The verdict
Twelve listings, and eight of them reach the same three places — Echo Point, Scenic World and a wildlife park — in a coach or a minibus. Four are private days with a driver. Our pick for the best Blue Mountains tour from Sydney is $150 — the lookouts and all three rides everybody offers, plus Sydney Zoo and a koala photo, with 2,885 reviews at 4.8.
Quick answer
Best overall: the Scenic World, zoo and koala day at $150, 2,885 reviews at 4.8. Best value: $142, a small group with the rides included and 1,688 reviews. Best for walkers: $211, 305 reviews at 4.9, with kangaroos at dusk and dinner. Best private day: $889, 15 reviews at 5.0, which adds Wentworth Falls to the usual route.
Book direct
Our top pick, the best value, the best walking day and the best-evidenced private day.
★ 4.8 · 2,885 reviews
★ 4.8 · 1,688 reviews
★ 4.9 · 305 reviews
★ 5 · 15 reviews
Best overall
Same lookouts, plus a koala.
The lookouts are the lookouts everybody sells: Echo Point, the Three Sisters, the Jamison Valley. The rides are the rides: the Railway, the Skyway, the Cableway. What this listing adds is Sydney Zoo on the way, with a koala photo, and on a day when most people are travelling with somebody who has never seen a koala, that is the difference between a good day and the one they talk about.
2,885 reviews at 4.8. Not the most on this page, but the highest score of any listing with more than a thousand reviews, and enough to be evidence rather than hope.
The honest caveat: it is a coach. If forty people at every stop is the thing you want to avoid, $142 does the same lookouts and rides in a minibus for eight dollars less. This is the best Blue Mountains tour from Sydney; it is not the quietest one.
Best value
The best-value Blue Mountains tour from Sydney.
1,688 reviews at 4.8, the cheapest fare on the page, and a minibus rather than a coach. That combination is unusual and it is why this sits second rather than fifth.
Ten hours door to door, the three Scenic World rides included, and the last hour of the day on a ferry down the Parramatta River into Circular Quay rather than on the motorway. People who have done both say the ferry is the better ending. The rating is level with our top pick, which across 1,688 reviews reads as a real operator on a good run.
Best for walkers
The mountains on foot, and dinner.
Eight hours that start later than the others and end after dark. A small group walks a rainforest track, stands at lookouts the coaches never park at, watches wild kangaroos come out at dusk and sits down to dinner before the drive back. 305 reviews at 4.9 — the highest score of any listing here with more than a hundred reviews.
It trades the Scenic World rides for the tracks. If the Railway is the point, book $142 instead; if the valley is the point, this is the day.
Best private day
Your list, your pace, and the falls.
Ten hours with a driver and a vehicle of your own from your Sydney hotel: Wentworth Falls, which the coaches skip, then Leura, Echo Point and all three Scenic World rides at your pace. 15 reviews at 5.0 — the best evidence of any private listing here by a wide margin.
It is six times the price of the cheapest Blue Mountains tour on this page, and it is a different thing rather than a longer one. The price is for the car, so four people pay about $222 a head for a day that runs to their list.
What we would not book first, and why
They are not bad. They are simply beaten by something else on this page.
The highest price on this page, with two reviews. Eight hours in English or German for people who want the language and the premium vehicle in one booking.
A sound listing with no reviews yet. Until it has some, $889 does the same job with 15 reviews at 5.0 and adds the falls.
A good all-inclusive day with 63 reviews at 4.8. Our top pick does the same stops with a zoo instead of lunch, forty-five dollars cheaper and with far more evidence.
2,885 reviews at 4.8, the Three Sisters, all three rides, and a koala photo on the way.
Check dates for our top pick→In short
Four listings answer nearly every case.
The one to book is $150 — the lookouts and rides everybody offers, plus Sydney Zoo and a koala photo, with 2,885 reviews at 4.8.
The best value Blue Mountains tour from Sydney is $142, a small group with the rides included and a ferry home. If you are choosing on evidence and price, choose that one.
The best day on foot is $211, and the best private day is $889. Those four answer almost every reason anyone books this.
Common questions
$149 with 4,696 reviews at 4.6, the classic coach day.
The lookouts and rides are the same. What you are paying for is lunch or a zoo, and the operator.
$166 takes ten at most. The other small-group days run to about twenty.
For four or more people, or if Wentworth Falls and your own route are the point, yes. It shows the same Three Sisters from the same lookout.
$211 watches wild kangaroos at dusk; the coach days visit a wildlife park.
$150 for the day, or $142 for the money.
How we ranked them
Eight of the twelve reach the same three places, so the ranking is about everything except the view.
A 5.0 from two people is not better evidence than a 4.8 from 2,885. When we call something the best Blue Mountains tour from Sydney, that asymmetry does most of the work.
A coach of forty and a minibus of twelve stop at different lookouts and move at different speeds. It is most of the price spread on this page.
A zoo and a koala photo, a ferry home, kangaroos at dusk with dinner, Wentworth Falls. Those are real differences; fifteen minutes more at Echo Point is not.
Useful between two coach days, useless between a coach and a private car for four.
Across every Blue Mountains tour here it is time on the road rather than the mountains. That is a good sign, and a reminder that it is a ten-hour day.
In short
Three listings answer nearly every case.
The best Blue Mountains tour from Sydney is $150 — the lookouts and rides, plus Sydney Zoo and a koala photo, with 2,885 reviews at 4.8.
The best value is $142, a small group with the rides and a ferry home, and 1,688 reviews behind it.
And the best Blue Mountains tour with a driver of your own is $889, which reaches Wentworth Falls where the coaches do not go.
If you are still torn
The regret decides it faster than the table does.
Most people who cannot decide between two Blue Mountains tours from Sydney are choosing between the same day twice. Eight listings here reach Echo Point, Scenic World and a wildlife park; the differences are the vehicle, the extras and the hour. So ask the other question: what would you regret on the drive home?
If it is the koala photograph, book $150 and stop reading. If it is forty strangers at the lookout, book $142 and get the ferry as a bonus. If it is that you rode a railway when you wanted to walk a valley, book $211. If it is that you saw the Sisters and never Wentworth Falls, book $889 and bring three friends to split the car.
Every one of those is a good day. The only bad one is the day you spend comparing listings that reach the same three places, when the difference between them is eight dollars and a koala.
Go deeper
Twelve fares compared, cost per hour, and the charges that are not in the headline price.
Tour or trainWhat the train day really costs in time and tickets, and when it beats a tour.
Scenic WorldThe Railway, Skyway, Cableway and Walkway, what a ticket costs, and which tours include it.
Three SistersThe rock, the legend, the lookout, and the walk down the Giant Stairway.
Small groupWhat a minibus of twelve changes about the day, and what it does not.
PrivateWhat a driver and your own vehicle buy you, and when it is worth five times the price.
Blue Mountains Adventure: Scenic World, Zoo & Koala Photo
★ 4.8 · 2,885 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h