The Ultimate 10 Day Perth to Albany Itinerary, Western Australia

While travelling Eastern Australia, I heard people talking about Perth and the surrounding beaches. I knew it was a long flight to get to Perth but once I started researching more into Western Australia, I was determined to make it work. Ideally, I would have loved to do the road-trip to Esperance but I didn’t have enough time. Therefore, I opted for Albany, which I was told by a fellow hiker, was just as pretty and saved an extra couple of days travelling. This is the 10 Day return itinerary from Perth to Albany.

When travelling Australia, always follow the Leave No Trace rule (leave nothing but footprints) and show respect to the environment and the people too.

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Loving Australia? Check out my Tasmania Itinerary here.

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Give yourself a day to explore Perth and the surrounding beaches: Fremantle, Leighton Beach and Cottesloe Beach. Pretty much any of the beaches along the east coast of Perth are stunning, beautiful white sandy beaches and clear turquoise water. I spent a whole day reading and enjoying the views of these amazing beaches, there is also a nice coastal walk from Leighton Beach to Cottesloe Beach which I would recommend. I stopped off at The Beach Bus, which is an amazing cafe situated by Leighton Beach in an old bus that does amazing açai bowls and toasties.

After exploring Perth, don’t worry we will be back to travel to Rottnest Island, pick up your rental car early day 2 and drive to Albany. I chose to drive to Albany first because I was getting a flight on Day 10 and so wanted the shorter journey for the way back. If you don’t have a time constraint, it’s up to you whether to drive to Albany first or last.

There isn’t much to see on the road to Albany, but I did stop off at some good coffee stops to break up the journey. The first stop is Williams Woodshed, the coffee here was really good and there was a good selection of food available too, perfect for breakfast or lunch. The second stop is Black Cockatoo, again perfect for food and coffee.

The beaches surrounding Albany are stunning! The one on the top of my list is Little Beach. The sand is super white coupled with the clear water gives an amazing colour of the sea. It was super interesting to find out that the sand squeaks when you walk on it as it has a high percentage of silica, which is why the sand is so white. It also doesn’t get hot in the sun and so the beach isn’t too hot on your feet.

Two Peoples Bay is also a great beach and is popular with swimmers in the summer. These beaches are in the Two People Bay Reserve.

The other side of Albany is Torndirrup National Park. This National Park showcases the natural rock formations of Western Australia. Check out:

• The Gap and Natural Bridge – these are natural granite rock formations that have been carved out by the sea and provides amazing views of the Southern Ocean and the coastline. The rocks along this coastline once attached to Antartica when the supercontinent Gondwana existed ~70 million years ago. The Gap features an accessible viewing platform 40m above the surging seas and can feel quite scary as you are suspended over the ocean. If you are lucky, you may see Whales, dolphins or seals swimming below you.
• Salmon Holes – a beautiful bay with a beach enclosed by a steep slope of granite. This is a great place for beach fishing and so you can find a lot of fisher people on the beach. There’s a nice lookout point at the top of the car park.
• Misery Beach – contrary to the name, this is a beautiful beach which is more sheltered than the others. There’s a big car park with toilets and picnic tables to sit and enjoy the view. Unfortunately the wasps cut that idea short and there were jellyfish in the sea, which being from England, I wasn’t a fan of swimming with them!

Further down the Torndirrup National Park are a couple of Blowholes. It takes about 10mins to walk to them and once you get there, unless the sea is extremely choppy, you can’t actually see the water going up the blowhole. You can hear it though but as I was expecting to see it, I was slightly disappointed. The views from the cliffs are really cool though.

In Albany itself there are a couple of gorgeous beaches there: Middleton Beach and Emu Beach.

This drive is nice and short, without any noticeable places to stop on the way.

There are two places you need to visit when you are in Denmark: Green Pools and Elephant Rocks. These are gorgeous sheltered bays that make it amazing for snorkelling, if the sea is calm enough and swimming all year round.

