A day trip to the beautiful Blue Mountains in New South Wales

Chelsea and I just got back from a dream vacation in Australia and Fiji. I am excited to relive our trip by blogging about it over the next couple weeks.

I’m starting off with a special post dedicated to our favorite day in Sydney – a day trip to the Blue Mountains.

This day trip was offered through Gray Line tours, a company I’ve used several times over the years (read a little bit about my London tour here), and this one was hands down my favorite!!

Being a type A planner, I love when things stay on schedule, and this tour did exactly that! We had a great tour guide, we saw amazing sites, and it was a packed day without feeling rushed at all.

The morning started with a charter bus that picked us up from our hotel and took us to a meeting point to board the larger bus. We opted to upgrade to reserved seats, which guaranteed us a spot at the front of the bus. I was so so glad we did this because I loved the vantage point out the front of the bus window as we drove through the city and countryside.

Our first stop was a charming little town, Leura, to explore at our leisure. We had a little less than an hour to walk the main street popping in and out of shops. Much to our delight, we found a bakery named The Chelsea, so naturally we had to stop in for a treat. In addition to a few other cute shops, we had time to explore the grocery store. This was a super interesting stop because we could price compare the groceries versus what we pay back home, and see what unique items were for sale. There was a lot of yummy produce and, of course, a shelf fully stocked with vegemite.

After about an hour on the bus, we found ourselves at Scenic World. We had two hours at this stop to ride the skyway, cableway, and railway, and hike through Blue Mountain National Park. It was breathtaking and we loved all the different transport options to explore the area. The railway is the steepest in the world, so it was an exciting trip down the mountain!

One of our favorite things at Scenic World was the hike through the forest where they had taken the opportunity to engage artists to embrace the natural landscape to create art. It was so cool and we loved seeing all the artwork. My favorites were the wave of fluorescent lightbulbs and the AstroTurf puzzle pieces.

After a quick lunch at the visitors center, we boarded the bus to head to our next stop – The Three Sisters. This is a rock formation with an interesting legend – according to Aboriginal lore, these sisters were turned to stone to protect them from harm during war.

With an hour at this stop, we had the chance to hike down to Honeymoon Bridge, which was obviously a must do! It was an incredibly steep hike, and totally worth the views.

After our hike, we bussed to our next, and my most favorite, stop – Featherdale Wildlife Park. I had been looking forward to this stop for months, and it was everything I hoped it’d be. We got to snuggle a koala, feed kangaroos, see a dingo, crocodile, and various birds. We fit all of this fun into an hour and I loved every single second.

From there, our bus took us to our final stop, a ferry landing to board a cruiser back into Sydney. I loved that the trip ended with this relaxing way to get back into downtown, complete with a glass of local champagne. We were able to avoid traffic, and see the city from a unique vantage point at dusk.

We docked shortly after 6:00, making the full day just over ten hours. It was such a wonderful day and one I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Sydney. It was a great way to get out and see the sights without the stress of driving yourself, and I loved the variety of all of our stops.

Once we returned to our hotel, a short walk from the harbour, we opted for room service for dinner which was the perfect way to end a long and busy day.