch can sometimes be patrolled by our local police officers

When I have travelled to the states and rented a car .. I always thought they could have a sign above the number plate saying overseas visitor so that other drivers are aware that the person driving may be used to driving on the other side of the road

Also on our roads you must stay in the left lanes unless overtaking .. when you are used to driving on the other side that takes some getting used to

Sydney, Australia
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7. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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Sorry for submitting it twice .. not having a good computer day today

Austin
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933 posts
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8. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?
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Again, big thanks to all of you! We'll keep an eye on the speed.

Nah, the moths are no big deal. We'll match our crickets and skeeters (mosquitos) to your moths any day. Plus, I forgot to mention in my response to the moth post, that here in Texas we've had a spider population boom. They and their cobwebs are everywhere. We have a two-inch spider (not including the length of the legs) outside our front door we call Fred.

9. Re: Best way to Wollongong from Sydney airport?

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