Me, the wife and kids are off to Perth in Western Australia over Easter for 2 weeks.

Anything that we must see/do?

theres a coral reef on that side, might still be a trek from the city but worth it.

Rottnest Island, Mandurah (canal boat trip), Little Creatures Brewery, Cottesloe Beach… to name a few.

Busselton Jetty if you fancy a 2 hrs drive south.

sounds good. Like the sound of the brewery.

Cottesloe beach looks fantastic.
Think we will do Rottnest island.

theres a coral reef on that side, might still be a trek from the city but worth it.

800 mile north of the city so yeah it’s a bit of a trek 😉

The science museum in Perth is great fun for kids.
Cottesloe is fab.
Fremantle is well worth a visit or two, especially of a weekend.
Lake Leschenaultia is a great day out.
About 3 hours south, is Yallingup with awesome surfing beaches as well as being slap bang in the Margaret River wine region.

Around there is diamond tree lookout too which is bat shit mental.

Bear in mind that other than a weekend, Perth is a ghost town from early evening onwards. Most people are in bed early & then up early.

In laws live there so spent a lot of time riding my bike round there.

Pinnacles is drivable, Ningaloo Reef however is 13 hours north!

Cy o’connor lake and Mundaring Weir are worthwhile, a bit east of Perth.

Plenty of vineyards etc out on Swan road.

Kings park by City centre park is pleasant.

Like the sound of the brewery

They are really into their micro breweries. It doesn’t matter if they call it lager or bitter or ale though, it is all lager!
The Sail & Anchor is highly recommended, as is the Norfolk which has a great beer garden.

Rottnest ++1

Trip down to South West if you have time:

Busselton

Maragret River (caves!)
caves

Warren National Park (giant trees!)

warren national park

Get yourself on a winery tour around Margaret River (and make sure you aren’t driving!)

++++1 for Rottnest, Ningaloo reef is worth the trip if you can go that far and the kids would like the dolphins at Monkey Mia.
My favourite place was a little town called Kalbarri.

We drove up Ningaloo reef and Cape Range. It’s probably to most amazing place I’ve ever been. Dozens of turtles coming ashore to lay eggs, roads lined with wallabies, stunning underwater scenery and in the summer incredibly hot. It was 28 degrees in the middle of the night. Too hot for the locals so we virtually had the place to ourselves. Came back to Perth via the outback with was also incredible. Proper ghost towns and crazy locals. Took us about two weeks.

Sounds like you are happy to stay around Perth, why not, it’s very nice. Freemantle is interesting, there’s some good beaches, the aquarium is good. We went to small wildlife place with caves just North of Perth which was nice. Will try and remember the name

All below are 1hr radius or less of Perth CBD and Kid/Family friendly

Aqwa is superb…AQWA
Hillarys Marina is next door along with Trampolines etc… Hillarys
Scitech is fun for all… Scitech
Picnic in Kings Park
Wander round Fremantle for the day
Day Trip to Rottnest
A day at Mundaring is nice… Mundaring
Go see Koala’s at Yanchep Yanchep

Kalbari. Remote, lovely beaches, happy memories!

People watching in Freo is good down on the cafe strip.

Little C’s or Sail and Anchor good for a pint. Personally I’m not keen on the Norfolk but the food’s alright. King’s Park is a good day, great views of Perth.

Clancy’s fish pub has a good selection of beers and food and very family friendly.

Coffee – ask for a long mac, topped up. Lush! Have fun. Should be a bit cooler in April.

Esperance down south (long drive) is amazing every thing else I can think of has been covered.

Wave rock maybe as well

Was dissapoined with wave rock. It’s in the title. I shouldn’t have expected more.

Down south, Denmark is lovely. I’d almost move there, but the commute to Rockingham would be a b!tch.

Got in late to this one, so most of the touristy bits have been covered, but I can’t believe no-one has mentioned cycling yet – this is a cycling forum isn’t it!

Perth has hundreds of kms of cycle paths skirting the Swan river and the beaches up and down the coastline – not to mention being the start point for the world’s longest continuous off-road cycle trail.

