Ask anyone traveling all over Australia what they favorite part was and the answer will be the same 10 out of 10 times - Western Australia! Granted it is also the largest part so that can mean different things to different people. It is such a diverse area, you are bound to find something here that you love!

When we decided to travel to Australia, we chose to start here. Actually, a bit out of luck, because we were hoping to catch the summer as soon as possible. If you want a Mediterranean summer, Perth is the place to be and a great starting point for your exploration of WA! Escape the massive tourism winds and enjoy what still feels like a local gem!

Some numbers:

30 days

2850 € p.p

5000+ kms

Traveling WA: How?

Western Australia is huge! By far the largest state! So if anywhere else in Australia, roadtripping with a van or car would already be a great idea, here is by all means necessary! Unless, of course, you want to stick to Perth! All main metropolitan areas of Australia have a reasonably good public transport system, which is actually quite affordable!

If you're feeling fancy, Australia (and Western Australia, specifically) has a lot of small airports for internal flights, so you could in theory fly around the state as well. This is more expensive and gives you less flexibility, of course!

We decided on a campervan (the one you see in the picture) from Indie Campers and we thought this was a great first start to our trip. Full disclosure: we are not experienced in van life at all at this point and we thought let's ease in with a comfortable start.

Needless to say, this van was AWESOME! We do go into more detail about our van experience/different budget scenarios in another post, but overall we were very happy to drive around with it and it marked a great start for our trip!

Traveling WA: Where?

We spent 4 weeks in WA - that may seem like a lot but actually, that is very rushed, due to the size of the state! Also due to its low population density, it can take you many hours of driving before you get to the nearest town. This meant that we didn't have enough time to see the full state (not even close) - it might be possible to see more than what we did, but you might have to spend more time driving per day and have less rest days (which are super important to make you actually enjoy your holiday, in our opinion)!

We visited WA in the beginning of the summer (December) which meant the weather was starting to heat up for real - because of that we decided to not venture too much into the outback as we didn't considered ourselves experienced enough to handle that adventure yet, especially, in the peak of the heat! So let's divide WA in a few regions to help you decide if it's worth a visit: South/South East, Perth (& Surroundings), Middle, North and Outback.

Don't forget: You'll most likely visit national parks (I hope you do because they are awesome and you can often camp there as well!). In Western Australia, you have to pay to enter some (not all), but you can get a nice discount if you already decided how many/which you will visit during the time of your stay and can buy a pass ticket which will be much cheaper - check it out here (you do need to print it though)!

Getting to WA:

Before you even arrive and get your van, if you are having doubts on how to get here (unless you live in Australia, but even then), you're best getting here by plane! There are many companies who fly here - we flew from Singapore with Scoot (which is the a budget-friendly airline from Singapore), which we were not familiar with but really enjoyed for a 5/6 hour flight. This turned out to be a great reason do a stopover in Singapore which was also a super cool place to visit! We describe our experience in this and other airlines in another post, if you want to know more.

South (East), WA

Heading down South of Perth, we explored all the way to Albany (with the hope of getting to Esperance) along the coast. It is such a beautiful region with so much to offer that we ended up staying here for 10 days. Here are some of the highlights of what we did here:

• Slept by the beach in Bunburry (just book it for a free up-to 48h stay through the City of Bunburry's website), where we able to see dolphins at sunset (after failing miserably to see them when visiting the Dolphin Discovery Center for their morning free sighting on the beach)

• Took the cutest little train in Busselton over one of the longest jetties in the world and then visited the Underwater Observatory (a must!) - you can also walk this jetty and skip the train to get to the Observatory

• Visit one of the many awesome limestone caves of Margaret River region - the Mammoth cave (that you can see in the image)

• Saw some of the worlds tallest eucalyptus (100+ meters high), the Karris, at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk, but you can also catch them while driving around in this area

• Had a great local beer in Albany while taking a step into the past with this Victorian style town

• Did some really cool hikes (1 day of the 4-day Cape to Cape Hike in Margaret River) and learned that flies are the real "enemy" wildlife in Australia, they'll sting you and not leave any of your openings alone! Ask anyone about the meaning of the Ozzy wave 👋

• Had some other beautiful wildlife encounters with many kangaroos

• Swam in amazing beaches - shout out to the Green's Pool in Denmark

The South East area has left us with some lovely memories and it was for sure one of our favorite spots. The only thing we missed was going all the way to Esperance and pass by one of WA pink lakes, but time pushed us North to continue our adventure!

Perth (& Surroundings), WA

Perth marked both the start and the end of our stay in Western Australia, and one of our first quests (which was also our last) was one of Gigantic proportions (pun-intended): our quest to find the 6 wooden giants of Mandurah (which you can't really see on google maps) made by a local artist, which are becoming a bit of landmark in the area and make for a fun quest paired with a nice little walk. Silly us that couldn't find the last one somewhere in the city center of Perth!

