5 Days in Perth

Kings Park covers about 400 hectares on a hill above the river, and it is wilder than most city parks: two-thirds of it is native bushland, not lawn. The Whadjuk Noongar know the hill as Kaarta Koomba, "big hill", and it was a ceremonial place long before loggers cut jarrah here in the 1800s. A public reserve was set aside in 1871, and it has been the city's favorite green space ever since.

Do the two-hour version. Walk the Lotterywest Federation Walkway, a steel and glass bridge that arches through the treetops, then climb the DNA Tower, 101 steps up a double-helix staircase for a view across the river to the city towers. Wander the Botanic Garden, which holds more than 3,000 species of Western Australian plants. Free walks led by volunteer guides run at 10am and 1pm every day.

On the eastern edge of the park, the State War Memorial stands on the very lip of the hill, a stone cenotaph dating from 1929, with a Court of Contemplation added in 1955 and a Flame of Remembrance and Pool of Reflection added in 2000. The trees along the avenues that lead to it carry small plaques for Western Australians who died in the two world wars.

It is a quiet ten minutes with the best city view of the morning, and the path down toward the river from here is gentle enough to walk. Plan to be at the bottom, in the city, by about noon.

Elizabeth Quay is Perth's attempt to give the city a face on the river. Until a few years ago this was a car park and a patch of reserve, and then the engineers dug an artificial inlet in it and opened the quay in January 2016. It has a marina, a bridge across the mouth of the inlet and a long strip of cafés and restaurants facing the water.

This is the place for lunch with a view, though the prices are what you would expect from a waterfront. Walk the Elizabeth Quay Bridge, then follow the foreshore east along the Swan River toward the Bell Tower. The ferries to South Perth leave from the jetty here too, if you want to see the skyline from the other side.

The Bell Tower is a copper and glass spire 82.5 meters tall that looks like a ship's sail or a shard of ice, depending on the light. Inside hang the Swan Bells: twelve of them come from St Martin-in-the-Fields church on Trafalgar Square in London and were given to Western Australia in 1988, the six others were cast later from metals mined in the state. Together they are the second largest set of change-ringing bells in the world.

It is open every day from 10am to 4pm, last entry 3:45pm, and the upper levels look out over the river and the city. The resident ringers, the St Martin's Society of Change Ringers, practice on Thursdays from noon to 1pm and Sundays from 10:30am to 11:30am, and day one lands on a Thursday. The quay and the tower are five minutes apart, so if you want to hear the bells, come at noon and have lunch at the quay afterwards.

Take the free Blue CAT bus or walk fifteen minutes up to the Perth Cultural Centre, the cluster of museum, gallery and library next to the main train station. The museum is called Boola Bardip, and its new wing joins the old Gaol, a colonial lockup that is part of the visit.

It is the best way to understand the state in an afternoon, from Aboriginal history to natural history. The Art Gallery of Western Australia is next door, open daily from 10am to 5pm, and worth twenty minutes if you like Australian painting. The museum is open daily from 9:30am to 5pm.

Northbridge is the part of Perth that sits across the railway line from the shopping center, and it is where the city eats and drinks. Roe Street and William Street are lined with Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Italian and Greek places, and Chinatown on Roe Street is where Perth goes for late dinners. Most venues in Chinatown are BYO, which means you bring your own wine.

Pick the restaurant with the most locals and share a few dishes. On the way, stop at Kakulas Bros on William Street, a long-running grocery where spices, flours and dried fruit come out of big cloth bags. It is a better souvenir shop than anything on the tourist streets.

End the day at The Bird, a pub at 181 William Street with a courtyard and a stage that hosts local bands, DJs and touring acts. It is open seven days a week and the program changes nightly, so look at the website in the morning and decide on the way.

Perth has a reputation for good music that outgrows its small size, and a night here is the way to see it. If the line-up does not appeal, the cafés and bars along William Street stay open late and are easy to wander through.

South Terrace is known as the Cappuccino Strip, and Gino's is the café that most locals point to first. It opens at 5:30am, every day including public holidays, and has been serving Fremantle for nearly thirty years. People come for the coffee and the Italian food in equal numbers, and the pavement tables fill up fast on a sunny morning.

Have a flat white and watch Fremantle wake up. If you want breakfast, ask what the kitchen does that day.

A five-minute walk uphill from the strip stands Fremantle Prison, the only World Heritage building in Western Australia. Construction began in the 1850s, and almost 10,000 men were transported from Britain and Ireland to the colony and helped build their own prison. The state took it over in 1886 and kept using it as a maximum-security prison until 1991, long after the convict era ended.

Entry to the gatehouse is free, but beyond it you can only go with a guided tour, and they run through the day from 10am. The Convict Prison Tour covers the convict era up to 1886 and is the standard choice. Behind Bars covers the later years, from 1887 to 1991. The Tunnels Tour (about 44 EUR, 70 AUD) is only for visitors aged 12 and over, and there are also True Crime and Torchlight tours.

