Blue Mountains, Sydney

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The Blue Mountains are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located about a little over an hour out of Sydney, the Blue Mountains are nestled among plateaus and some pristine rain forest. It's home to places of interest like Flat Rock, which affords excellent views of the surrounding areas of the valleys. There's also the Scenic Tram that takes you across the gorge, and also another tram that's the world's steepest that will take you down the forest floor. There are walkways along the forest floor canopy that will take you near the Katoomba mine area as well. So many tourists the day I went, even though it was winter. I can only imagine how summer would've been, lots of families out. You might be able to spot some local wildlife, especially a lot of birds. I caught sight of a little kookabura nestled on a telephone wire. Towards the last half of the tour, we even spotted kangaroos off the side of the highway! Going to the Blue Mountains is something you should do when you visit Sydney. Most hotels can book you tours, so it's easy. I've provided the website of the tour company I used. The tours leave in the morning and return about 6 PM. Mine also included a river cruise at the end.

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Finally in February 2010; my husband an I made it to the Blue Mountains. We took a guided tour that left from Sydney via bus. Our visit to the National Park included: The Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls, Katooma Coal Mine, Echo Point, Wentworth Falls, Scenic Railway, Scenic Skyway, Scenic Cableway, Scenic Walkway and a short film detailing the history of the Blue Mountains.

We had a great time despite it being a little wet and chilly. Fortunately we arrived in time to see the Three Sisters and seveal other sights before the fog rolled in and hid the views. The natural beauty of the place is awe inspiring and a must see when in the area.

**Wear comfortable and sturdy walking shoes. Bring plenty of water and dress for the weather.**

We travelled up from Sydney on their tour bus, it was the best thing we did. To have a competent safe driver with all the local knowledge and it was a very efficient use of our short time in Sydney.
The scenery is superb and we enjoyed the friendly people everywhere.
We could not have seen so much doing it by ourselves, we got to some beautiful out of the way lookouts.
The price was very reasonable and we even patted Koalas and it included a return cruise to Sydney harbor.

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This day was probably the highlight of my trip to Sydney. For $68 OzTrails took me to the Blue Mountains. The day started well with great friendly drivers, who obviously have a good knowledge of their subject as well as a good sense of humour. Steve, who was our guide for the day took us to Olympic Park for a drive-by tour of the former 2002 Sydney Olympics Venue, before we stopped for morning tea along the banks of the Penrith River. Next we travelled onto Wentworth Falls. After a short bushwalk, we returned to the bus to head to Scenic World. This additional part of the trip was optional ($25 and well worth it by the way) - and consisted of three modes of transport giving you three different views of the Blue Mountains. For lunch we went to Leura where we were given just over an hour to select a venue of our choice for lunch and browse the shops as we saw fit. Back in the bus we went to Flat Rock for an unfenced view of the Blue Mountains which was awesome. Next was a stop at a National Park campground, where we got to see some kangaroos, galahs and rosellas. Lastly, we boarded a boat for a river cruise back to the city, where you could stop at either Darling Harbour or Circular Quay and which was fabulous because it was a much better way to end the day instead of waiting around in the bus for everyone to be dropped back to their individual hotels.

This trip was fantastic and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

You can't be missing Scenic World when you are in the Blue Mountains. Things have changed so much in between my visits in 1999 and 2004. For one thing, the facade of the place is modernising with time for a more modern "theme-park" look. Another, the old rickety Scenic Skyway was replaced with a newer looking thingagimic. (I was glad I was able to catch a ride on the old dame for a last time)

Take a ride down the steepest incline Railway in the world down into a lush and hidden valley. The 415m descent will lead you through a cliff side tunnel into ancient rainforest. At one point, the gradient is 48 degrees and you will find yourself virtually standing up while you are busy plunging down into the valley.

Once down in the valley, you could choose to do the walks or take the new Scenic Flyway back up. The walks down in the valley are great and cooling. Have a look at the peat rich dark soil and smell the eucalyptus rich air. This is as good as you can get for an initiation to the Blue Mountains.

