chaching8 Posted August 13, 2018 #1 Share Posted August 13, 2018 I need some information on a day trip from Sydney to the blue mountains. I see several tour companies offer day trips. I also noticed that a train is available from Sydney to the blue mountains and a hop on hop off bus service is available. Does anyone have experience with any of these. Trying to decide if I should take the train or book a private tour. Thanks Sent from my iPad using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUT2407 Posted August 13, 2018 #2 Share Posted August 13, 2018 I need some information on a day trip from Sydney to the blue mountains. I see several tour companies offer day trips. I also noticed that a train is available from Sydney to the blue mountains and a hop on hop off bus service is available. Does anyone have experience with any of these. Trying to decide if I should take the train or book a private tour. Thanks Sent from my iPad using Forums Most tours stop at a wdlife park too I think. Train and hop on hop off is easy to do and saves a bit of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkata Posted August 13, 2018 #3 Share Posted August 13, 2018 I. Trying to decide if I should take the train or book a private tour. Thanks If you take a day bus tour, you will probably go to the wildlife park also. So if you aren't interested in the wildlife park, save yourself the $89 and DIY by train. It's easy and cheaper than a tour. You just need to get yourself to the Central Train station and use your Opal card to tag in and get you into the track area. Find the platform where the Blue Mountain Train line runs to Katoomba and board that train. They are on the West side of the station, (platforms 1-9) opposite from where the train from CQ stops. Trains to Katoomba run on a regular schedule as it's a commuter line. Try to get an express, rather than a local train, if you don't want to stop at every station. The train is a double decker, so I recommend going upstairs and sitting on the left side for the views. When the train gets to Katoomba, use your opal card to tag out. (At Katoomba, there is no gate, so you have to remember to find the tag out machine at the exit on the platform and tag out.) Total cost was around $6 one way (non-commute times) Walk across the street (about 100 feet) to where the 686 Express bus stop is in front of the Carrington Hotel. Use your opal card to tag in and tag out on the bus. That bus takes you to Echo Point for the views ( worth at most about an hour) and you can walk along the Prince Henry Cliff walk (45 minutes) to the Scenic World skyway and take that over to Scenic world, if you are interested in doing that. You pay on the other side, ($15 if you just ride the skyway. Otherwise $33 to do all the rides, including the steep railway and cableway back up. From Scenic world, you catch the 686X bus in front of the entrance back to the train station. This can all be done in one day if you leave early from Sydney. We found scenic world to be packed full of tourists and buses, but we are glad we did it. We highly recommend taking the train and doing it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debshomespun Posted August 14, 2018 #4 Share Posted August 14, 2018 We went to the Blue Mountains 3 years ago on our own taking the train. It was very easy to do, follow the instructions from the above poster. Once we got off the train we boarded the bus to take us around. We hiked down almost to the bottom and we brought the train back up. It was well worth the day and we had a wonderful time. I would suggest to definitely spend a day in the Blue Mountains. Beautiful scenery. Sent from my XT1565 using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Aurora Posted August 14, 2018 #5 Share Posted August 14, 2018 We used Blue Diamond Tours several years ago. We were picked up at our hotel, stopped at Featherdale, and then proceeded out to the Blue Mountains. The vehicle was a fourteen passenger Mercedes van with only eight of us. It was a long day as we were picked up at 7 AM and returned to the hotel about 7 PM, but very enjoyable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorset Cruiser Posted August 18, 2018 #6 Share Posted August 18, 2018 If you take a day bus tour, you will probably go to the wildlife park also. So if you aren't interested in the wildlife park, save yourself the $89 and DIY by train. It's easy and cheaper than a tour. You just need to get yourself to the Central Train station and use your Opal card to tag in and get you into the track area. Find the platform where the Blue Mountain Train line runs to Katoomba and board that train. They are on the West side of the station, (platforms 1-9) opposite from where the train from CQ stops. Trains to Katoomba run on a regular schedule as it's a commuter line. Try to get an express, rather than a local train, if you don't want to stop at every station. The train is a double decker, so I recommend going upstairs and sitting on the left side for the views. When the train gets to Katoomba, use your opal card to tag out. (At Katoomba, there is no gate, so you have to remember to find the tag out machine at the exit on the platform and tag out.) Total cost was around $6 one way (non-commute times) Walk across the street (about 100 feet) to where the 686 Express bus stop is in front of the Carrington Hotel. Use your opal card to tag in and tag out on the bus. That bus takes you to Echo Point for the views ( worth at most about an hour) and you can walk along the Prince Henry Cliff walk (45 minutes) to the Scenic World skyway and take that over to Scenic world, if you are interested in doing that. You pay on the other side, ($15 if you just ride the skyway. Otherwise $33 to do all the rides, including the steep railway and cableway back up. From Scenic world, you catch the 686X bus in front of the entrance back to the train station. This can all be done in one day if you leave early from Sydney. We found scenic world to be packed full of tourists and buses, but we are glad we did it. We highly recommend taking the train and doing it yourself. We did the train and the HOHO bus. Would have used the express bus if I had known about it. Train was great - inexpensive and clean, good trip. