Blue Mountain

Hello!

1. It doesn't matter how long you have your licence, however, make sure you have international licence.

2. I don't think there is any regulation for vehicle hire. If you are over 25, the vehicle hire should be cheaper.

3. You can request the GPS when you hire the vehicle. In my personal experience, I brought our GPS to Sydney. Please be aware that the GPS is not 100% correct, sometimes you have to make a sound judgement yourself.

4. When you hire a vehicle, there is a "Sydway" (Sydney map) inside the car. If you are good at reading maps, you can find your way. I remember I not only used my GPS, but also followed the Sydway. It took us quite a long time to drive from Sydney CBD to Blue Mountains because it is far from the city. We had stopped by the waterfalls, then arrived at Blue Mountains. After that we even went to Jenolan Cave. Everywhere has parking spaces, so you don't need to worry about it.

5. You first park your car outside Scenic World Blue Mountains. Then you enter a visitor centre. You can purchase the ticket for Scenic Skyway, Cableway and Railway. You purchase with discounts if you pick more than one ride. I picked Scenic Skyway and Railway. Skyway is a must, you can see the fantastic mountain scene. Railway is a ride on the steepest slop, I found it was exciting. If you have money, you can ride the cableway as well.

Scenic Skyway
A 720 meter journey 270m above ancient ravines and dazzling waterfalls.

Scenic Railway
Ride the steepest incline Railway in the world down to a lush and hidden valley.

Scenic Cableway
A 545 metre ride the World Heritage Listed rainforest of the Jamison valley.

6. You can ride the train from the city of Sydney to Blue Mountains, and then take the bus to travel around the Blue Mountains. However, I don't recommend that. The reasons are
(1) Wasting a lot of time on the travel.
(2) The train and bus tickets are not cheap.
(3) Driving makes the trip more personalised.

You can go wherever you want. For example, we had stoppedy by Glenbrook, Wentworth Fall, Blue Mountains (Scenic skyway, railway and hiking) and Jenolan Cave. Since one of us is an experienced driver, we visited all the places in one day. (Jenolan Cave is far from the Blue Mountains, you may not be able to visit it). For the visitors, I recommend you just go to Blue Mountains in one day. Or you spend two days in Blue Mountains and surrounded area and stay overnight at Katoomba.

*** Please be aware that it is difficult to drive in Sydney CBD and the mountains even for Australian drivers. You have to be careful and drive slow on the mountains. There are quite a lot of narrow and curly roads and you have to pay attention to the against traffic.

*** By the way, do you drive a lot in HK in the past few months. I just talked to our experienced driver, he said he didn't recommend you to drive. He asked you to join the local tour in Sydney. In my own opinion, I feel it's quite tired no matter you are the one driving or reading the map. If you want to have a relax trip, joining tour is a good choice, specially you are travelling in a small group.

Have a safe and fun trip! =)

只要有國際牌便可以租車, 視乎你想租甚麼車, 有GPS的會較貴. Blue Mountain 範圍相當大, 自己開車去不難, 一般泊車也容易. 如果去的地方多,自己開車較方便, Skyway, Cableway, Zig Zag railway 等地都有充足的停車位.