Week 587 · North Beach · Scarborough · Cottesloe · City Beach
Leaving Perth —
We tried to get to the beach at least once a week — either during the week for sunset or on the weekend. The city beaches stretch from North Beach 15 miles south to Leighton Beach — think of it as a nicer version of north San Diego. For me on a bike, about 30 minutes to Cottesloe using bike trails from our apartment.
Since we didn't have a car it was about a 15–20 minute Uber when we wanted to check out the sunset, usually at City Beach or Cottesloe Beach.
Starting on the north side with North Beach to Trigg Beach — very similar to San Diego with a cliff-side oceanside drive with houses overlooking the beach. Good place for surfing and a nice beach village with the local brewery "Froth" overlooking the ocean. There were also several protected coves which during the morning provided decent places for snorkeling at Mettams Pool and Hamersley Pool. We went to Trigg Beach a couple of times — usually there was some weekend market or surf contest.
Moving south from Trigg Beach, the next major beach is Scarborough — probably the only American-style resort beach with one high rise and lots of food court/restaurants right on the ocean. One of the nicer aspects of Scarborough Beach is large grassy areas and shade trees. Weekends are very packed with families, skateboard parks and basketball courts.
For us, the easiest place to get to for sunsets was City Beach — it had a couple of nice restaurants overlooking the beach and the beach here is much different from north of Scarborough — no oceanside main road and a lot of parkland between the beaches and the houses.
We had many visits to Cottesloe Beach — we stayed here in November 2024 — it is consistently ranked as one of the top beaches in Australia. It has a protected cove with a shark fence (but somehow sharks find their way in) and a very famous beach house. On weekend mornings, it is packed with kids in surf and lifeguarding lessons.
South from Cottesloe, there are several nice beaches as you head towards Fremantle. The dividing line between Perth and Freo is the mouth of the Swan River just south of Leighton Beach.
