Blue Mountains Itinerary: How to Spend 1 – 4 Days in Sydney’s Nearest Mountain Range

If only I could re-do my Blue Mountains itinerary again and again…

Located just west of Sydney in New South Wales, this mountainous region is packed with hiking trails, waterfalls and laidback mountain towns.

I took the train from Sydney’s Central Station to Katoomba to spend four days hiking, sightseeing, canyoning and visiting waterfalls.

In short, I fell in love with the Blue Mountains and its misty waterfalls, icy freshwater swimming holes, bush walks and busy-but-not-that-busy mountain towns.

It quickly became my favourite destination on my month-long Sydney to Brisbane road trip.

In this blog post, I will talk about all the best things to do and the best places to visit in the Blue Mountains. I’ll also lay out my detailed four-day Blue Mountains itinerary.

Of course, if you’re only spending one or two days in the Blue Mountains, I’ll also discuss which activities I think are unmissable and, most importantly, why.

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The Blue Mountains are located in New South Wales in Australia. They are 100 kilometres west of Sydney, making them a popular stop on an east coast road trip.

From Sydney, you can expect an hour and a half’s drive or a two-hour train (from Sydney’s Central Station).

The mountain range stretches across a huge area, so it’s helpful to think of Katoomba as your main starting point for exploring the Blue Mountains.

Katoomba has good public transportation connections, including direct trains to Sydney.

The town is also home to the Echo Point viewpoint over the Three Sisters, one of the biggest attractions in the Blue Mountains.

Short History of the Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains sit on a sandstone plateau, which means that years ago, the area was completely covered by the sea.

The Gundungurra and Darug aboriginal groups have occupied the Blue Mountains for thousands of years. However, in the 1700s, European colonists arrived in the Sydney area.

Explorer Arthur Phillip named the area the Carmarthen and Lansdowne Hills, although the Blue Mountains became the colloquial name due to the blue haze surrounding the mountains.

Particles emitted by the region’s eucalyptus forests cause this blue tinge.

Are the Blue Mountains Worth Visiting?

If you like any of the following – hiking, mountain scenery, outdoor activities like canyoning, or waterfalls – the Blue Mountains are absolutely worth visiting.

Although there is a scenic cable car and funicular at Scenic World in Katoomba, the main attractions are the hiking trails and waterfalls.

When I travelled to the Blue Mountains, I fully anticipated that I would spend most of my time hiking, swimming and trying new outdoor activities. Luckily, this is what I thrive on.

If you consider yourself a city person, you should probably only plan to spend one or two days in the Blue Mountains.

This is enough time to visit the Three Sisters and explore the town of Katoomba, while maybe fitting in one short hike.

Keen hikers can easily spend a week or more in the Blue Mountains. At my hostel, I also met several rock climbers who had decided to spend several months in the area.

In short, the Blue Mountains are worth visiting for:

• Hiking
• Mountain scenery
• Waterfalls
• Mountain towns
• Cooler temperatures than Sydney
• Outdoor activities such as canyoning and rock climbing

How to Get to the Blue Mountains

The easiest way to get to the Blue Mountains is to drive. From Sydney, it is only an hour and a half’s drive to Katoomba.

If you don’t have your own vehicle, I suggest that you check car availability on Discover Cars several weeks in advance.

If you want to hire a van instead, Travellers Autobarn is preferable because they come fully equipped with cooking and sleeping facilities.

I was travelling on a budget, so I preferred to travel by public transport.

From Sydney Central, I took a direct two-hour train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.

From Katoomba, I used public buses and footpaths to get around the Blue Mountains.

If you only want to spend one day in the Blue Mountains, you may prefer to take a one-day Blue Mountains tour from Sydney.

Taking a tour is optional. If you only plan to visit the Three Sisters in Katoomba, I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s cheaper to get a return train ticket and walk to the viewpoint.

However, if you want to visit several locations around the Blue Mountains or try a guided walk, a tour is a nice option.

