Renting an apartment in Sydney with Wimdu

Sydney is without a doubt the most famous city in Australia, and possibly the most beautiful. With it’s historic old buildings and monuments, along with a beautiful harbour setting, Sydney is a city that I just hadn’t spent enough time exploring. So when Wimdu contacted me and asked if I would be interested in trying out their service, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to take Veronika away for a couple of days to explore the city.

Wimdu’s focus is to provide travellers with different options away from the usual hotel/hostel scene, allowing you to search for a wide variety of options to suit your budget, from renting a room in a local’s house to full apartment rentals.

Wimdu is new to Australia, so there aren’t a lot of properties to choose from just yet, but they have over 50,000 properties worldwide. When I opened up Wimdu.com.au, I found that searching for a place to stay was fairly straight forward. All I had to do was enter my destination and travel dates and click search, then a whole list of available properties showed up ranging from $25 – $1472 per night.

Searching for a place to stay on Wimdu

I was able to refine my search by selecting the area in Sydney that I wanted to stay in, as well as the type of property – in my case “Entire apartment”. You can also refine your search by price, number of rooms and amenities.

The property I chose was a serviced studio apartment in the CBD, and after I requested my booking, it wasn’t long before I had a reply from the owner, confirming my booking and providing me with the check in details.

We arrived in Sydney by plane and caught the train into the city. The apartment was only a short walk from the station and very easy to find on Dixon St. The check in was simple, however I had to provide a $200 security deposit with a credit card upon arrival, which I wasn’t made aware of beforehand. It wasn’t a problem for me, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Our apartment in Sydney

The apartment itself was like a very large hotel room with a kitchenette at the entrance on the right, and the ensuite bathroom to the left.

The bathroom was very clean with a nice hot shower, toilet, basin, clean towels and complimentary shampoo etc.

The kitchenette has a sink, fridge, microwave, toaster and tea and coffee making facilities, along with a selection of mini bar items that you can purchase.

The main living area has a large double bed, sofa, coffee table, dining table, flat screen tv, dvd player, stereo and internet access.

Leading out through the glass door in the bedroom/living area is a balcony with a table and chairs that looks out over Dixon St.

The apartment is in an excellent location. Dixon St is a quiet street that leads straight into Chinatown, which is also right next to Paddy’s Market. The rest of Sydney’s main sights are all within easy walking distance, and from the apartment we explored the CBD and the areas around the harbour – The Rocks, Circular Quay, the Botanical Gardens and the Opera House. There are plenty of restaurants and pubs/bars in the area.

Chinatown

Paddy’s Market

Sydney Harbour

Overall the apartment was spacious, quiet, spotlessly clean and in an excellent location. We really enjoyed our stay in Sydney and can’t wait to return.

Thanks to Wimdu for sponsoring my stay in Sydney. All opinions are my own.