A visit to the Blue Mountains earns a tick on any bucket list but these bucket list activities will push the experience to the top!
Storytelling with the stars with Blue Mountains Stargazing, an outdoor hot bath under the stars at Kyah Hotel or a dark history tour with Blue Mountains Mystery Tours will make your visit stand out.
Riding the world’s steepest passenger train, the biggest cable car and highest skyway at Scenic World is a cool must-do. Whilst a conscious wander along the boardwalk into the rainforest goes beyond the rides, and a Buunyal cultural tour with an Indigenous guide will deepen your understanding and connection to Gundungurra Country.
You can’t dangle 270m above the valley floor from the Scenic Skyway like Chris Hemsworth in the Netflix series Limitless . . . but you can ride it across the valley and climb atop it at sunset.
You can also canyon at Empress Falls with Blue Mountains Adventure Company like Down to Earth star Zac Effron and stand where Royals Wills and Kate did at Echo Point Lookout.
From murals at Katoomba and Springwood to the peacock patterned wallpaper in the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse to the mash of colour, textures and retro fun at a design studio shop Mount Vic & Me, the unexpected is all around the Blue Mountains, a recognised 'city of the arts'.
There’s vintage shops and a polar bear at an art gallery in Katoomba and an unusual rock and concrete contour map of Australia water feature in Wilson Park at Lawson.
From the 'grand dame of Katoomba' – the Carrington Hotel, and the romantic tower wing of Hotel Mountain Heritage to playboy department store doyenne Mark Foy’s ‘Palace in the Wilderness’ (the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath), the Mountains has been renowned for its grand hotels for more than a century.
Then you can visit Norman Lindsay Gallery at Faulconbridge, former home of the Magic Pudding author, artist, sculptor and amateur boxer, and the former writing hide of Schindler’s List author Thomas Keneally (now Echoes Boutique Hotel & Restaurant).
Or you can stay in the footprint of pop star Sam Smith at Chalets at Blackheath, actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman at Katoomba’s Lilianfels Resort & Spa or the Dalai Lama at the Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains in Leura.
Like grand hotels and eucalyptus views, high tea is synonymous with the Blue Mountains.
You can nibble your way through a triple tiered treat rack at the Hydro Majestic Hotel’s Wintergarden restaurant, the Carrington Hotel’s Grand Dining Room or surrounded by the weird and wonderful at The Avalon.
But Leura’s Bygone Beautys really takes the cake with a silver service experience by a waiter in top hat and tails to the strains of Land of Hope & Glory. You might even meet Mr Teapot himself (aka Maurice Cooper OAM).
Whether you travel here by train, car or bus, you can admire the achievements of early unskilled European convict roadbuilders who carved the highway in just six months.
Lennox Bridge (1833) at Glenbrook is an engineering masterpiece and the oldest stone arch bridge on the Australian mainland.
Then there’s the Zig Zag Railway that takes in dramatic views of the Gardens of Stone National Park as the steam or diesel train ride rattles and choofs along clifflines and across 155-year-old arching sandstone viaducts.
And don’t forget to bag the front seat upstairs on the big red Blue Mountains Explorer Bus for an overview of Katoomba and Leura.
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