Perth! (Australia, not Scotland)

For various reasons I'll find myself in Perth in early April for 3-4 days en route to Sydney. Does anyone know anything good to do there, or any cool hostels to stay in? I'm interested in scenery, diving, pubs and clubs and cultural stuff, not in surfing or sitting on beaches for hours.

lol cultural stuff.

A friend of mine who spent time there said to me "Perth is death". But she also said that an hour or two south is the Margaret River wine district which is apparently really nice.

Chap: check out 78s and Dadas record stores in the CBD area. Both very good. Have some pints at the Flying Scotsman pub in My Lawley (its only abt 10 mins out of the city on a bus). Kings Park is nice. There's not a massive amount to do, not in a 3 day flying visit - but if youre there over a weekend there are so many awesome local perth bands to see you migh get lucky and someone'll be playing.

I quite like perth. I'd live there if it wasnt 2894758454 miles from anywhere else.

yo chap it's pete. never been to perth but they have the little creatures brewery which i'm sure is a good time.

We used to have a real actual Perthian but she got bloked up and abandoned us

bf is from perth, I should get him to suggest some things. Lt Creatures brewery is indeed nice (has a great restaurant/cafe attached). Forget where that is. Fremantle? Fremantle is nice too, esp if you like a bit of a walk with historical buildings and lovely seaside views.

Xpress : local street press. Gig guide under 'Events'...

http://www.xpressmag.com.au/

Aye. Gigs are what its all about in Perth. Something in the water - everyone I know is in a (really awesome) band over there. Its like some kind of law. If thou art indie type, thou must be in at leaste twoe banddes.

Cool, thanks everyone. Sounds like it might be three days of getting pissed and listening to music. Can certainly think of worse things.

so, Perth is the Des Moines of Australia then?!?

The lovely beaches of Des Moines.

The Iowa surf scene, a noted mix of local characters...

i deserved that ...

No worries, I'm sure the citizens of Des Moines will thank you when they win the America's Cup next time around.

Perth is a v v wealthy city too due to resource industry

Spent the day in Frematle today, seemed lovely. Perth itself is pleasant enough, but as someone pointed out it doesn't have much to offer to the short-term tourist. All the people in my hostel who are working here seem to love it though.

Yeah it has more a laid back pace and weather that'd suit a week or 2 stay just chilling on beaches and in pubs. Most ppl I know who live there seem to get bored stupid, hence the bands thing I suppose haha.

Freo is nice.

I was going to ask this question, but it seems to have been answered. Unless anything has radically changed or we have anybody new from Perth since?

sadly not afaik

Fair enough. I guess I'm going to be pretty busy with work as it is but I might have had the odd afternoon free and maybe an evening.

worst airport ever

do you get to bounce out through a city on the civilised side of the continent?

Not even that much fun, no. In via Singapore, probably, with only about an hour or so even in that airport. Was hoping to get to Canberra, but that's not going to happen this year.

Booo! But an hour in Singapore airport is probably better than a weekend in Canberra, fair enough.

Leaving via Canberra would make your memories of Perth even more special.

I'm sure I'll agree with you if I make it there.

iirc we recently bought two pints of tiger beer @ changi airport for US$26!!

butterfly garden was pleasing tho

Seriously?? Is that the going rate for local beer in all Singapore or just at the airport?

When I was in Singapore standard price for beer in a proper bar was approx £7. Could get it cheaper off street hawkers though.

That happened to me last year. No change from a twenty-pound note!

Yo you cant leave the country via Canberra what with it being not an international airport and all, just sayin.

Rudd seemed to manage it okay.

Well, I thought that was damn fine. Although currently I have no idea what time it is or where I am.

Is Perth worth visiting for a few days for someone who can't drive?

I'm heading over to Australia later this year, and would like to see a part of Australia that I haven't been to before (have only been to places over in the east side of the country before). I would like to go to find some quokkas, but it seems apart from that there's not much going on, and it might not be worth all the money just to go and look at some tiny, cute marsupials.

Perth has several beaches and a big park that are worth visiting, if you're into that. Fremantle has a great bookshop, decent cafes and some historic stuff. Also quite nice to walk around, but I'd avoid it on the weekend. Everything is ridiculously expensive.

A car definitely helps, but if you're going for just a few days then it probably isn't essential.

They have an alright public transport system now iirc.