How to Get Around the Blue Mountains

Getting around the Blue Mountains is easy with a car or van. The roads are well-maintained and well-signposted.

You can also stay somewhere that is slightly more remote without worrying about bus schedules.

Exploring the Blue Mountains by public transport is trickier but doable. Ideally, you should use Katoomba as a base.

From Katoomba, I walked directly to the Three Sisters (the Echo Point lookout), the Giant Stairway and the Leura Falls bushwalk.

I also took the public bus to the following locations: the Grand Canyon Walking Track, Minnehaha Falls and Empress Falls (for a canyoning tour).

There are no E-hailing services like Uber in the Blue Mountains.

Where to Stay in the Blue Mountains

The best place to stay in the Blue Mountains is Katoomba. As well as having good public transport connections, it has a large supermarket, restaurants and coffee shops.

I based myself at Flying Fox Backpackers, a small and homely hostel with a firepit in the garden. I met handfuls of likeminded people who I joined for hikes and day trips.

For a more luxurious stay, the Carrington Hotel is the oldest hotel in Katoomba; it has been open since 1882.

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Blue Mountains Itinerary: The 10 Best Places to Visit in the Blue Mountains

Before I give you the chance to steal my four-day Blue Mountains itinerary, I want to quickly cover the best places to visit in the Blue Mountains and my experience visiting them.

1. The Three Sisters (including Echo Point)

The Three Sisters are the most famous attraction in the Blue Mountains.

Once you reach the Echo Point viewpoint, it’s easy to see why. The three tall sandstone peaks tower over the Jamison Valley’s eucalyptus forests.

From the viewpoint, you should see the famous blue-tinged haze caused by the eucalyptus trees.

There are many interesting facts about the Three Sisters. They formed around 200 million years ago. It’s suspected that the layered sediment rocks were disrupted by volcanic eruptions.

The best place to see the Three Sisters is the Echo Point viewpoint, directly accessible from Katoomba.

It has a large paved area with several different angles of the Three Sisters, as well as a shop and restaurant.

From Echo Point, I walked 10 minutes along the Three Sisters Walking Track to the Giant Stairway, where there is a second viewpoint.

2. The Giant Stairway and Federal Pass

The Giant Stairway, directly accessible from Echo Point, is a stone and steel staircase suspended down the side of Jamison Valley.

With 800 steps to its name, it clings to the edge of the mountain. I only descended part of the way down the stairway because I had plans to hike the Leura Cascades trail in Katoomba.

I reached a steel bridge (Honeymoon Bridge) across to a lone sandstone peak.

If you do choose to descend the whole 800 steps, you can either hike back up to Echo Point (using the same stairs) or divert onto the Federal Pass trail to hike to Katoomba Falls or Scenic World.

I suggest that you follow this Alltrails map for Echo Point to Katoomba Falls via the Giant Stairway.

It’s a four-kilometre hike with nearly 300 metres of elevation gain, so it should take most people around two hours to complete.

From Scenic World, you can continue to Katoomba Falls if you wish.

The Giant Stairway (and its adjacent trails) are good places to see lyrebirds, a large songbird found in Australia.

3. Katoomba Falls

Katoomba Falls is a dramatic 244-metre waterfall with a large, deep swimming hole. As one of the easiest waterfalls to visit from Katoomba, it can get quite busy with day-trippers from Sydney.

There are several hikes to Katoomba Falls on Alltrails, with the shortest taking only half an hour from Cliff Drive car park.

Federal Pass has some of the best viewpoints over the waterfall.

I didn’t visit Katoomba Falls because I heard it can get very crowded. However, objectively speaking, it’s a stunning two-tiered waterfall.

If you don’t mind sharing the space with quite a few other people, then you should have no problem.

4. Leura Cascades

As I mentioned, I decided to pursue the Katoomba to Leura Cascades hike instead of the Federal Pass and Katoomba Falls.

