I am travelling to Sydney and Perth next March, and was hoping to do a side trip to the Blue Mountains. I am travelling alone (female), and love hiking/outdoors.

I'll be staying in Sydney for 6 days in the beginning of my trip, and 3 days at the end (Perth/WA in the middle).

I was thinking of staying overnight at the YHA Blue Mountains, but would probably like to go hiking with some sort of group, mostly so I'm not alone. I could do a tour, but don't want to be stuck with 40 people who haven't gone hiking in 10 years. Any recommendations?

Should I just go for the Oz Trek day tour or book a guided tour when I'm there and take the train on my own?

While I think an overnight stay is warranted, this being a very nice area, I have no info on how to join a hiking group. But I'd like to encourage you to check out the fabulous www.jenolancaves.org.au. They are well over an hour's drive from Katoomba, so it takes a good half-day or more, and you'll get your exercise while down there - the many caves have different levels of walking difficulty and taking differing lengths of time to walk - all guided, not on your own. Highly recommended!

It's a great idea to stay up there overnight Celine and there's a bus that goes over to the Jenolan Caves so you could do that either day if you wanted to and still have time on getting back to look around the Katoomba area sights.

On the other day, I'd reckon the Blue Mountains Walkabout sounds as if it may suit you for some bushwalking - http://www.tourstogo.com.au/tour.611

There are also bushwalking clubs that do walks out there and maybe a chance for linking up if you can schedule for a weekend and any are doing single day outings - one here: http://www.hermes.net.au/bushwalking/Program.pdf

whole heap more clubs on this list - http://www.dsr.nsw.gov.au/active/whatson_walk.asp

I'd also expect that in staying at Katoomba YHA you'll come across some people with like intent and that the YHA will have maps of many of the trails in the area - this site I found in just browsing has a lot of stuff but also some info on some trails - http://www.katoomba-nsw.com/bushwalking.html

And unless you're considering going off bushbashing in an orienteering sense, you ought to be safe enough just going off by yourself if need be, probably even find people on the trails to link up with.

While on the website of the Jenolan caves, look at their other offerings - like info about bushwalking, and more Blue Mountain links. You might even consider staying there rather than in Katoomba, and having your walking/hiking fun while based there.

It's definately worth an overnight in the mountains, there are lots of fabulous walks. One of my favourites is the Blue Gum Forest walk which is about 5-6 hours. If you take the train here are the distances from different stations to the National Park.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Na....aspx?id=N0004

At Blackheath, the National Parks and Wildlife service also run nightime walks/tours to see marsupials, that's usually on the weekends.

Hi Celine,

The Katoomba YHA is a really fine place to stay and you may well meet up with other people, though if you're only staying one night you're not giving yourself much time to do that.

Re organised tours - never done one, but from what I do know, most 1 dayers ex-sydney wont include much serious walking, never mind hiking.

Now here's where definitions come in. What did you have in mind, exactly? How many hours? How many kms? There is, for example a great trail you can take from Katoomba - you can walk or use the bus to get to Echo Point; head to the Giant's Staircase (I think that's what it's called) - go all the way down to the Valley, walk an hour or more, and up back the escarpment by steps, or by one of the mechanised options. This would be about a four hour trek. (Just an outline). Other people would be doing it, but not so many as to be seeing them round every corner. But not exactly wilderess either.

If you want wilderness, you must go with a group.

Have you checked out the NPWS website?

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Na....aspx?id=N0004

Cheers.

Check out Wildframe Tours (www.wildframe.com) if you do the day tour option. I was originally booked to go with Oz Trek, but they didn't have enough for the day, so I was put with Wildframe, and it was a treat! They go on the more off-the-beaten-path places, and it's more nature-oriented (a naturalist guide leads it). They offer 2 tours, one drives between places with short treks at each stop, and there's also a longer 3-hour trek. I recommend them highly (I, however, did not do the 3-hour trek).

Thanks for the advice! I've decided to stay overnight, and will look at everyone's links for options.

I would be looking for hikes that are fairly strenous, 4-5 hours probably and with different types of scenery.