Admission prices for Scenic Railway:
Adult: A$8 one way; A$16 return
Child: A$4 one way; A$8 return
Family Pass: A$40

We went on the Wonderbus Blue Mountains Eco Tour, which highlights the flora and fauna and includes some 'medium-strength' walking. Our guide, Marlowe, was fantastic; Really enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable about the Mountains. At Euroka Clearing she led us straight to gathering of wild kangaroos, and at the Mountains themselves she led us on a 'Thousand Step' walk which really brings you right into to the mountain environment - far better than just bussing from lookout to lookout with the other tourists. At the end of the walk, during which we'd only seen a handful of other people, we arrived at the Scenic Railway boarding point, which was literally swarming with tourists. How can you appreciate the location when there are so many crowds? It made me appreciate doing the Eco tour with just a small group.

A great day trip west of Sydney. At Katoomba you can view the 3 sisters- lovely rock formations. The mountain views are spectacular and bush walks are nice. Also go on the scenic railway at almost a right angle down the mountain and come back up by skycab. The scenery is breathtaking.
If you want to know where the three sisters are just like the roos in the pic, please visit my Blue Mountains page :o)

PHOTO: ONE OF OUR GROUP WITH THE THREE SISTERS IN THE BACKGROUND.

The Blue Mountains, actually plateaus (the Grand Canyon with trees) are covered with mostly eucalypt trees and the blue comes from the mist of oil given off by the trees. We were picked up at our B&B about 8am on Monday, 23 September by OZ TRAILS, a small tour operator that the B&B recommended. It was a wonderful and special experience. In our van were a couple from Wellington, NZ; a couple from Israel; and a couple from Florida (formerly from New Jersey). The tour guide and owner of OZ TRAILS, Nadav Hadari ("call me Dave") stopped at a park along the way to provide us with a spread of morning tea and cookies, etc. Dave was very informative and gave us a lot of interesting details, took us to places the larger tour buses could not go, as well as some of the best spots including Wentworth Falls and the spectacular Three Sisters which included a ride into a mine area and a skyride back. We had luch in a charming town called Leura and visited a national park area where we were able to see Kangaroos in the wild (lots of them) and got close to a kookaburra and a number of other native birds and animals. Dave also took us to a spot unknown to most tour operators where we saw an ancient Aboriginal rock carving of kangaroos. We were dropped back at our B&B about 6pm.

Go to the Blue Mountains with WONDERBUS.
They have fantastic guides who know just about everything about everything and are laid back so you can relax and have a fabulous and fun trip. There are great photo oppotunities.

On your way to the Blue Mountains you get told about the things of interest along the way and if you get Pete the guide that I got you'll definatly find out about a lot stuff (all put in an interesting way).

You stop at the olympic stadium to have a look on the way. You also go to Featherdale Animal Park which is so cool some of the Kangaroos, Wallabies, Birds etc just wander about and you can touch some of them. It's small but not too small, it's great to get to touch the animals and have you photo (with your camera) taken with a koala, kangaroo etc for free. Definatly do this bit it's worth it.

The Blue Mountains are absolutly beautiful, even if you are scared of heights (like me) it's well worth the work down, the scenery is gorgeous and to be within a forest or rainforest is just amazing.
There is a beautiful waterfall and the story behind the three sisters (3 mountains) is definatly worth a listen.

With WONDERBUS you go to a local pub for your lunch, the food is included and is delicious. You get to experience a proper aussie pub not a touristy one.

Definatly go with these guys because I went on a trip with another company and got the most boring guide ever and it was just a stuffy tour.

This was THE BEST tour I've been on!

We chose to take the Sydney tours r us trip from our Sydney hotel. It was recommenede on the Internet so we tried it and it was better than we expected for such a reasonable price.
We got to see all the sights of the echo point and 3 sisters plus heaps of other lookouts and it also took us to the Featherdale animal park for a petting with koalas and kangaroos, this was a highlight of the day.
We also liked being part of a snail group with just 9 others on the bus.
Our day ended with a cruise on the river.
It was the best $99 we have ever spent !