Western Australia self drive itinerary

“A good stat that I like,” says Tom Pegram, Australia senior specialist at our partner Audley Travel, “is that after Geraldton, there’s not a set of traffic lights before you get to Broome.” This means that for nearly 2,000km through the Western Australia Outback, you don’t have to stop. It’s the very definition of open road. 

Road trips down Australia’s western coast are characterised by the free, unfettered Outback. Long straight roads take you through dry scrub, under enormous skies, where you can put on the cruise control and a playlist. There’s no such thing as traffic. Passing utility vehicles, “They’re called utes, as in ‘Nice ute, mate!’” says Tom – and road trains, very long lorries which will leave you in the dust – show you that this is a place for serious journeys.

If you like driving, then you'll like driving here. In fact, there isn’t really any other way to see the treasures of the coast in full.

The rewards at the end of the drive? Many. “The beaches are just ridiculously good,” says Tom. And he also reckons that Ningaloo Reef is better than the Great Barrier Reef. It’s certainly more accessible – "It's a fringe reef – which means you can access it from the shore." The Great Barrier Reef is two hours by boat from the mainland or can be accessed by staying on a reef island. At Ningaloo, “You walk in and then, 10-15 metres later, you're swimming with a turtle”. That's a near-guaranteed experience, swimming with turtles and reef sharks above huge 'coral bombies' (submerged reefs).

But there are bigger fish to spy; most people come to Ningaloo Reef to snorkel with whale sharks. When the whale sharks aren't available? It's humpback whales. Sometimes Australians call them ‘humpies’, but you don’t have to.

"It's my favourite place that I've been, one of my best experiences ever – not just in Australia, but anywhere,” says Tom.

Coastal Western Australia road trips are synonymous with coral-filled sea, beaches and national parks – those are its beauties. Yes, there are cities – a good road trip starts or ends in relaxed Perth. But generally, those who venture west have already done Sydney and the east and are hankering for something a bit more remote.

“What struck us most about Western Australia was how empty of tourists it was,” says Joanna Cooke, our very own managing editor at Responsible Travel, who did her own West Coast road trip a few years ago. “In March, when we visited, there were very few people on walking trails – Kalbarri National Park's red rock landscape was so quiet it was as if we he had stepped back in time. The Pinnacles was one of the busier sites, being closer (in relative terms) to Perth, but for visitors like us, used to the madness of a Lake District car park, it was positively serene.”

Joanna, like Tom, was struck by the beaches, “almost comically beautiful,” she says, and enjoyed their quietness. “We hired kayaks at Shark Bay and were the only people on the water... We were joined by a green turtle, happily exploring the sea grass in the shallows, and a small shark, who seemed a little su

Though it’s one of the most isolated cities in the world, there’s nothing but camaraderie in friendly Perth, Australia’s fourth largest city – which expanded during the 19th century gold rush, but has relaxed since this flurry of industry. The state buildings – previously administrative buildings, are now bars and restaurants. The attractive Elizabeth Quay overlooks the Swan River – which is named after the area’s native black swans.

Historically, if you wanted to reach Australia from Europe, Fremantle would be your landing point, and so this historic city has an interesting background as a penal colony – you can still visit its prison, which was built by the convicts themselves. Nowadays, Fremantle is a jumping off point for Rottnest Island, rather than a landing point from Europe, and is woven into next-door Perth by the expanding suburbs. The Fremantle doctor is not a city resident, but the name of a cooling afternoon breeze that comes off the sea in the summer months.

A 25-minute ferry ride from Freemantle, Rottnest Island is a nature reserve – particularly known for funny creatures called quokkas. These wallaby-like little animals for whom the island (‘rat’s nest island’) is named, use it as one of few safe havens now that predators make it hard for them to live on the mainland. Until 1931 the island was used as a prison for Aboriginal people. Whilst only 300 people live there now, it gets hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

To the untrained eye, geology is only noticeable if it does something really wacky. Enter the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park where, by out-staying day trippers from Perth, you can enjoy a near-private audience with a series of odd, human-sized limestone rocks that stick up out of the sand. As the afternoon progresses, these natural sundials cast weird shadows on the desert floor.

The next big point of interest on the road north after Nambung National Park, the Murchison River Gorge has cut the rock in this region so that you can see its colourful layers. The sunset hues are eventually bested by some of Western Australia’s most beautiful wildflower displays, which arrive from July and bloom until around November. You can hike here; the park’s famous Loop Walk takes you to a viewpoint where a natural ‘window’ rock frames the river below.

If a destination on your road gives the greatest sense of Western Australia, perhaps it’s here; Cape Peron, near the town of Monkey Mia, marks the meeting place of two of Western Australia’s’ highlights – the beach and the Outback. Red ochre cliffs, separated from a blue ocean by a strip of white sand, make a striking aerial shot.

Shark Bay is framed by a series of raggedly peninsulas. Some parts have weirdly salty water, which accounts for some of its unusual biodiversity. Whilst it has tiger sharks, the bay’s name belies its variety; Shark Bay is a great place to spot dugongs and dolphins, too – as well as stromatolites: stony structures found in Hamelin Pool, reckoned to be Earth’s oldest living lifeforms.The wider area is best explored with an Aboriginal guide; the bay was first occupied by Aboriginal people from the Nhanda and Malgana and Yingkarta language groups.

This is what your road trip has been aiming for. A long drive from the nearest city, Ningaloo Reef is a massive fringing reef supporting hundreds of coral and reef species. There aren’t just cute little coral-munching fish in this UNESCO-listed site, but massive fish-munching predators, too. A known 63 species of rays and sharks live nearby, but they are dwarfed by whale sharks and humpback whales. Stay right on the beach near the town of Exmouth, and you’re only ever a swan-dive away from a turtle.

Worth extending your trip for, Margaret River, a river and town of the same name, are a few hours south of Perth, and known for the surrounding wine regions. The Mediterranean climate, which gets neither too hot nor too cold, produces great grapes – and lovely visiting weather too. From grapes to surf breaks, then, as there are some of the best surfing conditions in the world down here. Sommeliers and surfers break bread together in the town’s restaurants. “You can live very pleasantly around Margaret River,” says Jo, “drifting between vineyards for tastings and visiting small boutique restaurants for elegant meals. I felt very at home!”