Perth’s reputation among young travellers is expensive, isolated and quiet. Some of that holds up, for sure, but some of it doesn’t. Here’s what a day actually costs, what there is to do after dark, and the one thing Perth has that no other Australian city can match.
Yes, it’s worth it… provided you know where and when to go.
Perth is the most isolated capital city on earth. But that isolation is what makes it worth the airfare. Nineteen beaches sit inside the metro area and most of them empty on a weekday.
If your trip is built around nightlife and landmarks, Melbourne and Sydney will serve you better. If it’s built around nature, cool people and super fun sand-bottom waves, nowhere in Australia comes close.
Flights can really hurt the wallet.
5 hours from Sydney, 3 to 4 from Bali and no real cheap workarounds. Rent can be brutal. Grocery prices too. Public transport doesn’t run late. The city kinda sprawls, so you’ll spend longer getting places than you would in Melbourne for example.
That’s the reality. Our full guide for tourists has more information on seasons, options and what to bring.
In actual fact though, Perth’s expensive reputation comes from rent and airfares, not so much from living and holidaying here. Daily spending sits lower than people expect. Mostly because the good stuff is free.
Hostel dorm: $30–60 a night depending on season and how far ahead you book. Cooler months are often cheaper. Summer and early autumn can be expensive
Kings Park, every beach, Elizabeth Quay: free
Rottnest ferry: $85.50 return from Fremantle (including the island admission fee). Leaving from Perth city instead costs $129.50… take the train to Freo and save yourself $44
Trains and buses: Cheap and worth checking the Transperth site… fares run on zones and there are discounted days
Group surf lesson, board and wetsuit included: Get in touch!
Cook a few meals, use the beaches as your main hang spot and daily spending outside accommodation stays modest. Book the ferry and any tours early. That’s where you can scoop some savings.
Kings Park is larger than Central Park and looks over the city and the Swan River from a hill.
Cottesloe at sunset is a local ritual… people turn up with a towel and a bottle of wine or tinnie (that’s a canned beer, BTW) and watch the sun go down. Fremantle is a walkable port town with markets Friday to Sunday, street musicians and the best pub density in the state.
Scarborough, Trigg, Leighton and City Beach are all patrolled in season. All free. All with showers and good facilities.
As far as nightlife goes, Northbridge (closer to the CBD) is the place to go.
Bars, live music, cheap Vietnamese and Korean along William Street. Fremantle is more for pubs and bands. Leederville and Mount Lawley are smaller and less touristy.
It’s not Melbourne. But it’s also not the dead zone people warn you about. You’ll walk into most places on a Saturday without queuing and have a ridiculous amount of fun.
Perth has a combination that barely exists elsewhere: consistent Indian Ocean swell, sand bottoms and hardly anyone in the (often warm) water compared to the East Coast!
At Bondi or Manly in Sydney you’ll share a lineup with forty other beginners and spend the session avoiding collisions. At Brighton Beach in Scarborough (ten minutes from the CBD), you’ll have room to catch waves and stuff them up without fear of hitting anyone.
Most people stand up in their first lesson!
Our adult group lessons run at Brighton Beach through summer and Leighton in winter. Boards and wetsuits included. Three to six students per instructor. Groups are the cheapest option and the better one… everybody’s falling off together, which takes the sting out of it.
We’re accredited by the Academy of Surfing Instructors, licensed by Surfing Australia and Quality Tourism Accredited.
Flights and accommodation are where you’ll feel it. Dorm beds run $30–60 depending on season. Beaches, Kings Park and Fremantle cost nothing. So daily spending stays low once you’re here.
Five to seven for the city, beaches, Fremantle and Rottnest. Add three for Margaret River.
The cooler months, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. There are always deals and discounts available. You’ve just gotta keep your eyes on the booking aggregators.
Bali’s cheaper day-to-day, and the party scene is bigger. Perth has cleaner water, safe roads, drinkable tap water and a working holiday economy if you want to earn while you travel. For surfing, Perth is the better place to start. Less people, empty beaches, more qualified instructors.
Yes! The beginner beaches are sand-bottomed and uncrowded. Most people stand up inside a two-hour lesson.
Not in the city. Trains reach Fremantle, Scarborough and the northern beaches. You’ll want wheels for Margaret River. It’s three hours south with wineries, caves, serious surf.
Not if you like being outside! Nightlife is smaller than Melbourne’s but concentrated in Northbridge and Fremantle.
100%. Usual city sense in Northbridge late at night and stick to patrolled beaches in the water. In the water generally: patrolled beaches, swim between the flags and read our safety rundown before paddling out somewhere you don’t know.
Treat Perth as a base for exploring the rest of the coast and it’ll deliver. Arrive expecting Melbourne with better weather and you’ll leave underwhelmed. Arrive planning to spend your days in the ocean and you’ll wonder why nobody mentioned this place.
Give it a week. Learn to surf while you’re here. Perth gives you something the east coast can’t: room to have fun, be yourself and learn to surf in an Aussie paradise.
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