Hello all! As you all my have known, i went abroad for 6 months a year ago to study at the University of New South Wales for an exchange programme. I thought it would be useful to share my experience with all of you!
1. Accommodation
There are a few options for you. You can live on campus or off campus.
On campusUNSW has many options (
http://www.rc.unsw.edu.au/apartments/accommodation). The weekly rates ranges from about $300-$500 AUD.
Off campus
It's much cheaper to stay off campus. The weekly rates are usually about $200 AUD a week.
UNSW does feature some off campus apartments/room shares which you can check out over here:
https://studystays.unsw.edu.au.
Alternatively, if you're looking to share an apartment, you can check out websites such as:
https://flatmates.com.au.
If you're looking to rent an entire apartment, you can check out
https://www.realestate.com.au/. I wouldn't suggest this option though because most apartments are unfurnished. If you're alright with this, you can always rent furniture. There are student deals for rental of furniture which ranges from $18.90 to $38.70 a week (
https://www.rentacentre.com.au/student-rentals/).
This was too much of a hassle for me so i didn't opt for this option.
I found my accommodation on
http://www.gumtree.com.au. I rented an apartment there for two and it was about $400 a week. So i paid only $200 a week, which was way cheaper than living on campus.
Check if there is wifi.
If you're living off campus, it's so important to check if there's wifi. My accommodation did not come with wifi and it was such a hassle. It also increased my spendings because in the end i had to get pocket wifi from Vodafone, and this included getting the device as well which was selling for $90 at that time.
Check if there are laundry facilities
I didn't have laundry facilities at my apartment, so i had to bring all my laundry every week to a shop to wash. Lol. It costs about $10-$15 for one week's worth of clothes for two people.
Where should you live off campus?
There are three areas within walking distance to UNSW– Kingsford, Kensington, Randwick. It really depends on you.
Kingsford has tons of asian food and eateries. Unfortunately, they only few supermarkets. IGA (See below on which supermarkets to visit) is located there. They also have an asian supermarket there.
Kensington is a little far off, not many supermarkets and eateries that i know off.
I lived in Randwick and i absolutely loved the place.All about Randwick- Randwick has many eating places. You can check out the shops near Royal Randwick Shopping Centre. Also, check out The Spot. There are many nice cafes and restaurants near there.
- There are many supermarkets in Randwick. There's an asian supermarket, Coles and Woolworths
- Randwick is also about a 15 minutes walk away from Coogee beach
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| Coogee Beach |
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| Coogee Beach |
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| Ritz Cinema |
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| Look at how grand one of the theatres at Ritz cinema is! |
2. Travel
You can easily travel around Sydney by bus. All you need is an Opal card, which is similar to Singapore's EZlink card. You can get an Opal card from any convenience store. Usually Opal card retailers will have a poster at the outside of their store indicating that you can purchase an Opal card from them so look out for that!
You can top up your card at any of these Opal stores. I think the minimum amount to top up your card is $20? Also, if you manage to take 8 bus rides in a week, the rest of the rides for that week are free!
I took a bus from the airport to my accommodation near UNSW. It costs me about $4 so it wasn't too expensive. Take bus 400 from the airport to UNSW. Take the bus that goes to Bondi Junction (it's indicated beside the bus number). There's another bus 400 which goes to Burwood, which doesn't bring you to UNSW!
Alternatively, you can just take a cab to your accommodation. A taxi ride to UNSW costs about $35-$40. Well, i didn't choose this option because i wanted to save some money. Hahaha.
3. Mobile plan
There are various mobile operators to choose from– Vodafone, Optus, Telstra. I chose Optus because it was most economical for me. From what i hear from my friends, they also find it to be the cheapest!
Most plans require you to commit at least 12 months, but i was only staying for 6 months. So my best option was to get a $30 prepaid card. I was entitled to 2GB, unlimited calls & texts within Australia and also a certain number of free international calls. Don't worry about the data though because you can always buy more data (it was going at $5 for 500mb the time i was there) anytime you like through the Optus mobile app.
When your $30/month is up, just recharge it through the Optus app by linking your credit card details to it. It's really simple and convenient. There are Vodafone and Optus outlets (can't remember if there's Telstra though) once you exit the airport and i purchased my prepaid card there and then. There will be people to help you activate your prepaid card too.
Let them know that you're students as well! Can't remember if there were any special deals i got though, but there might be. :)
4. Bank account
Most of my friends signed up for Commonwealth Bank. It's the most popular option for students somehow. There are other banks too such as ANZ. I would really recommend Commonwealth Bank though.
I set up my bank account at the Randwick branch (
https://www.commbank.com.au/personal/locate-us/nsw/randwick/062230.html). It was so convenient and everything was done so efficiently! There were no set up fees as well. You have to bring a copy of your passport to set up your bank account. Note however that it'll take a few days for your card to arrive. But not to worry because you still can access your funds without your card and withdraw money from ATMs. Commonwealth Bank has a mobile app which allows you to do that.
