This next review is on my time on The Blue Mountains National Park, located in Sydney Australia. A few friends and I had decided to hire a van and take a tour of the national park, as we had been recommended it by several people we had met along the way. I am usually a fan of national parks; it gives you a chance to take in the scenic view, it gives you a chance to relax and unwind if you have had a busy week, and you even get to see some wildlife. It's a great experience, which allows you to camp overnight, whilst also have a magnificent driving experience.

History & Park Info:

The park covers 267,954 hectares, which included several mountains and rivers along the trek. The highest point of the park is Mount Werong (1,215 m), and there are some breathtaking views from the top. The area became a national park in 1932, and ever since has become a tourist hotspot for people who like walking and hiking.

How to Get There:

There are several ways to get to the national park; you can either take a car, or a van through the major highways, which leads you into the park entrance. Public transport is also available from many stations across Sydney, all taking you towards the park.

This park is near...
Katoomba (2 km, 5 minutes)
Penrith (9 km, 15 minutes)
Lithgow (20 km, 15 minutes)
Sydney (50 km, 90 minutes)

Fees and Opening Hours:

The park is open from 8:30 am in the morning and closes at 7:00pm daily, the fee to enter the park if you have a car or a van is $7 per day and is operated by a coin machine, so it might be useful to have some change on you at the time.


The Park and Tours Available:

The park has several tours that are available for visitors to take part in and this is truly a great experience as it allows you to get an in depth view of the natural beauty of the park and its surrounding areas. The guides also give you some information about the wildlife you might see there, what plants and trees there area, and some general information about the park, which you may not have thought about. The tours are also a great way to meet like minded people, who you can enjoy the day with.

The main tour has several key features which include a guided bush walk, a night time spotlighting tour which gives you a detailed tour of the park once it's dark, allowing you to really get a feel for what the park is like during the night time.

There are several other detailed tours, which charge you for the experience, these include a detailed tour of the underground caves present within the national park, The Scenic Railway tour which takes you around the old train tracks within the park, also giving you some insightful historical background about the area. You can also opt to watch a documentary in one of the visitor centres, which gives you a detailed background of the park, which the first settlers were on the grounds and how the parks transformed within the last 250 years.

If you do some research before you go its worthwhile booking a tour with Blue Mountains Tourism, which again offers a wide variety of packages for things to see and do within the park. They also offer some great accommodation if you choose to stay the night in the park.
The website listed below gives you some great info on where you can find a place to stay, thus making you journey more pleasant and memorable.

Great Blue Mountains Drive is a self service driving opportunity which allows travellers and hikers a chance to drive around within the park, I often found this to be more of a family orientated and thus only take it if you're willing to spend hours and hours of driving.

My Experience:

I had a brilliant time when I went to park; there was so much to simply see that we had to cover the park over a period of three days. The tour operators picked us up from or hotel and took as to the entrance of the park. One of the first things that hit us was Jamieson Valley, which was a vantage point and overlooked a magnificent view of the horizon, the sun was glaring down on us, and all we could see was the rich green trees, which looked very moist and rich. You also get to see some rock formation, which really emulates the beauty of the park and its surrounding area.

We carried on with the tour and we came to some very key points such as the nearby rivers which are located towards the bottom, it's a long walk down, and it's a great feeling when you finally get to the bottom and see the clear water, which on a sunny day allows you to see you reflection against it.

The next point of stop was Three Sisters rock formation at Katoomba. It's one of the most iconic parts of the tour and consists of three rock formations with and earthy texture to them, overlooking the surrounding park, which has mass amounts of trees. It was at this point that we got ourselves comfortable and had some lunch, which we had bought with us. It's important to note that anything you bring with you must be taken back, they done accept littering and it would be a shame to see litter so be considerate.

I could go on about the tour for hours, but I don't want to make this review to extensive, however if your going to visit the park, its always worth doing some background information on what you want to see etc.

Happy Travels.