Frequently Asked Questions

Sydney Architecture Walks is registered as a COVID safe business. We are working together to help prevent the spread of CODID-19.

Your safety is our priority. Please read the information below regarding our current COVID-19 safety measures, noting that we regularly update our processes based on the latest government advice and NSW Health Public Health Orders and guidance. Check this page for the latest safety measures prior to your visit. This page was last updated 14 March 2021

Attendance

• Check-in using the Service NSW mobile app. Please ensure you have downloaded the Service NSW app and logged in before arriving to avoid delays.
• If you’ve booked a tour for other people, you are responsible for maintaining the contact details for all of your guests for the purpose of contact tracing, if required.
• Please don’t attend if you feel unwell, have experienced any cold or flu-like symptoms in the past 14 days, are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, or have been advised that you should be isolating / quarantining. Please err on the side of caution and contact us to exchange your booking if you need to – we have updated our ticket exchange and returns policy to accommodate the evolving circumstances.
• Please bring a face mask. Face masks are not mandatory during the tour. However, face masks required for all attendees aged 12 and over while inside foyers and other indoor areas.
• Public tours are limited to 15 attendees helping to ensure a comfortable 1.5m distancing is being followed.

Please note that restrictions in place at the time of purchasing a ticket may not be the same as when the tour takes place. SAW will adhere to guidelines current at the time of the tour so we encourage all participants to check back closer to the time to review current protocols in place.

Please also consider your own safety and wellbeing, and whether attending is the right thing for you. By participating in a SAW tour, you voluntarily assume the risks posed by COVID-19.

Sydney Architecture Walks will continue to be guided by the NSW government’s health guidelines and will provide updates to this information as required.

You can claim one Discover NSW voucher or up to five Parents NSW vouchers per booking on any of our Tours or Gift Cards.

This is what you need to do:

Additional terms:

• Each customer can redeem only one DISCOVER voucher per day or up to five PARENTS vouchers per day.
• If your purchase is over the amount covered by the Voucher, the rest can be paid with regular payment methods.
• Vouchers can not be combined with Gift Card codes when purchasing tours.
• As per the NSW governments terms, change cannot be given/refunded from the vouchers. Once they are used, they are considered used in full.
• Discover NSW vouchers are valid to 30 June 2022.
• Parents NSW vouchers are valid to 9 October 2022
• If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

Don’t have your vouchers yet?

• Apply for Dine & Discover vouchers here.
• Apply for Parents NSW vouchers here.

We are friends and we are architects. We began exploring, celebrating, attacking, sharing, talking, and walking about the city in 2000, because – frankly – someone in Sydney had to. We love cities, what they house and what they reveal but we also want to understand what drives them, what makes them tick. We use architecture to open up other conversations – political, cultural, environmental. So architecture becomes our lens to unpack and re-pack the city. More info on us here.

As an outdoor event our tours are subject to weather. We have a “rain or shine” policy and try to go ahead with tours wherever possible, and do not cancel for light/intermittent/potential rain. We strongly recommend you dress appropriately and bring wet weather gear if there is any chance of rain.

Tours will be cancelled only if the weather poses a safety threat. We try to cancel as early as possible, however as weather conditions are unpredictable we may have to cancel up to 60 minutes prior to the start time. In the rare event that a tour is cancelled, ticket holders will receive an SMS and an EMAIL and you will receive a full refund.

Seniors, full-time students and children are Concession tickets. Everyone else is General. No charge for toddlers, babies, pets…

Yep. Truly awesome. Promise.

Yep. Try this one on for size:
– A skeleton walks into a bar and asks for a glass of milk … and a mop!

Not at all. The conversations are about the city from an architectural point of view. They are not “tours-for-architects”. That kind of conversation is generally pretty dry and full of archi mumbojumbo. Our conversations are full of small, simple words but rich, beautiful ideas. They are full of life. We reckon that city-making is not that complicated and is a conversation ew should all be engaged with. If an idea is any good it should be easy to communicate. No archi-jargon. Promise!

Yep. If you’re an architect then all our tours earn formal CPD points – 1 point per hour. At check-out you will be asked if you are eligible and we will send you details if you say “yes”. More info on CPD here.

We add dates seasonally – usually three months in advance. Tours generally fall on a Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday morning. Public tours take a break through winter but we can arrange special Group Tours at any time.

We sure do.

Yes. Generally they are high school groups but we have also taken tours for primary kids as well. Tours range from 90 minutes to multiple-day itineraries though the majority are 2 to 3 hours long. See Group Tours for more information and email us with your request. The more information you can give us the easier it will be to plan something super-special.

Yes you can. But you will have to pay cash (and bring the right money please). And we can’t guarantee that there will be spaces or that the tour will run if you haven’t booked. Safer to call, text or email first. Or do it the old fashioned way and book online.

100%. If you’re not completely satisfied, we’ll do pretty much anything – within the laws of physics – to satisfy you. If all else fails we’re happy to give you a refund.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Stripe, Google Express, and hugs. Only kidding. We don’t do Google Express.

You can change or cancel any order up to 72 hours before the tour online. If you can’t work out how to do it then tell us what you have in mind. Email is preferred.

Give us a call or send a txt to 0403 888 390. If the tour has already started then we won’t answer the phone. Most tours begin with a 10-20 minute introduction at the meeting point so if you’re fashionably late you will see us.

We offer Gift Cards that can be redeemed on any of our tours. If you’re having any issues with Gift Cards please email us and let us know what the problem is.

Nor are we. They’re often really boring. But if you found us then you probably know what you’re looking for. We’re not professional guides and we haven’t learnt a script. We’re design professionals, architects who spend their days designing bits and pieces of the city and conducting SAW tours is our passion and public research project rolled into one. They’re also our chance to moonlight a little and share things we love with the design-curious public.

SAW tours are carefully crafted urban narratives hidden beneath a guise of informality. They’re not touristic or aimed at a mid-market, lazy audience that wants to be hand fed a bunch of amazing facts. We explore ideas through architecture and try to get to the bottom of what makes our dreamy, grimy emerald city tick. They are both a celebration and a critique, celebrating contemporary architecture, art and design but they’re also about our politics, culture, history, and environment. They’re like a crash course in architecture and urbanism with a sharp focus on what is special and unique about Sydney.