SYDNEY, Australia — Can you visit Down Under without the cost going up and over? Too right, mate.

From Honolulu, it's one hop across the Pacific — albeit a long one, and crossing the dateline means you arrive well into the following day — but once there, some of the best things to do and see are free, or nearly so.

Sydney bustles around the glittering azure waters of Port Jackson, backdrop to the billowing Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, towering skyscrapers, parks and multimillion-dollar mansions.

The best ways to see it all is by boat, though a charter cruise can cost thousands. Instead, take one of the ferries that cross the city's huge harbor and shuffle workers to and from downtown each day. From Circular Quay, ride past the opera house, the former prison island of Fort Denison and some of the city's most exclusive properties (ask a local if they can point out Russell Crowe's apartment at Woolloomooloo) to Watsons Bay, www.sydneyferries.info. Buy takeout fish and chips on the wharf and brave the sea gulls on the small beach before retiring to the Watsons Bay Hotel beer garden — www.watsonsbayhotel.com.au/ — to watch the sun set over the city skyline.

That's a great start.