Ilove2travel

Hello!!!
We have 5 adults and a child and are spending a week in Sydney.

We would like to see the highlights of the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves in one day. Is this possible?

I'm thinking we can rent a van from Sydney and drive ourselves.

We are going in early July and would like to see the highlights only as we appreciate natural beauty but are not really interested in hiking or bird watching.

Also, we plan to do Featherdale on a separate day as a day trip from Sydney as well.

I am trying to avoid overnighting in the Blue Mountains so we don't have to pack, drive around with all our things and move hotels.

I don't mind getting an early start out of Sydney to get everything in.

I've made some enquiries with private tour companies and they say it can't be done but I'm not sure if they just want to have us take a 2 day tour instead of one, or perhaps they do not want to put in a really long day.

Help?

Bokhara2

It depends on the time of year you're contemplating this trip, but I don't think you'd do either justice.

For starters, it's a 370km round trip, with an estimated driving time just under 6 hours - assuming you get a good run each way.

Also assuming you want to have time to see some of the Blue Mountains and tour at least one of the caves; have some lunch etc., you'd be skimming the surface at best, IMHO.

Right now, (21/5/11), sunrise is 7am & sunset 5pm in those areas, so you would need to finish sightseeing effectively by 4- 4:30pm at the latest. Different in high summer, of course, but even then I think you'd be just ticking boxes at best.

di2315

If you take a look at www.jenolancaves.org.au you can get some idea of what's there. Go to the Caves tab, then you can click on any of the tour titles to find out details including how long the tour will take. They do run tours up until 5:30pm, so if you are able to make a really early start from Sydney you could squash both areas in.

In the Blue Mountains, Katoomba has the 3 sisters lookout where you can get a good idea of the local topography. The website http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/th...reeSisters.asp will give you some idea of what to expect.

To try to achieve so much in one day is not my idea of a pleasant experience, but I appreciate that most people traveling to Australia are on a really restricted time frame, and your point about 6 people not moving accommodation unnecessarily is very valid. Di

Geordie

I've done it during the summer but we really did not spend much time in the Blue Mountains.

I don't know if they've changed it, but when I went to the Jenolan Caves, you had to go on an organised tour that took about 2 hours from memory. I was bored after the first 20 minutes, the caves were impressive but once you've seen one cave they all looked pretty similar, and you cannot make your own way out, you have to stick with the tour.

Its also going to be pretty cold both in the caves and in the Blue Mountains.

Personally, I'm not a great fan of the Blue Mountains, I think the harbour and beachside walks around Sydney are far more impressive.

roothzimpy

Day trip to Blue Mounains and Jenolan Caves is possible to do in a day but the condition is that you have to start for it early in the morning. The drive from Sydney to Blue Mountains is very scenic and you will enjoy a lot. However it would be bit tiring but worth doing.