Perth Hidden Gems: 7 Unusual Things to Do
Kings Park has a free spiral tower shaped like a strand of DNA. The Bell Tower hands visitors an actual rope and lets them ring 500-year-old bells. WA Museum Boola Bardip hangs a full blue whale skeleton over its stairwell, and four free buses loop the CBD well enough to replace a paid hop-on-hop-off tour entirely. None of this is a secret exactly, it just gets buried under Kings Park’s lookout and Cottesloe’s postcard sunset. These 7 things are the odd, cheap, and genuinely unusual side of Perth worth building a trip around.
| Essentials | Perth |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 2-4 to cover these 7 picks properly |
| Best months | Sep-Nov (wildflowers) and Mar-May; Dec-Feb runs 35-40C |
| Daily budget | Budget A$60-90 (~US$42-63) / Mid A$140-220 (~US$98-154) / Splurge A$300+ (~US$210+) |
| Book first | Bell Tower chiming slots and Optus Stadium’s HALO/VERTIGO climbs |
The 7 things, in the order worth doing them:
- Kings Park’s DNA Tower, a free spiral staircase
- The Bell Tower, where you ring the bells yourself
- WA Museum Boola Bardip’s blue whale skeleton
- The free CAT bus loop, used as a zero-dollar city tour
- Cottesloe’s sunset versus Scarborough’s surf
- Northbridge’s laneway small bars
- The Swan River foreshore and the cheap ferry
Kings Park’s DNA Tower: a free spiral staircase most visitors walk past
In 1966, the Gradisen family, Dutch migrants who’d arrived in Australia in 1951, built a 15-metre double-helix staircase at the highest point in Kings Park, commissioned by then-park director Dr John Beard and modeled on the twin spiral staircase at the Château de Blois in France. It has 101 steps split across two intertwined flights, so climbers going up never cross climbers coming down, and the top is the highest lookout point in the entire 400-hectare park. It’s free, like everything else in Kings Park, and the surrounding paving uses stone gathered from 11 towns and 80 shires across Western Australia. Kings Park’s own DNA Tower page has current access notes. Pair the climb with the State War Memorial a short walk away, and if you land between September and November, the Botanic Garden’s 3,000-plus native wildflower species are in bloom around both.
Is the DNA Tower worth climbing?
Yes. It costs nothing, it’s the highest viewpoint in a park bigger than Central Park, and 101 steps up a double-helix staircase is a stranger ten minutes than most Perth attractions charging A$20 or more for a view. Go late afternoon, when the light angles across the Swan River below and the crowd at the top thins out.
The Bell Tower lets you actually ring the bells
At Barrack St Jetty on Elizabeth Quay, an 82.5-metre copper-and-glass campanile built for roughly A$5.5 million and opened for the 2000 millennium houses 18 bells. Twelve are genuinely old: cast for St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, traceable to before the 14th century, recast under Elizabeth I and again between 1725 and 1770, then gifted to Western Australia for the 1988 Bicentenary. The other six were cast locally from WA-mined metal. Most bell towers let you look; this one runs a guided bell-chiming experience where visitors pull the ropes themselves. General admission runs about A$18 for adults (concessions and family tickets are cheaper, and the guided bell-chiming experience costs more than basic entry - check thebelltower.com.au), open 10am-4pm daily with last entry at 3:45pm. Book a bell-chiming slot on GetYourGuide , since the interactive sessions run fixed times and do sell out on weekends.
WA Museum Boola Bardip hides a blue whale skeleton over the stairwell
The museum reopened in November 2020 after a A$400 million rebuild spanning five heritage buildings in the Perth Cultural Centre, including the 1855 Old Perth Gaol; Boola Bardip means “many stories” in Noongar. A full blue whale skeleton suspended through the atrium stairwell is the single most photographed thing inside, and the one thing visitors most often say nobody warned them about. General admission is A$15 adult, A$10 concession, free for under-15s and carers. Here’s the correction worth making: a free-entry promotion ran December 2024 to March 2025 and has since ended, so don’t expect the “free museum” some older posts still describe. Check current hours at the WA Museum before building a morning around it.
Is the WA Museum still free in 2026?
No. A free general-admission promotion ran from December 2024 to March 2025 and has ended. Current pricing is A$15 adult, A$10 concession, free for under-15s and carers, still fair value for a five-building museum housing the blue whale skeleton and Boola Bardip’s broader Western Australian story.