Perth is a very expensive part of the world to visit these days because it's populated by a large amount of miners who fly-in/fly-out of work to the mines in remote Western Australia. And they evan a lot of money. So everyone has put their prices up to capture that mining money.

Also, unless you book very early, accommodation will be horribly expensive. Major business destination (because of that mining industry) with not enough hotel rooms.

Which is so weird because when I first visited in 2003 it was the cheapest place ever, rents were magic (3 bedroom homes for $250 a week!) but now its on par with Melbourne.

I’m going to Australia - for the first time - in April. Pretty much spending the month there.

The general consensus of this old thread seems to be that Perth’s nice and a bit more chill but it’s *probably* not worth the effort, time and expense getting over to Western Australia for a few days. Have I got that right, in 2025 etc??

I'd say you've got that right.

I lived in Australia for decades and never spent the effort, time and expense in getting to Western Australia

plenty of deserts, rainforests, beaches, gigs, breweries, mountains, rivers, lakes, cities and small towns to keep you busy in the populated half of the continent for a month

Ok thanks to you both for confirming that.

I think we’re starting and Sydney before winding the way to Cairns and then flying down to Melbourne for a few days at the end. Probably the other main thing that we’re wondering is should we hire a car for parts/all of that up to Cairns or go with public transport?

Any advice appreciated. Neither of us have a clue tbh!

you will definitely be better off with a car

public transport is generally more viable within a city (depending on the city) way more so than city-to-city if that makes sense— rural public transport gets less funding & runs less frequently & is likely to cause you more headaches.

Yeah that definitely makes sense. It’s the huge expanses between the main destinations that we were wondering how is best negotiated in an enjoyable way…without maybe losing time elsewhere, some of it potentially turning into a bit of a slog etc.

Don't be fooled - the place is HUGE and places are much further away than you expect, esp somewhere like Cairns - its like a 30 hour drive from Syd to Cairns if you don't stop. Theres plenty of towns all along the way of course but it is a looonng drive.

Honestly you might be better off going Melb > Syd > Bris > Cairns.

Yeah, I'd recommend flying from Sydney to Cairns. That's a lot of time in the car, even more if you're stopping at other towns along the cost. The price of gas and lodging alone might justify the flight. Also, if you're feeling remote but can't get to Perth, I highly recommend Tasmania, which is any easy flight, too.

I liked Perth and WA. It was the first part of Aus I saw and I had time to make sense of it. I liked the suburbs of Perth - Subiaco, Fremantle - and I think about King's Park fairly often. I used to walk out to the double helix/DNA tower fairly often. Like lots of Aus, I remember the amazing bookshops and libraries. South of Perth is beautiful - around Albany and Margaret River. It's not really like anywhere else I went. I liked Broome too, way up in the north but it's pretty remote. I wish I'd done the trip across the Nullarbor but maybe another time (yeah, right).

my old housemate drove across the Nullarbor, said he went “a bit loony” from the monotony about halfway through and threw all his cassettes out the window lol

he did not recommend driving across the nullarbor

Renting a campervan will letyou set your own pace for the coastal run. Plenty of interesting sights and towns and things to climb at least as far as Bris — you might want to get a choo-choo from there to Cairns if you plan to spend any time at all in cities.

if you want to go to cairns i would really recommend flying there as others have said. idk that i would recommend catching the train from brisbane to cairns either because it's just a 25 hour overnight trip, you wouldn't get a chance to stop anywhere along the way and is much much slower than flying.

South of Perth is beautiful - around Albany and Margaret River

YES i am a life-long Sydney person who first went to Perth in 2004 (I saw David Bowie play at the Supreme Court Gardens! he did Quicksand!!)… my partner was born there and still has family and friends so I have regularly spent long summers over on that side of the continent

and I do really like Perth, it has just enough interesting stuff going on but still feels laid back, and it is easy to navigate (particularly car-friendly, admittedly) - the food is really good! esp the fresh produce! and the beaches are beautiful and plentiful

but yes it is heading down south where it really starts to kick in - Margaret River is fantastic but I am even more partial to Denmark and the William Bay area - I am an atheist but when I visit Greens Pool it feels like God’s special gift to humans, just the most dizzying natural beauty

Cosign Tasmania if your looking for quieter. Some great hiking, beautiful part of the world. Will rep my hometown of the Sunshine Coast as being a great part of Australia if nature is your thing. Great beaches, good surf, good hiking, good fishing, good mountain hiking, good 4wd'ing, good camping, good kayaking, good bouldering, good hinterland towns, good waterfalls, good swimming holes, good tourist-traps (noosa), etc.

idk that i would recommend catching the train from brisbane to cairns either because it's just a 25 hour overnight trip

sure but if the Pluggers were rly keen on doing some part of that run via train, that’s the chunk to do it

if you’re doing a straight shot by road, Syd->Bris beats Melb->Syd because the environment changes more. If you’re taking diversions, the south coast of NSW is gorgeous but Syd-Bris will have vastly more options for stopping & staying, especially if April counts as the off-season.

