Global Travel Planning

Discovering Western Australia: Essential Insights and Travel Tips with Tess Moone

• Tracy Collins • Episode 46

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In this week's episode of the podcast, Tracy welcomes back travel expert Tess Moone to uncover the wonders of Western Australia.

 Tess, a Perth local and seasoned travel blogger, shares invaluable insights for first-time visitors, from must-see destinations like Perth and Margaret River to essential travel tips on navigating distances, weather variations, and budgeting. 

Learn about the stunning landscapes, diverse ecosystems, and unique experiences that await in this vast state. Tess emphasizes the importance of planning around the region's expansive geography and offers practical advice on creating an itinerary that maximizes enjoyment without feeling rushed. 

• Discover the best time to visit different regions 

• Tips for road trips along the Coral Coast 

• Recommendations for must-try local wines and dining experiences 

• Budget-friendly travel tips and accommodation suggestions 

• Cultural etiquette and local customs to keep in mind 

Join us as we explore the beauty and adventure that Western Australia has to offer, ensuring you're well-prepared for an unforgettable journey!

⭐️ Guest - Tess Moone from Tessomewhere.com
📝  Show Notes - Episode 46

🎧 Listen to next

  • Episode #5 - Navigating long-term travel with Tess Moone
  • Episode #20 - An introduction to Margaret River with Kerry Heaney
  • Episode #31 - All Around Oz with Annette Jones

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Speaker 1:

Planning a trip to Western Australia. In this episode, I chat with travel expert Tess Moon about what first-time visitors need to know before exploring this vast and beautiful part of Australia. From must-visit spots like Perth and Margaret River to key travel tips on distances, weather and budgeting, tess shares her insider advice to help you plan the perfect trip. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure.

Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to episode 46 of the Global Travel Planner podcast. This week we'll be exploring the beautiful state of Western Australia with guest Tess Moon. Now, tess has been a previous guest on the podcast. In episode 5 we chatted about her three-month travel adventure around Japan and Europe, but in this episode we are exploring a little closer to home for Tess. So hello again, tess, and welcome back to the podcast. For those of us who haven't met you yet, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about where you live and what you do?

Speaker 2:

Hey, tracey, thanks so much for having me back on. So I'm Tess. I'm born and bred in Perth. I used to be a corporate finance analyst, and my career path naturally then became a travel blogger, as you do, of course, of course, yeah. So as a Perth-based travel blogger, I do write a lot about Western Australia, which is what we'll be talking about today, and I'm also blogging a lot about Asia. So Japan is one of my favorite countries in the world outside of Australia, so I write a lot of travel guides on my website about Japan, as well as sharing content on social media. So share the name of your website, please, tess. Go for it, of course. So I'm Tess, and I'm Tess Somewhere.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. Now, were you born in Western Australia? Tess Sure was Born and bred Perfect. So, as somebody who was born there, grew up there, if you were going to describe Western Australia because we're going to go for the whole of Western Australia and I know it's huge, but how would you describe its essence in say three words?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to steal one word from the Tourism Western Australia tourism campaign because they really nailed it, but my three words are otherworldly diverse and natural, perfect.

Speaker 1:

I think that sums up. I've only been there once, but I loved it and I will be. I will be visiting later on in this year. But now for those listeners who are not necessarily familiar with Australia, because we have listeners from all over the world where is Western Australia located and tell us a little bit about its size and population?

Speaker 2:

So I actually had to do a little bit of research because I didn't have the numbers on the top of my head. But Western Australia, naturally located on the west coast, we're about a four hour flight from Sydney, so on the opposite side of the country from Sydney, the size of Western Australia is 2.6 million kilometres squared, which makes us larger than all of Western Europe and four times the size of Texas, to give some context. So I thought that was pretty impressive. And Western Australia is also one third of Australia's total landmass, so in short, it's a very big state.

Speaker 2:

It certainly is One of our best assets is we've got over 20,000 kilometers of beautiful coastline, which I'll talk about quite a bit over our podcast. And what's also interesting is that the whole population is just under 3 million and 2.3 million of that lives in Perth. So for such a large state, it's very, very densely concentrated in Perth, which is still quite small by global standards, sitting at 2.3 million residents.

