I'm on my way to Australia, currently on a tropical island in
Thailand, but will be making my way down through Malaysia and down to
Singapore in the coming couple of weeks.

I'll be taking an outbound flight from Singapore on the 21st of
December, arriving in Sydney, and plan to celebrate Christmas there -I
hear people go to the beach to celebrate it, so this would make for
something special for me!

Anyway, I've been told by many people that Sydney really gets packed
during this time of the year and that I really need to book in
advance:

1) is this true, or will I be fine even though I don't book in
advance?

2) any recommendations for where a backpacker can stay without having
to pay a fortune? It's got to be safe and clean, but I don't need any
extra luxeries like TV etc (unless it won't cost me any extra).
A single room would be nice, but if it's really expensive I can settle
for a dorm (hopefully not with a bunch of party-crazy people fresh out
of school).

3) any nice beach where I could celebrate Christmas? Christmas eve
that is, not Christmas day as I guess the Australians celebrate (I'm
from Norway in case someone's wondering).


Hallvard