Run by hobbyists for people who take toys seriously, Hobbyco's aisles fill with excited kids (big and small) effusing over slot cars, Meccano sets, train sets and radio-controlled cars. First Fleet models and 12,000-piece jigsaw puzzles are perfect projects for a rainy year. It's on the top floor at the Town Hall end of the QVB.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby City Centre & Haymarket attractions

1. Sydney Town Hall

0.06 MILES

Mansard roofs, sandstone turrets, wrought-iron trimmings and over-the-top balustrades: the French Second Empire wedding-cake exterior of the Town Hall …

2. Queen Victoria Building

0.07 MILES

Unbelievably, this High Victorian Gothic masterpiece (1898) was repeatedly slated for demolition before it was restored in the mid-1980s. Occupying an…

3. St Andrew’s Cathedral

0.1 MILES

Sporting beautiful stained glass and twin spires inspired by England’s York Minster, squat St Andrew’s Anglican is the oldest cathedral in Australia (1868…

4. State Theatre

0.11 MILES

The ostentatiously ornate State (1929) is Sydney’s most beautiful theatre. Originally built as a movie palace during Hollywood’s heyday, it’s now a…

5. Great Synagogue

0.17 MILES

The heritage-listed Great Synagogue (1878) is the spiritual home of Sydney’s oldest Jewish congregation, established in 1831. It’s considered the Mother…

6. Sydney Tower Eye

0.19 MILES

The 309m-tall Sydney Tower (still known as Centrepoint by many Sydneysiders) offers unbeatable 360-degree views from the observation level 250m up. The…

7. Cockle Bay Wharf

0.26 MILES

The showpiece of the innovative redevelopment of the southeastern corner of Darling Harbour in the late 1990s, this bar and restaurant precinct occupies…

8. Hyde Park

0.28 MILES

Formal but much-loved Hyde Park has manicured gardens and a tree-formed tunnel running down its spine, which looks particularly pretty at night,…