The 5 Coolest Sydney Day Tours For Groups

Whether you're visiting just Sydney or living in the city and looking for a fun day out, there are plenty of Sydney Day Tours to choose from. In this article, we'll dive into all the Sydney tour options for you and your group and help you figure out which day tour is perfect for you! See Sydney in a day, go adventuring in the Blue Mountains, taste all the wines in the Hunter Valley or the Southern Highlands, or stay close to home by spending your Sydney day tour in the inner west!

Photo by Christopher Burns via Unsplash

Best Day Tour For Groups: See the Sydney sights on a private bus tour or by bicycle!

Sydney is a large city, is it possible to see Sydney in a day? Of course! With that right tour guide that is. Sydney is jam-packed full of amazing sights, but getting to see them all in a day can be challenging. So can you see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, discover the hip inner-west and see one of the famous beaches? Especially if you are wrangling a group of mates! We say, Hell yeah! But how? Sure, public transport can be a way to go, but Sydney is notorious for its 1-hour bus rides everywhere and forget about parking several cars in the CBD.

We recommend hopping on a private bus tour (psssst, we organise a few epic ones!) and finding a company that is willing to customise your trip. A private bus tour is a fantastic option for both small and large groups. Anywhere between 4 and 52 people can hop on one a private Sydney bus tour and see the city. No more worrying about being on time or whether your group is having fun. At Urban Legends, we love customising tours to make sure that you and your group see everything that you want to see, something that is not offered by all Sydney tour companies.

Another option to see Sydney with a group is to move that body and jump on one of our bicycle tours. Accompanied by long-term Sydney locals, we show you the coolest spots. You know, those spots that are hard to find if you haven't lived in the city. Bike riding will also give your group the option of stopping to admire Sydney's best views. Who doesn't love that?! Did you know it is only a 40-minute bike ride from Sydney Opera House to Bondi Beach? You got this!

Explore the Blue Mountains with a group of mates! Image by Christopher Burns via Unsplash

Go on an Adventurous Sydney Day Tour In The Blue Mountains

One of our favourite escapes from the big smoke is a Blue Mountains tour. Whether you are looking to see the famous three sisters, Jenolan Caves or you want to visit one of the lesser knows waterfalls, the Blue Mountains National Park is full of epic places to explore. The hard part is, not getting to the Blue Mountains, but choosing between all the possible hikes, lookouts and waterfalls! If you get the opportunity, we recommend staying overnight and including a sunrise hike to one of the many excellent sunrise lookouts.

Whether your group is visiting the Blue Mountains for the first time and want to get the full tour or whether you are looking to organise transport for your group of experienced hikers to and from a hike, our buses can get you there.

Taste all the wines in the Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley is the most famous wine destination in NSW and for good reason. We love the Hunter Valley so much that you can find us exploring boutique wineries in the region every weekend. Boutique wineries in the Hunter Valley are our favourite because these beautiful small wineries, which are often family-run, provide the nicest service and serve excellent wines! We are always learning something new about their craft and adore tasting the wines that the Hunter Valley is known for. If you need any more reasons why you should visit boutique wineries, read our blog post here!

The Hunter Valley is located at a 2-2.5h drive from Sydney, so planning a day tour from Sydney means that you will have to have an early start for a day trip! Even though it will be a long day, it is very worth your time. We love this destination so much that we even offer several customisable Hunter Valley wine tours! If you would rather have a shorter day tour, check out the scenic tours of the Southern Highlands below.

The gorgeous Southern Highlands is known for it’s beautiful flower gardens and great cool weather wines.

Scenic wine tasting in the Southern Highlands

The Southern Highlands is a wonderful destination all year round and is particularly popular in the autumn season due to its large number of deciduous trees. The colder climate also makes the region perfect for producing excellent Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Location at only 1.5h drive, it is actually our favourite NSW winery tour location for a Sydney day tour!

Become a craft beer expert in Sydney's Inner West

Who says that you have to leave Sydney for an epic Sydney day tour! One of the best ways to get to know the real Sydney is through bar hopping the Inner West of the city. The local craft breweries serve a few of Australia's best craft beers and allow you to soak up the local culture better than any other activity. The area of Sydney's inner west is full of beautiful murals and street art and there is more delicious food than you can ever finish!

Plan your own walking brewery tour by sticking to one suburb, Marrickville, or get your group to join one of our popular Sydney brewery tours. This tour combines all the best Sydney craft beers together in a meticulously organised day so your group can relax and focus on having fun. All our tours include a behind-the-scenes tour where you learn how these delicious beers get made and are combinable with one of the many fun add-ons such as axe-throwing, lawn bowls, go-karting, and more!

Feature image by Christopher Burns via Unsplash

Planning A Marrickville Brewery Tour? Include These 6 Delicious Sydney Craft Breweries!

The Inner West suburb, Marrickville, is one of the best places to taste the best craft beers that Sydney has to offer. For those planning a Marrickville Brewery Tour, or even a wider Inner West Brewery Tour, we're sharing our 6 favourite Sydney craft breweries that you can't miss out on!

This Marrickville brewery tour ranges from once in a lifetime flavours at Wildflower Brewing & Blending to gorgeous seating areas at Willie The Boatman. Let's dig into the ultimate brewery pub crawl!

