Things to do/see in Perth/Margaret River

[blueoval]

Hey guys,

Im planning a 2 week trip staying in Perth close to xmas. Looking to spend a week in Perth city and a week at Margaret River.

Just wondering what your top MUST SEE/DO places are for these areas?

My interests are (in no particular order):
Night Tours
Food Tours
Wine Tours
Scenery
A bit of adventure (little bit of hiking and cycling)
Culture & History (without it getting too boring)
FOOD & WINE!!!

Also, need to know where some excellent restaurants are.
Quality over quantity for me. Degustation? That type of thing. But Im not one to shy away from a good Bar and Grill what does ribs and american style food either.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by blueoval

Hey guys,

Im planning a 2 week trip staying in Perth close to xmas. Looking to spend a week in Perth city and a week at Margaret River.

Just wondering what your top MUST SEE/DO places are for these areas?

My interests are (in no particular order):
Night Tours
Food Tours
Wine Tours
Scenery
A bit of adventure (little bit of hiking and cycling)
Culture & History (without it getting too boring)
FOOD & WINE!!!

Also, need to know where some excellent restaurants are.
Quality over quantity for me. Degustation? That type of thing. But Im not one to shy away from a good Bar and Grill what does ribs and american style food either.

Fixed it for you

[blueoval]

You must know me....LOL

Yes I am a wine drinker and enjoy a few glasses with my food.

Can you assist with the other items?

[GasoLane]

Sorry, no. I just thought you should get your priorities right

[blueoval]

oh I will definitely have my priorities straight with the wine region. I live in a wine region so I will be expecting some nice options there. haha

But one cannot sit, eat & drink for an entire 2 weeks and not look at other attractions of the area. Or can they???

[Crazy Dazz]

Firstly, be prepared for serious price-shock. Everything in Perth is expensive, and to be honestly the restaurants here are mostly over-priced and poor quality.
If you're into Degustation, then the Red Cabbage in South Perth.

Seriously recommend taking one of the wine cruises up the Swan River. It is an unbelievably relaxing way to spend a day, complete with some decent wine.

If you like History, spend a day walking around Fremantle (with an appropriate guide book.) Some fantastic old buildings, and more cafe's than you can count.
You can take a tour of the Fremantle Gaol, and the Maritine Museum is well worth a visit.

Kings Park is a nice spot. If you're into Botanic Gardens then you could spend a while there, otherwise just enjoy the great views and take a few photos.

The Perth Zoo is also a good day, if you're into zoos.

Surfcat sailing on the Swan River is awesome, its picturesque and great fun. (Just make sure you go on an arvo when the sea breeze is in.)

We also have some fine Golf Courses, if a round of Golf is your thing.

[BPXR6T]

I was there for a week not long ago. Perth, busselton, Margaret river, nannup, Albany, Augusta, Perth was my rough route. I had no itinerary and just cruised around. I liked the country between Margaret river and nannup. Was blown away by some of the wineries. The kari kari forests are worth a look. Lots of little walks and one really big one. Albany was probably my favourite spot. Nice beaches to the east. Least favourite was busselton. Everything between Perth and busselton did nothing for me.

[Crazy Dazz]

If you know your wine, then you'll enjoy the challenge of Margaret River. There are some seriously good wineries, still a few hidden gems on the backroads, and multi-million dollar enterprises selling complete swill.
My all-time favourite is Happs. Fantastic variety, reasonably priced, can be a bit hit and miss but some seriously nice wines.

The MR region has some of the best caves in the State. They range from wheelchair accessible tourist caves, to those you go down with a helmet and torch.

Walking trails abound. If you're feeling really energetic, you could try the "Cape to Cape Walk," or any part there of.

There's a wide variety of other foody places, Cheese factory, Chocolate, Yahava Coffee, Olive Oil, etc. The Berry Farm is well worth a visit. Great range of preserves and some interesting fruit wines.

The Busselton Jetty is a nice walk. Interesting bit of history, and still the longest wooden-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

Some nice beaches and beachside towns. Prevelly is my favourite.

[russxr67]

Heaps of nice spots down south. Went down recently for my brothers wedding and stayed at Smiths Beach Resort. Very nice spot . Some nice caves to see as well if you are into that kind of thing.

