What day trips can you do from Sydney?
The Blue Mountains, and it is the one worth doing. A day from Sydney at $139 takes you up to the Three Sisters, the escarpment walks and the eucalypt haze the mountains are named for. Sydney is also where the long run up the east coast to Cairns begins.
Checked on 5 October 2026.
Sydney's great day out is two hours west, where the land drops away into a valley the size of a county and the blue haze comes off the eucalypts. Everything else worth doing from Sydney is a few days rather than one, and that's the honest shape of it.
The Blue Mountains in a day
| Trip | Length | Effort | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Day Blue Mountains Tour | 1 day, around 10 and a half hours | 2 of 5 — gentle, with optional walks | $139 |
Around a ten-hour day from Sydney and back.
What the day covers
- The Three Sistersat Echo Point — the view everybody comes for, and it earns it.
- Escarpment walksalong the clifftop, as long or as short as you want them.
- The valley itselfJamison Valley, a drop of several hundred metres into unbroken forest.
- Wildlife on the wayand the mountain villages that are worth the stop in their own right.
Heading north instead
Sydney is the southern end of the east coast run. The trips below go all the way to Cairns, taking in Byron Bay, K'gari, the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef, with the bus passes between towns booked before you travel.
| Trip | Length | Route | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Days Sydney to Cairns Budget | 14 days, 13 nights | Sydney / Cairns | $1999 |
| 17 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventure | 17 days, 17 nights | Sydney / Cairns | $2799 |
| 21 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventure | 21 days, 20 nights | Sydney / Cairns | $3249 |
| 23 Days Sydney to Cairns Budget | 23 days, 22 nights | Sydney / Cairns | $3349 |
How long do you need?
- One daythe Blue Mountains, there and back.
- Two weeksgets you Sydney to Cairns with the three big ones: K'gari, the Whitsundays and the reef.
- Three weeks or moreadds Byron Bay, Magnetic Island and real time in each town rather than a night.
- Every east coast trip runs in both directions, so you can start in Cairns and finish in Sydney instead.
The trips
1 Day Blue Mountains Tourfrom $1391 day, around 10 and a half hoursView trip
14 Days Sydney to Cairns Budgetfrom $199914 days, 13 nightsHostel, Boat, CampingView trip
17 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventurefrom $279917 days, 17 nightsHostel, Boat, CampingView trip
21 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventurefrom $324921 days, 20 nightsHostel, Boat, CampingView tripPeople also ask
- What is the best way to travel the east coast of Australia?
- Great Barrier Reef itinerary — 3, 7, 10 or 14 days
- Can you do the Great Ocean Road in a day from Melbourne?
- Where should I go in Australia?
Where this comes from. Each trip's own itinerary and pick-up sheet, as held on its page here. Prices are the current from price and update on their own.