How to Get There

By road: There are two main roads - the Great Western Highway (linking with the Olympic Way to Melbourne, at Bathurst) via Parramatta and Penrith, and the Bell's Line Road which crosses the mountains to the north, via Windsor, Richmond and Kurrajong to Mount Victoria. From Sydney, take Great Western Highway or the Western Motorway to Penrith. Follow the signs to Katoomba and/or the Blue Mountains via Great Western Highway, or Bell's Line Road via Windsor and Richmond.
Visitors Centres at Glenbrook, Katoomba, Oberon and Lithgow have some excellent maps and itinerary suggestions, and major tourist attractions are clearly signposted. Self drive itineraries
By train: The mountains are served by fast electric trains from Sydney, the journey between Sydney and Mount Victoria taking almost two hours. Trains to the Blue Mountains leave Sydney Central Station departing platforms 12/13 hourly. Trains usually stop at Strathfield, Parramatta, Penrith and all stations to Springwood, Katoomba, Mt Victoria or Lithgow.
Day trips by train are possible, however, because of the travel time and the large number of places of interest in the Mountains, an early start is recommended. Even then, you will only scratch the surface of what the Blue Mountains have to offer in a day.
City Rail also offers a number of rail/coach tour options including the Blue Mountains ExplorerLink (daily, except Christmas Day). Tickets can be purchased from any CityRail Station and include return train fare and guided tour. Train timetables (select Blue Mountains Line)

Megalong Valley lookout	Porter's Pass, Grose Valley	Jenolan Caves entrance

Getting Around

Organised Tours: operating out of Katoomba, Blue Mountains Trolley Tours or Blue Mountains Explorer Bus offer a transfer service between tourist locations around Katoomba and Leura, including major lookouts, bushwalking trailheads, tourist attractions and hotels. Passengers can hop on and off wherever they please. Passes are also available which include entry to major tourist attractions along the way. A range of operators provide guided tours to see the region's special places. Tours range from adventure four wheel drive tours, to more conventional coach tours. For tour companies based in the Blue Mountains click here.
By Bus: Blue Mountains Bus Company provides regular commuter bus services between major towns in the Blue Mountains from Penrith to Mount Victoria.

Bushwalks in the Blue Mountains
Waterfalls in the Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains Lookouts
Blue Mountains Tours
Canyoning In The Blue Mountains

About The Blue Mountains

The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million hectares of mostly forested landscape on a sandstone plateau 60 to 180 kilometres inland from central Sydney, New South Wales. It includes vast expanses of wilderness and is equivalent in area to almost one third of Belgium, or twice the size of Brunei. A segment of the Great Dividing Range with an area of 141,000 hectares, the Blue Mountains themselves are bounded on the north by the Grose River and on the south and south-west by Cox's River and their tributaries . It begins about 64 kms west of Sydney .
Including eight protected areas in two blocks separated by a transportation and urban development corridor, is made up of seven outstanding national parks as well as the famous Jenolan Caves Karst Conservation Reserve. These are the Blue Mountains, Wollemi, Yengo, Nattai, Kanangra-Boyd, Gardens of Stone and Thirlmere Lakes National Parks.

Katoomba Scenic Railway	Katoomba Falls	Katoomba Skyway

The area does not contain mountains in the conventional sense but is described as a deeply incised sandstone plateau rising from less than 100 metres above sea level to 1,300 metres at the highest point. There are basalt outcrops on the higher ridges. This plateau is thought to have enabled the survival of a rich diversity of plant and animal life by providing a refuge from climatic changes during recent geological history.
More than 400 different kinds of animals live within the rugged gorges and tablelands of the Greater Blue Mountains Area. These include threatened or rare species of conservation significance, such as the spotted-tailed quoll, the koala, the yellow-bellied glider and the long-nosed potoroo as well as rare reptiles including the green & golden bell frog and the Blue Mountains water skink.
The Great Western Highway follows closely the road across the Blue Mountains laid out by convicts and soldiers under the supervision of William Cox, a former military paymaster turned landowner, in the winter of 1815. The road literally opened up the interior of New South Wales beyond the mountains, but gained in importance with the discovery of gold at Bathurst in 1851 which precipitated a series of goldrushes. Sydney people, however, did not discover the merits of the scenery and the climate until the late 1870s, when rich men from Sydney began to build themselves elaborate holiday homes in the hills to escape the discomforts of summer on the coastal plains.

Zig Zag Railway, Lithgow The Zig Zag Railway is a heritage railway reconstructed along a 19th century engineering masterpiece, a section of the original Western Railway Line where it made its descent into the town of Lithgow on the inland side of the Blue Mountains. A fully restored tourist steam train operates on the line, passing over and through a system of grand sandstone viaducts and tunnels that were built in the 1860s. The zig zag was replaced in 1910 by a 10 tunnel deviation. Every trip from Clarence Station winds its way through the remarkable Blue Mountains’ scenery, accompanied by the chuffing steam locomotive. It is a chance to appreciate the difficult terrain that confronted the builders and marvel at how they brought the railway down into the Lithgow Valley and on westward to the city of Bathurst.

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Canyoning The Blue Mountains' endless stretches of sandstone cliffs, dramatic waterfalls and hidden canyons is not only a landscape of stunning natural beauty, it also provides a fantastic environment for the thrilling adventure activities of abseiling, canyoning, rockclimbing, mountain biking and bushwalking. There's a lifetime's worth of adventuring right there in Sydney's backyard. The Blue Mountains Adventure Company operates a range of high adrenalin tours, including canyoning.