Review: Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport (SYD)

Seems a travesty not to spend a night or two in Sydney . Although I’m bias.

Love a good review for a hotel based on convenience, price and what its function is.

I’m sad you didn’t review United’s new partnership with virgin and connect a flight in first to Bne onto the Eva 787-10 to tpe which I think is brilliant. Not bad at 57.5k miles.

Since you didn't have time for breakfast, I guess we'll never know if they had avocado toast or not?? How cruel and unusual for you to keep us hanging like that. 🙂

It seems like this "around the world" trip was mostly a few days in Qatar and a few hours in Perth?

@ Mick -- I would have LOVED to spend a few days in Sydney, as it's a great city. In this case the trip was unfortunately centered around the Qantas A380 first availability from SYD-LAX, which was only available on that exact date. Furthermore, I wanted to stay in Doha until a particular date so that I could check out the new Louis Vuitton Lounge on opening day.

Hope to take my dad to Sydney again sometime soon for a proper visit!

Yep that’s all fair. I know about having to plan whole vacations around unicorn dates on Qantas 🙂

Quite nice, I must say.

We stayed there in January , booked using dayuse.com , 6 hours stay :9.00am-3pm , good breakfast included upon arrival. We had an afternoon flight to WLG and was perfect for a 5 hour nap . We used Uber both ways and cost less than 10usd , each way to T1

He wrote an introduction to this trip where he outlined that it was mostly lounges, hotels and flights with a stop in Doha and a few hours in Perth. So yes, you're exactly right.

The door that opens both ways like that is standard in new-build HIX. I’ve seen it all over the world.

I have a beef with this hotel because the times they offer breakfast were/are given incorrectly on their website. As well I think it’s a little overpriced for what it is. The Holiday Inn, which is 5 minutes walk away is probably a better choice.

The door that opens both ways (but not inwards into the shower) is a poor design (at least in this specific hotel). Stayed there a few months back, and if you put a bath mat in front of it, the sweep at the bottom just pushed the mat away causing a wet floor. And since the entire bathroom is glass, if your travel companion needs to use the bathroom at night, they're either lighting up the entire room or using it in the dark.

To top it off, not all of the flights listed on the wall art of the bathroom glass here are real routes

When I was there, there was also no sign of cinnamon buns at breakfast. And that's really the only thing that sets HIX apart from other chains in the US, so disappointed to see this wasn't the case in Sydney.

Rydges have totally lost the plot. What price convenience. Been using them for years when sub-$200 tariffs were around. Now, it's hard to get a quite forgettable room under $300.

Off to the HI I go! Bye Rydges!

I can’t believe you didn’t cover the coolest feature which is the self service car elevator in the parking garage! So crazy, they would never allow that in the US.

Also ask for a room facing the arrivals (when the wind is right) and you can get some amazing passes of the heavies coming into SYD

I really do think you are an exceptional blogger but might I recommend planning a little better around how to turn your IHG certificates into quality blog content? What about a Crowne Plaza in Florida in the heat of summer? A Kimpton even? Give us something we can use! Redeeming a $90 certificate for a $130 room is not why we got into the game! Even the Candlewood Times Square would be more operatively useful for your readership.

I think you're rather missing the point. If this was a post about 'How to get value from an IHG certificate' you'd have a case, but it's not. @Ben was writing a 'I in Sydney for a few hours and this is where I stayed' post. The certificate was incidental to that. People would prefer to read about a NYC Candlewood or Florida in the hurricane season? Umm, yeah nah.

*I was in Sydney ...*

The aviation themed decorations are very cool! As someone who does quick stays with the family (a night here…a night there…out by, if not before, breakfast, etc.) we are often on the lookout for ‘convenient-comfort’ for our use of points/certs. I know that the bulk of points-and-miles readers are on the hunt for the luxe-experience or outsized value, and I do love reading those write-ups, but in terms of my family’s travel style we aim for more mid-tier targets, so I really appreciate the coverage here.

Have had issues sometimes in the AM with an Uber pick at SYD early at hotels NEAR the airport. Other option is walk back to to T1 and take the Free T-Bus to T1 from T2 - starts from 5:30 AM. That comes by every 15 min

It looks great. It's like you are traveling in First Class or Business Class.

Holiday Inn at Sydney Airport is great

He said that he and his dad was there for 6 hours.