When I decided to move to Australia with the intention to travel and see as much of it as possible, several people told me to “skip Perth.” It’s so far out of the way from every and any where, and “there’s nothing much to do there, it’s just an old Western, big town.”

Photo Credit: From Bing.com/maps

Now, as you may or may not know, I love me a good city; New York City (first) will always hold a special place in my heart, as will Chicago, London, Melbourne, & Toronto, but after the past week I have to proclaim, I absolutely LOVED Perth. So much so I’d jump it into my third favourite city behind NYC & Chi town, and that, my friends, is saying a lot (I’m fairly picky with cities). 

A view of Perth, along with their city beach, yes, this is their CITY beach. So lovely.

We put nearly 900km on our little car and zoom-zoom-zoomed down the coast to Margaret River (their wine country), and then back to Fremantle (a gorgeous area outside of Perth), took a ferry to Rottnest Island, and then drove back to Perth for two nights.

Anna’s description of the trip sums it up nicely:

We drank, we ate, we crossfitted, we laughed (a lot), we were lazy, we saw whales, we saw seals, we went on winery tours and slept.

‘Twas glorious.

I thought Perth itself really was a big, little town (kinda like Boston). It was so clean & pristine, and Anna and I kept commenting on how quiet it was.  The city only introduced Sunday trading this past August, and they don’t have daylight savings time because the farmer’s believe it disturb the cows’ sleeping patterns.

It’s quite a sprawling city (but really, aren’t they all now?), and had one of the most stunning city beaches I’ve ever seen. One thing I didn’t like about Perth (and this is sooo minor, but it bugged me) was that you have to pay for parking on public holidays - ugh, annoying.

Anywho, the BEST, thing about Perth (besides their constant, warm, weather), has to be Rottnest Island. I had never heard of Rottnest Island until Anna told me about it, and I am so pleased she did! It’s a 25 minute ferry ride from Perth (18k / 11 miles) and is literally a little piece of paradise so close to the ‘big’ city.

In 2010 one of their beaches was name Australia’s top beach and we were not disappointed.

In the morning we went whale & seal watching (super cool - and Aus$50 - so I thought totally worth it):

I had never seen whales before and I (we) got awfully excited when they surfaced, and the seals were sooooooo cute, perhaps even better than the whales. The seals looked like they were doing yoga as they’d lift their flippers into the air to stay cool. The water temperature on the island was 22 degrees (71F) !!

And in the afternoon we strolled from beautiful beach to beautiful beach. If you ever head to Perth, Rottness Island is a MUST SEE, as the photos will prove:

So that’s really it (whoa, lonnng post!), but if by chance you are ever in Australia, and ever get the opportunity to see Perth, I highly, highly recommend the trip out west. The beaches are golden and silky, the sun is always shining and the city so pristine and clean, with a nice old-town feel… perhaps you could even say Perth was Perthfect (don’t lie, you thought that was funny!).