When we were booking our excursions for this trip, as I’ve said a few times, I was sort of the game-maker, so to speak. I was researching the tours, sending ideas to my family, budgeting, and booking everything. We had a TON of things we wanted to do and see, and one of the day trips from Sydney we were interested in was going to the Blue Mountains.

There are a LOT of tours and tour companies that will pick you up and escort you to the mountains, and once you get there they’ll drop you off at a hop-on, hop-off bus there to see the sights, essentially self-guided.

In my attempt to schedule the most activities within our budget, I thought to myself, can’t we just… get there ourselves?

Turns out, you TOTALLY can! And once you’re there, you can very easily orchestrate the same tour that you would have had with a more expensive provider. Here’s what we did:

Getting to the Blue Mountains

When we arrived in Sydney, we had picked up Opal cards for all 3 of us. These cards are like NYC Metro cards or any other city transport card. You load them up with money and then you can swipe/wave them to gain access to various local transportation. Did you know that the Blue Mountains count as local to Sydney, and you can use your topped-up Opal card to get there? Well, now you know, and that’s exactly what we did! Mind you it does take a bit longer than a bus that picks you up at your hotel, but you save about 70% of the cost! It’s pretty easy to take a peek at the schedules. The Blue Mountains line originates at Central and goes all the way to Katoomba (and further, actually!). The schedules are readily available online.

Getting the Bus Pass

The best way, by far, to see the Blue Mountains is with the hop-on, hop-off bus pass, aka the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus. The bus runs pretty much from sunup to sundown, and there are two busses running at all times circling the route. With 29 stops around the entire area, you’ll be able to check out all of the Blue Mountains in a day if that’s all you have, or extend your trip several days and really do a deep dive of the area. The bus brings you directly to the main sights, including the Three Sisters, Echo Point, and of course, Blue Mountains Chocolate Company. Getting the bus pass is extremely easy, once you stop off the train at Katoomba, the Explorer Bus office is directly to your right — you can’t miss it!

What’s the Explorer Bus Like?

When you buy your ticket, you’ll be given a booklet with a timetable (which is actually surprisingly accurate for a bus route!) and escorted off to the first bus stop. The bus only runs in one direction, so they recommend that you start at the lower numbered stops and work your way up! As you ride between stops, the driver acts as a local guide, giving tons of information about the town and the sights you’re coming up to. He (both drivers on the day we were there were male) even hopped off the bus at each stop to give us specific directions and tips about each stop.

One of the other things I really liked was the option to walk between stops along the mountain trails. You didn’t HAVE to come back to the bus to get between stops, the guidebook for the Explorer Bus also gives details about all of the available hikes between each lookout point, including a difficulty scale and an estimated time to completion.

Did You See Everything?

We got up EXTREMELY early on our Blue Mountains day, and I would definitely say it was worth it. We were on the Explorer Bus all day, straight through until the last bus of the day, and we saw all of the sights we were interested in, did two hikes, and got to have a nice snack break at the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company before getting on the train at Leura to head back to Central station in Sydney.

Conclusion

You ABSOLUTELY do not need to book a “guided” tour to the Blue Mountains, even for a day trip from Sydney. If you’ve got a group with decent mobility and are willing to take the train, you can save a ton of money and have a really fun day by finding your own way to Katoomba and exploring the Blue Mountains via the Explorer Bus. You can even stay a night or two there — we didn’t, but a lot of people we ran into were doing an overnight, and many of the hotels are along the Explorer Bus route. Either way, just go! You’re sure to have a blast.