I really love Commonwealth Bank's mobile app. It makes transferring money to friends so convenient. You can also easily monitor you spendings and transactions!
There are a few options for you to transfer your cash from Singapore without having to set up a bank account prior to that
- Hand carry the cash (wouldn't recommend because i was afraid to lose the cash. Also note that Australia has a limit as to the amount of cash you have to bring in, if not you'll have to declare at customs)
- Electronic transfer (which was what i did- i switched on my data roaming and had to bring my secure device for this)
- Bank draft (It says 3 days would be required to get it cleared but at the Commonwealth Bank outlet i was at, it only took at most 24 hours)
- Telegraphic transfer (most expensive option so i didn't opt for this)
If i'm not wrong, it costs $15 to transfer the money for both electronic transfer and bank draft?
5. Food
There are plenty of food places around and within UNSW! Within UNSW, i like to head to
Max Brenner for a cup of hot chocolate. You can choose between dark, milk or white chocolate! I really love their desserts there too. For coffee, i always get my coffee from
Biblio (mainly because most of my classes are there). I get a
boost juice almost daily there too and my favourite is watermelon crush! As for food, i rarely eat within UNSW. If i do, i usually get my food from the
Quandrangle Building. They have different foods like the western version of Cai Fan. Hahaha.
Around UNSWI always head to the same few places around UNSW. The most convenient option is to head to Kingsford to eat because it's really near. They have really cheap Bahn Mis there. Here is one option:
https://www.zomato.com/sydney/empress-french-hot-breads-kingsford. There is another place selling Bahn Mi closed to McDonald's.
McDonald's is located somewhere near Kingsford too. I think it's along Barker Road. If you're really looking for something cheap, those places will provide you something filling and satisfying. I like to pay a bit more and head to some of the restaurants/cafes along Kingsford. My favourite go to places are
It's Time for Thai, Albee's Kitchen and Kreta Ayer. I heard
Ayam Goreng 99 is a must try, though i've never been there before.
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| Carrot cake at Kreta Ayer |
There's a
Pizza Hut somewhere along Barker Road as well. It's further up closer to Avoca Street area. The pizzas there are super cheap! One pizza costs at least $4? I remember we got the stuffed crust pizza and it only costs $10.
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| The stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut that we got! |
If you are thinking of heading somewhere slightly further from UNSW, you can head to Randwick! There are two eating areas in Randwick. One would be the shops along Avoca Street leading to Royal Randwick Shopping Centre and the other would be The Spot. My favourite restaurants around Avoca Street would be
Noodle Inn, Tum Zaap (Thai food) and Isabella's Italian and Seafood Restaurant.
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| At Noodle Inn, you can customise what goes into your noodles! You can choose your noodle, meat & sauce |
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| Food at Isabella's |
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| The food is really affordable. This costs about $13? |
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| I found their breakfast menu on their Facebook page so you could see the stuff that they sell for breakfast! This is my favourite go to breakfast place. |
The Spot has amazing food as well! The Spot is located near St Paul's Street (See image of map below). For food, i really love
Pinocchios Restaurant, Chaopraya Thai and Mammas and Pappas Ristorante. Mammas and Pappas is a must try! My favourite places for dessert are
Kurtosh and The Sweet Spot Patisserie.
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| The Sweet Spot |
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| At Pinnochios for our pre Valentine's Day celebrations |
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| Our favourite pizza at Pinnochios! |
There was quite a bit of rain in Sydney and sometimes me and Gab can't go out.
https://www.deliveryhero.com.au is such a life saver! Also, sometimes we save money and just order from here and collect at the place so that there's no service charge. Hahaha.
6. Gym
I chose
Fitness First which was at Royal Randwick Shopping Centre. That's because Fitness First has a ton of classes to choose from. I paid about $25 for 2 weeks (for 6 months). Sign up fee is free. Note however that there are cancellation fees!
There's
Anytime Fitness at Royal Randwick Shopping Centre but i didn't opt for that because there aren't any classes. For Anytime Fitness student rates, its $12.95 per week. For doing fees, the fees are half the usual price (I can't remember the joining fees though, probably about $100?)
The last option i considered is the
UNSW school gym. The joining fees is $1 during orientation so look out for that. It's $26.50 for two weeks (
http://www.unsw-ymca.org.au/fees-and-charges). I just went to their website to have a look and it seems that they have similar classes to fitness first! (
http://www.unsw-ymca.org.au/programs/unsw-timetable). I chose Fitness First over this because i felt the gyms were cleaner.
Oh! I heard there's this guys' gym near UNSW, but i can't remember what it's called. A friend was telling me about it.
7. Budget? (for 6 months)
I brought about $8k in total. That seemed sufficient for food, accommodation, gym, daily expenses etc. I also managed to travel to Cairns, Melbourne, Tasmania, and NSW with that amount. It's a rather conservative amount though because at the end of my exchange i had spent all my money and had to survive on Mcdonald's/ microwave food from supermarkets for the last week. Hahaha.
I hope this post has been informative! I'll try to blog about the things i did in Sydney next!
