Coastline Dreams review: why Western Australia is the trip nobody's taking
Eleven days in Perth, Fremantle, Rottnest Island and Margaret River for £3,339 — the emptiest beaches and the best wine region in Australia.
- ATOL & ABTA protected packages
- Internal flights & transfers arranged
- Escorted, multi-centre or private
- Departures into 2028
- Low deposits · pay in instalments
Our verdict
Everyone flies to the east coast, which is precisely the argument for this trip. Western Australia has better beaches, emptier roads, a superb wine region and the friendliest wildlife in the country — and this itinerary covers it at a relaxed pace for a reasonable price.
In this review
The case for the west
Western Australia is a third of the continent and gets a fraction of the British visitors. Perth is the sunniest capital city in Australia at roughly 3,200 hours a year, the beaches at Cottesloe and Scarborough would be world-famous anywhere else, and you can stand on most of them without another soul in sight.
The trade-off is isolation — Perth is closer to Jakarta than to Sydney, and that's why it stays quiet. For a second or third trip to Australia, that isolation is the attraction rather than the obstacle.
Rottnest, and the quokka thing
Rottnest Island is car-free, half an hour by ferry from Fremantle, and ringed by bays of genuinely startling clarity. It's also home to around 10,000 quokkas — small, apparently permanently cheerful marsupials with no fear of people, which is how the quokka selfie became a global phenomenon.
Beyond the wildlife it's simply a lovely day: bike or bus around the island, swim at The Basin or Little Salmon Bay, and look at an Indian Ocean that is a colour the North Sea has never managed.
Margaret River is the serious draw
Margaret River produces around 2% of Australia's wine and something like 20% of its premium wine, which tells you most of what you need to know. The region sits between two capes with surf beaches on one side and karri forest on the other, and the cellar doors are small and welcoming rather than industrial.
This itinerary includes wine, nougat, chocolate and gin tastings, the Ngilgi Cave tour near Yallingup, a bushwalk, Busselton and Meelup Beach. Two nights isn't long — a third would be better — but it's enough to understand why people move there.
The pace is the selling point
Eleven days with no internal flights and no dawn starts makes this the most relaxed itinerary we list. The guided section runs days four to eight; either side you're in Fremantle and Perth with your own time.
For travellers who find the grand tours exhausting to read about, let alone undertake, that's the whole appeal. You unpack, you drift, you drink good wine, you meet a quokka.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Rottnest Island and the quokkas — genuinely one of the best days out in Australia
- Margaret River is a world-class wine region with a fraction of the Barossa's visitor numbers
- The Warders Hotel in Fremantle is a beautifully converted row of 1850s cottages
- Ngilgi Cave, Busselton, Meelup Beach and Lake Clifton's thrombolites are all included
- Wine, nougat, chocolate and gin tastings included on the guided leg
- A relaxed eleven days — no internal flights, no 5am starts
- Three nights in Perth at the Duxton to finish
What to watch
- No Uluru, no reef, no Sydney — this is one corner of a very large country
- Perth is a five-hour flight from the east coast, so combining is expensive
- The guided leg is only days 4–8; the rest is unstructured
- Dinners are largely at your own cost beyond the welcome meal
- Fremantle accommodation splits across two properties, which means a mid-trip move
- March departures are late summer — hot, and the wildflower season has passed
Who it's for — and who should look elsewhere
✓ A good fit if you're…
- Repeat Australia visitors who've done the east coast already
- Wine and food travellers — Margaret River is the draw
- Anyone wanting beaches without crowds
- Travellers who prefer one region properly to five regions briefly
✗ Probably not if you…
- First-time visitors to Australia — do the icons first
- Anyone who wants the Great Barrier Reef on the same trip
- Travellers who need a full-time escort throughout
The verdict
The best second trip to Australia — and if you've been telling yourself you'd like to see the west, this is the easy way to do it.
Check live dates & prices on Travelodeal → See the full itinerary
Three alternatives worth comparing
No single itinerary suits everyone. If this one isn't quite right, these are the trips we'd look at next.
The Wonders of Australia with New Zealand & Cook Islands
The only other itinerary we list that includes Perth — as the opening leg of a 53-day grand tour.
53 days · from £17,929 · full details · read our review
The Wonders of Australia with New Zealand
Also starts in Perth, then circles the continent and all of New Zealand. 48 days, £15,559.
48 days · from £15,559 · full details
Australia Adventure: Sydney to Melbourne via Uluru
If it's a first trip, do the icons: Sydney, Uluru and Melbourne for £3,639.
13 days · from £3,639 · full details · read our review
Before you fly
Sort the practical bits early
Airport parking
On a four-week trip, airport parking is one of the biggest add-on costs of the whole holiday — and one of the few that gets cheaper the earlier you book.
Airport hotels
Long-haul to Australia usually means an early or awkward departure. A night at the terminal beforehand turns a 3am start into a lie-in.
Airport lounges
Before a 20-hour flight, three hours of quiet, free food and a proper seat is worth considerably more than it costs.
Travel insurance
Non-negotiable on a trip this long and this far away. Check the medical cover limits and that your full trip length and any activities are included.
eSIM data — £2.50 off
Skip the roaming charges. An Airalo eSIM gives you data the moment you land, and our referral link takes £2.50 off your first one.
Your flights leave from London Gatwick. Parking, hotels, lounges and insurance are booked through Holiday Extras; eSIMs through Airalo, using our referral link (you get £2.50 off, we get credit too). Both are commercial links — see our disclosure.
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