Shaz&Dee

Hi I'm just wondering has anyone done this trip from Perth? We are considering doing it in the new year with 3 kids.

We intend to drive up, stay overnight in Geraldton then head on up north to Denham the following day.

If anyone has any tips or advice it would be greatly appreciated as we are feeling a bit anxious because it's such a long drive and the OH dosen't do small aircraft!

Cheers

renth

Have lunch in Port Dennison. You could do Denham in one day and not bother with Gero. Not much to see there. If you had to overnight, go to Kalbarri. Spend a couple of days there, lovely wild flowers at the moment.

grunty123

We did this trip in October last year. We broke up the journey on the way up by staying in Kalbarri for 3 nights and then on to Denham for 3, I think. We packed the car the night before and got the kids up REALLY early - didn't bother dressing them - just bundled them into the car! We then drove to Dongara and stopped for breakfast, stretched our legs and changed them out of their PJs! I think we also stopped further on for a while too, just to let the kids kick the ball around and have some lunch - I suppose it depends on the ages of your kids. We find if we have a break and let the kids run around a bit, as well as having something to eat etc. they are happier travellers. On the way back we did it in one go from Denham and stopped off at Geraldton for lunch, although it was a long way on one day with the kids. Both of us can drive which makes a difference, I suppose. We stayed at Oceanside Village in Denham - white beach house type cabins. Basic, but clean and lovely location. We had one at the front, across the road from a white beach and aquamarine sea - beautiful! Just a word of warning though - it will be very hot up there in January and if you go to the gorges around Kalbarri the flies will be a nightmare. Hope you have a great trip though.

mackinnon

Kalbarri is the only place worth visiting in that small part of Australia.

Monkey Mia is completely missable.

(IMHO)

You could always stop off at The Pinnacles on the way up there if you want some unusual photographs, although that's another place I rate as missable.

movetoperth

we are doing it in a few weeks time, going through to Denham in one day, then back to Kalbarri for the bulk of the holiday. My neighbours have just come back from Denham/Monkey Mia and thought it was great.

we'll be doing it wth 3 kids too, got "inflight" entertainment for them and i'll be a good 32+ weeks pregnant too so it should be fun

Lynn

ShellnTez

don't agree with the statement about monkey mia being missable!!!
we had a great time there, we even stayed longer than planned and i'm sure the kids will love it!
shellxxxx

Shaz&Dee

Cheers for all the replies.

We promised our daughter (who is obsessed with dolphins) that once we got to Perth we would take her to Monkey Mia.........10 months later we're actually going to do something about it.

I really need to book now as places seem to be filling up fast (some need 51 weeks in advance!!) and I will definately consider Kalbarri over Geraldton,not knowing the place too well it's good to get other people's points of views, good or bad.

Has anyone stayed in Shark Bay cottages or know anything about them? Is a week to much to stay in one place up there or is it better what grunty123 done, stay 3 nights somewhere and then move on for another 3/4?

Lynn keep me posted on how your holiday went and I hope you have a great time.....you're braver than me lol

Thanks everyone......

Jacqui

We'll be doing this trip from Mandurah. Staying at Denham Seaside Village for a couple of nights, visiting Monkey Mia, then onto Coral Bay at the southern tip of Ningaloo Reef. Day trips to Exmouth and other parts of the reef are planned, then the long journey back with one night stopover at Geraldton.

Our Pommie friends have all made comments like "been once, won't do it again" and "not what we expected". Our Aussie friends have all said "lovely place to go" and "best holiday ever" i.e. the complete opposite. I think us Poms are so used to busy English seaside towns, theme parks, Butlins/Center Parcs and all that goes with them, that everything else must seem too quiet and boring in comparison. People who have been brought up in WA and especially those that haven't even travelled interstate, just don't realise what's out there in the rest of the world, they only know quiet holidays in a remote place, there's nothing for them to compare. Ask my kids what's the biggest thing they miss about the UK, and they will say "decent holidays" and "decent theme parks", even if the weather usually was crap.

I'm sure the journey up there is going to be dead boring, but the flights are too expensive, also the area is so remote we would have to pay for a hire car on top. We've got a big size people carrier (Grand Voyager) with built-in DVD so at least the kids get in-flight entertainment - will probably argue over which film to watch though

I booked all our accomodation over the net. Go to http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/ and you can search for each of the towns you want to stay in, choosing options like type of accomodation etc. It will bring up a list of places with links to click on. Some of them you can book direct through the net, or you can contact the local area's tourist board and they can book for you. I did it all online, had to make a couple of phone calls to give credit card info or confirm something, but it was all pretty easy. These are all such popular destinations for West Aussies, you might find the best places booked up already for the busy Xmas/New Year period, so you'd better start looking soon! Like us, you have 3 kids which is always a problem in hotels and we have to book two rooms. You'll see that many of the apartments available in the region you're looking at, can easily accomodate bigger families, so that makes a nice change.

Just one other thing I've thought of, I think some of the places you might want to visit around Ningaloo Reef will only be accessible if you have a 4WD. We'll have to stick to the main roads, and go the long way round to Exmouth.

If I remember, I'll come back and post our experiences of the holiday.

mackinnon

Ningaloo Reef.

Never got as far up as that myself, but that is definitely a place I would want to visit.

Shaz&Dee

God I seriously need to start looking up the map now.....I've never heard of some of these places...........

hutchy

Hi there my 16 yr old girl is off to monkey mia tomorrow with her b friends family camping for around 8 days, staying off in geraldton which is around half way, so when she gets back i will fill you in....apparently beaches /dolphins are fab but not much else there,so we shall see what her comments are when she returns....jan hutchy

christhomas99

We have just come back from Perth 4 weeks ago (Wishing we were still there!).

We drove from Freo to Geraldton (4 1/2hrs ish) stopped at the Best Western there for a night approx £35 B&B for the 3 of us and then carried on up to Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia was the best the little one loved it we stopped there for 7 nights. as for Denham well...it got quite a nice little resteraunt made out of shells but apart from that not much there at all. the beach was a bit ropey as well! The main hotel in Denham Confort Inn couldn't even get a coffee until 3:30pm because the guy who made the coffees wasn't in until then! Oh Yeh as well when we where there the bottle shop had run out of beer and the pub was also short CAN YOU BELIVE IT!!

Monkey Mia however if your planning on stopping in that area has a wide range of accomodation to suit all. if your not into chilling out and relaxing then don't stop here too long. if you are It's sheer paradise, the dolphine do come 3 -4 times every day and even sometime in the evening. It was about 30 - 32 deg 4 week ago a perfect temp. but we were told it can get very hot up there at this time of year.

The drive up there wasn't too bad just be aware of the road trains oh and the roo's if traveling up during the evening.

Chris

Siren & Brian

1 of the best places in OZ, better than the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr_Sea-Breeze

OH, 2 daughters and myself did the Perth-Exmouth (and many places in between) trip about 18 months ago.

Was a bit disappointed with Monkey Mia, after all the hype there was very little interaction with the dolphins due to a whole bunch of very good reasons which the grownups understand but were difficult to explain to the little ones

I did hear that there is a place just south of Perth that has a similar thing going on with wild dolphins (Rockingham??) but we never went south so i cant vouch for it

Highlight was definitely the Ningaloo reef out of Exmouth. Turtles, dolphins and whale sharks! When i get back i will be going there again!

Mr S-B

Amazulu

Bunbury.