Erskineville

Long despised as something of a ghetto, the inner-Sydney suburb of Erskineville was targeted by young speculators in the early 1980s and is now a fashionable residential enclave on the southern fringe of the city.

It borders equally up-market Newtown whose ethnic restaurant strip is a happy hunting ground for Sydney and visiting food-fanciers.

Trains and nose-to-tail buses guarantee you are only a few minutes from the bright city lights and the tourist and historic meccas of Darling Harbour, Circular Quay and The Rocks, Paddington, Kings Cross, Randwick and Sydney's world-famous, southside surf beaches.

Just a couple of kilometres from Erskineville and Newtown, King Street links into Princes Highway, one of the oldest major arteries to the south and Victoria.