I was told recently that when I hear a particular place mentioned over and over, to pay attention. To learn as much as possible about it so that when someone comes to me and wants to go, I already have a leg up. In the last year, I’ll admit I’ve heard about Western Australia on a lot of fronts. First and foremost, I went there in March – and loved it. Then I continued to see other travellers visit. Finally, Virtuoso is running an entire Western Australia webinar series for advisors this winter! If I wasn’t already keen on being an Aussie specialist, I would be reading these signs and signing up! But WHY Western Australia? What is it about this super remote destination that has people clambering to go? This week, I’ll look into that a bit, from the chilly southernmost tip to the far north outback.
Western Australia
Perth, Australia, as mentioned a few weeks ago, is one of the world’s most isolated cities. Despite this – it’s 2100 kilometres from Adelaide – it is quickly becoming one of the top cities to visit. It ranks as one of the most liveable cities in the world, due to its job market and great weather. But Western Australia is much more than Perth, and since I already wrote a post on Perth I’m going to skip it this time! Instead, I want to go into more details on some of the exciting things in WA. There’s so much, from the Margaret River wine region to the Ningaloo Reef, Broome, and Karijini National Park… not to mention the entire eastern half of the state, which is red desert.
Getting to Western Australia is surprisingly easy, given its location. At the moment (December 2017), you can fly nonstop to Perth from all other Australian cities, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and the UAE. In March 2018, Qantas will begin flying London to Perth, nonstop, on the new Dreamliner. This is the first flight to directly link Australia and Europe and will take 17 hours. When you consider that the original route from Perth to London took four days and nine hours (as quoted by the Qantas CEO), this is pretty amazing. (Side note: this is not the longest flight in the world, though. That distinction belongs to the Dubai-Auckland route on Emirates. Its constantly changing though!).
Once you’re in Western Australia, you can travel by car along the coast (make sure you have plenty of time and plenty of petrol!), or travel from Perth to Broome on a domestic flight. Helicopters are also a reliable way to travel, especially to some of the harder to reach places. Don’t forget to check back every day here to read more about this fantastic location!