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeRick Posted August 19, 2018 #7 Share Posted August 19, 2018 We used Blue Diamond Tours several years ago. We were picked up at our hotel, stopped at Featherdale, and then proceeded out to the Blue Mountains. The vehicle was a fourteen passenger Mercedes van with only eight of us. It was a long day as we were picked up at 7 AM and returned to the hotel about 7 PM, but very enjoyable. We also did Blue Diamond on our trip in March this year. I agree that they were excellent and the trip was very enjoyable. But we had some rain and fog so we did not experience everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise kitty Posted August 19, 2018 #8 Share Posted August 19, 2018 We did the blue mountains on our own, wonderful day, I have detailed instructions & photos in my review, I don't know how to link a particular post, but here's a link to the thread, it's post #119 so you don't have to look at all the other stuff. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2579525&page=3 Hope this helps :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Sunflower & The Scientist Posted August 25, 2018 #9 Share Posted August 25, 2018 We are looking at a Viking Orion excursion to the Blue Mountains. From looking at what I can see online, the Blue Mountains looks amazing. Has anyone taken the Orion excursion there...it's a new ship going there for the first time this season, so there's no information out there on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conaka1950 Posted August 27, 2018 #10 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Thank you dkata. This information has been most helpful. We won't have all day but still may get to see the area and skyway. We disembark on March 5 and will drop bags off at hotel them proceed to train station. Conaka 1950 If you take a day bus tour, you will probably go to the wildlife park also. So if you aren't interested in the wildlife park, save yourself the $89 and DIY by train. It's easy and cheaper than a tour. You just need to get yourself to the Central Train station and use your Opal card to tag in and get you into the track area. Find the platform where the Blue Mountain Train line runs to Katoomba and board that train. They are on the West side of the station, (platforms 1-9) opposite from where the train from CQ stops. Trains to Katoomba run on a regular schedule as it's a commuter line. Try to get an express, rather than a local train, if you don't want to stop at every station. The train is a double decker, so I recommend going upstairs and sitting on the left side for the views. When the train gets to Katoomba, use your opal card to tag out. (At Katoomba, there is no gate, so you have to remember to find the tag out machine at the exit on the platform and tag out.) Total cost was around $6 one way (non-commute times) Walk across the street (about 100 feet) to where the 686 Express bus stop is in front of the Carrington Hotel. Use your opal card to tag in and tag out on the bus. That bus takes you to Echo Point for the views ( worth at most about an hour) and you can walk along the Prince Henry Cliff walk (45 minutes) to the Scenic World skyway and take that over to Scenic world, if you are interested in doing that. You pay on the other side, ($15 if you just ride the skyway. Otherwise $33 to do all the rides, including the steep railway and cableway back up. From Scenic world, you catch the 686X bus in front of the entrance back to the train station. This can all be done in one day if you leave early from Sydney. We found scenic world to be packed full of tourists and buses, but we are glad we did it. We highly recommend taking the train and doing it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markanddonna Posted August 28, 2018 #11 Share Posted August 28, 2018 We went to the Blue Mountains with a private tour. One of their pick up spots was right by our hotel in Potts Point. There's lots of advice on this link and also a review of Sydney if you look around. http://donnagawell.com/europe/australia/sydney/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Cruizers Posted September 7, 2018 #12 Share Posted September 7, 2018 We did a tour during our stay in Sydney Post Cruise and did all the rides. This Tour included the Featherdale Wild Life Park, and boat ride back into Darling Harbour. Had a great day. I believe I booked it through Viator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conaka1950 Posted September 8, 2018 #13 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Thank you, Conaka1950 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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