Perth Off the Beaten Path: 5 Day Itinerary

Five days adds Subiaco, a second Kings Park trail on the Lotterywest Federation Walkway, and the point where day trips like Rottnest and Fremantle start to make sense, all on top of the four-day city basics. Compare our 4-day and 6-day versions, or see the separate Perth Australia itineraries for those day trips.

Book these before you go:

Day Focus
1 Elizabeth Quay, free CAT loop, Bell Tower bells, Northbridge dinner
2 Kings Park DNA Tower, WA Museum blue whale, Cottesloe sunset
3 Scarborough surf, South Perth ferry, Optus Stadium rooftop climb
4 Art Gallery of WA, PICA, Lake Monger black swans, Northbridge bars
5 Subiaco, second Kings Park trail, planning day trips out

Day 1: Elizabeth Quay, the free CAT loop, and ringing the actual bells

Land at Perth Airport and take the Airport Line train, about 18 minutes to the CBD, on Transperth’s flat Go Anywhere Fare: A$3.50 cash or contactless, A$3.15 standard SmartRider, A$2.80 Autoload SmartRider, any trip up to three hours. Check into a CBD or Northbridge hotel, then ride the free CAT bus loop once with no destination in mind, it covers Elizabeth Quay, the Perth Cultural Centre, and the Hay St mall for nothing.

Spend the afternoon at Elizabeth Quay itself (opened 2016, a redevelopment north of A$440 million, a 730-metre promenade, free to walk) and then the Bell Tower next door: an 82.5-metre campanile housing 18 bells, 12 of them genuinely historic pieces gifted from London for Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary. Book the interactive bell-chiming session rather than just general admission (about A$18 for adults, with concessions and family tickets cheaper - check thebelltower.com.au), since it’s the one Perth attraction that hands you the rope instead of just a view. Check Transperth’s current fare table if you’re topping up a SmartRider first.

Dinner in Northbridge: the small-bar laneway scene here exists because of a 2006-07 WA licensing reform, not a marketing campaign, and it’s genuinely one of the better low-key drinking strips in the city. Stick to the main streets after dark; Northbridge is also Perth’s main nightlife hub, and that comes with the normal late-night caution any city centre needs.

Do you need a car on Day 1?

No. Elizabeth Quay, the Bell Tower, and Northbridge all sit inside the CBD’s free CAT loop or a short walk from it, and the Airport Line handles the only real distance this day covers.

Day 2: Kings Park’s hidden DNA Tower and the WA Museum’s blue whale

Morning goes to Kings Park, 400 hectares of free bushland on Mount Eliza. Skip past the main lookout crowd to the DNA Tower: a 15-metre double-helix staircase built in 1966 by the Gradisen family, 101 steps split across two intertwined flights so climbers going up never cross climbers coming down, and the highest viewpoint in the park. Kings Park’s own DNA Tower page has current access notes. Pair it with the State War Memorial nearby, and if you’re visiting September through November, the Botanic Garden’s 3,000-plus native wildflower species are in bloom around both.

Afternoon, head to WA Museum Boola Bardip in the Perth Cultural Centre: reopened in 2020 after a A$400 million rebuild across five heritage buildings, and home to a full blue whale skeleton suspended through the atrium stairwell that most visitors miss entirely on the way to the main galleries. Admission is A$15 adult, A$10 concession, free under-15s, genuinely not free anymore despite a promotion that ended back in March 2025. Check current hours at the WA Museum .

Evening, take the bus or a short rideshare out to Cottesloe Beach for sunset: Norfolk pines, calmer water than Scarborough, and the Indiana Tea House for a drink with the view.

Is the WA Museum still free?

No. A free-entry promotion ran December 2024 to March 2025 and has ended. Current admission is A$15 adult, A$10 concession, free for under-15s and carers, still fair value for a five-building museum with a blue whale skeleton inside.

Day 3: Scarborough’s surf, the South Perth ferry, and a stadium rooftop climb

Morning, get an early look at Scarborough Beach, about 12 kilometres northwest of the CBD: livelier and rougher-edged than Cottesloe, a real surf and kitesurf beach, best before the Fremantle Doctor, the reliable afternoon sea breeze, chops up the swell from around 10am.

Midday, ride the standard Transperth ferry from Elizabeth Quay to South Perth rather than booking a river cruise; it runs on the same Go Anywhere Fare as any bus trip, and South Perth’s foreshore has the best straight-on skyline photo angle in the city for the price of a bus ticket.

Afternoon or evening, Optus Stadium in Burswood: Australia’s third-largest stadium, seating 61,266, named the world’s most beautiful sports facility in 2019. Skip a repeat lookout and do the stadium’s rooftop instead, the HALO climb from A$85 or the steeper VERTIGO from A$92, a more distinctively Perth view than a second bell-tower-style climb. Dinner after in Mount Lawley, a leafy café strip on Beaufort St with a lived-in contrast to the CBD.

Cottesloe or Scarborough, if you only get one more beach day?

Scarborough, if surf and a livelier foreshore matter more to you than calm swimming; Cottesloe, if yesterday’s sunset already sold you and you’d rather repeat it. Both sit on the same coastline, roughly 12 kilometres apart by bus.

Day 4: The Perth Cultural Centre’s other galleries and Lake Monger’s black swans

Morning, go back to the Perth Cultural Centre, but this time for the Art Gallery of Western Australia and PICA (the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art), both a five-minute walk from the CBD alongside the WA Museum from Day 2. Lunch in Northbridge’s Chinatown, a genuine and often-overlooked food strip a block from the galleries.

Afternoon, take the free CAT Green route (weekdays only) or a short bus out to Leederville, and walk to Lake Monger nearby: home to a resident population of black swans, Western Australia’s own state emblem, out in the open on a suburban lake most visiting itineraries never reach. Leederville’s Oxford St café strip is a good spot to sit afterward.

Evening, keep working through Northbridge’s laneway small bars, a genuine result of WA’s 2006-07 licensing reform rather than a manufactured trend.

Day 5: Subiaco, a second Kings Park trail, and where the day trips start

Morning, wander Subiaco, the leafy, upscale inner suburb bordering Kings Park, cafes and boutiques rather than tourist strip. Then head back into Kings Park on a different route, the Lotterywest Federation Walkway , a steel-and-glass bridge that lifts you into the eucalypt canopy, free like everything else in the park.

Afternoon, if you haven’t already, ride the rest of the free CAT network; the Yellow and Blue routes cover ground the Red and Green loops miss, and it’s still free either way.

This is also the natural point to plan beyond the city. Rottnest Island, Fremantle, the Swan Valley, and the Pinnacles are all real day trips from Perth, just not ones this itinerary covers; see our Perth Australia itineraries for those, since they run on different logistics and pricing than anything in the CBD.

Is 5 days too long for just the city of Perth?

Not if you’re chasing the odd stuff rather than the postcard list. Two Kings Park visits, both major beaches, a stadium climb, and the full gallery cluster fill five days comfortably without repeating a single attraction, and it still leaves Rottnest and Fremantle untouched for a separate trip.

Before you go

Carry water and sunscreen even on an overcast day; Perth’s UV runs extreme most of the year regardless of temperature. And if anyone in Kings Park warns you about drop bears, it’s a decades-old joke, not a real animal, so don’t waste a second worrying about it.