The International Fleet Review On Sydney Harbour – Top Tips For Visiting With Kids

We went down to the Harbour to see the ships of the International Fleet Review this morning.

I’m not kidding you, it was spectacular to see all those huge ships in the sparking blue of Sydney Harbour.

The helicopters with flags and the formation fly pasts took our breaths away too.

As I said to the kids, this is a once in 100 years experience.

It’s not every day you get this close to a 21 gun salute… actually I’m not sure how many shots were fired, but they sure were loud.

There were huge crowds at the harbourside and on all the islands we passed too.

Top Tips For Seeing The International Fleet Review

We decided to drive the car from our house down to the Harbour and then catch a ferry into Circular Quay, then to walk round to Campbell Cove to hop onto the Southern Swan.

In fact, we ended up wishing we had taken a car or train all the way into the city. It was murder to park at McMahon’s Point, and Paul had to drop the kids and I then park miles away and run like mad for a long way to catch the ferry. Good thing he’s fit.

Then on the way home, the crowds at the ferry quays were huge, and very squeezey. It quite scared me to be caught in the midst of big crowds, no fun at all.

It’s going to be a HOT weekend, so kids need heaps of water (and adults too.) We used up a bucketload of sunscreen too. And thank goodness for the snacks we took as buying food would have taken a LONG time too.

My family don’t do well in noisy, crowded places so we were glad we’d gone on Friday not the weekend, and that we started out earlier than we thought we’d need to.

We went out on a Pirate Cruise on the gorgeous Southern Star, managed by Sydney Tall Ships.

I have a zillion photos from the cruise which I will post next. This was a super family-friendly way to get out onto the Harbour and see the ships.

For all the information on the International Fleet Review here.

See fabulous photographs on the ABC website here.

Are you planning a family trip to Sydney Harbour to see the Fleets?

Or the fireworks on Saturday night maybe?

Any top tips for other families?

Take it easy

Many thanks to Sydney Harbour Tall Ships for hosting our family – very much appreciated.