It's a good walk from the main car park, with plenty of nice scenery, and the beach is gorgeous. The pools themselves aren't particularly impressive but it's a nice walk for sure.
It needs to be relatively calm and with a favourable tide, but there's an illustrated information post that spells it out before heading too far down.
$12 to park your car at the top is a bit rude
Before going to the figure 8's check the tide forecast. Otherwise you could walk there and be disappointed by not seeing the pools. As it needs to be low tide. So you need to plan to arrive at the pools on low tide. Also takes over an hour to walk there through the bush down to the beach over the rocks. You will know when you are there as there's a lot of people there.
Great walk through the national park and along the beach. Bit of a trek to get in across the rocks but worth it to get to the pool. Can get a bit busy with so many people wanting to see it and take photos. Beautiful views though.
My friends and I hiked about 10km from the Otford train station to the figure 8 pools and it was worth every step! Coming out of the train station you head up all those steps then that huge hill and then make a left to get started on the coastal track. After that, you just keep walking and there are a few map posts along the way which are really helpful. I went in the beginning of winter, the hike was perfect temperature but the water was a little cold. The hardest part of the hike was crossing over all the rocks to get to them. I was in Sydney for 3 weeks and this was my absolute favorite thing I did. You certainly do not need to pay $100 + to do a tour of this. It is very accessible via train, only costs $10 but be prepared to spend the entire day there!!
We checked the official website and tide and everything. It was a sunny day and the walk was great. Though there are rocks and stuff on the way, the walk in general wasn't too bad. The Pool itself was not as amazing as I expected, perhaps because the light wasn't great. But we had fun dipping our feet in the ice freezing water. Make sure you bring swimming suit and spare change. It is a must to get yourself into the pool at least for one second!
