Yallingup Beach Hopping: 6 Beaches Within 20 Minutes, Ranked

Within twenty minutes of my workshop, I can reach six beaches that would be the best beach in most parts of Australia. In Yallingup, they're just Tuesday. The wider Margaret River beaches guide covers the coast from Bunker Bay to Augusta; this is the narrower local list.

I've been on this stretch of coast since 1982. Built the gallery on Blythe Rd in 1988: jarrah walls, southwest limestone, my own hands. Forty years on, I still walk one of these beaches most days the swell isn't blown out. None of them are bad. They're not. But they're different from each other in ways that matter for a short visit, and people keep asking me to rank them.

So here goes. Take it with a grain of sand.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Smiths is where I go. That's the short answer and it's been the short answer since 1982.

It's a long curve of sand south of Yallingup proper, with a granite headland at the southern end and open ocean to the west. The surf works on most swells: point break off the headland, beach break along the middle. The water is clean in a way that surprises people from the east coast. There's a small resort up on the dune but it's set back enough that the beach itself feels uncrowded most of the time.

What makes it number one for me isn't any particular feature. It's that Smiths is good in every condition. Big swell, small swell, summer, winter, morning, evening. There aren't many beaches you can say that about. Most have a sweet spot. Smiths just keeps working.

Park at the main car park off Smiths Beach Rd. Walk south to get away from the people. Tide out, you can walk the full length in twenty minutes. Tide in, you're on the soft stuff and it's harder going but the view back at the bay is the better one.

the Smiths Beach write-up

The original. The reason people came here in the first place, before any of us were around.

Yallingup Beach is the town beach: small bay, reef break out front, the historic Caves House up on the hill. The surfing here put Yallingup on the map in the sixties and seventies, and you still see good surfers out there on most days the swell is up. The lagoon at low tide is good for kids: protected by the reef, calm water, sandy bottom. At high tide the reef disappears and it's an open beach.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I'd put Yallingup second because it's the most useful beach for a family. The lagoon at the north end is the answer with young kids who can't handle open surf. The headland walk south takes you along to Canal Rocks for anyone with the legs for it.

Avoid the main car park. It fills up by 10am in summer. There's overflow up by Caves House and the walk down isn't bad.

the local guide to Yallingup Beach

Meelup is the one you take your visitors to when you want them to fall in love with the place. It's that obvious.

Drive east from Dunsborough, follow the Meelup road around the back of the bay, and you'll come to a series of pull-offs. Meelup proper is the main one. Calm water. It's tucked into a bay that faces northeast, which means it's protected from the southwesterly that blows most afternoons. Clear, blue, swimmable. The sand is whiter than the Yallingup beaches because it's a different geology.

Photo: Western Australian Government, CC BY 2.5 AU · via Wikimedia Commons

Meelup gets crowded in summer because everyone knows about it. Go early. By 9am on a January Saturday it's packed. By 9am on a May Wednesday it's empty. Adjust accordingly.

The reason it's third and not first is that it doesn't surf. For flat clear water for swimming and snorkelling, Meelup is the best on the coast. For the full coast (surf, sand, swell, southwesterly in your face), go to Smiths.

Injidup is the wild one. South of Smiths, accessed by a dirt road off Caves Rd, and it doesn't have a resort or a kiosk or anything else that resembles infrastructure.

The main beach is a long arc with a headland at the northern end. At the headland there's the Injidup natural spa: a series of granite rock pools that fill up on the swell and create a natural jacuzzi effect. Walk north along the beach for about fifteen minutes and climb up onto the granite at the end. The pools are obvious when you see them.

Driving to Injidup from the south takes you past Blythe Rd. The gallery is open most days till 5pm — worth dropping in either before the beach or on the way back, depending on whether you want to be sandy when you see the furniture.

The swell at Injidup is bigger and more exposed than Smiths. Not a beginner surf beach. The rip can be strong and there's no lifeguard. Treat it with respect.