Winding past several lookouts over rocky cascades, the path is mostly surrounded by dense bush.

However, when the bush clears, it opens up incredible views over misty waterfalls and the eucalyptus forests of the Jamison Valley.

It took me just under three hours to complete the Leura Cascades hike. It wasn’t a particularly strenuous hike as an experienced hiker, so it was a nice activity for me after visiting the Echo Point viewpoint.

There are some natural pools along the way, although the signposts suggested that they are not suitable for swimming. I also met a local lady who mentioned she’d seen a few leeches along the trail, which discouraged me even more.

There were hardly any people along the Leura Falls trail, so I felt I made a good choice choosing it over Katoomba Falls.

5. Katoomba

When you have an hour or two spare on your Blue Mountains itinerary, be sure to explore the mountain town of Katoomba.

It has incredible Art Deco architecture, along with coffee shops and hiking shops.

Katoomba is known as kedumba by the Gundungurra and Darug aboriginal groups that have occupied the town for thousands of years.

This means ‘shiny, falling waters’, a reference to the many waterfalls surrounding the town.

I recommend that you start by strolling down Katoomba Street, which is lined with coffee shops and restaurants. The street has many second-hand bookshops and antique shops.

For a quick morning coffee before hiking, I really liked Pomegranate opposite the Katoomba Anglican Church.

The Paragon, open since the beginning of the 20th century, is another popular coffee shop that hosts classes like life drawing. It is a nice example of the town’s Art Deco architecture.

For a rainy-day activity, you might want to visit the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre on Parke Street to see local artwork.

Alternatively, wander around the Everglades House & Gardens, a large art deco building with tea rooms and landscaped gardens.

The gardens were designed by Paul Sorensen, a famous garden architect in Australia.

In nearby Leura, the Bygone Beautys Treasured Teapot Museum & Tearooms has one of the the world’s largest collection of teawares including 5,500 teapots from the past five centuries.

6. Minnehaha Falls

Minnehaha Falls was an unexpected item on my Blue Mountains itinerary.

I heard someone at my hostel talking about a huge waterfall surrounded by dense bush. They mentioned a deep swimming hole drenched in the sun every morning, with very few people…

That was enough for me to gather a small group of friends and take the 697 bus from Katoomba to Minni Ha Ha Road.

We followed the Minnehaha Falls Alltrails route, which took 20 minutes to reach the base of the falls.

Although it’s short, the trail was one of my favourites in the Blue Mountains. It has several boulders overlooking Minnehaha Falls.

These lookouts were a great place to watch the waterfall plummet down the rocky cliff.

Just as the person at my hostel suggested, there were very few people at the swimming hole.

The base of the falls were also in direct sunlight, making it a great place to sunbathe and listen to the delighted shrieks of those who were brave enough to enter the icy water.

I saw an Australian water dragon creeping across the rocks, so keep your eyes peeled for wildlife.

The sun disappeared around midday, so the best time to visit Minnehaha Falls is in the morning.

7. Grand Canyon Walking Track

The Grand Canyon Walking Track is a historic hiking trail in the Blue Mountains. It has been open since 1907.

The six-kilometre loop heads through a sandstone gorge with several small waterfalls.

It has a completely different vibe to the other trails I visited, as it’s mostly in the shade. It also has a lot of elevation gain all at once (a little under 300 metres), making it more physically demanding.

I passed several tour groups on the trail, so it’s clearly very popular despite the steep incline.

There is one viewpoint, Evans Lookout, over the valley. However, it was covered in cloud when I visited.

The hike is quite challenging to reach, as the trail starts from Evans Lookout Road just outside of Blackheath.

From outside the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba, I took the 698V bus to the Great Western Hwy opp Blackheath Public School bus stop in Blackheath.

I then crossed the road and took the 698 from the Blackheath Public School bus stop to Evans Lookout Rd at Seiberi Cl. From there, it’s a 25-minute walk to the trailhead.

