My husband and I will be returning to Western Australia in March for the third time. We have seen many of the popular sights WA has to offer, including the obvious Perth, Fremantle, Rottnest Island, but also up to Exmouth and down to Margaret River with stops in between.

This time, we are traveling with family and are going to rent a holiday house for 2 weeks near Mandurah (where my husband's grandparents live.) Since our primary focus of this trip is to spend time with family (as opposed to the whirlwind traveling we usually do), we are looking to set up some smaller day trips around the Perth/Mandurah area, and are looking for some suggestions that we may have overlooked in the past. We are definitely planning on returning to Rotto, and spending a lot of time Perth and Freo.

The group we are traveling with has a wide range of interests (and ages), but are all fun-loving and fairly active.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I've been researching the Swan Valley recently, and there seems a lot to do in the area - these sites might be helpful:

www.swanvalley.com.au/home.html

http://www.discoverwest.com.au/weste...an_valley.html

Thanks Melnq8.

We definitely will look into this... at first glance it seems they have many events and activities that the whole family could participate in.

Some other things you might consider (assuming you haven't already done these):

Perth Mint, Subiaco, Kings Park, Burswood Park, macadamia nut farm, Rockingham Dolphin encounter, sea kayaking to Seal Island, WA aquarium at Hilary's Boat Harbour, Caversham Wildlife Park, and Carnac and Penguin Islands.

No, I haven't done all of these personally, but found them in a Perth city guide I picked up on my last visit.

Have fun.

We drove from Moora to Narrogin and went through several of the towns in the Avon Valley. We didn't have a chance to stop but I liked the area. There are many historic buildings in the area and it was very picturesque. I want to go back and explore the area around York.
http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/D...h/Avon+Valley/

If you like gardens, you should check out Araluen Botanical Park. We didn't have time to stop but it looked very nice from the website.
http://www.araluenbotanicpark.com.au/
Also the Perth Hills might be interesting especially the area around Mundaring. We had wanted to go to Loose Box restaurant which is supposed to be one of the best in WA.
http://www.mundaringtourism.com.au/thingstodo.html

Have you been to the Dolphin Center in Bunbury? It was another place that we didn't have time to visit.

Also one note about visiting Swan Valley, I found that the restaurants were only open for lunch and that several were closed on Monday and Tuesday during the off-season (Sept). It may be different in March but you should probably check.

At the risk of hijacking lightfoot's thread, I have a question for travel4flowers -

We're looking for quiet spot outside of Perth to spend our first night before heading down to Albany - we'll arrive in Perth mid afternoon on a Saturday in March. Do you have any suggestions? We don't mind driving an hour or so.

We didn't get a chance to get to the outskirts of Perth. I looked at what was around the southern area of Perth because we had a midnight flight out of Perth and we were driving up from MR. We decided to stay in the MR area until late in the day. We had time for a dinner at Little Creatures in Fremantle before heading to the airport.

I took a look at my map and the WA guide book. You might look at Kalamunda. That is kinda on the way to the Albany Hwy and is about 30 minutes from Perth. The Rosebridge House looked nice.

I also thought about York but that seems to be a long way to Albany. Whereis says it is just about 1 hour to York from Perth. The road between York and Cranbrook is through mostly farmland. We were hoping to see some wildflowers and unique plants in the area. Otherwise, there wasn't too much in the area.

Maybe someone from WA would have a suggestion?

Thanks - I'll look at Kalamunda. I was wondering about going to Albany via 120 (through York, Brookton and Narrogin) since we took 30 last time, but it does look like a much longer drive.

I'm thinking Mundaring might be a possibility too.

New Norcia is about 132 km from Perth ( 2hrs) and a little longer from Mandurah. It is a town founded and still owned and run by the Benedictine Monks. The history is fascinating as they had schools for farmers sons and aboriginal children. There are walking tours that tell the history of the schools and farm that are a must to go on.
We stayed in the guest house, but the hotel has been renovated since we were there. A very interesting slice of Australian history.
A long day trip but worth it.

Melng8, since you've been down hwy 40 - you might also look at York after all. I think it is about 5 hours or less to Albany from York. We left Narrogin around 10 and stopped for about 1 hour in Cranbrook at noon and about 1 hour in Mt. Baker at 2pm and easily made it into Albany by 5pm. The farm land is nice along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures of the area because we were focused on getting through the area to Albany.

Thanks for the suggestions. New Norcia sounds very interesting, but may be a bit far for a day trip. York might be a more convenient possibility. Also will look into Mundaring/Perth Hills.

travel4flowers, thanks for the heads up about the restaurants in Swan Valley.

Melnq8,

We spent a couple of days at Dryandra Reserve just outsdie of Narrogin. It was fabulous - if you are looking for somewhere quiet.
It is an old forestry dept settlement and they rent out the houses for about $50 per night (I think that was what it was). There are no other facilities, so you need to bring your own food.

If you like birding and wildflowers, it was great. The Bush Stone Curlews in the morning were a bonus

Thanks travel4flowers and johbot. I took the easy way out and booked an apartment in South Perth on the riverfront. Can always cancel if I change my mind. It's only for a night before we head down to Albany. Still considering taking the longer 120 route though.

The South West region on W.A is marvelous. You said you visited Margaret River, places similar and close by are Bussleton and Augusta. Beautiiful beaches and cute towns. For a more nature like experience towns such as Pemberton and Bridgetown may be worth a visit.
Make sure whilst in Fremantle you go to Little Creatures, a vwonderful brewery on the esplanade. Also peruse to markets on friday/sat/sun.

If you go to the Swan Valley I highly recommend a game of Supa Golf - it's like a cross between real golf and mini-golf (or putt-putt) with larger balls and clubs. Good fun for all the family!! You normally don't need to book except maybe on weekends.

Chelsea1479, thanks for the tip about Supa Golf. The family has some serious golfers, and some very UNserious golfers so this sounds like great fun for everyone!

cilla888, We didn't get to Little Creatures last time we were in Fremantle, so it is on our list to do this time.

We leave two weeks from today. I can't wait!