Top 10 Free And Low Cost Things To Do In Sydney These School Holidays

School holidays are upon us! I’m cheering as I love the change of pace. Mind you, after a couple of weeks I’ll be booing, desperate for a bit of silence and solitude.

We all need to know about Sydney free school holiday activities because no family can afford to do paid stuff every day of the holidays. 

So, here’s my updated list of our family’s Top Ten Cheap and Free Activities for kids.

Hope you enjoy it and get some penny-pinching inspiration.

This is Jubilee Playground, great spot

The roads are quieter in the school holidays, and we have more time. How about visiting one of Sydney’s bigger playground with a picnic, make a day of it. Playgrounds get you outdoors and so have to be one of the best free kids activities Sydney has on offer!

Getting together with a group of friends makes a visit to the playground especially great for Sydney school holiday fun.

Here are some playgrounds that come highly recommended by us:

Putney Park Water Playground

Sydney Park Playground and Bike Track

Blaxland Riverside Park

Clifton Gardens Playground and Beach

Passmore Reserve, Manly

Darling Harbour Playground

Flying Fox Playground and Cafe at Mona Vale

Or check out our Sydney playgrounds list post.

If you can’t be bothered making a picnic, check out the best playgrounds with cafes in Sydney.

There are too many great Sydney beaches, find a list post with all the beaches described in great detail on this website. 

Our family believes that beaches make the best free things to do in Sydney with kids at any time of year. Even in winter you can run wild, collect drift wood, have a paddle… or even swim if you are as mad as us.

My favourite beaches for a day out are those that also have a fantastic playground… and even a cafe nearby too. Check them out on the Sydney beaches post.

Northbridge Baths makes a great free school holiday activity

Some of Sydney’s stunning harbour pools are completely free to visit. Summer for swimming, winter for beach play and paddling, they are great spots all year round. 

These harbour pools are very beautiful too, which the adults will enjoy whilst the kids run around outdoors, that’s school holiday fun Sydney style.

Have you been to:

Redleaf Pool

MacCallum Pool

Watsons Bay Baths

Northbridge Baths

Some Harbour pools do charge a small fee. This year we must get to the lovely Greenwich Baths, and in Balmain the Dawn Fraser Pool, very historic and scenic.

Also on the Harbour are some pretty beaches with  netted swimming enclosures. We love Clifton Gardens with its excellent playground, Little Manly Cove which (which has a great cafe) and we need to get back to Shark Beach in Neilsen Park and Parsley Bay which also has a playground, plus a kiosk. It’s been too long!

Holidays are a great time to go further from home than usual. My kids have loved visiting some further away pools like:

North Sydney Olympic Pool

Cook and Phillip Aquatic Centre

Blacktown Leisure Centre, Stanhope

Lane Cove Aquatic Centre

Ryde Aquatic Centre

Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre

If you want to check out all the best water slides in Sydney, click here.

The complete list of swimming pools described on Hello Sydney Kids can be found here.

Bike tracks make great school holiday fun

My big boys used to love a day at a bike track with friends.  Many bike tracks have playgrounds right beside them, you really can stay for the whole day.  Take a picnic and a Thermos of tea or coffee and let the kids ride and run wild all day.

Like tracks are another of fantastic free things to do with kids in Sydney and there are dozens to explore.

My list of Sydney’s best bike tracks is here.

There are several free and low cost activities on offer amongst the more than 50 activities in the Kids In The Park program.  Check the program here.  

A simple visit to Sydney Olympic Park also makes for fun school holidays activities, Sydney’s premier sporting centre has so much to see and do, much of it cheap and free.

Enjoy walks, playgrounds, the huge pool and more: check the Sydney Olympic Park website here.

NSW National parks and Wildlife Service runs many child-friendly free and low price events throughout the year. Check them out on the NPWS  Wilderquest website.

You can also play the award-winning WilderQuest game on computer or on an iPad, check here to read my post on WilderQuest. And it’s absolutely free.

Sydney has many great family-friendly walks, and our faves are by the ocean. Let the briny breeze blow the mental cobwebs away!

There are great walks for stroller pushers, safe walks for toddlers and more challenging walks for school children too.  I have a few walks on the blog, find my child-friendly walks listed here.  

BYO popcorn to the movies to save $$$

Use the cheaper books of tickets to keep costs down and BYO caramel popcorn and drinks. If you are taking babies and toddlers, have a look at the great child-friendly cinemas and screenings which happen all over Sydney.

Some cinemas have ‘baby crying rooms’ where you can sit with the family and cause no-one any bother. Others have specific screenings where no-one will complain if your toddler starts rummaging around under the seats or your baby starts squawking.

Find my list of them all here.

As my kids got older, we also enjoyed staying at home more. The kids could run and play in the cul de sac and we also enjoyed baking and doing crafty things.

We might bake a healthy chocolate cake… or a beetroot and chocolate cake.… or some spiced zucchini bread.… actually we might just give the healthy option a body swerve and get straight into some caramel popcorn. Movie time!

On a sunny day my kids still love drawing all over our windows using liquid chalk which we get from Smiggle shops.

Check out the Sydney deals page on Scoopon to find some discounted bargains like:

For more free school holiday activities Sydney check out this post about places to visit which cost nothing:

The Best Free Things To Do in Sydney

So there you go, no need to wonder what’s on in school holidays in Sydney, the free stuff is here!

Hope you enjoy some rest and relaxation over the holidays

Catch you when term starts back.

What are you up to these holidays?