In total, taking public transport takes an hour and a half each way.

8. Valley of the Waters and Empress Falls (Canyoning Adventure)

On my fourth day in the Blue Mountains, I decided to take a canyoning tour at Empress Falls in the gorgeous Valley of the Waters.

Empress Falls

The Valley of the Waters track is a popular trail that visits the Queen Victoria Lookout, Empress Lookout and Lyrebird Lookout.

As the name suggests, there are several waterfalls along the way including Empress Falls and Govetts Leap Falls.

The benefit of doing a canyoning tour was that I had the chance to explore inside a misty canyon. You can’t reach places like that on foot.

There are several natural slides and small jumps into swimming pools. The route concludes with a 30-metre abseil down Empress Falls.

My friend and I canyoning at Empress Falls

The Empress Falls Canyon tours are pegged as beginner-friendly. I have been canyoning and abseiling on a few separate occasions, and I agree up until the Empress Falls abseil.

Maybe it was because I visited after a few days of rain, but the abseil was incredibly slippery. Almost everyone in our group took a bit of a tumble, and I ended up bruising my leg quite badly.

If the area has just had some heavy rainfall, just be aware of how this might impact the difficulty of the abseil.

9. Wentworth Falls and Lincoln’s Rock

I didn’t have time to visit Lincoln’s Rock and Wentworth Falls, but these two locations are another excellent idea for your Blue Mountains trip itinerary.

The hike begins at Wentworth Falls, which has its very own railway stop. From Katoomba, you can take a direct train (taking 10 minutes).

From Jamisons Lookout, it is a two-kilometre walk to Wenworth Falls, passing the Wentworth Falls Lookout and Fletchers Lookout on the way.

After visiting Wentworth Falls, there are plenty of other trails to explore in the immediate area.

Your first option is to hike to the Princes Rock lookout overlooking the Jamison Valley. To do this, you can backtrack to Jamisons Lookout and start the Princes Rock Walking Track (an easy 20-minute stroll) afresh.

The more popular alternative is to continue hiking to Lincoln’s Rock, another more prominent ledge overlooking the valley.

To do this, just follow the Rocket Point Track directly from the falls; you can use the Lincolns Rock Alltrails map to make your life easier.

It’s also possible to drive right up to a car park at Lincoln’s Rock. As a result, the viewpoint can get very crowded with tourists.

Still, this dramatic ledge overlooks miles of sloping eucalptys forest, so it should be worth it (crowds or not).

10. Scenic World

Scenic World wouldn’t be my first recommendation when you visit the Blue Mountains, simply because why visit something manmade when there are so many mountains, forests and waterfalls to gawp at?

That being said, if you don’t like hiking or you’re visiting with someone who has mobility issues, it might prove worthwhile.

Open since 1945, Scenic World is directly accessible from Katoomba. The Top Station sits on a cliff overlooking the Jamison Valley.

From there, you can take the Scenic Cableway to the base of the valley.

Another way to get down is the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the steepest funicular railway in Australia. It was once used to ship coal and oil shale up and down the valley.

At the base of the valley, there is a scenic boardwalk through the rainforest.

Another activity is the Scenic Skyway, not to be confused with the Scenic Cableway. This is a higher cable car that you can catch to or from Echo Point to the Top Station, before trying the cableway or scenic railway.

The Scenic Skyway soars high above the trees, offering views of Katoomba Falls. The cars have a transparent liquid crystal floor.

Steal My Blue Mountains Itinerary for 1 – 4 Days

Now that you know many of the best things to do in the Blue Mountains, let’s jump into my itinerary and exactly how I would spend one day in Sydney if I was short on time.

Can I Do a Blue Mountains Day Trip from Sydney?

It’s very easy to take a day trip to the Blue Mountains from Sydney.

All you need to do is take the direct Katoomba via Parramatta train from Sydney’s Central Station to Katoomba station.

