Leura Blue Mountains

Recreation in Leura Blue Mountains

Tread Lightly Eco Tours (Nature Base Touring) Leura

Tread Lightly Phone:02 47 881 229

Are you eager to see remote places beyond imagination? Do the oldest rainforest, tallest waterfalls and deepest canyons excite you? Camera in hand, are amazing views your obsession? Then take a fully guided bushwalk or four-wheel drive eco tour with Tread Lightly, accredited ecological guides who have remarkable backgrounds in botany, archeology and biology. Combine these with a focus upon environmental and cultural aspects of the Blue Mountains and you have a walking wealth of knowledge.

For travellers experiencing the international phenomenon called jet lag, 'Rendezvous with the Kangaroos' is a terrific early morning activity - a continental breakfast in beautiful Megalong Valley with kangaroos within reach.

Round out the afternoon (use all the precious hours of a far-too-short holiday) with Tread Lightly'swilderness walk in the "Valley of the Waters" to an unimaginable 450-metre waterfall, a vision etched indelibly in your memory (and hopefully, your camera).

A day with Tread Lightlyand you are an environmental enthusiast forever.

Werriberri Trail Rides Leura

Werriberri Trail Rides Address:Megalong Valley
Phone:02 4787 9171

Werriberri Trail Rides is the family business of Kathy Tucker and her four children. The rides, through the World Heritage wilderness are amazing for all equestrians, beginner or experienced. Experienced guides take you across streams, into rainforests and along trails where the view opens to sandstone ridges and forests of eucalypt. If you love the beautiful scenery and who doesn't love horses, you are in for a special experience.

Kathy matches horses to your abilities, and as we are a beginner, we were most grateful for her selection. All ages and abilities are welcome and for the very young, check out the pony rides - a great way to learn.

Though we have yet to try Werriberri's historic rides from Mt York following the historic tracks of early pioneers,we are planning on it.

In 2013, Kathy will celebrate the 200th anniversity with rides following the crossing of the Blue Mountains. Quite exciting!

Scenic World Blue Mountains Leura

Scenic World Address:Corner of Violet Street and Cliff Drive, Katoomba
Phone:02 4782 2699

International travellers, schoolchildren and backpackers come from all corners of the globe to Scenic World in the Blue Mountains, and this is an experience you won't want to miss. Don't miss the short explanatory film as it prepares you for the natural spectacles you are about to see.

In keeping with the World Heritage environment, Scenic World has incorporated a two-hour walk across the Prince Henry Cliff Walk to the Three Sisters as a walk/ride combination ticket. On the trail, you will follow signs to the recently refurbished Giant Stairs.

At the Giant Stairs, the view out across the Jamison Valley is spectacular and the world you descend to is magical. Eight hundred and sixty-one steps - count them if you must, but don't lose sight of your environment for halfway down these magnificent steps is Honeymoon Bridge, from which you can access one of the Three Sisters rock formations.

At the bottom of the stairs the track winds its way to the bottom of the majestic cliff face and onto the Federal Pass track. The Pass opens to world of temperate rain forest and then to an open and dry eucalypt forest. It is nature at its finest. The Great Round Walk ticket allows you the option of a cableway ride back to your destination. (This is something we recommend unless you are extremely fit.) When hiking in the region, please carry water and energy snacks, raingear and skin protection. And a reminder for all good walkers: carry out what you carry in. For full details on the Great Round Walk, please request maps at the Scenic World ticket office. Upon your return, you will be grateful for Scenic World's small café for takeaway, or the open-air restaurant overlooking the Jamison Valley in the Blue Mountains.

Leura Golf Club Leura

Leura Golf Club Address:Sublime Point Road
Phone:02 4782 5011

It would be hard to find a more dramatic setting for a round of golf. With exceptional views from every hole, it is the 14th that leaves one gasping in awe. We are vividly reminded that even in a sporting environment, we are still surrounded by the spirit of the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains.

For more than 100 years, golf and the Leura Golf Club - now adjacent to the York Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains, have been an integral part of the recreational and social scene. Members are proud of their important and long heritage in Leura.