Green Pools is famous for its large granite boulders, green turquoise water and white sandy beach. Boulders surround the pool and protect it from the Southern Ocean. From the car park, a short walk away is Elephant Rocks: these are huge granite boulders that from above resemble a herd of elephants heading out to sea.

Madfish Bay and Waterfall Beach are also really nice beaches slightly further down the road from Elephant Rocks.

Denmark is a great place to go wine tasting too.

On the drive to Pemberton, stop off at Valley of the Giants for a nice short walk inside a native forest made up of red tingle trees aged over 400 years old. Some of the plants here have an origin of when Australia was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. For $21 you can go up the Tree Top Walk which takes you above the canopy of the trees and is super cool, if you’re not scared of heights.

Also stop off at Conspicuous Cliff, for another short walk, this time up a cliff for an amazing view down to the beach below.

I found a cool art exhibition too near Pemberton (Northcliffe) called: Understory Art & Nature Trail. This trail has you stumbling upon artwork within a forest but the coolest part for me was the Rising From the Ashes sculptures. These are beautiful pieces of art that were made from the burn marks of a forest fire, turning a destructive power into art.

I used Pemberton as a place to break up the journey from Denmark to Margaret River. That being said you can spend some of the day exploring this town. Normally, top of everyones list here is the Gloucester Tree. This tree was an old fire spotting tree, someone would climb to the top and search for bush fires. Therefore, the view from the top is above the canopy and the views are stunning. It has been retired from its fire spotting job, but has been open to the public to climb for free. There are no safety wires though, so if you fall, it’s a long way down! The Gloucester Tree has been closed since 2023, but is meant to re-open at some point, maybe just in time for your trip.

On the way to Margaret River, there’s a detour you should do that takes you to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. This 39m high lighthouse is at the most southernly point of mainland Australia and overlooks where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. For $22 you can get a tour to the top of the lighthouse for some amazing views. If you don’t fancy paying to go up the lighthouse, the viewpoints on the ground are worth the visit too.

After visiting the lighthouse, take a small detour to Granny’s Pool. This is a beautiful little viewpoint that is very sheltered and perfect for relaxing listening to the sounds of the beach. If you brought food with you, this would be a great place to eat it!

The Margaret River area is famous for two things, its magnificent wineries and all the caves it has in such a small area. The first one you will come across is Jewel Cave. All the caves have slightly different visual features and characteristics. Jewel Cave is the largest cave open to the public. The $21 guided tour takes you through three huge chambers that are full of crystal formations and stalactites. I didn’t go to this cave, but all the caves are suited to different types of people, if you have time, maybe try them all and see which is your favourite.

Lastly, stop off at Hamelin Bay. This is a gorgeous part of the coastline with the chance to see stingrays swimming around your feet! They come right up to the shore and on still days you can see them from the beach, it was very choppy when I went so didn’t see any, but its famous for them so I was just unlucky with the weather :(. I hope you have better luck because this would have been so cool!

Margaret River is an amazing place! The beaches are stunning and perfect for surfing, the vast array of caves never get boring and the wine is incredible. If you have more time than 10 days, I recommend staying here for longer.

I’ll talk about the caves first:

• Lake Cave – this cave was magnificent, I love bodies of waters but adding that to slowly dropping water from stalactites and the stillness of the water was breath taking. The most amazing part of the cave however, was the rare ‘suspended table’ formation over a reflection lake that holds up two pillars, locally known as Romeo and Juliet. ($25)
• Mammoth Cave – this was the first cave I went to and I loved it. You walk into a huge chamber at the very beginning and an audio guide talks you through the most interesting parts this cave. For example, the 50,000-year-old zygomaturus jawbone, an extinct large wombat-like herbivore, still embedded in the cave wall. ($25)
• Ngilgi Cave – this was the first cave open to the public and for good reason. The colours of some of the features are stunning, especially the red coloured shawls dotted around the place. (£32)