I guess why you want to visit Cairns and what things you want to do there are the linchpin that the rest of the month has to be structured around.

ok tbf if driving from Melbourne the Hume will dump into So Kingers just in time for the most recent traditional foreign-visitor-FAP pub, if you can find someone to organise it as a hero’s welcome

I would go there for the quokkas alone.

(Perth/WA)

I now need to go back to WA to visit Greens Pool, clearly. And 100% to Rottnest. Loved it there.
As for the Nully, as a Britisher, I find the vast distances appealing. I wouldn't do it now, but I still kind of wish I'd done it back then.

So much of my experience of Aus was contingent on who I was with and how I felt but I was a bit meh on Cairns and Queensland in general tbh. I loved that south east corner, particularly the southern highlands and the Great Ocean Road. Adelaide also underrated.

Just shown this thread to the pal who I’m travelling with…I think the current plan is land in Sydney and spend a few days there including Blue Mountains, then train/bus/hire car to Brisbane/Gold Coast stopping at Newcastle, Coff’s Harbour and Byron Bay along the way.
Think then atm anyway we’re flying to Airlie Beach and making our own way again to Cairns for a few days. And at the end of flying down to Melbourne for a bit there.

Thanks for all the advice (ilx never lets you down) and, again, appreciate any shocking oversights or fundamental flaws with any of that. And in retrospect this should’ve gone on a more general Australia thread than this one…apologies to anyone looking for specific Perth/WA chat!

You can't do everything and Perth is just such a hell of a long way from the east coast where most of the population lives. Distance-wise, it's comparable to planning a trip to Spain and wondering whether you should do a side trip to Moscow...

Hey it worked for Napoleon. Oh wait it didn’t.

train/bus/hire car to Brisbane/Gold Coast stopping at Newcastle, Coff’s Harbour and Byron Bay along the way.

train to Newy and hire car from there makes sense — the scenery changes to rivers and lakes so soon north of Hornsby that it’s like the train switching you onto Relax Mode.

Coffs will give you the evening entertainment choice of quiet motel or tent near the beach, large pubs with distinct bogan / wrinklies / family sections, or committing to the Hoey Moey and the possibility of the drunkest 17-22 year olds awake on the planet at that moment.

Is it odd that this is the only city in Aus I have ever been curious about visiting?

that probably depends on why

but also as a bit of a natural contrarian - not odd at all lol <3

I would have guessed Broome for tabes on that note

Just the other day I stupidly laughed at the question "have you ever been to Perth" with the response "who has?". This thread feels like my comeuppance

Perth is the only Australian capital city I've never been to! Not because of any particular antipathy towards it, more because it's such a bloody long way from where I am (Sydney) and I don't know anyone there. And also, I guess, the feeling that if I'm going to take the trouble to cross a couple of timezones, I want to arrive somewhere that is not pretty much culturally the same as where I left...

I kind of think of it as where Sydney junkies go to get clean

Perth in Scotland has a museum with a prop from a Hammer mummy film, beat that Perth Australia.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hippygeek2012/15831307704

Plot twist: there’s a Perth in Tasmania

my reasoning is that i would rather go to the Australian city with the fewest Aesop shops.

no but really, I am simply fascinated by the anomalous elements of Perth, all out there by its lonesome.

what’s an Aesop shop?

I would have guessed Broome for tabes on that note

Honestly I was reading up on Broome the other day partially inspired by this thread.

sic, it's the fancy soap shit that got its start at a salon in Fitzroy, Melbourne. bought by L'Oréal in the largest cosmetics acquisition (1.1 billion USD) in history.

i helped open their first stores on the west coast of the US, and had to learn a lot about Australia as part of my "training," for which they flew us to NY from San Francisco and put us up in a nice hotel, all expenses paid.

never heard of it, but obv fascinated to imagine what they actually teach ppl about Australia and/or Fitzroy for this purpose!