Perth had always been overlooked as a travel destination for Brad and in the past. Let’s be honest, the allure of Singapore or Thailand, for around the same airfare, with food that’s going to be so delicious and way cheaper...it’s hard to pass up going overseas.
However, I’m not sure what kind of travellers you are, but Brad and I basically do the following things when we travel:
- Wander around town and explore
- Pop into interesting museums, and points of interest
- Go to a zoo/aquarium/equivalent animal interaction (no surprises that I’m the instigator of this)
- Eat. Obviously.
You may notice shopping isn’t on that list, and that’s because Brad does not shop. I do, and usually Brad will just chill out in the hotel room, which is fine now and again, but not everyday, all day.
Keeping the above list in mind, I had been wondering if it was worth doing another visit to Singapore, but considering we had explored most of Singapore already, and seen the museums - I wasn’t sure what we would do other than eat (and wait for me while I go shopping).
Which isn’t a problem for me, but as a unit? We need to have an activity to do together than we haven’t done before.
So Brad made the suggestion, why don’t we go to Perth then? We had racked up some Velocity points so the flights weren’t going to cost too much and I had never been! How would I know if I liked it or not if I didn’t go?
Since Perth is a bit of a hike to get to, we thought it made sense to go for a little longer, to check out Perth, and also get out to Margaret River to check out a bit of the countryside and drink all the wine.
So if you’re contemplating a west coast trip, here’s a little taste of how we broke down our week to see how we distributed our time and how long you might want to spend in each area.
Friday night
- Take evening flight (we flew Virgin) from Melbourne to Perth.
- Check into Alex Hotel in Northbridge.
- Get supper.
- Pass out.
Saturday - Perth CBD
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Wander over to King’s Park and go for a stroll.
- Lunch back in Northbridge/CBD.
- Explore the CBD and shops.
- Pop into the art gallery.
- Grab a drink.
- Play in timezone (cause I’m a nerd).
- Dinner in Northbridge (you’re spoilt for choice!)
Sunday - Freemantle
- Brunch at a cafe in the CBD (again, spoilt for choice).
- Check out of hotel and into Freemantle Airbnb.
- Explore Freemantle markets for lunch.
- Wander around Freemantle and poke your nose into one of the many cute little shops, or walk along the coastline for a bit.
- Pop into Little Creatures for a beer tasting platter, and never leave. Seriously.
Monday - Rottnest Island
- Get the 9:30am ferry over to Rottnest Island.
- Do a lot of cycling.
- Take a lot of photos of quokkas.
- Take the ferry back over to Freemantle at 4:30pm.
- Eat dinner in Freemantle.
Tuesday - Drive to Margaret River
- Have a quick breakfast in the apartment.
- Pick up rental car.
- Drive down to Busselton to check out the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and eat fish and chips near the beach.
- Drive into Margaret River and check into Airbnb.
- Dinner in Margaret River town.
Wednesday - Margaret River
- Yahava Coffee for morning sustenance.
- Check out Jewel caves in the morning
- Leeuwin Estate visit.
- Lunch at Voyager Estate (which goes for 2-3 hours)
- Pass out from drinking (because Brad’s obviously designated driver on this particular day) in the evening back at the Airbnb.
Thursday - Margaret River
- Check out Mammoth cave in the morning.
- Cape Grace Wines.
- Howard Park Estate.
- Lunch at Vasse Felix.
- Cullen Wines.
- Margaret River Chocolate Factory.
- Repeat yesterday.
Friday - Back to Perth
- Brunch in Margaret River town.
- Gabriel Chocolate.
- Windows Estate.
- Windance Estate.
- Swing by to check out the views at Sugarloaf Rock.
- Lunch in Dunsborough at Yarri Restaurant.
- Drive back to Perth.
- Check into Tribe Hotel.
- Dinner in Subiaco.
Saturday - Time to go home
- Brunch in Leederville.
- Uber over to Corica bakery to buy an apple strudel to bring home (worth the Uber fare).
- Check out of hotel.
- Catch 12pm flight home to Melbourne.
- Cry because you’re back in reality.
Now I haven’t gone into detail into exactly which restaurants we went to in Perth, because I’ll cover that in another blog post (...well if I get around to writing it) but have given you an indication of which wineries we went to in Margaret River as I roughly tried to group wineries that were closer together to make for easy driving.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas for your very own jaunt out to Perth and Margaret River!
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