The train takes two hours to reach Katoomba. From there, you can easily visit the Three Sisters on foot or by bus.

You may need to take public transport to reach other attractions or hiking trails in the Blue Mountains.

Alternatively, you can take a day tour from Sydney. Tours from Sydney usually include transport by bus. They give you the chance to visit more places in the national park without having to worry about the logistics of public transport.

Blue Mountains Itinerary: Day 1 (the Three Sisters and Leura Cascades)

If I only had one day to spend in the Blue Mountains, I would do this one-day Blue Mountains itinerary.

This is how I spent my first day in the Blue Mountains, ticking off the Three Sisters, the Giant Stairway and one hike from Katoomba.

• Start the day with a coffee on Katoomba Street, lined with Art Deco buildings. I visited Pomegranate, a small, friendly coffee shop.
• Take a 30-minute walk or the bus (697, 685 or 686) to the Echo Point viewpoint over the Three Sisters.
• Stroll to the Giant Stairway for more views.
• From here, you have a few options for a hike:
  • I walked to the beginning of the Katoomba to Leura Cascades hike for a three-hour bushwalk with waterfall views.
  • Alternatively, you can descend the Giant Stairway and take the Federal Pass to Scenic World and Katoomba Falls.
• End the day with dinner in Katoomba or take the train back to Sydney.

Day 2: Grand Canyon Walking Track

On Day 2, I decided to do a more challenging hike and one of the Blue Mountains’ most historic trails.

• From the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba, take the 698V and 698 buses to Evans Lookout Rd at Seiberi Cl. Then, walk 25 minutes to the trailhead.
• Spend several hours hiking the Grand Canyon Walking Track, ending the hike at Evans Lookout.
• If you have time, you could visit the nearby Bridal Veil Falls (45 minutes’ walk from the trailhead).

Day 3: Minnehaha Falls

After two days of hiking, you might be craving a more relaxed day. Minnehaha Falls is a great choice for that, with its swimming hole and short walk.

Just remember to visit in the morning to maximise your sunlight hours. The sun disappears behind the cliff around midday.

• Take the 697 bus from Katoomba to Minni Ha Ha Road.
• Hike 20 minutes to Minnehaha Falls, stopping to admire the views of the waterfall en route.
• Spend the morning relaxing.
• Take the bus back to Katoomba, where you can explore the town or catch up on activities you missed such as the Scenic World, Katoomba Falls or the Leura Cascades.

Day 4: Valley of the Waters and Wentworth Falls

On my fourth day in the Blue Mountains, I rounded up my trip with some adrenaline-inducing activities.

Namely, canyoning in the Valley of Waters. This included a 30-metre abseil down Empress Falls.

If you’re not keen to go canyoning, then I still highly recommend you visit the Valley of the Waters to do the Valley of the Waters Walking Track.

It’s one of the most famous walking trails in the Blue Mountains.

• Take the 685 bus from outside the Carrington Hotel to Great Western Hwy opp Wentworth Falls.
• Start your canyoning tour at Empress Falls or hike the Valley of the Waters trail.
• Once you’ve finished up, you’ll find that you’re only a 25-minute walk along the Shortcut Track to Jamison Lookout.
• This is where the hike to Wentworth Falls and Lincoln’s Rock begins.
• There aren’t any easy bus routes back to Katoomba from Lincoln’s Rock, so it’s best to reserve a taxi home in advance or hike back to the trailhead to catch the 690K back to Katoomba.

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I hope you found my Blue Mountains itinerary useful! Have a great trip. If you’re planning a longer trip on Australia’s east coast, you may find some of my other content useful…

• Sydney to Brisbane road trip – start here!
• Cairns to Brisbane road trip – another famous east coast route.
• Interesting facts about the Three Sisters
• Backpacking Whitsundays budget guide
• How to get to Fraser Island (K’Gari)
• Cairns travel itinerary