The Blue Mountains is a top Sydney daytrip. A quick drive out of the city and you’ll find tearooms, vintage stores and award-winning bakeries.

Then, a little farther on to Blackheath’s high street, you’ll feel the temperature drop as you happen upon family-run wine bars and art galleries – plus a Mediterranean joint helmed by an ex-Tetsuya’s chef and fuelled by an 150-year-old wood oven. Meanwhile, in the nearby Megalong Valley, an exquisite farm-to-table experience awaits.

You can pack a punch in a day or stay the night and squeeze in a hike, too. Mark your calendars.

Chapters & Leaves , Faulconbridge

This tea house and bookshop has plenty on the menu – baked lemon cheesecakes topped with nectarines and torched meringue, Persian love cakes and toasted sandwiches, for example – but homemade scones and tea are the specialities here. An order of the classic tea-time snack comes with homemade jams and a dollop of thickened cream, plus a pot of tea. Take your time with the menu: it has as much variety as the wine list at an of-the-moment inner-city bar. Black teas run the gamut from English breakfast to Chinese golden Yunnan; there’s also an array of chais – including a citrusy, fruity Punjabi version and a sticky chai infused with Australian honey. Earl Grey blue flower makes a nice pairing for scones, and on hot days, there’s iced tea. @chaptersandleaves
Shop 7, 7–9 St Georges Crescent, Faulconbridge

Frankie & Mo’s, Blackheath

It’s the wine bar the Blue Mountains has been craving, according to co-owner Tom Colman. Tom and his dad Bob make natural wine locally under the successful label Frankly, This Wine Was Made by Bob, so opening a venue to showcase their craft made sense. The four-room space goes from bistro to wine bar to bottle shop, with anything in the shop available to drink – some by the glass, some by the bottle. A thoughtful, ever-changing food menu complements the wines; it might be mushroom ceviche, burrata with fresh figs and caramelised pine nuts, or potato gnocchi with buffalo mozzarella. @frankieandmos
44 Govetts Leap Road, Blackheath

Ates, Blackheath

Directly opposite Frankie & Mo’s sits Ates, a cosy little fine-dining restaurant where a 150-year-old wood oven is hero – responsible for a spectacular (and locally beloved) offering of Mediterranean share plates. Must-orders include a creamy serve of house-made ricotta dressed up with roasted fruits, and the most golden, crunchy delight: a potato “bon bon” – think croquette – topped with an anchovy and healthy serve of parm. Share roasted mushrooms with gremolata or a zesty piece of market fish, both fresh from the ironbark flames. They pour Bob’s wines, alongside other local producers. There’s a Megalong Valley semillon and Katoomba-made Mountain Culture beers. It’s BYO on Wednesdays (with a reasonable $10 corkage), and open for lunch on the weekend. @ates_blackheath
33 Govetts Leap Road, Blackheath

Black Cockatoo Bakery, Lawson

Here at the outpost of the Katoomba original, every dark-chocolate-filled pain au chocolat, every flaky, award-winning croissant, every loaf of naturally leavened sourdough, is baked on-site from organic ingredients and cultured butter. Joining the staples is a range of regularly changing viennoiseries. There might be cherry-cheesecake danishes, Oomite-and-cheddar scrolls or escargots filled with chocolate and honey. Whatever you order, it’s best enjoyed perched on a sandstone wall in the square across the road, with either a Single O coffee or a delicately sweet turmeric chai. @blackcockatoobakery
1 Staples Crescent, Lawson

Megalong at Lot 1, Megalong Valley

The narrow, winding road from Blackheath to the Megalong Valley is full of hairpin turns and blind corners, but it’s all worth it to get to chef Colin Barker’s farm-to-table venue. At Megalong at Lot 101, the kitchen garden’s not just a few pots of herbs. Everything on the menu – pencil leeks, roasted chantenay carrots, pickled nasturtium buds, dry-aged beef, hen’s eggs – is grown or raised a few metres from the restaurant. The vegetable gardens are visible from the row of French doors that line the dining room, and beyond those are rolling hills and sandstone cliffs, sheep grazing between the gums, and the famous Hydro Majestic presiding over the valley. @megalong_lot101
3/7 Peach Tree Road, Megalong Valley

Mid Mountains Vintage, Woodford

In the middle of 2021, during one of Sydney’s lockdowns, Matt Ward closed the doors of his Newtown store Drunk on the Moon and moved to Lawson. Sydney’s loss is the Blue Mountains’ gain, with Ward opening the beautiful two-floor Mid Mountains Vintage on the Great Western Highway. Ward doesn’t just run Drunk on the Moon on its own anymore; he’s transformed the space into a mini Mitchell Road, with 18 sellers offering antique furniture, collectibles and curiosities. On any given visit you might find wooden Japanese kokeshi dolls, a solid oak sideboard, a mid-century dining set or a neon sign that reads, “Please don’t do coke in the bathroom”. @midmountainsvintage
80 Great Western Highway, Woodford

Hazelbrook Cottage Antiques, Hazelbrook

The Great Western Highway is the faster route to travel between Woodford and Hazelbrook, but the winding Railway Parade is the more interesting one. You’ll pass by quiet weatherboard cottages and robust-looking sandstone bus shelters until, just after the station, you’ll spot the sunny shopfront of Hazelbrook Cottage Antiques. The shop is crowded with an astounding collection of objects: elaborate Victorian ceramic cheese covers, woodwork hand tools, fine table settings, delicate silver tea strainers, furniture and vintage sewing supplies. It’s worth a visit just for a sticky beak, but you’ll likely find a treasure you never knew you needed. @hazelbrook_cottage_antiques
33 Railway Parade, Hazelbrook