After experiencing the wonders of the underground world, head onto land to explore some of the beaches around here:

• Redgate Beach – this amazing beach is very popular with surfers. I actually did a surf lesson here with Margaret River Surf School. The teachers were very experienced and I was lucky enough to book onto a group lesson, but there was only one other person with me, making it a very good 2:1 experience. I even saw dolphins swimming in the waves right next to me, which is an unforgettable experience!
• Gnarabup Beach – a lovely beach with a really nice cafe next to the water: White Elephant Cafe. There’s a nice walk along the beach if you wanted wanted a short walk while drinking coffee.
• Surfers Point – a great place for experienced surfers or perfect for watching them. I could have stayed here for hours.
• Prevelly Rockpools – a gorgeous beach walking distance from Surfers point.

Smith’s Beach in Yallingup is another great surfing beach. This one is further up the coast but can be visited at the same time as Ngilgi Cave. The inner shore is protected by rocks, making it great for snorkelling and swimming.

After exploring the delights of Margaret River, its time to start heading back to Perth. Before that though, there’s one more place for you to stay at.

On the road to Busselton, stop off at Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, the sister to Cape Leeuwin you may have stopped at previously. There is an option to take the guided tour into the working of a lighthouse for $17. Down the road on google maps you have Cape Naturaliste but its down a gravel road that is not the nicest so its up to you whether you want to risk the rental car or not.

There are a string of beaches you can stop at too: Shelly Cove, Bunker Bay, Eagle Bay and Meelup Beach. These are all beautiful beaches so you can chose a few to stop at if you don’t have time for them all.

If you’ve got time, head to Busselton beach for sunset, you won’t regret it.

The main attraction in Busselton is the jetty and the ‘aquarium’ that is at the end of the 1.8km jetty. The ‘aquarium’ or Busselton Underwater Observatory is basically a window underneath the jetty that looks out onto an artificial reef. I didn’t go because of time contrants but I really wanted to. There is a train on the jetty that takes you to the end, if you don’t want to walk the whole way.

If that’s not your thing, Busselton beach is so peaceful and tranquil, its a great way to end the trip!

There aren’t any noticeable stops on the way to Perth but there are plenty of service stations to stop at for a toilet and food break.

Once back in Perth, head to the ferry port to catch the SeaLink or Rottnest Express to Rottnest Island. I loved Rottnest Island and I know you will to.

Once you get off the ferry, you will notice there are Quokkas everywhere you look. These animals are super cute and one of my favourite Australian wildlife. Please remember that these animals are wild and deserve our respect. So many times I saw people shoving camera in their faces to try and get the classic Quokka selfie, even if the animal was asleep. The island even promotes you taking these selfies but be mindful about the way you treat these animals when you do it.

The two best ways to see as much of the Island as possible are: hiring a bicycle or taking the Rottnest Island Hop-on Hop-off Bus by Australia Pinnacle Tours (this isn’t a tour, just an ordinary bus). I stopped off at:

• Henrietta Rocks – good for snorkelling on calm days as there is a small shipwreck just off shore
• Parker Point – nice beach which is good for snorkelling
• Little Salmon Bay – nice beach which is good for snorkelling
• Salmon Bay – my favourite beach on the island, I thought this stop was incredible! Good for snorkelling too
• Wadjemup Lighthouse – good stop if you want to go up the lighthouse ($15)
• West End – a boardwalk takes you to Cape Vlamingh at the most westerly part of the island, the views here are pretty cool. If you walk to Cathedral Rocks, a short walk from the bus stop, there’s a good chance you will see some seals sun bathing on the rocks, with standing binoculars available for use
• Little Armstrong Bay – a nice beach for snorkelling
• Little Parakeet Bay – a nice beach for snorkelling
• Georgie Bay – a really pretty beach but more built up than the other parts of the island, you can stay in some of the accommodation here and there’s restaurants if you’re here for the whole day and feeling peckish

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