Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are indeed vast. For European and American tourists, they may choose to spend two days, three days or even longer hiking in the Blue Mountains. However, for most of us tourists who opt for a one-day tour, there are mainly two places to visit in the Blue Mountains. One is Scenic World, and the other is Echo Point. It's quite worry-free to travel by chartered car or self-driving. But if you choose public transportation, it will be a bit more troublesome. You need to take a train from Sydney's Central Station to Katoomba, and then transfer to the Blue Mountain Trolley Tours to take a sightseeing tour of the Blue Mountains.

At Scenic World, you mainly take three cable cars. It's advisable to buy a package ticket online in advance. When you arrive at the ticket office, the staff will give you a wristband, and then you can take the three types of cable cars unlimited times. The staff will also recommend the order in which you take the cable cars. Basically, you take the yellow Skyway back and forth, then take the red Railway down to the valley, and finally take the blue Cableway back to the ticket office. The Skyway's high-altitude cable car is said to be the world's first cable car with a glass floor, but in fact, only a section in the middle of the floor is made of glass. The carriage has two types of sides, glass and iron railings. If you want to take photos, standing on the side with the iron railings will prevent issues like glass reflection. The Skyway mainly takes you to the opposite mountain peak, where there is a hiking trail leading all the way to the most famous Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains. It seems to take one or two hours to walk to the Three Sisters. Since we didn't have enough time, we chose to turn back after reaching a viewpoint halfway. When taking the cable car, you can overlook the magnificent scenery of the Blue Mountains and see waterfalls at the same time.

Next, you take the red Railway train down to the valley of the Blue Mountains. In fact, this Railway train follows the route of the former mining carts, and the 64-degree steep slope gives it a bit of the feel of a roller coaster. After reaching the bottom of the valley, there are several hiking routes. The longer ones take a few hours, and the shorter ones take about 20 minutes. We chose the shorter route and walked to the cableway station to breathe in the fresh air of the Blue Mountains and cleanse our lungs. At this time, the weather got even better. There is a great viewpoint outside the café on the second floor of the ticket office. My friend thought the view from here was even better than that from the Skyway. Scenic World is the essence of the Blue Mountains. After visiting here, you have basically seen all the major sights of the Blue Mountains.

Echo Point is actually a square. It is the place closest to the Three Sisters and has the best viewing angle, but it is just a place for taking photos as a memento.