Visiting Western Australia
 

We're planning a trip to Australia in September, 2009 for 3 1/2 wks. We will spend about 6 nights in the Western Australia area. In addition to seeing the city sites in Perth, thought we could do a day trip to include Freemantle and Rottnest Island; another day trip to New Norcia and the Swan Valley (mostly for the scenery, not necessarily the vinyards); spend another day driving south to Margaret River exploring the area going thru Bunbery and Busselton, the Ludlow Forest, thru Dunsborough and onto Margaret River where we would spend the night. Returning to Perth via a differnt route the next day. Does this sound like a plan? Any suggestions welcomed.

Hi there -

I live in Perth and I'm writing this from Esperance, the second stop on a two week road trip.

You've got a lot crammed into your day trip to Margaret River - there's plenty to do enroute and the drive from Perth to MR is over three hours without stops. The town of MR isn't much to get excited about, but there's loads to see and do in the region, and many of the attractions are spread out and involve some driving to get to.

If you're going just to get a feel for the area and make a few stops, no problem, but if you hope to visit places (caves, wineries, breweries, beaches, lavender farms, cheese and chocolate shops, produce farms, etc, one night won't be sufficient.

Melnq8:
Thanks for the info. I'll continue to research. We wanted to take the more scenic drive on the way south hoping to see a lot of things and then a more direct route on the return. Have you done this drive? If so, what was your route?

Hi Loving!

Did you see Oprah yesterday?? Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman were on promoting "Australia" the movie - it will be premiering on November 26th and not only will it feature scenery from this part of Australia, it's sure to get you REALLY excited about your upcoming trip!!

Regards

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

If you are physically active, I would plan a full day (if not an overnight) on Rottnest Island -- it's gorgeous, with great biking (you can rent bikes when you get there), and you can easily spend the full day there if you want to explore by bike or bus. I would advise visiting Fremantle on a separate day, even though it's on the way to Rottnest. Easy trip by ferry on the Swan River (about 45 minutes). Definitely would not want to cram both into the same day.

There's a lot to see and appreciate in the Southwest, so whatever choices you make will be rewarding.

Aprillilacs:
Thanks for the info. It was most helpful. Can you get a ferry from Freemantle to Rottnest (how long is the crossing and frequency) and then from Rottnest back to Perth instead (if so, how long and often do they run?) Is there a bus that goes from Perth to Freemantle? If so, I might not bother taking the car that day if we want to return directly to Perth? What's your thoughts?

Check out this website from Rottnest Island tourism as it gives links to all the boat companies that provide ferry service to Rottnest: http://www.rottnestisland.com/en/Get...ry/default.htm
As you'll see, there are lots of options and you can take the ferry to/from Perth if that's what you want. (That is what we did.) Also, if you want to ride bikes on the island, which I also highly recommend, you should be able to get a package from the ferry which includes a day's bike rental. (On our trip, the bikes were on the ferry to Rottnest and were unloaded on the pier, so we could just hop on and ride away.)
I also second the recommendation of spending an entire day in Fremantle visiting the prison, the market and the excellent maritime museum.
Finally, I would recommend staying at least 2 nights (and maybe 3 nights, depending on your interests) in the Margaret River area. We did a really fun tour there which consisted of canoeing, caving and a bushtucker lunch. See: http://www.bushtuckertours.com/river.html

longhorn posted a good web site that should give you all the information you need about Rottnest logistics.

After I posted my comment I realized that it would be very nice, if you are staying in Perth, to travel on the ferry to Rottnest (makes a brief stop to pick up passengers in Fremantle), spend the day (or overnight), and stopover on the ride back for an overnight and full day in Fremantle. No car needed.

We stayed 3 nights in Fremantle so went to Rottnest from there, and then visited Perth via ferry on a daytrip. (We stayed overnight in Perth after we returned from a brief exploration of the South West. We didn't rent a car (and certainly didn't need one until we left Fremantle to drive south).

Consider this possibble itinerary -- arrive in Perth, take the airport shuttle to your hotel, tour the city for a day or two, ferry to Rottnest for the day, ferry from Rottnest to Fremantle, spend the night, tour Fremantle, then pick up a car and spend a few days in the Southwest, and drop the car at Perth airport before you fly out. Would save a bit of money on the car rental without any real inconvenience.

We loved the small part of Western Australia we were able to see in the short 8 days we spent there in May--staying in Yallingup, Pemberton, and the Albany area, with lots of stops in between. It was reminiscent of parts of Oregon in the U.S.--though the tree population was very different! The Margaret River wine country was gorgeous. We ate a lovely lunch at Voyager Estate for my birthday -- delightful.

No matter what you decide, you'll enjoy your trip, I'm sure.

lovingretirement -

Regarding your questions about possible routes - I've posted three detailed trip reports here on Fodor's that might help you out - here are the links to two of them, I can't find the third:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34838163

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34967476

I agree that your itinerary is very ambitious with just 6 days. I would focus on the Perth area and Margaret River. I like aprillilacs itinerary. There are a lot of things to do around Margaret River. I highly recommend checking out Melnq8's reports. I used them when we planned our trip. We spent over 2 weeks in WA in September 2006 and loved it.

Aprillilacs:
Thanks for the great suggestions. Question. We'll probably have 6 nights in WA, including Margaret Valley. I was planning a day trip north of Perth to New Norcia and the Swan Valley (for the scenery, not the vinyards). Do you think our time would be better spent following your suggestion which sounds like a great idea. We also are planning 6 nights in NT and 6 more in Adelaide include KI.

Melnq8:
Wow! I felt I was along for the ride reading your detailed post. It gave us a lot of great ideas. Would you happen to know what the weather is generally like in early September in this area?? We're planning on going to the NT first, probably the 3-4th week of August, then on to WA and Adelaide and KI last.

travel4flowers:
thanks. I think i'll forget about going north of perth and concentrate on the areas of Fremantle, Rottnest, Perth, and Margaret River. I might be able to add another day to WA as we're still in the planning stage and have a long time to plan. From my previous post, you'll see we're also trying to cover NT and Adelaide/KI. Since you did this area in September, what was the weather like for you?? We'll probably arrive early Sept, '09.

Weather was good. I live in the Pacific Northwest of US so it was a lot like a trip to California and Arizona in April. We started our trip at the end of September in Perth. Then we traveled North as far as Kalbari. We had a little bit of rain but it did turn warm (hot to us) at Kalbari. We were chasing wildflowers and there had not been a lot of rain the previous winter so the blooms were sparse. We moved south to Albany the first week of October and it was mostly sunny. Then we moved west to Margaret River and the weather continued good. Probably around 60-70 degrees F. most of the time in Perth and the SW. Above 70 as we went farther North.

I have pictures posted on my personal website: http://www.martageorge.com/ There is also a link to my blog where you can read about my planning and posts from our trip in 2006.

The biggest thing to keep in mind are the distances. Australia is a lot like the US in size and the distances are farther than you think.

September is a great time to visit WA. Cool and comfortable.

Currently in Denmark where we actually had to turn on the heat last night.