New South Wales
Lord Howe Island is the last island paradise, music for the soul.
Outback Awe-inspiring landscapes and memorable characters under blue skies.
Snowy Mountains
Mountain air doesn’t come any purer than this.
Heart of Country - Classic Australian towns founded by gold miners, graziers and farmers.
Sydney The laid-back outdoor lifestyle and natural beauty make Sydney a great city to visit.
South Coast The unspoilt beauty of the South Coast unfolds in a series of bays and coves.
Sydney Surrounds A grand spectrum of delights, all within two and a half hours' drive of Sydney.
North Coast Classic Aussie surf culture meets World Heritage-listed national parks.
Walking NSW
Fast facts
- Stretch your legs on some of the State’s amazing scenic and historical walks
- Gibralter Range National Park, 663 kilometres north of Sydney
- Hume and Hovell Track, Yass, 280 kilometres south west of Sydney
- Warrumbungles, 482 kilometres north west of Sydney
- Blue Mountains National Park, Katoomba, 102 kilometres west of Sydney
Why do it
There are many walks in New South Wales that easily match the best in the world - so get ready to lace up your walking boots and put on your sun hat.
One of the most impressive multi-day challenges is the Gibraltar-Washpool World Heritage Walk, which links the Gibraltar Range and Washpool national parks.
This 100-kilometre walkway travels through rugged, mountainous country, high above the Clarence Valley on the edge of the Northern Tablelands. The landscape is dramatic and diverse, with dry eucalypt forests set amidst a broken collection of ridges and granite tors. Expect sub-alpine swamps, lush rainforests, and a lacework of waterfalls, streams and wild rivers too.
Another option is the Hume and Hovell Track, which stretches for 440 kilometres across southern New South Wales from Yass to Albury.
The track commemorates the overland journey to Melbourne made by the famous explorers Hume and Hovell in 1824-25. Where possible the track follows the original route as far as the New South Wales border, skirting high mountain ranges, and crossing farming country and forestry lands.
For a shorter experience you could try the Breadknife and Grand High Tops Walk in the Warrumbungles National Park. The five-hour trek includes a strenuous climb, but you are rewarded with colourful wildflowers in spring, and panoramic views of forested ridges, deep gorges, and rocky spires and domes.
More world-class walking trails run through the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains National Park, a huge favourite with locals and visitors alike. Walks around here take in massive waterfalls, valleys of ferns, towering eucalyptus forests, and skirt enormous chasms which seem to fall forever.
Sydney has its popular walking tracks too, including a harbour-side stroll from Taronga Zoo to sophisticated Balmoral Beach, and a rainforest and cliff top odyssey from the beaches of Manly to the Spit. Then there’s the stunning cliff top walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach, with incredible views across the ocean.
Don’t miss
- Following an Aboriginal Dreamtime track through little-known areas of the Blue Mountains with Blue Mountains Walkabout
- Historical walks in many towns and settlements across New South Wales
- A fascinating history walk around The Rocks area of Sydney, with The Rocks Walking Tours
- Learn about convicts, history and ghosts on a Weird Sydney Ghost and History Tour, courtesy of Destiny Tours
