After some back and forth about when our travel windows for the upcoming June school holiday period would be, we managed to find a two week window where the both of us would be able to responsibly take time off work. And within this, we decided on an 11 day travel period, that we’d head to Perth and Western Australia, and went about finding appropriate airfares to and back.
There are several airlines that fly between Singapore and Perth directly and even more if you don’t mind flights with stopovers – though most of these stopover flights will see you first flying north further away from Perth before turning around and flying in the right direction LOL. As for direct flights, and as we wanted to maximize our length of stay:
Scoot: inconvenient arrival time in Perth (early night), great departure time (late afternoon)
Jetstar: good arrival time (early morning), good departure time (late night)
Emirates/Qantas: inconvenient arrival time (late night – almost midnight), OK departure time (late morning); pricey
Singapore Airlines: good arrival time (early morning), inconvenient departure time (midnight); pricey
So, on balance, Jetstar seemed the best bet. So, after flight booking was done, we immediately went about working out the two more tricky accommodations: farmstays in Margaret River as there are just a few of these in the region, and thereafter, our Pemberton stay – since there are very few properties there too.
For Margaret River farmstays, we were looking at two options:
Margaret River Hideaway & Farmstay: short 5KM drive away from the township, fairly modern, 57 acres farm = ample space for the kids to run around, possible discounts for a Whale Watching trip that we’re also planning for.
Sunflowers Animal Farm: convenient location too, pony rides, a lot of animals – though like the above, also not a working farm. Unfortunately, fully-booked for our period of stay.
So, it was choice #1. Its cottages were not available anymore over our 5D4N period, so we had to settle for studios instead. Still – I’m glad that we were able to find a farmstay to begin with! It was also encouraging to read one blogger’s post and also the property’s Tripadvisor reviews who praised the general cleanliness and hosts’ hospitality – and unusual to see a property reply to every review not using stocked replies even.
Pemberton: there’s a small number of motels and Bed & Breakfasts in this small town. Unlike the Margaret River accommodation though, our current itinerary over the 4D3N here involved very little of Pemberton itself. Rather, we would be using it as a central location to get to the more interesting places around it. I’d previously stayed at Karri Valley Resort back in 2003’s trip. It was a pretty decent place back then, helped by the lake that it sits beside, though the more recent views also seemed a bit more mixed than before.
Still, we were able to book a two bedroom chalet at the Forest Lodge Resort. The property looks lovely with its small lake, beautiful gardens, and visitors have shared on Tripadvisor about the countryside feel about the place. With any luck, we’d might like the place so much we’d just end up staying in the chalet and not venturing out LOL.
More posts in the coming weeks!
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