The admission price made me question if I should spend the time and money. In the end, I did.

We arrived at Scenic World via public transport. We took bus 686 from the stop in front of Carrington Hotel (a short walk from Katoomba Train Station). The bus ride took about 20 minutes. It made a slight detour to Echo Point, passed by the East Station of the Scenic Skyway, before arriving at the main building of Scenic World.

I decided to buy our tickets on site as the online price seemed higher. Here’s when I found some discrepancies in pricing for the Unlimited Discovery Pass for Adults, which allowed for unlimited rides and entrances within a day. It was AUD50 on the website. When I clicked to purchase, the price was AUD53. At the ticket counter, it was AUD54.

Anyway, it was no biggie. Maybe someone forgot to update the price on one of the website pages.

The staff at the ticket counter was polite and provided a quick suggestion on how to navigate Scenic World. Take the Scenic Skytrain (yellow ride) across the Jamison Valley and back. Then take the Scenic Railway (red), a sharp steep ride downwards to the valley. Walk around 3 trails of varying lengths (10, 30 or 50 min), and take the Scenic Cableway (blue) back up.

As tourists who blindly followed the crowd, we ended up starting with the red ride instead as we joined the wrong queue. No biggie. It’s a bit scary if you have a fear of heights as the ride descends. But it’s not too long a ride, and there are handles to grab on to.

After we got off the ride, our fellow visitors started to disperse as each party started along the boardwalk at their own pace, or just turned around and headed right back up.

The boardwalk was pretty much shaded by the trees with maps and signs along the way. Some of the trails were marked as easy, and some as medium in terms of difficulty. We took our time along what I thought was the 50 min trail and took lots of pics. We spent about 80 minutes in the valley before heading back up in the blue ride.

In the main building, the Terrace Cafe and Bar sold snacks like hot dogs, wraps and drinks. There’s also EATS270, an eatery that sold burgers, salad and cold drinks. We ordered a veggie burger, chicken wings, pumpkin soup and a drink. The damage was approx AUD$60. I found the food okay but the dealbreaker had to be the choice of seats with the fantastic views (if I’m not wrong, you don’t need a ticket into Scenic World to dine here).

After lunch, we took the Skyway (yellow ride) across the Jamison Valley to the East Station. We had the fortune of having Jay, a great commentator who was friendly and had a great sense of humor. In fact, most of the staff at Scenic World were very nice and friendly.

After alighting at the Skyway East Station, we followed a short 10 minute trail to the Katoomba Falls. There were also trails that led to other spots but we took the Skyway back after spending about 50 minutes around the area taking photos and such.

The East Station was where the bus 686 stopped on the way to Scenic World. (You could also get into Scenic World from here, altho I’m unsure if it’s more expensive as there was a sign indicating that the same pass I bought came at a maximum price of AUD62).

We arrived around 11am but left close to 4pm (the closing time on a Friday in July). The bus was almost empty when it arrived, but was packed when it left. Maybe we should have taken the bus from the East Station just to get on board first.

In a nutshell, it was not a bad way to spend some of our hard earned cash and time since wandering around nature was our thing. It’s family friendly. The rides were a nice bonus (thought might be scary for those afraid of heights). And at times, we felt like we were in Jurassic Park.