Mears Avenue - 3 Bedroom + sunroom apartment

Debra and Peter have a fantastic house. Perfectly located - 1 minute walk to the light train station/the Prince of Wales Hospital and 10 minutes to Coogee Beach. Although the house is centrally located, it is in a very quiet area. The apartment itself is very spacious, charming and well furnished. Beautiful garden. But the best are Debra and Peter: extremely helpful, friendly, nice, funny and generous landlords - we just loved our stay. Highly recommended.

In short: a great location, a great apartment, and great landlords. The house is on a quiet street, but close to shops (Harris Farms, Woolies, Coles, among others), restaurants/cafes (our favorites are Maybe Frank and 22 Grams), public transportation (L2 tram, lots of buses), and a great cinema (The Ritz) in nearby Randwick Centre and The Spot. We stayed there for six months with our 13 year-old son. We felt very safe letting him take public transport to and from school every day. You are also only about a 15 minute walk from Coogee beach, a number of lovely rock pools, and the coastal walk. The apartment, on the lower floor of the house, has high ceilings, a large kitchen, wood floors, and a great verandah. There is a grassy back garden with a barbecue and the ever-present sound of magpies, ravens, and other Sydney birds. The landlords Peter and Debra were always extremely helpful and friendly. Whether offering suggestions for weekend trips around the city, or borrowing a couple of lemons (or a table lamp, or a boogie board…) they were very generous and made our time there all the better. You won’t be disappointed with your stay.

What an amazing stay we have just had here! We arrived in the middle of Australian winter with our three daughters (4, 7 and 10) and spent 6 months in Peter and Debra's house. The location was perfect for us: walking distance to beautiful Coogee Beach, short drive to Clovelly and Maroubra beaches, shopping and everything you need for everyday life 2 mins walk from the house, decent public school within walking distance - all in a very pleasant and safe area. Buses (and now also the tram) to the city centre are very frequent and comfortable. Nearby library is great and was a massive hit with our kids! The apartment itself is very spacious, with comfortable layout and fully equipped so all we had to bring were our personal belongings. We also had an urban SUV as part of our rental which made life and travels massively easier. Our stay wouldn't have been the same without friendly advice and support from out hosts, Peter and Debra - our children miss them already! They went our of their way to help us out with anything we needed, from airport pickups when we travelled, through road bike for me to cycle on, to cooler for our beach picnics. Such level of help and friendly support makes moving countries a piece of cake (even with kids!). Thank you so much for everything Peter and Debra - we would love to stay at your house again if we are lucky enough to have another sabbatical in Sydney!

A great place to spend a sabbatical: very convenient location with shops, restaurants and cafes and a movie theatre within walking distance, buses to the city (20 minutes by bus) and to all other destinations. Coogee beach, our favourite beach in Sydney, is just a 15 minutes walk away. The UNSW and several hospitals and schools are within walking distance. Randwick junction with its shopping centres and cafes is just around the corner. Yet the appartment is located in a quiet street. We really enjoyed living in this spacious appartment in a 100 year old house, with stuccoed ceilings and wooden floors. Peter and Debra, the owners, were extremely helpful and friendly.

My Family (Married couple with 2 children ages 11 and 16) has had the pleasure of staying in this Randwick Duplex from January to June 2018. Overall, this is an excellent option for visiting faculty at UNSW and also worked very well for me at the Garvan Institute. Features: 1) This is the top floor of a duplex. The owners live in the bottom flat. They are an amazingly helpful couple. They Picked us up from the Airport when we arrived, have accommodated every single request we have had, showed us around the area, lent us money when our ATM card wasn't working and have consistently gone out to their way to make our experience here better. When moving to a new place, this type of hospitality makes a huge difference in the quality of your stay. Really cannot thank them enough. Incredibly generous. 2) Location: It is right (1 block, 2 min walk) next to Randwick Junction, where there are multiple grocery stores and really everything else you need for daily living (including dentists, physicians, restaurants, bars, banks, etc, etc). Moreover, there are buses that run directly downtown and all over the city leaving from Randwick Junction all day- never more than a 5 min wait. About 30 min into the city center (15 or 20 to Garvan /HKCC/Victor Chang). We survived here just fine without a car. If you are at UNSW, the main hospital is literally across the street and the campus is a 5-10 min walk, depending on what part you need to reach. Great local movie theater and restaurant area (The Spot) is 2 blocks away. 3) Location #2: AND, it is a 15 minute downhill walk to Coogee Beach, which is amazing and gorgeous. We made this a regular part of our weekly routine and will miss the sunrises and sand here as much as anything. 4) The space: Beautiful old Victorian style apartment. Quite spacious. Very high ceilings with nice detailed accents. Wonderful windows from front bedroom, living room and Sunroom. Two decent sized bedrooms with comfortable and clean beds. Third bedroom is small but good for a kid or office. Nice formal dining room space on back of house and smaller but functional kitchen with dishwasher, stove, microwave and coffee maker. Two full bathrooms were a real advantage for us (2 daughters). Loads of movies and travel books for the local area on the bookshelves. All the bedding and towels and settings we needed for day-to-day life. We were comfortable here despite downsizing from 4BR 2.5 Ba 2500 sq foot home back in the States. Furnishings are more antique rather than modern but were functional. 5) Local public schools were conveniently located. Our girls were happy at the schools, though not as academically challenged as they were back at their home schools. Can be hard to get into neighboring (and actually very close) private or catholic schools without planning well in advance. In sum, we were very happy here and would stay here again if we returned to Sydney. Thank you to our wonderful hosts, Peter and Debra, for everything!