[STINKY NINJA]

The swan valley has lots of wineries and tours im assuming,ive heard its great to get smashed out that way(not a wine drinker myself,i prefer the sophistication of beer lol)

[Madaya]

I've done the day tour of Fremantle Gaol, but I'm told the night time (spooky) tour is better. Down south, the problem becomes one of "who's going to drive"? The vineyards and breweries are on the whole superb, nice food too.
The south coast to Albany is full of surprises and nice stop overs along the way.

[STINKY NINJA]

I think some of the wineries may have buses to and from,i couldnt clarify that 100% though.
Ive done the freo prison tour to and thought it was good,i know people who have stayed there for certain amounts of time lol

[blueoval]

This is great guys, keep up the suggestions.

I do have a few vices that I'd like to take more pleasure in. That being Wine, Food, Coffee & Chocolate. These things get me excited at the thought.

Not into scary night goal tours, but I do appreciate the suggestion to check it out. (I did a goal tour at Port Arthur in Tas during the day and it gave me the willys O_O )

Love the thought of the walking trails too. It's definitely something I want to check out. The caves sound like fun and I do like cave exploration, but my days are over if Im having to crawl to get in them, I just cant do that kind of stuff anymore, but I ok if Im walking around inside one.

Swan river wine cruise sounds awesome. Do they do this at Sunset and for dinner?

[mcnews]

Perth City CBD is a the most boring city CBD in the universe. After the office jockeys go home at 6 the place resembles a morgue. Do not stay in the CBD. Stay in Freo, basically stay anywhere other than the Perth CBD. Freo also has the best cappucino/restaurant/winebar strip etc. and is the only place with 2500km of Perth that has a nice cosmopollitan feel to it. Freo also has a train and ferry terminal, train can take you up to Scarborough Beach for a look around etc. also and if you want to go in to Perth you can jump on the train also too. The train service is pretty good.

Best thing to do anywhere around Perth is the ferry service between Freo and Perth foreshore, this is the best value thing to do in Perth, I like to try and fit in every time I go back. Lunchtime they do a basic wine one but it runs 4-5 times a day, is cheap as chips, you get to see the best bit of Perth and Freo, which is the Swan River, the ferry captain gives a bit of commentary and points out where the mining squillionaries have their 65 million dollar houses etc. If you like water etc. also take the ferry out to Rottnest.

There are heaps of wine tours out to the wine regions north of Midland, some do a bit by boat up the river (the other way up the river from which the Perth-Freo ferry does), then transfer you to van or coach for the rest of it.

Margaret River is yuppyville and priced accordingly. Go and stay at Augusta if you want peace and quiet and take a boat trip up the Blackwood River, day trip to Canal Rocks, Dunsborough, Margaret River and do winery day tours on the small personalised van tours.

From Augusta also day trip out to Bridgetown and Nannup, if you like driving the drive between Nannup and Balingup is one of the most challenging in WA, I used to call the Balingup-Nannup-Bridgetown-Nannup loop the Golden Triangle.

From Augusta you can also take longer day trips out to Denmark and Albany also.

[blueoval]

Thanks Trev. Appreciate the honest advice.

Im probably not going to hire a car in the CBD, but it is possible I'll hire a car in and around Margaret River. So the public transport idea sounds good.

Never thought to stay in Augusta but if its as nice as you say, perhaps some more investigation is required. Im all for enjoying great food and wine and perhaps some live entertainment, but if its a bit 'night clubby' I prefer to stay away as its not my scene.

[mcnews]

Freo isn't night clubby at all. The nightclubs are in Northbridge which are next door to Perth CBD. Augusta has one pub and no nightclubs, lol.

[blueoval]

Are there any decent restaurants in and around Augusta? i.e. not pub meals but fine dining or Bar & Grills?

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by blueoval

Are there any decent restaurants in and around Augusta? i.e. not pub meals but fine dining or Bar & Grills?

If you're a serious foodie, then we have a COUPLE of outstanding restaurants in Perth, but generally you don't visit WA for the 5-star dining experience.
If you like to cook, you'll find top quality produce, but really only the equivalent of any other major city in Australia.

To be honest, don't have too high expectations about the Eateries around Margaret River. There are some really posh places, people have sunk millions into venues, but the food & service generally don't live up to the price.

