Pert30 Hours in Perth
I had 30 hours in Perth for a work trip!
Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Perth, so when I got landed and checked into my hotel at 8 PM, it was already my bedtime. We were staying at Pan Pacific Perth so I stopped by the restaurant downstairs — Uma, peruvian — to check out the food — the menu looked amazing so I ordered a few dishes. They were all good but something was off about all of the dishes..
The only thing I really thought I could fit in today was visiting Rottnest Island, which is famous for its Quokka population.
From the hotel, we walked to the Perth train station and took a train to Fremantle. This part of town is supposed to be bustling with life and fun stuff on the weekends when the market opens, but we visited on a Wednesday and it seemed quite deserted. We walked over to the pier, paid $50 AUD for a roundtrip ferry (return time must be chosen), and hopped on. There are fancy experiences like go on a fishing boat and catch your own lobster and other extra stuff, but sadly we didn’t have enough time!
There are two bike rental services for the island — one requires you to bring back the bike to the same place you rented it, and another (Pedal and Flipper — also rents other leisure gear) has an add on that allows you to drop it off at different parts of the island and take the bus back to the pier. We went with the latter — paid $30 for a helmet and bike and headed out!
There was a lot of information provided on the ferry over about the island, but I fell asleep so I heard none of it. Thankfully my travel mate stayed awake! Apparently they say the color of the water here is not blue. It is happiness. LOL SO CUTE. But really, I repeatedly noticed that the color of the water in Australia is just gorgeous. This is a huge thing I will miss about Australia along with a few other dozen things.
The town here is quite small, and even with plenty of tourist traffic, I loved that the island stayed simple and clean. There aren’t crazy restaurants or gift shops — just a small area right near the pier.
Even before we reached the bike hire place, we encountered a friendly and curious quokka. The tip is to let them approach you from a close distance and not feed them food and not touch them. Of course there are plenty of rude tourists that don’t abide by these rules — don’t be that person.
We looked at a rough map of the island and decided on a 2 hour ish circuit that covered a lot of the larger chunk of the island, ending up on the north side of Rottnest that was frequented by the tourists. We expected the bike ride to be a really really chill path but we definitely got in some workout on the circuit!! There is a light house, plenty of beaches, some weird chemically pink lakes, and plenty of quokkas along the way.
Our circuit ended at the basin — named so because of this basin looking part in the beach (too logical). During low tide it is a tide pool like feature, but during high tide it just becomes a cool hot tub like structure! The water was mesmerizingly clear even with the crowds of tourists! I didn’t bring a swimsuit but in 35+ degree weather and this gorgeous of a beach, I couldn’t help but jump in anyway.
We spent a total of 5 hours on the island and felt like that was a perfect amount!
We came back in time to do our recruiting duties, and I snuck in a trip to the famous Blue House before heading to the airport! Surprisingly, it was empty when I drove past at around 6pm, and empty when I got there at 8pm. I did visit in February (low season) but I had expected a line of tourists waiting for their photo op here, so I am lucky!