Why it's fourth and not higher: it's the harder beach. You need to want to be there. The drive in is rough and the walk to the spa is real. Put the effort in and it's the most rewarding of the six. The light at Injidup late in the afternoon is something I've been trying to put into timber for four decades on Blythe Rd.

the Injidup natural spa walk

Bunker Bay sits on the north side of Cape Naturaliste, about eighteen minutes from Yallingup. It's the long sweep of beach that opens up after Meelup if you keep driving, except the easier access is via the Pullman Resort road off the Cape Naturaliste highway.

It's a beautiful beach. Long, north-facing, white sand, calm in most conditions. The reason it's not higher on this list is that it can feel a bit polished. The Pullman Resort is right on the dune and the parking and amenities give it a slightly managed quality that the other beaches don't have.

For a long beach walk with kids and a picnic, Bunker is hard to beat. The water is clean and shallow for a long way out. The headland walks at either end take you up to Cape Naturaliste lighthouse on one side and around to Shelley Beach on the other.

Park at the Pullman entrance. There's public parking that's not for the resort. Walk down. Skip the resort restaurant unless you've booked.

Dunsborough town beach goes sixth not because it's bad but because the other five exist.

Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

What it is: a long, calm, flat beach on Geographe Bay, right in town. You walk off the main street and onto the sand. The water is calm, almost always, because Geographe Bay is sheltered. Good for kids, good for a quick swim, good for an afternoon when you don't want to drive anywhere.

What it isn't: dramatic. There's no surf, no granite, no wilderness. It's a town beach in the best sense: civilised, useful, easy.

The reason to include it is that it's the right beach for the right moment. After a day climbing around Sugarloaf and Injidup, Dunsborough town beach is the wind-down. Walk in, swim, walk out, get a coffee on the main street. Not every beach needs to be an event.

January and the first half of February are busy. Not impossibly busy, but the beaches that fill up (Meelup, Bunker, Yallingup main) really do fill up. The trick is to start early or come late. Most visitors are on the beach between 11am and 3pm. Get there at 8am or after 4pm and you've got the place largely to yourself.

On a long weekend in peak season, prioritise Injidup and the southern stretches of Smiths. They take a bit more effort to reach and most people don't bother.

how to handle the summer crowds

With two days, this is the order I'd do it in:

1. Sat 8am

   Smiths Beach

   Start here. Best beach, best light, fewest people first thing. Walk south to the headland.
2. Sat 11am

   Yallingup Beach

   Swing through town. Lagoon swim, coffee at one of the cafes up the hill.
3. Sat 2pm

   Injidup

   After lunch. Walk to the spa. Allow two hours.
4. Sun 8am

   Meelup

   Early because it fills up. Swim, walk the bay, leave before the crowd arrives.
5. Sun 11am

   Bunker Bay

   Drive round the cape. Long walk, picnic on the sand.
6. Sun 3pm

   Dunsborough Town Beach

   Easy wind-down. Coffee on the main street after.

That's six beaches in two days with time to actually look at them. You'll be tired by Sunday evening. That's the point.

The workshop sits between the northern and southern beaches on this list. Blythe Rd is a sensible halfway stop when hopping from Meelup back to Smiths. Open most days till 5pm.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I'd be lying if I said I do all six in a weekend. I don't. Most weeks I walk Smiths once or twice, maybe Yallingup if I'm in town, and that's it. The other four I save for visitors.

But that's the privilege of a lifetime here. You don't have to ration. Pick one and walk it slowly.

For a weekend, do as many as you can. For a week, do them in different conditions: Smiths at sunrise, Meelup at midday, Injidup at sunset. Same beaches, different beaches.

Autumn is the best time. The crowds thin out from late March, the water is still warm, and the southwesterly drops back. If you can pick when to come, come in April.

That's the ranking. The order doesn't really matter. They're all good. But if someone makes you choose, choose Smiths.