Today we are ten years old!
On this day in January 2013 we took out a friends relatives, who were visiting from Tasmania, on a daytime walking tour of the Sydney CBD. Six months previously, our chief guide Maree had gone on an internet date with a guy called Oscar from Texas. After spending the day showing her guest all her favourite local haunts, Oscar complimented Maree on her unique tour guide style and suggested she do it as a living. So she went home and googled local tours. There was lots of shopping and history tours but not a locals version of Sydney. The #supportlocal campaign was yet to become 'on-trend'.
After encouragement from her friends and family, Maree created a website (with a lot of help from a good friend) and took her first booking.
Originally we were a daytime tour business meeting our guests for coffee at a cafe and asking a few questions to establish what they were interested in seeing. We would then take them on a walk for a few hours where we visited shops, galleries and various key streets around inner city Sydney. It was very spontaneous and nowhere near as organised as what we do these days.
We have now staged food experience events across 8/12 the City of Sydney precincts including: Glebe, Paddington, Pyrmont, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and Potts Point; taken out hundreds of people from different parts of Sydney and the world; drank many fabulous cocktails at the small bars across inner city Sydney and dined in some of our city's most-loved and respected restaurants.
We still think it's a privilege to dine with people we have just met and show-off our city. And we still think it's the best job ever!
A BIG thanks to all our supporters: guests, guides, photographers, local businesses, bars & restaurants and our friends and family who continue to champion what we do.
Here's to 10 more years! Cheers and thank you for booking with The Sydney Connection!