need DIY Blue Mountains Advice

I am planning a visit the Blue Mountains for two or three days post-cruise. Here's the DIY plan:

Saturday 8 am: Disembark ship at White Bay Terminal.

take Uber or taxi to Central Train station

Take train to Katoomba around 10am

Arrive around 1 pm: Drop bags off at metropole hotel before check-in

spouse will be tired, (so no long hikes on this day) . Other than shopping, what else to do for the afternoon? visit Leura on explorer bus?

next day take the Explorer bus or trolley to Echo Point, then hike along the rim trail (1 hr) l to the Scenic World skyway,

take that to scenic world, do the other scenic world rides, lunch there, then bus back.

next day would be a trip to Jenolan caves via the explorer bus (all day trip)

and train back to Sydney in the late afternoon/early evening

Here are my questions:

We have large luggage. so what's the situation on the train to Katoomba for luggage?

Is there a luggage storage area on the train?

Or should store the luggage at Central Station storage place and just take day packs with over night stuff

Will there be a long line at the train station luggage storage area?

One of the reasons I am doing a DIY journey, is that I want to spend one day at the blue mountains/echopoint/scenic world and the next day at Jenolan Caves. I can't find a guided tour that covers two days, except for one that stays over night at the YHA. and that's too spartan for us.

Also, a lot of day trips stop at Featherdale, and we aren't necessarily interested in this since we will be visiting the Taronga zoo pre-cruise.

am I overestimating the time I should spend at Echo Point and Scenic World?

a lot of the one day tours look like they just stop, look and leave at Echo point and have 'optional" time to visit Scenic World before heading on. Is that really all it's worth?

Should I just do a one day Echo Point and Jenolan cave with an organized tour? And skip spending two days there?

Your experiences here would be appreciated so I can get an idea of how much time to realistically plan for at Echo point, Scenic World and Jenolan caves.

I'm interested in replies too! We are also planning on taking the train to Katoomba after disembarking in October. At first, we were going to rent a car, but the train sounds better [emoji16] we have reservations for 2 nights in Katoomba, but are flexible and may stay 3.

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Or should store the luggage at Central Station storage place and just take day packs with over night stuff

my suggestion would be to take day packs with overnight stuff...they do have luggage storage facilities at Central Station......check out the prices there at Smartecarte

another suggestion would be to also post your questions on TripAdvisor for more answers

remember that it's always cooler in the Blue Mountains so bring an extra layer of clothing with you

You could ask your hotel in Sydney to store your luggage for you for the few days you are in the Blue Mountains (and just drop it off there). That's what we did.

As for Katoomba, I highly recommend the Lurline House B&B. Really great and affordable B&B. The proprietors can usually pick you up and drop you off at the train station, if you advise them of your arrival and departure times.

I think spending a minimum of two days in the Blue Mountains is a good idea. We spent two nights at the Lurline House B&B - following a similar itinerary to the one you have outlined (except that we explored Echo Point and Scenic World the day we arrived in Katoomba), and I wished that we had spent a couple more days to explore more of the Blue Mountains.

It sounds like there would be no room for a couple of suitcases on the train. Is that right?

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There is room for luggage on the train. You can pick seats facing each other and put the luggage on the seat next to you. That is what we did when we took the train. We also stayed at the Lurline House B&B. Since we didn't have a car it was nice they picked us up and dropped us off at the train station.

The trains to Katoomba are double decker. There is room to store a few cases in the area as you enter the carriage or you can lug your cases up or down about 6 steps. Upstairs is better for views as you start the journey up the mountain. The seat backs also flip over so that you can face the direction of travel or sit as a group of 4. It's easy to store your luggage in the space created between the seat backs. The secure baggage store at Central Station is never usually that busy if you want to store the bulk of your luggage there.

There is also a hotel at the Jenolan caves if you fancy something a bit different .

We are doing almost the same thing except we have a rental car and we are staying 2 nights at the 3 Sisters motel.

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We are doing almost the same thing except we have a rental car and we are staying 2 nights at the 3 Sisters motel.

 

 

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Our original plan was to rent a car, then we thought the train may be better. Where did you rent your car?

Our original plan was to rent a car, then we thought the train may be better. Where did you rent your car?

We went through Expedia for the rental and the company is Avis. We pick up in star city pyrmont.

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