Introducing Katoomba
The Blue Mountains’ crowning urban glory manages to be bohemian and bourgeois, embracing and menacing all at once. Its steep streets are lined with Art Deco buildings and bathed in swirling mists. Right in town there are astonishing valley views and a quirky miscellany of brilliant restaurants, buskers, artists, galleries, homeless people, bawdy pubs and classy hotels. Everyone seems to be smoking, growing a beard and wearing a beanie. And, despite its burgeoning tourist industry, it retains a friendly and otherworldly ambience.
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Katoomba’s big-ticket drawcard is Echo Point, where a series of sensational viewing platforms transport your gaze out over the Jamison Valley. The impressive Three Sisters rock formation towers over the scene. The story goes that the Three Sisters were turned to stone by a sorcerer to protect them from the unwanted advances of three young men, but the sorcerer died before he could turn them back into humans.
Echo Point draws profuse serenity-spoiling tourists and idling buses farting fumes – arrive early before they do.
To the west of town is Scenic World (4782 2699; www.scenicworld.com.au; cnr Cliff Dr & Violet St; cable-car return adult/child $19/10; 9am-5pm), with a megaplex vibe and an 1880s railway descending the 52-degree incline to the valley floor. It also has a glass-floored Scenic Skyway cable car floating out across the valley.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
Thorn Tree forum discussion
Recent posts
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RE: Seven days Sydney??
by alexis_stonebridge 07 May 2012
i wouldn't recommend catching a bus all the way to melb and bus for a couple of days, you can get cheap flights through virgin or jetstar.…
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RE: Seven days Sydney??
by wayoutback 07 May 2012
Rather than visit the zoo in Sydney, take the train out to Dubbo for a night and visit the animals there in the Open Plains Zoo. Dubbo…
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RE: Hiking end of May: Blue Mountains or Royal National Park?
by fowler9 06 May 2012
#4 With all due respect Katoomba and the Blue Mountains are 2 hours, not nearly 3 on the train.
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Hotels & Hostels in Katoomba
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