And Leura golfers and their guests have been, and continue to be, a hardy bunch - inclement weather does not deter them. Driving along Sublime Point Road in an early morning misting fog, a lone golfer can be sighted, headed for the second tee. Hopefully spectacular vistas, however limited, bring out spectacular golfing!
If you have arrived empty handed, you can hire everything from the first-rate golf shop: motorised carts, clubs or shoes. Note: Call for details about the Leura Golf Open held annually in the Blue Mountains in September.

Body & Being, Massage, Healing, Beauty Leura

Body & Being Spa Address:173a The Mall
Phone:02 4784 3498

Established in 1997, Body & Being brings to Leura a focus upon healing therapies and body maintenance. The spa offers massage, holistic therapies and beauty treatments which include a wide range of massage options to luxurious facials and a sensational Ayurvedic scalp treatment.

Rejuvenation treatments - a deep massage or a blissful body wrap - will refresh and rejuvenate your mind and body. With the stress of modern life, pampering and body maintenance seems a necessity today - after too many hours at a computer, juggling demanding schedules, just putting one foot in front of the other becomes an effort at times. This is when Body & Being comes to your rescue. Note: The Hot Stone massage worked miracles for this editor.

Ask the staff about the one-of-a-kind organic skincare products. And for a great gift to someone special, check out the deluxe "pamper packages".

Pampering will take on new meaning for you at this Blue Mountains wellness centre.

Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa Leura

Lilianfels Address:Lilianfels Avenue, Echo Point
Phone:02 4780 1200

Though a few kilometres beyond the boundaries of Leura, we've included Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa because of its matchless service and luxurious setting.

The door to the Spa opens, like a portal, to a distinctive, perhaps forgotten time and place. A respectful quiet, an intentional calm floats up the stairway. Spices and flowers - a fragrance wafts by faintly as one descends the steps.

Bottles and candles, teas and bush flowers, oils, soaps, and bath salts sit upon the shelves, grouped artistically in twos and threes. A tranquil waiting lounge, flickering candlelight, refreshing organic tea and fresh fruit. The staff speaks in subdued voices. In the Spa, a concept of restorative healing comes together - a holistic approach for body and mind Australian Dreaming.

Lilianfels offers many recreational amenities, including tennis courts and indoor and outdoor pools with an infinity edge overlooking the Jamison Valley. For outdoor lovers, Lilianfels arranges mountain bikes, daily guided bushwalks and 4-wheel drive eco tours.

Jeff Drewitz, Photographer Leura

Jeff Drewitz, Photographer Phone:0412 160 358

For those of us with a limited skill level for canyoning or rock climbing in the Blue Mountains wilderness, we have turned to a young local photographer - a trekker, backpacker and bicyclist.

With an eye for the unusual and the personal, Jeff Drewitz' photographs of locations we could not access are often thrilling and always authentic. Modifying with popular software is not allowed in his studio. For us, his photographs are the 'next best thing' to being there and a visit to his website gallery http://archive.jeffdrewitz.comis a testament to his talent.

Everglades Historic House & Gardens Leura

Everglades Historic House & Gardens Address:37 Everglades Avenue
Phone:02 4784 1938

Set along the edge of the World Heritage wilderness, the magnificent park-like gardens designed by Danish-born Paul Sorenson are both formal and native in a single unusual Leura setting. Beauty and diversity are words that come to mind immediately, for time spent in Everglades is to walk among exotic and native trees, of modernist influences and of formal terraces.

In spring, the riotous colours of red tulips and yellow daffodils along the Upper Drive make visitors smile and in autumn, the Garden Theatre is our favourite -- its golden sandstone arch seems in perfect harmony with the muted colours of the escarpment view.

Built in 1936, the modern-style summer house of Henri Van de Velde is predominantly Art Deco in colour and detail. Set Described by Angela Le Sueur "the bathrooms with their bright tiles and luxurious fitting are pure 'Hollywood' -- extravagant in size, colour and fittings." (Everglades at Leura in the National Trust House Series).

Today, in the 21st century, the Gardens host a month-long Shakespearean festival in January. What a perfect setting for actors and audience alike.

While we consider Everglades House and Gardens as iconic Leura, it is an Blue Mountains' attraction and not to be missed.

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