Katoomba: the Blue Mountains Tour Base

Every coach that leaves Sydney is heading for the same town. Katoomba sits at 1,017 metres on the Great Western Highway, with Echo Point at one end and Scenic World at the other. It is the one place in the range you can reach, sleep in and get around without a car. If you are coming for the day instead, the day tours to Blue Mountains from Sydney all end up here.

Where Katoomba sits, and why every tour stops here

About a hundred kilometres west of Sydney, which the National Parks and Wildlife Service puts at within two hours' drive. The town sits directly above the north wall of the Jamison Valley. The Bureau of Meteorology's station here reads 1,017 metres, and that one number is behind almost everything else: the temperature, the weather, the view and the reason the escarpment is where it is.

The town is strung along one street between the highway and the cliff, so the walk from the railway station to the lookout is about fifteen minutes and downhill.

Echo Point and the Three Sisters walk

The lookout is at the bottom of Katoomba Street and it is free. The Three Sisters walk starts there by the visitor information centre archway. It is 0.8km return, graded easy, twenty-five to forty-five minutes, past Oreades and Lady Game lookouts. The National Parks and Wildlife Service describes it as accessible with assistance as far as Oreades.

Going further means the Giant Stairway, built with picks, shovels, crowbars and dynamite, down to Honeymoon Bridge. That part is steep, and on summer weekends and holidays there is often a queue to start down it.

Scenic World, Katoomba Falls and the Furber Steps

Scenic World sits on the clifftop at the western end of town. The Unlimited Discovery Pass covers the Railway at its 52-degree incline, the Skyway across the gorge, the Cableway and the Walkway on the valley floor. It runs 10am to 4pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm at weekends, and costs from $64 an adult with under-3s free. It is the one thing in Katoomba with a gate and a price.

Katoomba Falls sits between there and Echo Point, with Katoomba Cascades above it, and the Furber Steps run down beside them to the valley floor. That is a genuine descent rather than a lookout. The usual way to do it is down the steps and back up on the railway, and most guided days give the cascades twenty minutes and leave the steps alone.

Getting around without a car

Better than most people expect. Sydney Trains runs Intercity services on the Blue Mountains Line at least hourly and Transport for NSW puts the journey at about two hours, calling at Parramatta, Westmead, Penrith and Springwood. From Katoomba station, public buses run to Echo Point, and the hop-on hop-off Blue Mountains Explorer Bus loops the attractions between Scenic World and Leura.

That combination is what makes an overnight stay work without hiring anything.

The town itself

Katoomba Street runs from the station down towards the cliff, and the fabric of it is Art Deco and interwar. The Carrington Hotel at the top of the street has stood since the 1880s and is a landmark in its own right. There are cafes, second-hand bookshops and a street-art walk. It is a working town with a tourist industry attached, rather than a resort.

Tours that start in Katoomba, not Sydney

This is the part a day-tripper cannot use and an overnight visitor should. Three departures begin up here rather than down in the city. One is a three-hour run on fire trails in an open ex-army Land Rover from Echo Point Road. One is an eight-hour guided day with pickup from your own accommodation and a cap of four travellers. The third is a ninety-minute stargazing session at Wentworth Falls, ten minutes down the highway.

None is reachable on a day trip from Sydney, because the day trip is already using the hours they need. That is the strongest argument for a night up here, and the accommodation page sets it out in full.