Hotel Blue & Conference Centre

YOUR BLUE MOUNTAINS
To help you get as much as possible out of your stay in the Mountains, Hotel Blue offers a variety of tailored packages, which can include Explorer Bus tickets to get you to all the local attractions and back to the Hotel again, entry to the nearby Jenolan Caves, and passes for Scenic World?s spectacular Skyway, Railway and Scenic Cableway rides, taking in the best views the Jamison Valley has to offer. We can also arrange outdoor and adventure activities such as guided scenic and eco tours, bushwalking, horse riding, mountain biking, abseiling, rock climbing and canyoning. If you?re looking to surprise someone special, let us have a box of fine chocolates awaiting you in your room from the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company or Katoomba?s iconic Paragon Caf?, or perhaps a bunch of fresh flowers or a bottle of Australian sparkling wine. Hotel Blue?s friendly staff can advise you on all the local attractions and arrange bookings upon request.

Since Australia?s earliest colonial days, the Blue Mountains always have held a certain fascination for those who dwelt on the low-lying coastal plains of Sydneytown. In the beginning, it was the hope of discovering wide expanses of grazing land on the western side of the Great Dividing Range that inspired explorers for a decade and a half to attempt the seemingly impassable crossing. Finally, in May, 1813, the route along the ridges of the modern-day Great Western Highway was found by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Once this route was established, it was the prospect of starting a new life on the wild, uncharted side of the Great Divide that drew droves of ex-convicts and free settlers. Soon after the construction of the first road, it was the new coal and oil shale mining industries, and then the discovery of gold, that made people flock to the mountains. In the clusters of new towns established around the railway and mines, guesthouses began to appear, and so tourism in the Blue Mountains was born.

Among those to marvel at the majestic beauty of the Mountains was a young English naturalist named Charles Darwin, who was making his tour of the world aboard the Beagle in 1836. Visiting Wentworth Falls, he was fascinated by the sheer sandstone cliffs and deep gorges, quintessentially Australian in their shape and form, and he recorded his impressions in his journal: ?By following down a little valley and its tiny rill of water, an immense gulf is unexpectedly seen through the trees?. One stands on the brink of a vast precipice, and below is the grand bay or gulf (for I know not what other name to give it), thickly covered with forest?. This kind of view was to me quite novel, and extremely magnificent.? Another notable visitor to fall under the spell was the American author Mark Twain, in 1895. He watched in raptures as ?the early sun exposed the range called the Blue Mountains?. ?My word!? as the Australians say, but it was a stunning color, that blue. Deep, strong, rich, exquisite; towering and majestic masses of blue?a softly luminous blue, a smouldering blue, as if vaguely lit by fires within.?

Today, the Mountains, in all their splendour and majesty, continue to inspire the same powerful sense of wonder and awe in all who gaze upon them. Come and rediscover for yourself the majestic charm of the Blue Mountains.