Blue Mountains Weekend Getaway

Some of my family members came over to Sydney to visit us recently and we bought them to Blue Mountains on a short weekend trip.

Day 1 
+ Lunch at Avalon Restaurant 
   18 Katoomba Street Katoomba NSW 2780

We set off at from Sydney on a 2 hour drive to Katoomba and arrived at 11+ am. We had an early lunch at Avalon Restaurant, which was recommended by online reviewers. The price is not cheap but we share a main among 2 persons and the western food was pretty good. 

+ Scenic World 
   1 Violet St Katoomba NSW 2780 Australia‎, 9am- 5pm
   http://www.scenicworld.com.au/

Free covered parking is available at the attraction. It was very crowded but the queue for tickets did not take very long. We went for all three rides; Railway, Cableway and Skyway. 

The Scenic Railway which lasted only less than a minute. We went for the ride going down (you can take the same ride back up) which was extremely steep and I felt like I was falling off any moment so please grab on to the hand rails!

Next, we went for the Scenic Cableway after going for some short trails which has well maintained walkways. I personally don't find any thrill in the ride but was happy to look at the breathtaking scenery. We waited quite awhile for this as the queue was very long. 

Finally, the Scenic Skyway which offers stunning view of the Jamison Valley. Again, the queue was very long and it was stuffy with no air conditioning. As we were the last ones to board, the hot spots had already been taken up by other tourists but, there are still available space in the Skyway.
The ride from Top station across was not exciting as it was an up slope for the Skyway. I was excited to take the Skyway back to Top station as it was a steep descent but my family wanted to walk back to the Top station. 

We took around 3 hours to explore the place at a leisurely pace and went for some walks; not the long trails though. I don't view this as a must-see attraction if you have many places to visit in Sydney. It's overrated in my opinion but is a good place to explore if you are with elderly and kids.  

There were also tour buses with many Chinese and Korean tourists (I'm making a frank observation), so there's no other way around this and you just have to try to avoid them.

+ One night stay at Sky Rider Motor Inn and dinner at Leura

We checked into the motor inn at Katoomba and headed off to Leura for dinner. As the shops closed at 5pm, we did not manage to explore much of the lovely shops at Leura. I would love to go back there again! 

Our dinner was at Thai Square Leura after checking out majority of the restaurants/ cafe (half of which are closed) and the rest were overpriced tourist prices. My favourite was the tom yam soup and pricing was very reasonable. 

+ Three Sisters at Echo Point Lookout 
    23-31 Echo Point Rd Katoomba NSW 2780

As it was summer, the sun sets later and I recommend to visit Echo Point lookout after 5pm. You get free and available parking there. Parking is expensive before 5pm. The tourist crowds are mostly gone for the day. 

+ Everglades Gardens at 37 Everglades Avenue Leura NSW 
   10am-5pm, Entry: 10 AUD per adult, 4 AUD per child

+ NSW Toy and Railway Museum & Leuralla Gardens at 36 Olympian Parade, Leura NSW 
  10am to 5pm

We did not have time to explore the two areas above and probably would go again, next time?

DAY 2
+ Jenolan Caves
   4655 Jenolan Caves Rd Jenolan NSW 2790, 9AM-5.30PM
   32-38 AUD per adult
   http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/the-caves/tour-prices/

We had our breakfast at Sky Rider Motor Inn which was good and reasonably priced. We set off for Jenolan Caves which was around 1 hour 15 mins away. Please remember to top up your car fuel at petrol stations at Blackheath, Mount Victoria along the way. 

Check out the tour timings on the website to plan your visit. Based on my research, the most popular tours are the Lucas Cave, Orient Cave and Chifley Cave.

The later part of the drive is a series of long winding and sharp bend roads to reach Jenolan Caves so it will be good to have someone relatively experienced and confident to drive the car. 

We decided on the Lucas Cave which was rated as 'harder' fitness level. All tours are accompanied by a discovery ranger guide. The tour took 1.5 hours and there was plenty of time to explore the caves as there were always be certain people in the group stopping along the way to take lots of photos. My mum was slightly tired at some parts where there were lots of stairs but I would say it was pretty manageable. However, if you are not well versed in English, it would be an issue as the tour is conducted in English with an Australian accent so Mr Taro and I were acting as translator for my mum (of which Mr Taro also had to translate for me sometimes haha).

Free open parking was provided at the Jenolan Caves. I found a spider weaving its web on our car after our cave tour though.... 

+ Oberon/ Tarana

There was only one cafe at Jenolan Caves so we decided to drive further up to Oberon for lunch. My plan was to check out The Hungry Hare at Oberon but for some weird reason, we were unable to find it on our GPS, Googlemap and after walking around in circles at Oberon. We settled on some random cafe at Oberon for lunch in the end.

We came across many cows, sheep and horses along the way which we city folks were so excited! 

+ Hartley Historic Site to Blackheath Motor Inn 

It was drizzling for the whole afternoon and when we reached Hartley Historic Site, it seemed to be deserted. We were too tired to explore and decided to check into Blackheath Motor Inn for our second night stay. 

Thankfully, the rain subsided and we headed off for dinner at Piedmont Inn Pizza Restaurant, a 5 minute drive away in Blackheath town. The pasta and pizza were really delicious, so do give it a try if you happen to pass by there. 

DAY 3
+ Govetts Leap Lookout
   end of Govetts Leap Road

It was the end of our weekend trip on Blue Mountains. After checking out of the motor inn, we drove to the nearby Govetts Leap Lookout. The view was amazing and there were a few walking trails (short and long duration). 

+ Hargraves Lookout 
   Shipley Rd Megalong NSW 2785

This is one of my favourite lookout in Sydney so far. I came across this lookout while googling for the Blue Mountain stay and it's not stated in TripAdvisor. We were there for around 30 minutes and there was no a single soul. 

The roads into Hargraves Lookout is gravel sand so it's a pretty tough car ride but the scenery makes up for it. Absolutely beautiful and peaceful. It's a different kind of scenery with panoramic views of rural Megalong Valley.

Beware there were plenty of flying insects and ants though! 

This marks the end of our short weekend getaway. I would love to go for other cave tours in Jenolan Caves in future and explore other parts of Blue Mountain...