If you find Australian cities clean and well organised, wait until you get to Perth. The capital of Western Australia is spotless, well planned and very easy to get around. Perth is also known to be a great outdoors-city with more sunny days than any other city in Australia. Kings Park is a great place for a walk or a jog, and Perth beaches - Scarborough and Cottesloe Beach offer some of the best surfing in Australia. Other popular places to visit are Perth museums in Perth Cultural Centre and Swan Bells in the city. Outside the city are Swan Valley Wineries and Rottnest Island. Here is some Perth travel information, and in the end of the page is accommodation and a map of Perth.
Perth Cultural Centre and Perth Museums The central city shopping malls are Hay Street Mall and Murray Street Mall, both full of shops and restaurants. Follow the pedestrian bridge north across the railway and you come to James Street Mall, where there is a large museum complex called the Perth Cultural Centre which consists of Western Australian Museum, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Swan Bells and more Perth Museums North-west of the city centre along the Railway Terrace is the Scitech Discovery Centre – a planetarium and the usual interactive science exhibition; and further west from the city centre is the Aquarium of Western Australia, where you can discover Australian coral reef. South-east of the city centre is the Perth Mint where you can go on a guided tour; and the Swan Bells – a present from the British Government for Australia’s 200th birthday in 1988.
Perth Botanic Gardens and Kings Park Perth South-west of the city centre is the large and beautiful Kings Park in Perth with Perth’s Botanic Gardens and long walking tracks through all sorts of Australian native plants in different vegetation zones. There are plenty of parrots and other native birds flying around, and a free Treetop Walk where you can observe birds in the tree canopy and have some good views of the CBD. You can spend just about the whole day walking around in the park, and still not manage to cover it all.
Perth Austrailia Travel Information: Swan River Perth There are walking, jogging and cycling paths along the Swan River in Perth, which go all the way to Fremantle. You can hire a bike from Koala Bike Hire or Cycle Centre. Mills Charters and Boat Torque will take you whale watching, and Sorrento Quay Dive Shop will teach you diving. You can take a cruise with Oceanic Cruises and Captain Cook Cruises; or join Swan Valley Tours and Out and About Tours to wineries.
Perth Austrailia Travel Information: Festivals There are a few festivals and celebrations if you happen the be around at the right time: International Arts Festival and the Western Australia Fringe Festival in January and February, Royal Show in September and the Perth Pride in October.
Fremantle Prison and Fremantle Markets South of Perth is the relaxed Fremantle with the famous Cappuccino Strip and Fremantle Markets, but there are more to see and do than that: you can discover some convict history at Fremantle Prison, or visit some historical buildings such as Samson House and the Round House - the oldest building in Western Australia. If you didn't get enough of Perth museums, in Fremantle there are the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Ovens Submarine, Shipwrecks Museum, Fremantle Motor Museum and Fremantle History Museum.
Tours and Places to Stay in Fremantle There are some tour operators even in Fremantle. You can go diving, snorkelling and parasailing with All Water Adventures, or sailing with Leeuwin Ocean Adventures. Places to stay are Australia Backpackers Fremantle, Fremantle Colonial Accommodation Hotel, Fremantle Village, Port City Pirates Backpackers, Sundancer Backpackers and Old Firestation International Backpackers.
Perth Austrailia Travel Information: Swan Valley Wines Around the Swan River north-east of Perth is Western Australia’s oldest wine region – Swan Valley. Some of the vineyards include Houghton Wines, Ledaswan Wines, Paul Conti Wines and Brigadoon Estate Wines. There are also two art galleries: Gomboc Gallery and Lamont’s Gallery; and Swan Valley Cheese Company, and the Feral Brewing Company. A nice place to stay is the Vines Resort & Country Club.
Perth Austrailia Travel Information: Rottnest Island Australia Off the coast is Rottnest Island – so named by early Europeans who mistook the island’s quokkas for rats – ‘rottnest’ means ‘rat nest’ in Dutch. The best thing about this island is that cars are not permitted and the island is full of walking and cycling tracks. Boat Torque, Oceanic Cruises and Rottnest Fast Ferries take you from Fremantle and Perth to the eastern coast of the island where there is Rottnest Museum, and The Basin – the island’s most popular beach. West from here, in the middle of the island is the Oliver Hill Gun Emplacement, and further east is the Rottnest Lighthouse.
Perth Austrailia Travel Information: Rottnest Island Australia Beautiful white-sand beaches surround the island and there are shuttle buses but the best way to visit the beaches is to hire a bike. There are voluntary guides who give free quokka and Aboriginal history tours. Underwater Explorer II does reef and shipwreck tours and Rottnest Island Dive and Snorkel offers Scuba Diving trips and courses. You can stay at Allison Camping Ground and Kingstown Barracks Youth Hostel.
Here's a map of Perth, where I have tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
