Is Perth worth visiting?

[frlcb]

I have only been to Melbourne so I can't say from personal experience but everyone I know that has been there has enjoyed it. My parents spent a week there and liked it.

[GilliC]

I didn't think there was all that much to do in Perth itself (it's worth a few days, including Fremantle). I do remember liking the Perth Mint, and it's a nice city to wander around for a few hours. But Western Australia is pretty awesome if you have some more time.

The Margaret River wine region was some of my favorite wine touring anywhere! The wine center in Cowaramup was extremely helpful and gave us tons of suggestions based on our tastes and interests. The winemakers were all very down-to-earth and eager to chat, and we had a fantastic time. There are plenty of inns and B&Bs in the region and plenty of BYO restaurants in Margaret River itself. There are also some small but nice caves just south of Margaret River.

On the way down there, the Busselton Jetty is a cool stop. The old jetty pylons are home to a small reef system with lots of kinds of sea life, and they've built an underwater observatory to make it accessible even to non-divers.

The thrombolites in Lake Clifton are kind of cool if you know what you're looking at. Bill Bryson's book about Australia talks a bit about the stromatolites that are farther north. Thrombolites are similar but I think form slightly differently.

Depending on the time of year, there's supposed to be some good whale watching around Cape Naturaliste, and some of the beaches around there are kind of pretty.

I think somewhere in Western Australia you can snorkel with whale sharks when it's the right season (we were not there in the right season).

Pemberton was an unexpected surprise for me. They have enormous trees that have rebar driven into the trunks, and there are fire-watching platforms around 75 meters up. If you have issues with heights, the Yeagarup dunes are also near Pemberton. They're a large inland sand dune that's moving at around 4 meters each year and are overrunning the surrounding forest. It's quite a sight to see the tops of the trees just barely showing through the edge of the dunes and in some places it's just sand as far as you can see.

Bill Bryson was very taken with the Treetop Walk in Walpole, and while it's kind of neat, I felt like it was too crowded when we were there to hear/see much animal life, but it was a school holiday. Walpole and Denmark in general are a couple of cute, quaint little towns, and Denmark has an alpaca farm where I got to touch a koala!!! Squee! (I did not catch chlamydia.) The alpacas were fluffy awesomeness too.

The last stop on our trip was Albany, which is supposed to be another great place for whale watching (in the right season). It used to be a whaling town, and the old whaling station has been turned into "Whale World." It's kind of grisly to learn the details of the whaling industry, but it's all very well done and quite informative.

There are lots of other places in WA that we didn't visit, but the WA tourism site has tons of great suggestions and info. The Lonely Planet Western Australia book kind of sucks.

I really would have liked to get up to the Ningaloo Reef, because it's supposed to be fantastic, but it was a long trip with not a lot on the way. I'd still like to make the trip someday, though.

And if you want to get inspired to visit WA, seriously check out Bill Bryson's book (Down Under or In a Sunburned Country depending on if it's the US version or not). Actually, the book is pretty hilarious, and I'd recommend it anyway!

[aMrsin09]

Gillic I must need to travel with you. I lived in the Perth area for 4 months and hated every last minute of it. You couldn't pay me to get out of WA fast enough.

Ningaloo Reef is just off of Exmouth and that is where you can dive with whale sharks. At $400 a person. It is also a 12 -14 hours drive from Perth.

We honeymooned at Shark Bay which is is the middle of some World Heritage site that has nothing for hours in any direction. But we did get to see the stromatolites.

And for the love of god, why does no one every mention those Mother Effing flies! Gawd, the flies are reason enough to never go there again.

[GilliC]

aMrs, did you go to Margaret River?! How could you not love Margaret River. ...I guess if you're not into wine, maybe!

To be fair, I did find Perth to be a bit boring. And there were lots of flies, but I was still carrying bug spray around in my purse at that point (a habit picked up due to the mosquitoes in Beijing)!

[dutchgirl678]

I loved Perth! I have family there and visited after high school. Fremantle is worth a day visit as well as a boat ride to Rottnest Island. I also have family who live south near Bunbury and there were a lot of cool things to visit down there as well. I climbed one of those trees in Pemberton that was mentioned earlier. Loved that! Also Wave Rock was really neat but that was further inland.

I went to the zoo in Perth and the shopping centers were great.

I did get to go to Shark Bay for one night as well and saw dolphins there and fed them. That was an amazing experience. But it's quite a drive up from Perth.