Sydney Tourist Trap Tips by b1bob

The fourth stop was the Sydney Opera House. Because I don't give a hoot in hell about opera, I refused to go in there with resolve equal to that which I refused to have my film x-rayed in Tahiti. I did it and got away with it by feigning a severe stomach ache. The truth is the lunch I took at the zoo didn't really agree with me, therefore it wasn't a complete shuck-and-jive.

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At Least Do This: Wait outside. Tour guides aren't usually big and strong enough to make you go in.
Alternative: Getting "rocked" at the Rocks.

Before returning to the hotel, there was a fifth stop. We visited Van Brugge House, which sells Australian opals (no doubt some collusion went on between this store and the tour company). I sure enough couldn't buy anything in there even if I wanted to- which I didn't. They showed us a film of how they extract the opals from the Earth in an effort to justify their exhorbitant prices. Grandma bought some opal ear rings. That was a good thing because since they are so expensive, she couldn't go shopping for the rest of the trip.

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At Least Do This: Feign interest in the opal mining process and make a mental note that it's not worth all the trouble to buy one.
Alternative: Ring the tour company on getting home and let them know you're hip to their collusion. It may not help you if you get roped in, but it might show these tour companies we were born in the dark but it wasn't last night.