The Legendary Marrickville Brewery Tour

Willie The Boatman

The first stop on your Marrickville brewery tour is the gorgeous Willie The Boatman. Named after the legend of a convict boatman, self-proclaimed 'fat dads', Pat McInerney and Nick Newey, launched the brewery in 2012. Over the years, the craft brewery has become much loved by beer-loving Sydneysiders while remaining slightly unknown to the bigger crowd.

We recommend starting your craft beer pub crawl here as your head will still be clear enough to listen to the behind-the-scenes brewery tour. During this tour, you will learn how craft beer is made and why their craft beer is so special compared to your average larger.

If you're taking it easy and starting with only one beer, we go absolutely ballistic over Crazy Ivan IPA. The name perfectly embodies the flavour of this bold little firecracker and we highly recommend it.

Willie The Boatman brewery is on the edge of St Peters and Marrickville and is only open on Thursdays through Sundays.

Batch Brewing Co.

Next up on our the Marrickville Brewery tour, we head over to Batch Brewing Co! Plan this one in early as well as this craft brewery gets packed -with a capital P - later in the afternoon.

Batch Brewing make their beers the old-fashioned way; batch per batch. Changing the offer every two weeks, you will continuously be entertained with new batches of craft beer. Even if you live around the corner. Batch Brewing Co. brews its beers for its neighbourhood and is therefore open most days, Tuesdays to Sundays.

Similar to Willie The Boatman, you can ask for a private brewery tour where they share the "science and art behind each Batch". We highly recommend trying one of their beer tasting paddles with no less than 6 of their craft beers. Not crazy about tasting paddles? Try the India Pale Ale or the current equivalent instead!

Stockade Brew Co.

Cocktail lovers rejoice as Stockade Brew Co. is a place for both beer-lovers and their non-beer-loving friends. Serving limited-run beers is where Stockade Brew Co truly shines. Often serving craft beers that are exclusive to their tasting bar. If you get peckish, locally famous food truck Baby Rey's Burgers is parked outside and has got you covered!

Sauce Brewing Co.

We love Sauce Brewing Co. and include it in most of our inner west brewery tours as it has Sydney's best beer garden. Particularly if you are traveling with a bigger group, Sauce is a great stop during your Marrickville brewery tour!

With 12 taps of the best craft beers "this side of Pluto", you can easily spend all afternoon here. Sauce Brewing Co is open Thursdays to Sundays with an on-site food truck every Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Thursday evenings you can head straight here from work as they serve pizzas for their mid-week clientele.

Wildflower Brewery

The fifth stop on the Marrickville brewery tour is the Wildflower Brewery. The name is, as you can probably guess, inspired by the natural landscape of NSW. Not surprising at all if you know that the founders of the brewery look for natural sources of yeast and bacteria in said landscape.

Using natural yeasts is known in the industry as 'mixed fermentation' and it allows the brewery to create one of a kind Belgian-style sour ales. Another much-loved technique in Wildflower Brewery is blending old and new barrel-aged beers. This allows them to emphasize the complexity of their wild yeast flavours even more.

Head to their blog if you want to read more in-depth information about the thought process behind each and every beer created by this inner west brewery. Plan your brewery pub crawl on a Friday or Saturday if you don't want to miss out on Wildflower Brewery as they are closed every other day of the week.

The Grifter Brewing Co.

The Grifter Brewery was started by mates Matt, Glenn & Trent in 2012. Already making craft beer in their homes, they wanted to bring their version of a coldie to beer-loving Sydney. Edward, their friendly-named pale ale, became their first commercially brewed beer. Back then, it was only served in the newly opened Young Henry's. In 2015, many awards later, Edward was finally being served in its first proper home, The Grifter Brewery.

Keeping Edward, their pale ale, as the only permanent beer, they continuously try out new styles of beer. Our favourite, hands down, is the Grifter Pale Ale. It is one of those craft beers that gets better with every mouthful.

Grifters Brewery makes you feel like home and even allows you to bring your kiddo and your pooch. While Sydney restaurants are not very pet-friendly, most Inner West breweries happily welcome you and your furry friends!

Marrickville Brewery Itinerary

That's it guys, you now know everything you need to know to plan in an epic Marrickville Brewery Tour! We recommend following the craft breweries as we mention above. First stop at Willie The Boatman, followed by Batch Brewing Co., Stockade Brew Co., Sauce Brewing Co., Wildflower Brewery and finishing at The Grifter Brewing Co.

But wait, we can't let you go yet. Not without a special little bonus. A craft brewery that we could not leave out of this article, Young Henrys. Let me tell you why.

Bonus Brewery: Young Henrys

While we have to wander out of Marrickville and into Newtown to get to Young Henrys, we could not complete this article without mentioning our all-time favourite craft brewery.

Only a 15-min walk from the last craft brewery on your Marrickville brewery tour, Young Henrys is Urban Legends Tour Co.'s local brewery. Consequently, it is also home to our most beloved local beer, The Newtowner. As Urban Legends Tour Company was born in the heart of Newtown, our earliest meetings were always accompanied by a Newtowner. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that this brewery will always have a special place in our hearts.

Whether you plan you plan your own craft beer pub crawl or you come along on one of our own Inner West Brewery Tours, don't miss out on Young Henrys or any of the craft breweries mentioned in this article for that matter.

Happy bar hopping legends!