Perth is statistically the sunniest city in Australia. It’s also the country’s most isolated city. However, it’s actually the quickest destination in Australia to get to from the UK, with direct flights from London talking just (just!) 17 hours. And you’d be mad to miss it.
Built on the wealth of 19th-century gold rushes, and still the headquarters for Western Australia’s mining industry, Perth is an economic powerhouse — which means top-flight entertainment, nightlife, culture and cuisine — yet it retains a laidback, boardshorts-and-flip-flops atmosphere even in the central business district (CBD). The city is certainly a beauty, but it’s in danger of being shown up by its solid-gold setting. Perth is bisected by the sapphire Swan River (in which wild dolphins swim), and fringed by swathes of golden sand. The waves are made for surfing. With all that fine weather it’d be a shame not to spend some time exploring Perth’s great outdoors, and the city is ideally located for road trips and boat trips around wild and vast Western Australia.
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What to do
To get inside the mindset of the city’s gold fever, head down to the Perth Mint*, where you can gawp at Australia’s biggest display of natural gold nuggets and see the planet’s largest gold coin, weighing in at a metric tonne. Founded in 1895, the Art Gallery of Western Australia houses the state’s finest collection of international and Australian art, with its extensive galleries of traditional and contemporary indigenous pieces the undoubted high point.
The Elizabeth Quay development has transformed an area once dominated by the ugly arterial road separating the CBD from the Swan River into a downtown-meets-waterfront focal point. You’ll find numerous city and river tours kick off from here, but it’s also a place to hang out, shop, and snack amid sculptures and social spaces. Join the queue outside Gusto Gelato’s kiosk for out-of-this-world ice creams.
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Cottesloe Beach is only a 20-minute drive from Perth city centre, and is famed for its white-sand beaches, terraced lawns overlooking the Indian Ocean (an absolute must at sunset) and clear waters with consistent waves that surfers adore. It’s a pretty good place for novices to learn too.
Visit Fremantle Prison — Western Australia’s only world heritage-listed building — to take the delightfully distasteful ghost tour, and hang around where condemned inmates once met their fates; be sure to explore the prison’s labyrinth of underground tunnels too.
Where to stay
Perth is awash with accommodation options, from budget to luxury. Perthites tend to abandon the downtown area come late evening, so the CBD makes a decent spot in which to get a good night’s sleep. The 19th-century State Buildings — slap bang in the centre of Perth — once housed the post office and treasury, but are now home to fine dining and luxury accommodation. COMO The Treasury hotel* is one of the city’s swankiest stays. On its rooftop you’ll find Wildflower restaurant, specialising in Aboriginal haute cuisine paired with skyline views.
Northbridge — formerly one of the city’s rowdier neighbourhoods, but now where the cool, creative types hang out in fashionable bars and restaurants — makes a memorable base (there’s a good selection of B&Bs).
The nearby city of Fremantle, just a 15-minute ride away on public transportation, is a seaside hipster enclave crammed with 19th-century colonial architecture and surrealist street art. It has some top hipster accommodation; hidden behind its bricks-and-mortar façade the Hougoumont Hotel* is built nearly entirely from shipping containers, each forming one of the hotel’s capsule bedrooms.
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The city’s seaside suburbs can be a bit of a schlep to get to on public transportation, so if you think you’re going to spend most of your days stretched out on the beach or learning to surf then you’re better off staying in a serviced apartment or B&B in Cottesloe.
Food and drink
Perth’s dining scene is lively if faddish; even world-class restaurants tend to come and go pretty quickly around the city. However, there is one mainstay — farm fresh, locally sourced produce. Specially trained labradors unearth fist-sized truffles in nearby Manjimup, and Perth sits between two celebrated wine regions, Swan Valley and Margaret River, the latter internationally renowned for consistently excellent cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay.
The southwest coast is blessed with a climate that means producers can grow a kaleidoscope of fruits and vegetables, and demand is such that, rather than merely feeding the big supermarkets, they can sell direct to restaurants and farmers’ markets and adapt to demand for obscure varieties, as the latest foodie trends dictate.
Right now Perthites are obsessing over artisanal bakeries, Puglian-style burrata, Korean fried chicken and Japanese soufflé pancakes. Morley, a lesser-visited suburban area, is littered with cheap, authentic and interesting Asian food stalls and restaurants. Meanwhile, Northbridge is where you’ll find the inner city’s best Asian restaurants and dumpling houses, particularly along William Street.
While here, visit Bivouac for casual Turkish fine dining, where waiters will literally pull up a seat to serve you. Nearby the mixologists at Shadow Wine Bar craft all manner of excellent concoctions in swish-but-unpretentious surroundings, and will shake up any personal poison you care to name, but order a negroni — the cocktail du jour for the city’s chefs and bar staff — and they’ll welcome you as one of their own.
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Fremantle (“Freo”, as the locals call it) is the kind of place where you can drink green smoothies and dine on a vegan, raw-food menu while seated on a recycled bus seat in a salvaged shipping container. It’s here you’ll find the Dr-Atkins-baiting Bread in Common, a bakery-cum-restaurant that serves modern Australian cuisine with a focus on its excellent breads.
The High Street is lined with Italian restaurants too and, if you get homesick, the waterfront is where to find fish and chips.
Don’t miss
Spend an afternoon down by Blackwall Reach Reserve on the Swan River* and you’re almost guaranteed to see dolphins frolicking in the water, without ever leaving the city. Likewise, Perth’s Heirisson Island — located in the Swan River between the suburbs of East Perth and Victoria Park — is home to a family of kangaroos who’ll readily pose for socially distanced selfies with in-the-know visitors. Jump on the Rottnest Express ferry to sail west of the city to Rottnest Island*, where you can meet southwest Australia’s singular marsupial, the quokka. Spot these rare, curious, diminutive creatures as you pedal your way around this classic Perthites’ holiday resort. For alfresco evenings in the city, pack a picnic and ride the Green CAT bus up to the sprawling, 1,000-acre Kings Park and Botanic Garden to watch outdoor cinema, a live music performance, or simply to take in the views of the city at sunset.
Know before you go
Australia’s currency is the Australian Dollar. ATMs can be found throughout the city. As an estimate when shopping, halve the price in Aussie dollars to figure out what you’re spending in sterling. The local CAT buses — the four routes of which run like arteries throughout Perth’s Free Transit Zone — cost nothing, so you can eschew taxis and tours and see the city’s sights like a local.
Take me there
Inspired to visit Perth but yet to book your trip? Here are the best hotels from Booking.com* and Hotels.com*. These are the best tours of Perth from our trusted partners*.
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