Top Blue Mountains Attractions You Should Visit

Summary

Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, the Blue Mountains are one of the top attractions in New South Wales. The entire area is known for its spectacular scenery, offering breathtaking views, rugged tablelands, sheer cliffs, deep inaccessible valleys, enormous chasms, colourful parrots, cascading waterfalls, historic villages, and stupendous walking trails.

Top Blue Mountains Attractions You Should Visit

 

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Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, the Blue Mountains are one of the top attractions in New South Wales. The entire area is known for its spectacular scenery, offering breathtaking views, rugged tablelands, sheer cliffs, deep inaccessible valleys, enormous chasms, colourful parrots, cascading waterfalls, historic villages, and stupendous walking trails.

For more than a century the Blue Mountains have been luring Sydneysiders up from the sweltering plains with promises of cool climate relief and naughty fireside weekends. Sweetening the invitation are astounding scenery, fabulous bushwalks and more gorges, gumtrees and gourmet restaurants than seems viable.

The Blue Mountains get their name from the release of a fine mist of oil from the eucalyptus trees which causes a blue haze.

While Blue Mountain day trips are popular with Sydneysiders, it is advisable to spend at least a couple of days here to get the best out of it – a single-day tour, with all the travelling involved, can only just scratch the surface.

 

Where are the Blue Mountains located?

The Blue Mountains are located about 100km from Sydney in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The closest townships to the Blue Mountains are Katoomba, Leura and Blackheath. Katoomba is the best entry point into the Blue Mountains as it is the largest town in the vicinity of the mountains and has a full range of accommodation for tourists.

See below for a map of the Blue Mountains.

 

Blue Mountains Map

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Blue Mountains Weather

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The Blue Mountains are promoted as a cool climate attraction but they can be visited year round. Summer days are hazy perfection while autumn fogs make Katoomba an eerily atmospheric place. Despite the chill, winter days can be sunny, and down in the sheltered valleys, insects buzz in warm, windless bliss. Winter snows sometimes dapple the highest peaks.

 

Getting There – Sydney to Blue Mountains

By Car – The best way to get to the Blue Mountains is to drive from Sydney. The most direct route from Sydney to Blue Mountains is via Parramatta Rd, detouring onto the tolled Western Motorway (M4) at Strathfield. However, if you have the time the spectacular 90km Bells Line of Road is the more scenic alternative. It’s far quieter than the highway and offers bountiful views from the mountains’ eastern slopes, orchards and roadside apple carts around Bilpin, and lofty scenery all the way to Lithgow. To get here, head northwest from Sydney on Windsor Rd then take Richmond Rd west, which becomes Bells Line of Road beyond Richmond.

If you don’t have a car, you can take a train or bus from Sydney to Blue Mountains.

Blue Mountains Train – To get to Katoomba or Leura, CityRail runs from Sydney’s Central Station hourly and takes about two hours. (See www.131500.com.au for Blue Mountain train timetable and rates.)

Blue Mountains Bus – The Blue Mountains Bus Co services Katoomba and Leura en route from Mt Victoria to the north and Springwood to the east. (See www.mountainlink.com.au for more details.)

 

Top Blue Mountains Attractions

Below is a list of popular Blue Mountain attractions that are worth visiting.

 

Wentworth Falls

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As you head into Wentworth Falls from Glenbrook, you’ll get your first real taste of Blue Mountains scenery; views to the south open out across the majestic Jamison Valley. Wentworth Falls themselves launch a plume of fraying droplets over a 300m drop – check them out from Falls Reserve. This is also the starting point for a network of walking tracks, which delve into the sublime Valley of the Waters, with waterfalls, gorges, woodlands and rainforests.

 

Echo Point

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Katoomba’s big-ticket drawcard is Echo Point, located at the southern end of town. A series of sensational viewing platforms transports your gaze out over the Jamison Valley, while white-winged cockatoos squabble below you in the forest canopy.

The popular 3 Sisters Blue Mountain attraction is located here. The impressive Three Sisters is a rock formation that towers over the scene and has an interesting story to go with it. The story goes that the Three Sisters were turned to stone by a sorcerer to protect them from the unwanted advances of three young men, but the sorcerer died before he could turn them back into humans.

Warning: Echo Point draws vast, serenity-spoiling tourist gaggles, their idling buses farting fumes into the mountain air – arrive early before they do.

