Western Australia Road Trip with Kids 2023 - Part One

Western Australia Road Trip 2023 with children.

Recently I embarked on a three-week trip, in a camper trailer, with my family of five. We travelled from Perth to Esperance and back again.

Let me start by saying, I am not a camper by any stretch. However, I wanted to see the southeast coast of W.A, and my family wanted to camp, so off we went.

I will break this adventure up into different blogs, so to keep it simple and easy to follow.

I live in NSW and did not want to drive across the Nullarbor, so we flew to Perth.

Hiring a car, that can tow a camper trailer for 3 weeks, can be very expensive, and in the January school holidays, very difficult to secure a vehicle. After researching and scrolling, I settled on Northside Rentals. They have a fleet of used cars, mainly ex-mine vehicles, that can tow and go offroad. Whilst they may not be luxurious, high-end vehicles, they do the trick of getting from A-B. They have offices in Perth, Busselton, Port Headland and Broome.

So we got our twin cab Mitsubishi Triton and headed off to our first night in Perth. We stayed at the Joondalup Resort. We arrived mid-afternoon, had easy check-in, free parking and a D.J. by the pool (wasn’t expecting that).

It’s a lovely resort, with nice pool facilities, several dining options, and many kids playing tips on the grounds. We only stayed one night.

The next morning, we picked up our camper trailer that we hired through Camplify. We booked an Opus 4. After a thorough handover, we headed to our first ‘camping’ destination – Bunbury. We had a powered site at the Discovery Parks – on the foreshore.

Bunbury is a nice seaside town. On the first morning, we got up early (which I discovered everyone does in caravan parks) and headed across the road to the Dolphin Discovery Centre. It was a nice experience for the kids. We did not book feeding experiences or tours, as we have lived on the coast and seen lots of Dolphins.

After, we headed into town. It was hot! The kids were complaining, they didn’t want to look around town. We headed to the information centre and picked up a map for the Street Art Tour. A challenge was made, and the kids became interested. There is beautiful street art throughout the town, in back lanes, electricity boxes etc. The kids enjoyed ticking them off the map. It is a great way to see the town on foot.

After a lovely lunch in one of the many eating places, we headed back for a swim. While the Foreshore is not a beautiful blue, pristine beach as you expect in W.A, it was clean and refreshing.

Part 2 coming soon