Land at Badgerys Creek, Drive to the Mountains: Escapes From WSI

For as long as anyone has flown into Sydney, getting out of it again has meant crossing it first. Land at Mascot, head for the mountains, and the first hour is spent on motorways going the wrong way through the city you are trying to leave. Badgerys Creek changes that completely, and it is the most underrated thing about the new airport.

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The Geography Everyone Missed

Most of the commentary about Western Sydney International has been about capacity, curfews and
airline schedules. The thing that will matter most to a great many travellers is much simpler and
has barely been mentioned: the new airport is on the correct side of Sydney for the places people
actually leave Sydney to visit.

Kingsford Smith is eight kilometres south of the CBD, on the coast. Every escape from Sydney
that is not the South Coast starts by driving away from it, through the city, on a motorway
network built for commuters. Badgerys Creek is forty-four kilometres west. If your destination is
the mountains, the Highlands or the wine country, you have effectively been given an hour back
before you start.

The Blue Mountains

This is the drive the new airport transforms, and by the largest margin.

The distance saving is not marginal

Sydney Airport to Katoomba is around 113 kilometres. From Badgerys Creek you are already most of
the way west before you turn a wheel, and the run is close to half of that. More importantly, none
of it involves crossing the city. You join the M4 heading west and stay heading west.

The route

M4 west, then the Great Western Highway, which climbs steadily through Glenbrook, Springwood,
Faulconbridge and Wentworth Falls before reaching Leura and Katoomba. Beyond them the highway
continues to Blackheath, Mount Victoria and eventually Lithgow. The road is sealed, wide and well
maintained for its entire length, and the villages strung along it are the reason to go slowly.

What the climb actually asks of a car

People underestimate this. Katoomba sits at over a thousand metres and the highway gains that
altitude in a sustained pull rather than a series of short hills. A fully loaded car with five
people and a week of luggage will feel it, and a small engine will spend a lot of the climb
working hard. It is not difficult driving, but it rewards a car with something in reserve.

Weather is the real variable

The mountains are consistently colder than the basin, frequently by a striking margin, and fog
along the highway is common in the cooler months. Frost is normal above Blackheath in winter and
snow is not unusual. None of this makes the highway dangerous, but it does make all-wheel drive and
decent tyres worth having if you are visiting between May and September or staying somewhere with
a steep unsealed driveway.

The car we would suggest

The Defender, if you are going properly. High clearance, genuine all-wheel drive and roof rails
for the things that do not fit inside, with enough refinement that the motorway leg either side is
not a penance. If the trip is more hotel than bushwalk, the Range Rover Sport does the same job
with more comfort and less capability, which for most people is the better trade.

The Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Berrima, Moss Vale and Robertson: cool-climate wine, gardens, and a landscape
that looks more like England than anything else within two hours of Sydney.

The route

South from the airport towards Narellan and Camden, joining the Hume Highway and following it
south west past Picton and Mittagong. It is motorway most of the way and an easy drive. From
Badgerys Creek you reach the Hume without touching the M5 or the inner motorway network at all,
which is the whole advantage over a Mascot arrival.

What it is actually like

The Highlands sit high enough to be genuinely cold in winter and mild in summer, which is
exactly why people go. The driving once you are there is the point: the roads between Berrima,
Robertson and Kangaroo Valley are among the best in the state, particularly the descent of Macquarie
Pass, which is tight, steep and demanding enough that it deserves respect rather than enthusiasm.

The car we would suggest

This is the one region where a smaller, sharper car genuinely earns its place, because the roads
reward it and the distances are moderate. It is also wine country, which means somebody is not
drinking and everybody has bags on the way home. Balance those honestly rather than booking the
exciting car and discovering the boot on the Sunday.

The Hunter Valley

The longest of the three and the only one where the new airport helps less.

Be realistic about the drive

The Hunter is north, and from Badgerys Creek that means going up and across a substantial part
of the Sydney basin before you reach the M1. Broadly, you work north through the western suburbs to
the M7 and then across, and the timing depends far more on when you travel than on the distance.
Leaving at four on a Friday afternoon is a different trip entirely from leaving at ten on a Sunday
morning.

It is still worth doing

Pokolbin and the surrounding vineyards remain one of the best short escapes from Sydney, and if
you are already hiring a car for a week the marginal cost is small. Just tell us it is on the
itinerary so the kilometre allowance is set for it. That is the single most common thing people
forget on multi-region trips, and it is much easier to arrange up front than to reconcile later.

The car we would suggest

Comfort and boot space over everything. This is a long motorway drive at both ends with cases of
wine on the return leg. The Range Rover Sport is the obvious answer and there is no cleverer one.

Practical Notes for All Three

Set the kilometre allowance to the actual trip

Every booking carries an allowance and it is stated before you pay. A week covering the
mountains and the Highlands, or anything including the Hunter, is not a city hire and should not be
priced as one. Tell us the itinerary and we will set it correctly at the start. Additional
kilometres are charged at a set rate rather than estimated after the fact, but the far better
outcome is not needing them.

Fuel before you get back to the airport

The retail precinct around Badgerys Creek is still being built out. Fill up at Penrith, Liverpool
or Camden on the return rather than assuming there is a service station at the airport perimeter.
This will change as the area develops. It has not changed yet.

Interstate needs approval

If a Southern Highlands trip is going to become a run down to Canberra or further into Victoria,
that needs prior written approval noted on the booking, so the kilometre allowance and the roadside
cover are set correctly. We assess these individually and we say yes more often than not, but it
has to be arranged rather than assumed.

Track use is never permitted

Worth stating plainly on an article about driving roads. Circuit and track use is not permitted
on any of our vehicles under any circumstances, including at the venues within reach of these
routes. The roads listed here are public roads and the speed limits on them are not advisory.

The Case for Landing West

If your Sydney trip is really a New South Wales trip, and the city is somewhere you pass through
rather than the destination, then flying into Kingsford Smith has always cost you an hour and a
toll before anything good happened.

From 25 October 2026 there is another option, on the right side of the city, with the mountains
in front of you rather than behind. Book the car to be there when you land, point it west, and skip
the part of the trip nobody ever enjoyed.

It helps that we are already out this way. Our host network includes cars based at Badgerys
Creek, St Marys and Cecil Hills, so the vehicle meeting your flight has not been sent across Sydney
to get there. For a trip whose entire premise is not crossing the city, it would be odd if the car
had to.

Guide rates, weekday winter pricing. Longer hires taper; the exact total for your dates is shown before you pay.

The bond held on your card equals the excess of the cover you choose. It is a pre-authorisation, released after return.