The Fremantle Markets hall dates from 1897, a stone-arched building on South Terrace that was a wholesale produce market until the 1950s and reopened as the market you see today in 1975. It is open on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday Mondays: the Yard, the food area, from 8am to 6pm, the Hall with the general stalls from 9am to 6pm.

It is part street food, part souvenir shop and part buskers. Expect more than 150 stalls selling local makers' goods, art, fashion and produce. Look up at the arches for the spring flower display, and skip the mass-made souvenirs.

At the end of High Street, on a small headland called Arthur Head, is the Round House, the first permanent building in the Swan River Colony and the second oldest surviving European building in Western Australia. It was built from local limestone in 1830 and opened in 1831. It served as a police lockup until 1900, and after that as the chief constable's family home.

The hill matters as much as the building. A tunnel was dug through Arthur Head in 1837-38 for a whaling company, to link the whaling station on Bathers Beach with High Street, and it is still there, about 45 meters long. The Round House is open daily from 10:30am to 3:30pm and a cannon is fired most days around 1pm. Come for the view over the port rather than the exhibition.

This museum sits inside the old Commissariat buildings, and it opened in 1979. It displays finds from the Batavia, a Dutch ship wrecked off the Western Australian coast in 1629, along with other wrecks from later centuries.

It is open daily from 9:30am to 5pm and admission is free. A free highlights tour of the galleries runs at 10:30am and 2:30pm, except in school holidays. It is the best thing in Fremantle to do when the afternoon is too hot to be outside.

Cicerello's has been on the Fishing Boat Harbour since 1903, which makes it one of the oldest businesses in town. It opens 9:30am to 8pm every day, and its fish and chips are the dish locals send visitors to eat on the waterfront. The fish is cut on site, and there are local lobster, crab and prawns on the menu too, plus a large free aquarium to look at while you wait.

Buy it takeaway and eat it on the harbor wall, watching the boats. The seagulls will try to get your chips. Keep your fish close and eat it fast.

Fremantle's best-known beer began here in 2000, when three former Matilda Bay brewery staff opened a brewery in a harbor-side shed that had been built for America's Cup yachts and was later a crocodile farm. Little Creatures Pale Ale, an American-style ale, became the beer that put Western Australian craft brewing on the map. The company has been owned by Kirin through Lion since 2012, so it is no longer an independent brewery, but the shed is still the place to drink it. It is open daily from 11am until late.

Order a pale ale, sit outside as the sun goes down and watch the harbor. If the Fremantle Doctor is blowing, you will feel it on the terrace.

Take the early ferry from B Shed in Fremantle, where Rottnest Express boats leave. The same-day adult return costs 87.50 AUD with the island admission fee included, while the same crossing from Perth's Barrack Street Jetty is 135.50 AUD, so the Fremantle departure saves about 30 EUR. The admission fee is collected on behalf of the Rottnest Island Authority and is part of the ticket.

The crossing takes around half an hour. You can add a hire bike to the ticket and collect it as you step off the boat. B Shed is being renovated, so leave time for parking and follow the signs at the terminal.

Rottnest's famous residents are quokkas, small marsupials that look like they are smiling. Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island in 1696, mistook them for giant rats and named it 't Eylandt 't Rottenest, "rat's nest island". The Noongar call it Wadjemup, "place across the water where the spirits are".

The easiest place to see quokkas is the settlement near the jetty, where they gather around the shops and cafés, especially in the cooler hours. Take photos and a selfie from a distance, but do not touch or feed them. Human food makes them sick, and rangers can fine you for touching.

Rottnest has no cars, which makes the bike the best way around. A full loop of the island is around 22-25 km, which takes about 3 to 5 hours, but you do not need to do all of it. The Basin, a reef-protected swimming bay, is about a kilometer from the settlement, Geordie Bay is around 10 minutes by bike and the Wadjemup Lighthouse around 20.

Rottnest Express rents adult bikes for 39 AUD a day, helmets included, and you collect the bike when you step off the ferry. Electric bikes are not available from them. Take water and sunscreen: there is little shade on the island, and the afternoon wind can make the ride back harder.

The Basin is a natural lagoon behind a reef, and the water is calm and clear enough that it is the beginners' choice on the island. Look for fish and crustaceans over the reef.

Rottnest is the best snorkeling spot near Perth, and there are other bays with reefs along the island, but they are further out. If you want to hire a mask and fins, reserve them in advance when you book the ferry. The reef is protected, so do not stand on it.

Rottnest has two histories, and the island's own museum is where the harder one is told. From 1838 to 1931, the island was used as a prison and forced labor camp for more than 3,600 Aboriginal people, who were held in harsh conditions. A new Wadjemup Museum opened in December 2020, and it presents the Aboriginal story and the wider history of Wadjemup.

Do not skip it, even on a beach day. It adds weight to the rest of the island and takes less than an hour. Entry is by contribution and you can pay by scanning the QR code at the door.

Back in the settlement, the Rottnest Bakery is the practical lunch: pies, sausage rolls, vanilla slices and fresh bread, baked on the premises, plus coffee and ice cream. Eating a pie on a bench with a quokka watching from two meters away is a very Rottnest thing to do. Remember: do not share.