We also spent our first Christmas in the summer, just north of the city center! As well as our last days exploring the city when we had given back our van. Christmas in Australia is definitely something else - much more of an outdoors celebration, which we really loved to witness! But here go some highlights of we were able to do in the 10 days we spent in Perth and its surroundings:

• Almost got blown off by the wind next to one of the oldest kind of living beings in the world - the thrombolites of Lake Clifton

• Spent an afternoon chilling with the amazing views of Perth Botanical Garden and 2 others exploring the harbor and the city parks

• Visited the north harbor area to check out the AQWA and learn more about the friends you can see underwater 🐠

• Enjoyed snorkeling on so many small beaches and learned about the Australian Dream (start your day with the visit to the beach)

• Spent a too short day biking, swimming and having fun with quokkas in Rottnest Island (a basically car-free island, where you should definitely stay at least overnight) - although brace yourself for the 45 min ferry ride, it can get tough out there (we used Rottnest Express but both companies seemed equally good)

• Made some water painting at the Art Gallery of WA (AGWA)

• Spotted a sea eagle at the Yanchep Lagoon (which is quite a rare sight we were told!)

Middle Coastal Area, WA

Here we managed to spend 10 days, and boy was that short! So I will tell you already we didn't make it to the whole way where initially had planned (which was Exmouth) - WA is just huge and there are so many nice unusual things to do along the way while you try to reach a 'safe haven' for the day.

Had we not been here in the summer, we migth have ventured more into the Outback, but with temperatures nearing the 40 degrees Celsius along the coast, we felt this was not too safe. In any case, you can keep yourself busy for ages in this area, just like we did:

• Saw our first really pink lagoon (after a disappointment a couple years back in Las Colaradas in Mexico) - it really is pink (check out the picture, with NO filters)!

• Got to meet the relatives of thrombolites - the Stromatolites

• Played hide and seek at the Pinnacles desert, where camouflaging was taken to a whole new level - these structures are quite special and it is not known how they formed! 👀

• Sat by a beach full of crabs and checked ourselves on the other side of the globe in Geraldton, where we had our favorite 'milkshake' of the trip at the Dome cafe chain!

• We did our first canyon hike (though short) and got a peek through Nature's Window in Kalbarri's National Park

• Swam in some amazing beaches, where we sometimes also go the chance to sleep by in nearby camping grounds - nothing beats falling asleep with the sound of the waves

• Had many wildlife encounters with with Emus along the way

• Walked on a beached made only of shells close to Shark's Bay

• Went on a snorkel trip to Westernmost point of Australia (the Dirk Hartog island) and saw so many awesome fishes and small sharks

• Joined a dolphin feeding in Monkey Mia by the bay where 3 of the local dolphins came to say hi (as well as a curious pelican)

• Went swimming with sea lions (even though they were a bit shy that day) and very unluckily got stung by bluebottle jellyfishes

We loved every single day here but we had to head down south before we made it to Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef which is the place to go if you want to swim with the whale sharks and find amazing snorkel spots so definitely add it to your bucket list if you have the time!

North and Outback, WA

Even though we haven't been here - if we ever go back to Australia - this will be the reason. We ended up visiting this area virtually in a small VR show in Canberra (more on that on a different post) and that really made us even more excited about it!

When we talk about the North of WA, we mean the Kimberleys region from Broome to Kununurra. All the organized trips we found online to this area were at least 15 days and always starting around 15.000 €. Of course, you can also get here on your own vehicle but you need to be fully self-sustained and not any van will do the trick here - ensure that you can survive without passing by another town for at least 2 days (if not more). If you plan to go into the outback, we expect it to be the same story.

The Kimberleys, though, are one of the last untouched natural places anywhere in the world and they are stewarded by the aboroginal people who have lived for generations - for them this is a sacred place to connect to their ancestors (as well as the Uluru monolith in the Northern Territory).

If you're adventurous or an experienced 4x4 camper, this is where you will enjoy the most - the most beautiful night skies and the most honest contact with nature that you can ever get. It is of course quite time consuming to get here and best to do it in the winter times (i.e. May to October)

Long story short

We spent 30 days in WA, camping around all different kinds of places. Sometimes for free, some times we had to pay (more information on camping in Australia will be on another post). But we really enjoyed all the time we spent here - it was where we had most fun and were more amazed by the natural beauty of this country (perhaps because it was also the start of this 6-month journey).

In order to stick to our budget, we almost always cooked our own meals and tried to search for the cheapest gas stations (which you can often see the price on google maps upfront) - normally, the price of groceries and gas is cheapest closer to larger cities so a little of planning here can go a long way in savings. We prioritized free or cheaper activities since we didn't want to break the bank on our first month - still, it is important to think for yourself which experiences you really want to have and plan for it, you only make such a trip once! 

There are a lot of apps and information that are useful to know while traveling in Australia (not just WA) which we bundle together in another post. We'll close it off with our itinerary overview: 

Perth -> Mandurah -> Bunbury -> Busselton -> Margaret River -> Peaceful Bay -> Denmark -> Albany -> Collie -> Bunbury -> Yanchep -> Cervantes -> Geraldton -> Kalbarri -> Denham -> Monkey Mia -> Geraldton -> Jurien Bay -> Hillarys Harbour -> Rottnest Island -> Rockingham -> Perth (city centre)