The Margaret River in 24 Hours: A Speed-Run Itinerary

Twenty-four hours. If that's all you have, here's how I'd spend them, and what I'd skip.

I get asked this constantly. A friend from Perth has Saturday free. A couple from Singapore are in Yallingup overnight on the way to somewhere else. Someone's parents are visiting and they want to see the South West but have to be back at the airport tomorrow afternoon. The honest answer is that the region rewards three or four days, but you can do a lot with one without wasting the day driving in circles.

The itinerary below assumes you're sleeping in or near Yallingup or Dunsborough. A Perth day trip means losing four hours to the highway, so I'd rethink it. The structure still works at a pinch, but start earlier and skip the last stop.

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

The mistake everyone makes is trying to tick off three caves, four wineries, two breweries, six beaches, and a chocolate factory in a day. You end up seeing none of them.

I'd rather see four places properly than ten in passing. The places below are the ones I would send my own family to if they had one day. They're not the most-Googled. They're the right ones.

Walk on the sand before breakfast. Smiths is a ten-minute drive from the centre of Yallingup, sheltered on its northern end, and at 7am it's almost always empty.

You don't have to swim. You don't have to surf. Just walk to the southern end of the beach and back. About 45 minutes. The light at that hour does something to the water that you remember for a long time afterwards.

This is also the moment when you decide whether today is a coast day or a wine day, because both are good and you can only do one properly. Don't decide in the car.

Smith’s Beach, properly

Yallingup itself is small. Caves House Hotel does a solid breakfast. The Common in Dunsborough is excellent for that direction.

Coffee is non-negotiable. Get a good one. The drive ahead has corners.

Ngilgi is in Yallingup itself, ten minutes from where you slept. It's the closest cave to me and the one I send people to first because the entry chamber is genuinely something to see, and the self-guided tour gets you out in about an hour.

Book your Ngilgi Cave tour in advance for a 9am or 9:30am slot if you can. The carpark gets busy after 10:30. The cave is 19 degrees year-round, which feels warm in winter and cool in summer.

Don't try to do two caves. One cave is plenty for a one-day trip. The other major caves (Mammoth, Lake, Jewel) are all good but they're south down Caves Rd and you'll lose another hour of your day getting to them. Pick the one closest.

the Ngilgi half-day write-up

Photo: SeanMack, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I have to put this in because I'd put it in if I were writing a guide for someone else's day too. There isn't really another stop like it in the region. The gallery is on Blythe Rd, about ten minutes from Ngilgi.

What you get for thirty minutes here is: a workshop with the doors open, a viewing window where you can usually see the next piece coming together, a building made of jarrah and southwest limestone that I built myself in 1988, and a curated room of work from other South West makers: Alan Fox blowing glass, Julia Carter painting, Dylan Fox shooting. Pamela will probably show you around.

The reason I'd suggest this stop on a one-day trip isn't that you'll buy anything. It's that this is the one thing in the region you can't Google your way to understanding. The wine you can read about. The caves are described on a placard. The making of a piece of solid jarrah furniture is a thing you have to see being done.

Open six days, 10am to 5pm. No appointment needed. Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd. Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd.

Vasse Felix is about 15 minutes south. It's the oldest winery in Margaret River and the restaurant has been at the top of the regional list for as long as I've been here. The dining room looks out over the vines, the lunch menu is built around local produce, and the wine list does what it should.

Book lunch at Vasse Felix ahead, especially weekends. The gallery upstairs is also worth ten minutes after you eat. Vasse Felix collects Australian art and the rotating show is always good.

If Vasse Felix is booked, the next-best lunches on the way are Voyager Estate (more formal), Cullen (biodynamic, smaller room), and Aravina Estate (good for relaxed). All within a few minutes of each other.

my five favourite wineries near here

The wine you can read about. The caves are described on a placard. The making of a piece of solid jarrah furniture is a thing you have to see being done.

Canal Rocks is about half an hour back north towards Yallingup, on the coast. It's a granite formation with a narrow inlet between two outcrops. The sea pours through it in surges, and on a swell day the water in the canal moves with serious force.

There's a footbridge across the gap. Walk it. Stand on the rocks. The headland to the south has some of the best ocean views on the coast and the sunset from here in summer (later in winter) is one of the simplest pleasures the region offers.

Half an hour is enough. Longer if it's the kind of afternoon that holds you.

Canal Rocks when the light is right

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

With any energy left, drive up to Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. It's about 25 minutes from Canal Rocks via Dunsborough. The lighthouse is the northern tip of the cape and the views from the headland take in Geographe Bay one way and the Indian Ocean the other.

You can do the short walks from the carpark in 45 minutes and still be back for dinner. In whale season (September to November and again in late autumn) this is the best whale-watching headland on the coast.

Tired, skip the lighthouse and just drive to Meelup Beach instead. It's sheltered, sandy, and a swim there is gentle even in winter.

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

Three good options depending on where you are:

• Sugarloaf Rock if you're near Cape Naturaliste: dramatic granite stack, west-facing.
• Yallingup headland if you've come back south. The carpark above Yallingup Reef is one of my regular sunset stops.
• Canal Rocks again if you couldn't stay long earlier.

The sky goes pink, then orange, then a strange green at the horizon, then dark. Bring a jumper.

Two recommendations, both close to Yallingup:

• Lamonts Smiths Beach. Long dining room, wood fire, good wine list. Walk on the sand afterwards if it's still light.
• Wills Domain. Winery restaurant up the hill, more formal, beautiful in any season.

For a casual dinner, the Yallingup Steiner pub kitchen does honest food and the Eagle Bay Brewing Co is twenty minutes north for a long table and pizza.

Drive to the headland above Smiths Beach in the dark. Get out of the car. The Milky Way over the Indian Ocean from here is the only thing you really can't import to your home town. There's no light pollution. There's nothing but black ocean and stars and the sound of the swell.

Ten minutes. Then go home.

A short list, said with affection because all of these are good — just not for a 24-hour visit.

• Multiple caves. One is enough. Pick Ngilgi.
• The chocolate factory tour. Buy chocolate, don't tour.
• Long winery cellar door days. One winery, lunch, move on. Save the cellar-door circuit for a longer trip.
• The Cape to Cape walk in full. It's 135km. Do a 90-minute section and come back.
• Driving all the way to Augusta. Augusta is beautiful but it's an hour each way and it'll cost you the afternoon.

the regional gallery list

If you don't have a car, the geography fights you. The region is spread out. Your best bet is to base yourself in Yallingup or Dunsborough (walkable centres) and book a regional tour for the wineries — most of them run from Perth or from the Margaret River township and will collect you from your accommodation.

The walks at Cape Naturaliste, the gallery on Blythe Rd, Ngilgi Cave, and Canal Rocks are all close enough to Yallingup that a short taxi will get you between them. Smiths Beach is walkable from the Yallingup townsite if you're feeling fit (about 5km return).

Smiths Beach in the morning. Ngilgi Cave at 10am. Lunch in Dunsborough on the town beach (pram-friendly, sheltered). Canal Rocks in the afternoon. Meelup Beach for a swim. Early dinner.

Margaret River with kids

A day is not enough. You'll go home knowing it. The point of a 24-hour trip is to find out what you want to come back for. Some people come back for the wine. Some for the surf. Some for the walks. Some for the food. Some, occasionally, for the furniture. For a longer trip the best of Margaret River, a local's definitive list is the version I write when there's more time.

If you only do one of the stops above, do the early walk on Smiths Beach. That's where the South West introduces itself.

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