Blue Mountains Mercedes Sprinter Tour Steam Train and 3 Sisters

Board the restored Zig Zag Railway at Clarence. The line opened in 1869 and switchbacked trains down the western escarpment through hand-cut sandstone cuttings until it was bypassed in 1910. Volunteers spent decades bringing it back, and steam returned to the rails in 2023. You ride it for around 45 minutes through the mountain valleys, at the pace it was built for. Your heritage train ticket is included in the tour price.

An hour in Leura, a village of hedged gardens, bookshops, galleries and cafes strung along one tree-lined street. This is your lunch break, long enough to eat somewhere you picked yourself rather than somewhere you were delivered to. Lunch is at your own expense.

Echo Point in the afternoon, once the morning coaches have moved through. Time at the lookout for the Three Sisters and the view across the Jamison Valley, with your guide on the geology of the escarpment and the Aboriginal stories attached to it.

The whole afternoon belongs to the escarpment. While most day tours are already driving home, you have close to two hours on the walking trails below Echo Point in the World Heritage Blue Mountains National Park, where the crowds thin out and it is sandstone, gum trees and a very long view. The walk follows a trail with steps and uneven ground and is entirely optional - if you would rather not walk, the lookouts are yours instead.