For something longer, the Quokka Arms is the island's long-standing pub near the jetty, and Geordie Bay Square has cafés on the water. Whatever you choose, leave enough time to get to the jetty before your ferry.

Scarborough is Perth's surf beach, about 13 km northwest of the city. The coast here faces the open Indian Ocean, and the beach has hosted the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships several times, most recently in 2023. The beachfront is a mix of restaurants, bars and apartment towers, and the landmark Rendezvous Hotel, built in 1986 as Observation City, is a clear sign that the 1980s were here.

It is wide, busy and sporty. Swim between the flags where lifesavers patrol, and check the patrol times, since the waves can be strong. Buses run to the beach from Stirling train station and the Perth Busport, and the route numbers change with the season, so use the Transperth journey planner on the day.

Right on the sand is Scarborough Beach Pool, a modern ocean-side pool complex run by the City of Stirling. It is the choice when the surf is too rough for beginners or when you want a safe swim for children, with the ocean as a backdrop.

In summer the pool opens at 5am on weekdays and 6:30am on weekends, and closes at 9pm on weekdays and 8pm on weekends, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. A swim here in the early morning is a nice way to start the day, and you can still be in the sea by 9.

The Scarborough foreshore has been redeveloped over the last few decades, and the restaurants along the Esplanade look straight out over the water. Wander along, look at a few menus and pick one with outdoor seating.

Fish, a burger or a salad are all fine. This is a place for relaxed beach food, not a destination dinner, so spend your appetite for later. You will be back on the move south in about an hour.

Allow about an hour to reach Cottesloe, by bus and train or a quick taxi. Cottesloe is Perth's classic beach: a 1.5 km strip of pale sand between North Cottesloe and Mosman Park, sheltered from the strongest summer breezes by offshore reefs, which makes it relatively safe for swimming. The Rottnest Channel Swim starts from here, and Sculpture by the Sea, an outdoor art show, has filled the beach since 2005.

The lone pylon in the water is a remnant of a shark net built after a fatal attack in 1925. It was restored after a town vote in 2008 and is now a diving platform. Swim out to it, or just float and watch the afternoon wind pick up.

The Indiana Tea House is the landmark building on the Cottesloe foreshore. The first Indiana Tea House stood on this spot from 1913 to 1970, the Centenary Bathing Pavilion followed from 1929 to 1982, and the current building was designed in the 1990s to echo them and finished in 1996. It has been leased to Andrew and Nicola Forrest since 2019, and their plans to redevelop it have run into years of community opposition, so the building you see may change.

Today the Marine Parade level holds a restaurant, Indigo Oscar, and the road above the beach has more cafés and hotel terraces with the same view, so one of them will have a table. Order an iced coffee and an ice cream, and stay here until the light changes.

Sunset is the main event. The sun drops straight into the Indian Ocean, and the sky goes orange, then pink, then a deep blue. In early November the sun sets about 6:45pm, in late December around 7:20pm, and half of Perth seems to arrive with a picnic.

Take a towel, sit on the grass above the beach or on the sand, and watch the light. Swim before it, not after. When the sun is down, walk up to Marine Parade for dinner, or catch the train back from Cottesloe station.

The first stop is Lancelin, a small town about 127 km north of Perth, where the white sand dunes rise behind the town and go on for kilometers. Locals ride dune buggies and four-wheel drives here, and sandboarding is the activity for visitors. The ocean off Lancelin is also known for windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Come in the morning, when the sand is still cool enough to walk on barefoot. Climb the first dune, slide down on a board, and walk back up. By midday it is hot and the wind picks up, which is good for kitesurfers but not for walkers.

Cervantes is a small town of about 480 residents, named after a ship wrecked nearby, which in turn was named after the author of Don Quixote. It is the base for the western rock lobster fishery, and the Lobster Shack, a shop and kitchen that also runs factory tours, is the reason to stop. The kitchen is open from 11am to 3pm and the shop from 9am to 5pm every day except Christmas.

Order lobster, the crayfish locals call it, or fish and chips if the budget is tight. Local rock lobster is the most valuable fishery in Australia, and eating it a few meters from where it is landed is the point of coming here.

Just south of Cervantes you enter Nambung National Park, which costs 17 AUD per car for up to 12 people. The Pinnacles Desert Discovery center explains the geology and the cultural and natural heritage of the area with displays, videos and soundscapes. The Pinnacles are limestone from ancient seashells that turned to sand and were blown inland into dunes.

Scientists still disagree about exactly how the pillars formed, with several theories. The tallest reach 3.5 meters, and the area stayed little known until it was surveyed in 1934 and set aside as a reserve in 1967. Spend 45 minutes in the center, then go and see them.

From the visitor center a one-way drive trail of a few kilometers runs through the desert, where thousands of yellow limestone pillars rise out of the sand. Some are knee-high, some taller than a person, and some look like tombstones or a crowd of people. You can walk among them on the marked trail and stop at the pullouts along the drive.

The light is best in the late afternoon, when the pillars throw long shadows and turn orange. It is hot in November and December, so walk early or late and take water. The drive back to Perth takes about 2.5 hours, so leave the park by late afternoon.