The free CAT buses double as a zero-dollar city tour
Four color-coded CAT (Central Area Transit) buses, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green, loop the CBD and Northbridge every 5 to 15 minutes, genuinely free, no card needed (Green runs weekdays only). Ride the full loop once with no destination in mind and it works as a free hop-on-hop-off tour past Elizabeth Quay, the Perth Cultural Centre, and the Hay St mall. The Free Transit Zone extends the same free ride to trains and standard buses across the three CBD stations. Once you step outside that zone, Transperth’s flat “Go Anywhere Fare,” introduced 1 January 2026, replaced the old multi-zone pricing entirely: A$3.50 cash or contactless, A$3.15 standard SmartRider, A$2.80 with an Autoload SmartRider, any trip up to three hours. Check Transperth’s current fare table before assuming an old zone price still applies.
Do the free CAT buses actually cover everything worth seeing?
For the CBD and Northbridge, close enough. Elizabeth Quay, the Perth Cultural Centre, and the Hay St and Murray St malls all sit on a CAT route. Kings Park and the beaches need the Go Anywhere Fare or a short walk, but the free loop alone covers a surprising amount of central Perth.
Cottesloe’s sunset or Scarborough’s surf: pick the one that fits
Cottesloe is the calmer, more photogenic choice: Norfolk pine-lined lawns, gentler swimming, and the Indiana Tea House anchoring a genuine Sunday-afternoon sunset culture. Scarborough, about 12 kilometres northwest, is livelier and rougher-edged, a real surf and kitesurf beach with a redeveloped foreshore of bars and restaurants. The “Fremantle Doctor,” the reliable afternoon sea breeze that rolls in roughly 10am to 3pm and can push 100 kilometres inland by evening, chops up Scarborough’s swell by midday, which is exactly why serious surfers there go early. First visit, short trip: Cottesloe. Second beach day, or if surf matters more than calm water: Scarborough.
Northbridge’s laneway bars exist because of a 2006 licensing accident
Western Australia’s 2006-07 small-bar liquor licensing reform, a deliberate change to allow tiny, non-nightclub venues, triggered a genuine laneway and small-bar boom across Perth and Northbridge, not a marketing invention. By day, Northbridge sits beside the Perth Cultural Centre: the WA Museum, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and PICA are all a five-minute walk from the CBD. After dark it flips into the city’s main nightlife strip along William and James Streets, and opportunistic theft and alcohol-fueled disorder cluster here more than anywhere else in Perth. Both things are genuinely true; stick to the main strips and travel in a group late at night, and don’t let the daytime cultural quarter fool you into treating 2am the same way.
The Swan River foreshore beats a paid cruise, on a regular bus fare
Elizabeth Quay opened in January 2016 after a redevelopment north of A$440 million: a purpose-built inlet with a 730-metre promenade, a pedestrian bridge, and public art, free to walk. The cheapest way to see the CBD skyline properly isn’t a river cruise ticket, it’s the standard Transperth ferry from Elizabeth Quay to South Perth, on the same Go Anywhere Fare as any bus trip. South Perth’s foreshore, right by the ferry stop, has the best straight-on skyline photo angle in the city for the price of a bus ticket. If a proper cruise still appeals, check Swan River cruise options on GetYourGuide for something longer than the ferry crossing.
When to visit (and the festival that overlaps the heat)
Seasons run backwards from the Northern Hemisphere. December-February is Perth’s hot, dry summer, routinely 35-40C; June-August is the cool, wet winter carrying most of the year’s rain. The best windows are the shoulder seasons, September-November (also wildflower season in Kings Park) and March-May. Fringe World Festival runs 21 January-15 February 2026, one of the world’s largest fringe festivals, squarely inside the hottest stretch of the year, so budget for heat if the festival dates are the draw.
Where to stay for easy access to all 7
Base yourself in the CBD or Northbridge; both put Elizabeth Quay, the Bell Tower, the WA Museum, and the free CAT loop within an easy walk, and Northbridge adds proximity to the laneway bars covered above. Compare CBD and Northbridge rates on Booking.com before picking a neighborhood; Northbridge runs louder at night, the CBD is quieter and more business-district.
Practical notes
Tipping isn’t expected anywhere in Australia; rounding up is optional, never an obligation. Most visitors need an ETA or eVisitor visa arranged before departure, not on arrival, so check eligibility against your passport before flying. And if anyone mentions drop bears near Kings Park, it’s a decades-old joke, not a real animal, so don’t rearrange your afternoon around it.
Perth is also one of the world’s most isolated major cities; the nearest city over 100,000 people, Adelaide, sits roughly 2,100 kilometres away. Pair this list with our 2-day itinerary or one-week itinerary , or start with the shorter Perth overview instead. Time the DNA Tower climb for late afternoon, when the light crosses the Swan River below and the queue for the top thins out.