 

Scenic World Blue Mountains

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To the west of Echo Point is Scenic World with their multiple scenic attractions on offer. If you can stomach the megaplex vibe and blaring Raiders of the Lost Ark theme, ride the 1880s railway down the 52 degree incline to the valley floor. Wander the 2.5km forest boardwalk or the 12km-return track to the Ruined Castle rock formation, then catch the cable car back up the slope. It also has a glass-floored Scenic Skyway cable car floating out across the valley.

 

Jenolan Caves

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Southwest of Katoomba on the western fringe of Kanangra Boyd National Park, the troglodytic Jenolan Caves is one of the most extensive and complex limestone cave systems in the world. Named Binoomea, or ‘Dark Places’, by the Gundungurra tribe, the caves took shape 400 million years ago. Today, stalactites and stalagmites can be seen in beautiful and striking formations. You must take a tour to see them.

If you would like to visit Jenolan Caves, see our Jenolan Caves article for more information.

 

Blue Mountains Festivals

If spectacular and picturesque scenery is not enough reason for you to visit the Blue Mountains, the festivals hosted by the towns that surround the mountains might sweeten the deal. Below is a list of festivals that take place in the townships around the Blue Mountains.

 

Leura Gardens Festival

The Leura Gardens Festival happens in the gracious and affluent town of Leura in the first week of October. See Leura Gardens Festival for more details.

 

Yulefest

If you wish to celebrate Christmas again, this time in the middle of winter, head to Yulefest that is celebrated by the Blue Mountain towns. Every year between June and August, the chilly Blue Mountain towns cheer themselves up with this out-of-kilter Christmas celebration. Festivities reach a pagan peak at Katoomba’s Winter Magic Festival on 21 June, with a street parade, market stalls and general frivolity to welcome the winter solstice.

 

Things to do in Blue Mountains

In addition to the picturesque landscape on offer, the Blue Mountains are also one of Australia’s best-known adventure playgrounds. Rock climbing, caving, abseiling (rappelling), bushwalking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and canoeing are practiced here year-round.

If you’re wondering what to do in the Blue Mountains, there are several fun and exciting activities to pick from. See below for a list of Blue Mountain activities.

 

Canyoning Blue Mountains

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The Blue Mountains are the perfect spot for abseiling, canyoning and rock climbing in New South Wales. If you are a professional and have your own gear, you can choose several spots for canyoning Blue Mountains. If you are a novice or require gear, there are several companies that offer canyoning from Katoomba. Prices are based on grades; the more advanced equals more dollars.

See Australian School of Mountaineering, Blue Mountains Adventure Company, Explore the Blue Mountains and High’n’Wild Mountain Adventures.

 

Abseiling Blue Mountains

For abseiling Blue Mountains, see the information above.

 

Blue Mountains Walks

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Unless the weather is dire, Blue Mountains walks are a must. Katoomba is the best place to stay if you’re considering short walks; Blackheath is better if you’re interested in longer walks.

From Katoomba – Head for Jamison Valley south of Katoomba, or Grose Valley northeast of Katoomba for some splendid day walks. The area south of Glenbrook is also worthwhile.

From Blackheath – There are steep walks into the Grose Valley from Govett’s Leap; Perry’s Lookdown is the start of the shortest route (five hours, one-way) to the magical Blue Gum Forest. From Evans Lookout there are tracks to Govett’s Leap (1 ½ hrs one-way) and to Junction Rock continuing to the Blue Gum Forest (six hours one-way). To the west and southwest lie the Kanimbla and Megalong Valleys, with spectacular views from Hargrave’s Lookout.

The Echo Point visitors centre has information on short and day walks; the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre in Blackheath supplies longer walk details.

It’s rough, broken country and even experienced walkers get lost – get reliable information, walk with a friend and tell someone where you’re headed. Take plenty of water or boil/treat what you collect (many local waterways are polluted). Mountain weather changes quickly, so bring warm clothes in all seasons.

 

Camping Blue Mountains

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If you’re interested in camping in the Blue Mountains, camp sites are accessible by road at Euroka Clearing near Glenbroook, and Murphys Glen near Woodford. Check track/road condition updates and collect permits for Euroka Clearing at the Richmond NPWS Office.