Located in Sydney’s south, the Royal National Park is a popular day trip offering spectacular natural sights, plenty of picnic and barbecue areas, fishing, bushwalking, birdwatching and whale watching.
The park is open from 7am to 8.30pm daily and you should check on current conditions before going, see nationalparks.nsw.gov.au.
Sydney to Royal National Park by Car
Head south on the M1, then Princess Hwy, turning off at Farnell Avenue – 41 min (36.0 km) via M1 and Princes Hwy/A1. You can also keep traveling the Princess Hwy and enter on McKell Avenue at Waterfall. The entry you choose will depend on which areas of the park you wish to focus on. View the park’s interactive map here to help out with those choices.
Sydney to Royal National Park by Train
Some attractions and walking trails in the Royal National Park can be accessed from train stations including Loftus, Engadine, Heathcote, Waterfall, and Otford train station. You can take the T4 or SCO train from Bondi Junction, Kings Cross, Martin Place, Town Hall, Central and Redfern stations. Trains run almost every 30 minutes with the journey taking around 67min (to Otford) and tickets costing from $4.82.
From Sutherland train station and Otford train station, you can also take the Park Connections bus services which visit Bundeena Wharf, Audley, North and south ends of The Coast track, Wattamolla, Garie Beach, and Garawarra Farm carpark, the start point for the walk to Figure Eight Pools. It’s recommended to book in advance. Tickets including park entry are $9. See parkconnections.com.au.
You can also take the train to Cronulla and then take the ferry to Bundeena with about 15 minutes walk from Bundeena to the park entry at either Sea Breeze Lane or the Coast Track and Wedding Cake Rock Trail.
Royal National Park Maps
For hiking, topographic maps are recommended, and there is also an interactive park map app.
Alltrails has around 46 trails listed for the area ranked by difficulty (easy, moderate and hard).