Over the past ten years I have travelled a lot. At first I was easily pleased. Happy just not to be going in to the office that day. I’d rock up at some new location, get the guidebook and do all the recommended sites.

Then one day I was in Toronto. It was impossible to get any normal kind of hotel room. Everything seemed to be sold out for a huge conference. I was getting nervous as I had committed to teaching a class there with ten confirmed bookings. I tend to leave things till the last minute so if I couldn’t get a room I knew people would be pointing the finger.

I spent hours thrashing about various travel pages, like a hormonal teen alone in their room, until I found a number for a family run B&B. It was as expensive as a hotel and I had to book their ‘honeymoon’ room but I was glad I landed a spot.

Catching the flight from Heathrow it was the weekend of the liquid bomb terrorist plot. It was annoying to be stranded at the airport for hours but everyone got on with it in the spirit of the Blitz. When full details were made public years later it appears that the route I was flying was actually one of the targets.

I eventually got there. The B&B turned out to be owned by a really welcoming gay couple who sat me down poured me Lemon Drop martinis and commiserated with me on my journey. Every morning they would could a scrumptious breakfast. Like nothing I have ever had anywhere before and always different each day.

Then on the free Sunday before I was due to start work on the Monday I grabbed a guidebook and hit the recommended sights.

I got to the CN Tower. I waited in line. Then I paid. A lot. Then I waited in line some more. Eventually after two hours of starting at concrete walls I was able to get the lift to the top.

I paid for a very overpriced coffee and stared out at the frankly uninspiring view of the city. Toronto has many qualities but an unforgettable skyline is not one of them.

Then it hit me. This wasn’t the way to travel. This was lazy, regimented, unimaginative, unappreciative guidebook travel. I stood in line for hours, paid through the nose for something that was never going to be great just because some tourist agency marketed it to me. I pledged never to do that again.

I had one more free day in Toronto before travelling back. I spent that walking in the city, eating in a local cafe, reading my park in a beautiful hidden park I had stumbled on.

Looking back on that week in Toronto I remember the beautiful B&B and breakfasts, the drama of the terrorist plot and the subdued niceness of ambling about a new, interesting city.

Now when I am travelling I do my best to avoid the over-marketed, commercial, packaged up and sold to gullible tourists part of the places I visit. I don’t always succeed but here are my top Sydney tourist traps to avoid.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

I have heard so many good things about the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. So many people have told me it is the no 1 thing to do here. I am almost tempted to try it but it trips every flag of my ‘tourist trap’ warning sensors. They have packaged up something easily available for free (the beautiful views of the stunning Sydney skyline). They make you line up for it or book. They make you pay large amounts of money. Then you climb a bridge and get a view of Sydney.

Now I love the Sydney skyline. It possibly the best city in the world to see from a great vantage point but I don’t want it packaged up and sold to me. I love it when I turn at the top of William St and glance it by chance. Or I am returning from overseas and I lift my eyes from the magazine I am reading to see it below. Or I go to a new high rise office for work and see it from a new angle on a high floor.

It’s a thing of beauty and there are better ways to see it. You don’t need to pay for the tourist package.