Speaker 1:

So that's a great introduction to the geography of Western Australia and it is immense. I don't think even before I moved to Australia I just didn't understand just how huge actually Australia is in terms of just driving. I live in Queensland and driving that state kind of blew my mind. But Western Australia is kind of on another level. So if somebody's arriving for the first time and they're thinking, oh you know, I'm going to Western Australia, I'm really excited. What sort of things do they need to know before they arrive?

Speaker 2:

So I kind of have three key things that I think people need to be aware of and that I share with people. So number one, weather. So, being such a large state, the weather varies so wildly. So when Margaret River in the southwest is having its beautiful, delightful summers, up in the very north, up inome, it's tropical, it's humid, there's tropical cyclones, so it's like you've got two complete different weather systems. So you've really got to make sure you know what time of the year you're traveling and what, where you want to travel to, to line up to make sure that you're not traveling at the wrong time of the year, because, trust me, if you're in Broome in January, you're not going to have a really fun time, unfortunately, even though it's the middle of summer. For Australia, I will say, though, you can pretty much travel all year round. So Perth apparently gets more than 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. So Perth is really mild, quite a Mediterranean climate, so that's great if you want to travel to Perth. We've also been known as one of the sunniest capitals in the world, so we'll have to fact check that one, but I think it checks out.

Speaker 2:

And then the second tip I'd give is what we kind of spoke about is distances. So I can get in my car and drive all day for 10 or 12 hours and I'm still in Western Australia. So the biggest mistake I really see people make is when they come over here is they just try to cover too much at once and what that means is they're driving all this way. They might drive eight hours to Esperance, spend one day in Esperance and they're in the car for five hours to drive to the next place and it's just too much. Like that's probably the biggest mistake I see people make, which is just try to fit too much in and you're just covering too much distance in too little time. So, trust me, you'll have a better holiday if you optimize it around those driving times.

Speaker 2:

And then, lastly, while I love the Perth CBD, I'd actually say some of the best things to do in Western Australia and Perth are actually outside of the CBD. So if you're coming to Perth, I really recommend taking some day trips. I think it's some of the best things to do around Perth. Having a car isn't strictly necessary if you're just traveling to Perth, but having a car can be quite beneficial, particularly for making those day trips, although there is options for tours and if you're planning to really go outside of Perth. So whether that's going south to Margaret River or driving up to Exmouth, having a car is really beneficial.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. And when I was over in May for the first time, because as you know, my daughter's moved over to Western Australia so we visited and my parents were here from the UK. So I was actually trying to decide where to visit Obviously my daughter and obviously Perth, but we were trying to decide where to visit. So we actually went to Margaret River and had a wonderful time. It was lovely. Now I'm planning to come over in May With me and obviously I met up with you and Dane in Margaret River, which was lovely.

Speaker 2:

In Margaret River. We met up in Margaret.

Speaker 1:

River. It was and it's such a lovely, lovely area. Now I'm coming back again, so you've mentioned kind of a couple of areas there. You've mentioned margaret river and you've mentioned the coral coast. Now I'm planning my own trip for later on in the year. So where would you recommend that visitors go? And I know that's a really probably going to be a huge question to ask because it's a huge state, but you know, where are the kind of most popular places that people head or that you would recommend?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So if you have a week in Western Australia, I would recommend spending maybe three to four days in Perth and then spending your rest of the time either driving to, say, margaret River. So I think three days in Margaret River is kind of the perfect amount of time. Margaret River in the Southwest is a beautiful wine region so it's quite well known in Australia for its amazing wines. You can drive around from cellar door to cellar door sampling boutique wines. It's got beautiful beaches, beautiful carry forests. So if you love nature and food and gourmet experiences, I think Margaret River ticks a lot of boxes, so that's a really popular one. I think if you have a couple of more weeks so say you had two weeks that's when I would recommend renting a car and driving along the coral coast going up to as far as, say, exmouth, which is home to the Ningaloo Reef. I honestly think this is one of the best road trips in Western Australia and maybe even Australia.

