There’s a popular quip among some Singaporeans here that there’s only one reason why we toil at work: and it is to pay for our twice a year vacations in June and December. And our planning for a new holiday spot begins as soon as we’re done withe the last one! So – my last post of 2016 centers on possibilities for our travel spot in June 2017.
The planning for our Melbourne trip in June this year took just over a week to nail down most bookings and itinerary items – and it wasn’t a particularly complex trip to plan for, since we stuck to the city for half the time, and all outbound trips were taken care of by day tours. Since we’ve started planning much earlier for the June 2017 trip, we figured we’d reduce as far as possible our day tours (and save a lot of money) and get to as many places as possible on our own, and with two young kids in tow too.
The first itinerary we’ve written up is for a 11D10N day trip to Western Australia, self-drive and will see three main segments: Perth itself, down south to Margaret River/Permberton/Walpole, and finally up north of Perth to Lancelin, and the total driving distance should be a pretty manageable 1,600KM in all. Ling has been to Perth twice now – both times to visit me during our dating days haha – while I also visited the Margaret River region with family 13 years ago too. But as these things go and for this period of years, family vacations are really more for the kids than for the parents. The map is embedded below, with pins to indicate the places we’re looking at:
And a brief summary of what this 11 day itinerary looks like at the moment:
Day 1: Perth to Busselton (Busselton Jetty and Observatory). Busselton to Margaret River
Day 2: Margaret River to Augusta (Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, Whale Watching, Boranup Karri Forest, Jewel Cave). Augusta to Pemberton
Day 3: Pemberton (Gloucester National Park, The Cascades, Pemberton Tramway, Beedelup National Park). Pemberton to Walpole
Day 4: Walpole (Valley of the Giants, Treetop Walk, Giant Tingle Tree). Walpole back to Margaret River/Pembelton
Day 5: Margaret River/Pemberton Farmstay
Day 6: Margaret River/Pemberton to Busselton (Choc Factory, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, Ngilgi Caves). Busselton to Bunbury (Dolphin Discovery Center). Bunbury to Perth
Day 7: Perth to Rockingham (Penguin Island). Rockingham to Fremantle (Fremantle Market). Fremantle to Perth
Day 8: Perth to Yanchep (Caversham Wildlife Park, Yanchep National Park). Yanchep to Cervantes (Pinnacles Desert)
Day 9: Cervantes (Nambung National Park). Cervantes to Lancelin (Lancelin Sand Dunes). Lancelin to Perth.
Days 10-11: Perth
This version of the itinerary will have us staying at six/seven properties:
Margaret River (1 night)
Pemberton (1 night)
Walpole (1 night)
Margaret River/Pemberton Farmstay (2 nights)
Perth (2 nights + 2 nights)
Cervantes (1 night)
The main considerations and parameters for this itinerary were:
That we’d drive and get from point to point only when there’s daylight, short as it will be since it’ll be winter.
The farmstay will be a key highlight for the kids, but there are only about six farmstays in our consideration and they tend to get booked fast. So the itinerary has to plan around that stay.
Depending if I can take additional days how for this vacation stretch, we might get real ambitious and go beyond Walpole and to Albany, though the sights there are more coastal than of national parks.
Well, that’s one itinerary. Along the way we’ll work out alternate itineraries to different cities/countries, so more to come soon.:)
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