Peter Gearin revels in rustic simplicity on a trip to the Blue Mountains' ritziest village.

You know what to expect when you visit Leura. It's the town a kilometre above sea level that has claimed the high ground as the poshest spot in the Blue Mountains.

These days, Leura has the nicest (and most expensive) cakes, coffees and teas. It has the best (and most expensive) bottle shop. It has a restaurant with a chef's hat (and an expensive menu). It has second-hand bookshops, toy shops, candy shops, art galleries and antique shops that sometimes have French names and fancy-pants price tags.

These days, people come to Leura to have spas and massages to "rejuvenate" and "de-stress". They come to consider the merits of using Belgian couverture chocolate in Josophan's Mexican chocolate cake. They come to Bygone Beautys to admire the world's biggest private collection of teapots, one of which dates to 1792. Wealth even oozes onto the main street. A Ferrari sat on Leura Mall for a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon we were there and no one seemed to notice.

Leura is thriving on its reputation, of course. Most visitors are daytrippers happy to embark on the leisurely two-hour drive from the city to soak in the cool mountain air, followed by fresh scones with double soy decaf lattes (that'll be $12.50, thanks). Those who opt to stay for the weekend can choose from one of the area's many luxurious hotels, motels and guesthouses to be pampered and indulged.

Then there's Leura Plums.

This was the cottage that played home to my family of four for a winter weekend away. This was not what you'd expect from a Leura getaway destination these days.

Leura Plums is a small, white timber cottage built in the 1930s in a small, quiet street on the "unfashionable" side of the highway. That is, where the Ferraris aren't. It has two small bedrooms with little hanging space, a small dining area and kitchen, a small living area and a cold bathroom with concrete floors. It has a cold laundry out the back where the firewood is kept and a tiny sunroom out the front that can be turned into an extra bedroom, as it was for my 11-year-old son. The old-fashioned doors creaked, the painted timber walls were thin and the small TV wasn't digital, wasn't plasma and didn't carry any pay channels.

And the whole thing was simply brilliant.

It's hard to put a price on authenticity but Leura Plums is dripping with the stuff. Unpretentious and homey, it's like the house your granny might have had up in the mountains, filled to bursting with family stories and simple pleasures.

It reminded me of a time when it was more important to feel loved, and not just spoilt. When warmth wasn't something that was taken for granted because it belched from the ceiling vents but was earned by setting up a proper log fire. We were able to make memories of our own - my boys still talk about my repeated failed attempts to get that log fire going.

Everything we wanted to do was within easy reach. On our one full day at Leura Plums we beat the tourist buses onto the Scenic Railway and Cableway, went for a great walk on the forest floor, visited Katoomba and Blackheath and mingled with the well-heeled crowds on the Leura high street.

When we returned from exploring the Blue Mountains' pleasures we got warm, curling up on the well-padded sofas to watch a DVD or burrowing under a generous doona to read. The soft, cosy beds - one queen, the other double - had electric blankets and were a snug fit in the bedrooms. As the temperature slipped to zero we blessed the gods that the cottage no longer had an outdoor dunny. We talked, joked, drank wine brought from home and prepared meals on the brilliant all-in-one cooker.

Simple, five-star fun: expect nothing less here.

The writer was a guest of Tourism NSW and Leura Plums.

TRIP NOTES

Address: Leura Plums, 3 Davies Street, Leura.

Bookings: Phone (02) 4784 3007 or 0404 470 823.

Rates: From $150 (weekdays) to $195 (weekends) a couple a night plus $25 a night for anyone extra. The minimum weekend stay is two nights.

VERDICT

Classic 1930s cottage offering an authentic Blue Mountains experience.

Why you'd go: For the peace and quiet, and to beat the daytrippers to the area's best attractions.

Why you wouldn't: Because you hate the thought of a cold bathroom floor.

FIND TIME TO

* Strap on your sturdy shoes and hike one of the many trails in the Blue Mountains.

* Visit Scenic World to spend a couple of hours riding on the Railway, Cableway and Walkway. A family pass for all three costs $48.

* Dip in and out of the Leura shops and cafes.