Speaker 2:

So just some of the things you might see along the way after leaving Perth is you can go swimming with sea lions in Durian Bay, which is an amazing experience. I've done that a couple of times. You can go sandboarding through towering sand dunes at Lancelin. That's a really unique experience and quite tricky as well. You also pass the Pinnacles Desert, which is basically like a sea of yellow sand, with these unique limestone formations rising out of the sand, and it's quite unlike anything else I've ever seen. And then you're only. You're only. You're not even halfway there. There's also the Hutt Lagoon, pink Lake, which is honestly like not edited, just bright strawberry pink, salty pink lake. It's incredible. It's something you see on the cover of you know tourism guidebooks for Australia and Western Australia and it's really as good as it looks in the pictures.

Speaker 2:

And then you've got. You're going to go past Kalbarri, which is home to the stunning Kalbarri National Park, which is like these beautiful gorges, stunning hikes, picturesque watering holes. And then you reach Exmouth which, as I said, is home to the Ningaloo Reef, so you can go snorkeling and swimming with the whale sharks. At certain points in the year there's turtles, manta rays and just the marine life is incredible on the Ningaloo Reef. So I honestly highly recommend that road trip.

Speaker 2:

If you visit at the right time, which generally, I say May to October, is probably the best time of the year to do that. So, yeah, it's pretty broad window and lastly, I think a bucket list thing to do near Perth which I highly recommend to all visitors is a visit to Rottnest Island. So this is a small island about 30 minutes off the coast of Perth. You reach it by ferry and it's a car-free island. But it's probably most well known for its adorable quokkas, so I hope most people have seen the quokka selfie. So that's really put Rottnest Island on the map in Western Australia and that's a beautiful day trip which you can do almost any time of the year, but it's definitely best in summer so you can enjoy the amazing 60 plus beaches of the island.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it was one of my favourite trips that I did in May and actually Doug went over to see Dominique in November and it was the it was top of his list to do, so they went over to the island. Absolutely cannot wait to visit again, and quokkas are just so cute.

Speaker 2:

They are so cute and I think it's just such a nostalgic feel going to a little island that you can just walk around. There's no cars, you ride your bikes to get everywhere. It's just a really laid back, friendly vibe, I guess.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a lovely place to visit. Now, obviously you've talked about some of the must visit places, and I mean Western Australia is amazing, but you know, for somebody planning their Western Australia itinerary it can feel a little bit overwhelming. So what tips would you share to help them put together their itinerary?

Speaker 2:

So I know I'm harping on about it, but I'm going to say it again don't underestimate the distances. You'll really just make your trip a lot more enjoyable. So make sure you really check driving times and distances between places. Make sure you visit the right region at the right time. As we spoke about, you probably don't want to go to the northwest of Australia during summer, whereas the southwest is a beautiful time of the year, in summer, so it's really important to time it right. And then, lastly, I'd say just know you're not going to be able to fit it all in. It's such a huge state.

Speaker 2:

I've lived here my entire life and I've still got corners to explore. So just, I guess, really prioritize what you want to see in the time you have. And then, lastly, visit my blog. I've got heaps of free Western Australia travel guides. I've got some really detailed itineraries, particularly for my favorite road trips like Perth to Margaret River and Perth to Exmouth, and I've also just released, in October last year, a Western Australia Road Trips Guide ebook. So that's an ebook full of 90 pages of destination guides, custom itineraries and all the essential travel tips and tricks that I've got from a lifetime exploring WA.

Speaker 2:

And if people need a little bit of help extra with that, you offer itinerary consults as well, yes, just last, last week, I actually launched the next phase of the ebook, which is offering um customized itinerary reviews, like you do, for uk and london, so that's a service I now offer as well that's.

Speaker 1:

That's brilliant and I'm sure you'll be very, very good at it and very successful. Tessa, I wish you the best of luck with that. So that's brilliant, and we will put a link, um, in the show notes. So so I know if anybody's listening and thinking, oh, I'd really like to chat with Tess and plan a trip around Western Australia. I will put a link to Tess's website and to her consultation service in the show notes. Now I asked you a funny question. Well, not a funny question, but I kind of asked you, if anybody's visiting Western Australia, what should they eat and drink? And I know your reply was kind of like well, it's the same as kind of everywhere in Australia. There's nothing particularly kind of specialized to Western Australia, but I was kind of thinking, if you don't know anything about Australian food and drink or what to have, there are some things to have in Western Australia. I'm kind of thinking wine here. Well, it's funny because when I thought about it, and I really came up with alcohol.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's funny because when I thought about it and I really came up with alcohol, my suggestion was, yeah, wineries and craft beer breweries. So I don't know what that says about Australia.