Hire some bikes from About Bike Hire (they even have trailers & tag-alongs for real littleuns) and spend a fantastic day riding and stopping at the beaches, cafes, parks & playgrounds. And Easter is the perfect time for it as its not too hot then, but before the winter rains come in.

Then get yourself up into the hills and hire a decent MTB from Kalamunda Cycles and hit the Kalamunda Circuit, while the family has a ride of a different kind at Kalamunda Camels. If you want more off-road experiences, there’s plenty more trails south of Perth, and the WAMBA Website has all the details.

Perth is a great place for cycling, so you’d really be missing out if you didn’t spend at least a couple of days on a bike!

most have it covered, but 2 weeks!! Wow thats a long time, there is a small country called Australia a few 100k’s east thats worth a visit. Have a look at Jetstar/Virgin Aus few days in Melbourne would break it up a bit 🙂

Apart from that Margret River, Freemantle harbour (little creatures, fish and chips etc) Rottnest bike and snorkle package, Cricket at the Waca…

Lot of pretty good advice so far, I live in Fremantle so can definatly recommend a visit. Little Creatures brewery is great, the beers not half bad and the foods nice. Also Sail and Anchor and the Norfolk as well.

Kings Park is pretty much awesome, great for a picnic, and can see plants from all over WA. The Aquarium up at Hillarys is good and the Breakwater is a nice place for an afternoon drink. Easters a great time as well as its cooled down a we bit!

If you get time though try and drive south to Margaret River, gorgeous area, loads of great food and wine and the caves and beaches are top top notch. The tree lookouts are bloody awesome/terrrifying though!

And what perthmtb says, go to the Camel Farm! Camels are hilarious, the foods nice and if you can hire bikes the riding is really good. The pump track and skills area might be good fun for the kids as some of the Kalamunda circuit is pretty rocky/full of spiky death bushes!

Yup, agree that two weeks is more than enough to do Perth. Definitely consider taking a flight somewhere interesting like Melbourne :wink:(it’s like taking the bus in the UK). But Margaret River is a must plus Little Creatures in Fremantle. Great time of year.

It doesn’t matter if they call it lager or bitter or ale though, it is all lager!

Clearly you have been to the wrong microbreweries then.

but 2 weeks!! Wow thats a long time, there is a small country called Australia a few 100k’s east thats worth a visit.

This +lots. Sure there are some good things in WA, but if I was flying half way round the world for a couple of weeks, I’d be wanting to see the much better stuff in the east. I’m sure you could find stuff to do to keep you busy (like most of what’s up there), but two weeks is a long time to spend in WA unless you’re heading up north to Ningaloo, or way down south. I think you’d run out of easy and worthwhile things to do within reasonable distance of Perth within a week or so.

It doesn’t matter if they call it lager or bitter or ale though, it is all lager!

Try the LC Rogers for one.

LOL at the guys saying there’s not enough to do in WA for two weeks – I’ve been here five years now and I still haven’t seen half of it, and that’s despite chucking a tent in the car and heading off for weeks at a time every chance I get!

Anyway, maybe the OP just wants to chill with family and friends on beaches and parks for a while. There’s a lot to be said for relaxing on your hols rather than packing in as many sights as possible, and then jumping on plane to the next destination – especially if you’ve got kids in tow!

Trouble is a lot of the best expereinces in WA are a long way from Perth, so most tourists (and an amazing number of the locals) don’t get to see them. Unfortunately it’s actually cheaper and quicker to jump on a plane to Bali than it is to drive to the Kimberley!

Also, I’ve found friends that come thru tend to only allocate four or five days to ‘do’ Perth, which is OK if you just stay around the city and do Rotto, Freo, Mundaring etc. But then they see our pics of Esperance, Ningaloo, or Karajini and are blown away by it and want to go there. So, I have to tell them they are all a two day drive away – in opposite directions!

