We just finished our June trip to Western Australia.

Part business trip (checking out hotels and tours), part vacation (road trip!), covering the high points of Western Australia.

I thought I’d share what I learned from planning to photos.

Planning began last year. In an earlier blog post (Mind Mapping for travel planning) I explained my methods for laying out all the items needed to create an itinerary. We had 2 weeks, including international travel time, but a little flexibility on when to go.

When to Go Where

People choose their travel dates for a variety of reasons: vacation schedules, seasons, special events.

I planned this trip around two time-sensitive events: the Whale Shark Swim Season and the Staircase to the Moon.

Swimming with Whale Sharks

One major goal for this trip was the chance to swim with whale sharks. This had captured my imagination and my husband was also excited to do this tour. This is done from the town on the North West Cape called Exmouth. The whale shark swim season is generally April to August. That narrowed the time frame for our travel to those months.

Staircase to the Moon

The second major event we wanted to see was the Staircase to the Moon, a meteorological phenomenon where the full moon rises over the water at low tide, spreading a reflection that looks like stair steps from the shore to the sky.The best place to see this is from Broome, in the far north. It happens only a few months of the year, when the tide times and moonrise are right.

I looked up moonrise tables between March and August (to match up with whale shark season). The June full moon dates were over a weekend and that month was good for our travel calendar so now we had the month of travel and the dates for Broome. (June 10-12).

We ended up booking the international airline travel when there was a fare sale to cover those dates.

Major Trip Components

Inside Australia

The third major sightseeing goal for this trip was to see the Inside Australia sculpture installation at Lake Ballard, in the Golden Outback region of WA.

This site is open all the time, being in a natural reserve area. At certain times of the year there are tours, but none in June, so we planned to self-drive this part. (See last week’s post about achieving this travel dream.)

Forest, Coasts, Wine

The last part of my trip wish list was to explore the Margaret River area south of Perth. Famous for forests, dramatic coasts and a lively wine and food scene, this area was a no brainer for a multi-day visit, but not particularly time sensitive.

Explore Perth and Fremantle

We wanted to see some of this capital city and the surrounding area. We would spend only a couple of days here, seeing as much as we could.

Day-To-Day Itinerary Planning

When planning the actual day-to-day itinerary, I ran into one major snag. Going to both Broome and Exmouth without a lot of backtracking was going to cost more money and take too much time.

In the end, the moon in Broome lost out to whale sharks in Exmouth. We did stay in Exmouth over the moon rise weekend. We did see two beautiful moon rises, but not the complete “staircase” effect.

Final Itinerary

Fly into Perth-½ day sightseeing in Fremantle

Margaret River-self-drive from Perth for 5 days/ 4 nights. Winery tours, lighthouses, beaches.

Drive back to Perth-fly to Kalgoorlie-1 day/2 nights-1 day Inside Australia installation: self-drive

Fly from Kalgoorlie to Exmouth-self drive 5 days/4 nights-Moonrise weekend and Whale Shark Swim.

Fly Exmouth to Perth-1 day/2 nights Perth sightseeing

Booking Ahead vs. Spur of the Moment Tours

I decided on a mix of planned and unplanned days for this trip. All hotels were booked in advance, as were the rental cars. We made only one restaurant reservation in advance, but did make others a day or two ahead when we needed them.

Advanced Reservation Tours

The Whale Shark Swim Tour

Deep-sea Fishing Charter

Winery lunch/tour at Vasse Felix Winery

Spur of the Moment Tours

Tours of the lighthouses at Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin

Boat tour of Yardie Creek in the Cape Range National Park

Perth Mint History Tour

So Many Photos

Sharing

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Photos

For photo books: Shutterfly

I took most photos with my iPhone 6 but I also have a waterproof Nikon camera.

I didn’t take it in the water with the whale shark and I should have. Definitely will next time.

In the End

The mix of planned activities and free time worked well for us. We took a few tours, but not many, leaving some of our sightseeing and activities to chance. This worked out well when we happened to be at Yardie Creek in the Cape Range National Park in time to do a boat tour of the creek, and not so well when we didn’t make a dinner reservation in advance in Exmouth and got turned away from several places one night.

I really enjoyed planning out all the details of this trip. It all went pretty smoothly and both my husband and I had a great time.