Speaker 1:

Why not, why not? And the wineries? I mean Margaret River. It's fabulous, fantastic Wine, not Tracy. Wine not, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I do love the wine. I travel to Europe and I drink this beautiful Spanish wine and I just go. Oh, I love my Cab Sav from Margaret River more than this.

Speaker 2:

So I do think there is some really beautiful wine, particularly in the Southwest region. Margaret River has some of my wineries in Australia, but Perth also has a little wine region called the Swan Valley which you can do as a lovely day trip, so that's a really great way. If you can't make it down to Margaret River, you can go just 30 minutes out of the city and there's a little wine region called the Swan Valley and there's some delightful restaurants, beautiful wineries, quite like boutiques at Ladoor, so it's a really lovely day trip.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, absolutely. I can't wait to return, and there's some wonderful accommodation options as well. We said a beautiful place in Margaret River. Now it can be pretty pricey. Australia is the cheapest destination in the world to travel to, for sure. So if I was on a slightly tighter budget, what budget-friendly tips have you got for saving a bit of money when you're traveling around with WA?

Speaker 2:

It is tricky, it can be quite expensive. I just read an article saying they've just crunched numbers for 2024 and the average price for a hotel room in Perth, just average price, is 225 Aussie dollars. So that's probably about, I think, 140 USD per night. So it can add up. So my tips.

Speaker 2:

I've got a couple of tips. I do think it can be quite expensive dining out in Western Australia and Australia in general. So I love getting accommodation with a kitchen or a kitchenette. Even when I travel up North. That's a great money-saving tip because particularly when you kind of go out of Perth and into the more rural areas, accommodation is more expensive. Eating out is more expensive. So for me in Exmouth we had a small kitchenette when we stayed in Exmouth and it was a great way just to save on a few meals. So that's quite, I guess, a general travel tip.

Speaker 2:

My other tip would be you can get a national parks pass for WA. So if you're planning to visit multiple national parks which I hope you're doing in your time in WA because it's some of the best places in Western Australia there's unlimited parks. Plus you can buy for five days, two weeks and I think up to a month as well, if you're a resident, like me, I sometimes buy a year-long pass and with that pass you can visit the national parks as many times as you like, just for a one-off fee. If you pay individually, it's $17 each time you visit. So even if you have a short trip of five days, if you're planning to visit a few national parks, that can really add up okay, that sounds like a good idea.

Speaker 1:

I'll look into that for my visit later on.

Speaker 2:

The air test that's great definitely and then just the one other thing I just thought of is if you're looking at hiring a car, unfortunately, because western australia is so remote, you, if you look to hire a car one way, so say if you're doing, say, just perth to x mouth and then you wanted to fly back from x mountains and driving. Unfortunately most car rental companies slug you with a really exorbitant one-way car rental fee. So it's almost always better doing point to point. So pick up a car, hire in Perth and return it to Perth. I've had quite a few people that have made all their travel plans booked, with their accommodation, booked flights, and then they realize they have to pay for the nose just to rent a car because they've done a one-way car rental.

Speaker 2:

So that's another good tip.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely a good idea to consider that when you're in your budget and when you're hiring cars. Um, yes, because that can certainly add, add up onto your budget for sure. Now, um, I get asked a lot for, uh, visitors to the uk about you know, tipping and what should I do, what shouldn't I do? So I don't offend anybody, um, so I think that's a great question to ask about visiting Australia as well and WA, like cultural norms, etiquette tips, things that people should or shouldn't do when they visit, yeah, so you definitely don't need to tip.