So, in two weeks you could have a very relaxing time of it in and around Perth itself, with a side trip south to Margaret River, or north to Kalbarri. Or, its enough time to fit in a longer adventure to the south coast around Albany & Esperance taking in the southern forests on the way, or north to Cape Range and Ningaloo, stopping at the Pinnacles, Kalbari and Monkey Mia on the way up.

Still not enough for you – then how about a 700km four wheel drive safari of the Gibbs River Road, a week cruising the hidden inlets of the Kimberley, a live-aboard dive holiday at the Abrolhos Islands, or walk the 135km cape to cape track in the southwest. Take your pick, but if you say there’s not enough to fill two weeks in WA, you’re just not trying hard enough… 😀

but if you say there’s not enough to fill two weeks in WA, you’re just not trying hard enough…

You could spend months out there touring. But assuming the OP doesn’t want to do that, there is a much higher concentration of attractions (in any given area) worthy of a 36 hour plane journey from the UK over east. The sticking to the immediate area around Perth you’d be missing out on a huge amount for the sake of a 3-4 hour flight to Sydders / Melb.

Depends what floats the OP’s boat, but if this is a ‘once in a long time’ trip to Oz, then the East is a much better place to spend two weeks.

but herr zokes you aren’t in the east you are in S.A. which is like being stuck in the middle with no friends to the left and no friends to the right 😆

How are you brethren coping with the drugs in sport revelations?

Hi Zokes, don’t want to get into an east-west war here – I spent a year travelling round Australia, and it all rocks! The biggest problem is that the distances are so vast that you can’t really take in much of anything in a short holiday. I’d wholeheartedly suggest to anyone to explore as much of Australia as they can – my personal all time favourite is actually the NT – the Kakadu/Katherine/Lichfield triangle – just magical!

However, I think the point here tho’ is that the OP wasn’t asking where to go in Oz for his holidays. Rather he said he’s coming to Perth for a couple of weeks and wanted suggestions of what to do while here. For you to then suggest he gets right back on the plane and heads over east cos there aint much to do and …

the East is a much better place to spend two weeks.

and…

I’d be wanting to see the much better stuff in the east

…is kinda missing the point, and TBH is a bit of an insult to what my adopted state has to offer.

That’s all.

I’ll add to what perthmtb says. We had a good tour round both sides. Both are amazing but there is more than enough in WA for two weeks. It’ll give you time to see some of the sights a bit further out without feeling rushed.

The Bell tower is worth a look
We did a trip from Perth down the river to Freemantle which was good
Watch the sunset in Kings Park. it goes dark quite early over there.
Cottesloe has a nice feel about it and will make you want to emigrate.
If you want to go to Rotnest and see the Quokkas then book and you can cycle around the island too.

Do not play Quokka soccer.

“Welcome to Western Australia. The time here is 1983” 😉

Fair enough – I have to agree that NT is probably the most “Australian” part of the place. Longing to get up to Kakadu myself. I just reckon the ‘attractions’ are so much more strung out in WA it makes 2 weeks a difficult time to commit. One week easy, and three weeks long enough to justify all the driving.

And @my little piggy stalker – Not many Aussies refer to Adelaide as being anything other than East. Central means the Alice.

“Welcome to Western Australia. The time here is 1983”

😆 That’s probably why I feel right at home here…

I honestly thought the exasperated Qantas hostess was actually about to say that after a rather heated discussion with the captain about why the aerobridge wouldn’t be ready “again” last time I was over there 🙂

“Welcome to Western Australia. The time here is 1983”

Thats a bit generous, hows daylight savings going? If youv’e cracked that one it’s one up on BrisVegas 🙂

After 6 weeks in Perth we worked it out, it’s like Oz but 4hrs close to the UK 🙂

Now Tassie’s where it’s at, topping the charts for obesity, teen pregnancy, alcoholism, Drug abuse, domestic violence….

That and some stunning scenery.

Hire a ute and do some doughnuts. Buy a slab of beer from the drive through bottlo. Buy “Mother” energy drinks. Get a mullet. Say “eh?” after every sentence.

Visit Rockingham, eh?