City Guide: Perth - Mediterranean Life

The city center

Perth had such warm city vibes - and it perhaps hit different after almost one month on the road, mostly in nature. There is something about a city by the riverside that just creates all these amazing welcoming spaces.

We spent here the days after we gave back our van and before heading to the airport (which you can reach easily by train). For the rest of the time we spent here, we literally just walked everywhere - it was super doable! Though, the public transport system still seemed quite accessible (you have buses, trains, trams and ferries), even to reach the outskirts and the beach.

The city center is a bit smaller than maybe Melbourne or Sydney but we still felt like the 3 days (not full) we spent here were on the short side, as we didn't really have that much time to explore the South side or even the river cruises/activities. (This doesn't include the surrounding neighborhoods we visited during our van part of trip, which you can read more about here) - Perth has some amazing beaches just 40 min away from the center, which you should definitely include in your trip!

3 days

2 nights

There's something for all the tastes - there are cute little streets in the shopping area; museums like the Art Gallery of Western Australia (which has free entry), the harbor area perfect for a stroll and a bite by the sunset, walking bridges (where you can even slide from), and so many parks just at the edges of the river. Although, the Crown's Jewel has to be the King's Park and Botanic Garden (pun-intended) - this is a jaw dropping area on top of hill where you can see the whole city and feel like the world just slowed down for you. You'll want to spend hours discovering this like your on a little adventure through a never-ending park! It was one of those spots that made us feel like we wanted to live there!

The only "disadvantage" of Perth (and it goes a little bit for all of WA) is their time-zone and the lifestyle that comes with it. WA doesn't actually follow the daylight savings time, which means that in the peak of December, the sun was rising around 6h and setting around 18h. Because of that (we think!) we noticed their rhythm was just very different from what we are used to (this maybe feels very normal depending on where you come from) - cafes and restaurants would often close quite early like 15h or 17h and would be open from 6h and still close 1 or 2h in the middle of the day sometimes. We had some trouble adapting at times, but it does force you to make the most out of the mornings!

The Practical Info

Staying in the city center of any big city in Australia is always expensive these days. So we went for a budget option since we prioritized being in the city center close to all the places we want to visit as well as a train station that could easily reach the airport.

That being said we stayed at the Hay Street Traveller's Inn. We had our own room with a shower and shared a toilet with other rooms plus there was a shared kitchen. For 2 nights, it was comfortable enough though no luxury.

We later found out that because of the housing crisis in Australia (as well) there are people who actually live here permanently.

Where we stayed 🏠

Restaurants we liked 🍕

We still had a lot of leftover food with us by this point, so we did cook most of the meals in our hostel but here are some spots we tried and liked:

• Dôme Café - This is actually a WA chain that we loved to spot by for coffee/'milkshakes' and sometimes lunch

• The Coffee Club Café - It seems to be also part of chain and it is definitely targeting office workers of the area but we had a mean brunch and we loved it!

• Burger King (yes, you read it right) - this is a weird one and we don't know why but the fries at the BK (which is actually Hungry Jack's in Australia) had the best seasoning EVER, we couldn't find in any other region

• The Grosvenor Hotel (Pub) - super cool vibes, we only came here for drinks

A small disclaimer: even though we didn't go there, it did seem like the best food was to be found in the South Side of the Swan River, which we didn't explore - so probably good to check it out!