Speaker 2:

We're paid for it in our wages, so you definitely don't need to tip. Obviously, if you've been on a tour and you've really loved your tour guide I think you know the tour guides would appreciate a small tip, but it's not expected and it's not required. And then I guess my highlight tip and it's a bit of a more of a humorous one, but Perth is really well known that everyone's quite relaxed, very laid back and easygoing. So don't be surprised if you see some easygoing blokes walking around the supermarket without shoes on, sometimes maybe even in cafes. There's a very different culture here. I know sometimes I have to tell my husband to put on shoes when we're going out. So I think it's something that some tourists laugh about because they go out in public and see people without shoes on. So that's kind of normal sometimes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, it's very hot and actually it was one of the things that I was used to from where I grew up, because because I grew up in Africa, so wearing shoes we didn't used to bother. But I have to say and I'm going to share this because this is my favorite story but I was at my local supermarket a couple of years ago and there was a family, a mom and a dad and a little. He was probably about 80 months old, the little boy and mom was very pregnant and between the three of them they had three items of clothing on that. They had three items of clothing on that, was it? No shoes, just hilarious so. So mom had a pair of shorts on and a little kind of band around her, around her, um, her boobs, and the father had a pair of shorts on and the little boy had the little baby had a nappy on and that was it. That was it? That was some total of their clothes.

Speaker 1:

I can confirm we usually wear a little bit more over here. Oh, that's good to know. That's good to know, because that's the least I've ever seen. I have to say it was quite an eye-opener. But yeah, I mean, walking around in my shoes aren't definitely something that you can expect to see at supermarkets, in shopping centres. You see it all the time really. So I'm glad to know that's not just Queensland, that's also a WA kind of relaxed living thing.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. I definitely think Western Australia and Queensland are probably the two most similar states.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think so Definitely. Now, if somebody's planning to visit WA for the first time, what is the one tip and you've probably covered it, but I always ask at the end of a podcast episode, so my listeners expect it but what is the one tip that you'd share that absolutely people need to know if they're visiting Western Australia for the first time?

Speaker 2:

If I've done my job right, you're probably going to guess what this is. So I'm going to share this tip and then I'll give you a bonus tip. So my one key takeaway is not to underestimate how vast the region is. So no surprises there. We've mentioned that a few times. My bonus tip is do not underestimate the sun here. You see, I can tell when someone's just stepped off the plane from the UK because it might be a 25 degree Celsius day in Perth and a poor Brit's gone to the beach they haven't put any SPF or sun cream on and they are bright red. The sun here is actually so harsh you generally do need SPF 50. I've actually got burnt shoulders at the moment because I went for a walk this morning and I forgot to put my sun cream on. So't underestimate how harsh the sun is. I think there's actually um. It's proven that the ozone hole layer the ozone layer hole is bigger over where we are. So it's definitely um an issue and it should be taken um it should be taken seriously.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely, I think that's uh, that was it mad dogs in English when I let people go out midday or something, the midday sun, and yeah, 100% back that up. You really need to be very careful of the sun in Australia. It's not a joke, it's very serious. And yeah, make sure that you take your sun cream, specifically if you're coming from a destination where it doesn't have as much sunshine as we do in Australia.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and the good thing is you don't need to bring it with you. Buy it over here. The Australian government subsidizes sun cream. It's the cheapest place in the world to buy sun cream, apparently, so you can get it for only a few dollars from the local supermarket. So no need to bring it over with you, just get it while you're here.

Speaker 1:

Oh, perfect, right. Thanks so much, tess, for chatting to us about WA. We're going to talk about Perth in a minute for a further episode, but it was great to chat with you, to get the lowdown on Western Australia.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having me. I love talking about it, so thanks for letting me share my tips with everyone.

Speaker 1:

That's right. Actually, before we go, share again where people can find you, because you also have a very successful Instagram account as well, so share when can we find you successful Instagram account as well, so share.

Speaker 2:

where can we find you? You can find me on my website and across all mainstream social media as Tess Somewhere. So that's Tess and Somewhere, but there's only two S's in the middle, but we'll put the links in the show notes anyway.

Speaker 1:

We will do definitely. Well, thanks so much, Tess. It's always great to catch up with you and chat. Thanks, Tracey. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Thanks, Tracy, enthusiast just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.