A car (or bike) is definitely the best way to see the MR region, but if you want to spend the day doing serious wine tasting, I suggest one of the numerous "tours." Basically they take a minibus load of randoms and drive you around so you can spend the whole day tasting without worrying about your BAC.

There are plenty of places to stay in the Region: Busselton, Cowaramup, Dunsborough, Yalingup, Prevelly, etc, and they'll all within easy driving distance, so don't worry that you have to stay right in MR itself.

[mcnews]

Not in Augusta no. Augusta is less touristy and most don't make it to that end of the road below Margaret River, but in my eyes it is nicer as a result when you don't want to be in it all the time. For the restaurants you need Margaret River, Dunsborough, Busselton etc. the bigger places. If you want walking distance to restaurants etc. you probably need to stay in Dunsborough, even at Margaret River most of the nicer restaurants etc. are further than walking distance.

[blueoval]

Cheers Trev. Appreciate it.

As Im a foodie, this is one of my personal criteria that I need to cater for.

I'll do my research in Dunsborough

[Gabbs]

If you like your Sprits go down to the grove while in margs. Also me personally the Margaret river chocolate factory is overrated. We went to Gabriel chocolate which was just starting up when me and the wife went there but the chocolate was awesome.
Also don't forget the swan valley if you are into your wines and there is some nice places to stop for lunch/dinner.
Here's a map of margs good luck.

http://www.margaretriver.com/uploads...file/2/doc.pdf

[DoreSlamR]

If you find yourself in Busselton and are looking for dinner, try the laundry for modern tapas style food, very nice.

If you're after something a little less formal, like pizza, then Al Forno is the place to go, they do traditional European style food too.

If you're gonna hire a car down south, and are happy to do your own thing, then jump on Caves Rd and you'll easily lose a day just checking out places off that road.

Plenty of good lookout spots along the coast too.

[In Focus]

If you get to Denmark, there is a great driving road disguised as a "scenic route", 30 or 40km of winding roads among the trees. I enjoyed it driving "sensibly" with the family onboard.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by In Focus

If you get to Denmark, there is a great driving road disguised as a "scenic route", 30 or 40km of winding roads among the trees. I enjoyed it driving "sensibly" with the family onboard.

It's also a far better region for nicer wines and dining.

[blueoval]

These are great suggestions, thanks everyone for this info.

[Crazy Dazz]

If you're into cyclying, consider taking a trip to Rottnest Island. You can hire a bike and cycle around the island (there's only a couple of cars on the whole island.)

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

If you're into cyclying, consider taking a trip to Rottnest Island. You can hire a bike and cycle around the island (there's only a couple of cars on the whole island.)

Yes! This is on the list of things to do. We are gonna do this. Possibly stay the night there and ferry back. The island is small so it's quite an easy ride with only a few undulations so I read.

Cheers with regards to Augusta food. haha. Sounds like a 2 horse town there. If I was looking for pure seclusion then I'd consider it. But yeah Im a foodie so thats important to find not necessarily the most expensive, but the best quality food the area has to offer. Im not after the fine dining experience. I apologize if it came across that way, Im looking for a delicious experience in food culture.

[aussiblue]

Take a day trip to York while you are in Perth and visit both the Motor Museum and the old court house museum with lunch at Jules Café.
http://www.yorkwa.com.au/Motor.Museum/cars.htm

[aussiblue]

Some wineries in Augusta have good food but I can't recall their name (yet).

[Crazy Dazz]

I've just re-read your OP and seen the bit about "close to Christmas."
My advice? Don't.
Perth is beautiful in Winter & Spring. We get beautiful Blue Skies more often than rain, everything is green, and the flowers are phenomenal. It doesn't get that cold here, Rotto is actually warm (being surrounded by ocean) and Busselton/ Margaret River is normally slightly warmer than Perth (thanks to the Leeuwin current) with plenty of opportunities for cosy woodfires.
9 years out of 10, Perth near Christmas is hotter than stink. Everything is brown and dead. You need to book your tours, cruises, and dinners months in advance because of all the Christmas functions and the standard of service gets even worse.

If you like Seafood, the Fremantle Seafood Festival & Blessing of the Fleet is something pretty special. IIRC its sometime in October, which is not a bad month to visit Perth & Southwest. Avoid the School holidays, which are early October, but its good because many seasonal venues open for the school holidays and stay open.