Where to stay in Perth: the 5 neighborhoods to know in 2026

Perth's city center fits in one square kilometer between the railway line and the river, and it has been remaking itself for ten years: Elizabeth Quay, the inlet dug into the bank in 2016, with its footbridge, its restaurants and the ferries to the south bank, the Swan Bells, the glass bell tower of 2000 that houses the bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, given by London for the bicentenary, and, behind them, the pedestrian streets of Hay Street and Murray Street, the arcades of London Court, a mock Tudor from 1937, the Town Hall of 1870 built by convicts, the Perth Mint of 1899, where gold is still poured in front of the public, and St Georges Terrace, the street of banks and towers. At the water's edge, the Supreme Court Gardens and Barrack Street Jetty, where the boats for Fremantle and Rottnest leave; eastwards, East Perth, the Queens Gardens, the WACA cricket ground and the racecourse, Heirisson Island and its free-roaming kangaroos, twenty minutes' walk from the center; across the river, the Burswood casino and the stadium. You stay here to do everything on foot, for the grand hotels in old buildings, and for the ferries. The downside: a business district that empties in the evening and on Sundays, except around the quay, and the highest prices in the city.

Across the railway line, Northbridge is the neighborhood where the center goes out at night and to the museum by day. The Cultural Centre takes up a single block: the Western Australian Museum, reopened in 2020 under the name Boola Bardip, with its suspended blue whale and its galleries on the Noongar peoples, the Art Gallery and its Aboriginal collection, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in an 1896 school, the State Library, and the Blue Room, the small stage of the city's theater companies. Around them, James Street and William Street, the Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian restaurants that made the neighborhood, the bars and clubs that keep it awake until three in the morning from Thursday to Saturday, Yagan Square and its tower of screens, which has linked Northbridge to the station since 2018, and the Piazza, the giant screen where people watch cricket on the grass. To the north, Hyde Park, two lakes, century-old fig trees and ibises, the neighborhood's family park. You stay here for the museums and bars on foot, for the hostel and for the central station five minutes away, where the airport and Fremantle trains leave from. The downside: noise until the small hours from Thursday to Saturday, and streets where hotel reviews advise staying in a group after midnight.

Kings Park is the biggest thing Perth has: four hundred hectares on the escarpment of Mount Eliza, more than Central Park, two thirds of which have remained bush, with its eucalyptus trees, its kangaroos at dusk and its wildflowers in September, and one third botanic garden, lawns and treetop walkways, from which the whole city unfolds above the river, the towers in the foreground and the Darling hills in the distance. The member quoted recommends going up there, and she is right: this is the view of Perth, and it is free, twenty minutes' walk from the center along Fraser Avenue and its eucalyptus trees planted in 1938. Around it, West Perth, offices and chain hotels at the foot of the park; Subiaco, the village of iron-lace houses where the city shops at the market on Saturdays, drinks on Rokeby Road and was still mourning its football stadium, demolished in 2019; Crawley and the university of 1911, its lawns by the river and the Berndt Museum of Aboriginal art; and, on the south bank, seven minutes by ferry from Elizabeth Quay, the zoo of 1898 and the Old Mill, the windmill of 1835. You stay here for the park when you wake up, for the neighborhoods where the people of Perth live, and for the zoo with children. The downside: twenty to thirty minutes on foot or by bus to the center, and a budget tier without sparkle.

I recommend going up to the heights of the botanical garden to treat yourself to a panoramic view of the city.

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At the mouth of the Swan, thirty minutes by train from the center, Fremantle is another town, and many prefer it: the port of 1897 through which the immigrants arrived, the prison of 1855, built by the convicts who then lived in it, closed in 1991 and Unesco-listed, the Round House of 1831, the oldest building in the state, the market of 1897, open Friday to Sunday, the Victorian streets of High Street and South Terrace, the row of cafés and pubs known as the Cappuccino Strip, the breweries of the fishing harbor and the Maritime Museum, at the end of the quay, which keeps the yacht that won the America's Cup in 1983. In the evening, Fremantle's pubs are full when Perth's center is empty, and the ferry to Rottnest leaves from here in thirty minutes: the car-free island, its sixty beaches, The Basin and its turquoise water, and the quokkas that come to smile at the cameras. Further south, Penguin Island and its penguins, forty kilometers away. You stay here for a town that lives in the evening and at weekends, for the hotels in the buildings of the prison and the market, and for the sunset over the ocean from Bathers Beach. The downside: thirty minutes by train to the center and Kings Park, and a sea wind that blows hard in the afternoon.

Twelve kilometers west of the center, behind the dunes, the city touches the Indian Ocean along forty kilometers of white sand, and each beach has its own crowd. Cottesloe, to the south, is the postcard beach: Norfolk pines, the Indiana pavilion on the sand, flat, clear water in the morning, the sculptures on the beach in March, and expensive houses behind. Further north, City Beach and Floreat, the family beaches, wide and calm, with their lawns and barbecues; Scarborough, the surfers' beach, rebuilt in 2018 with its seawater pool on the sand, its skatepark and its bars; and, beyond, Trigg and the natural pool of Mettam's Pool, a rock lagoon for children. The whole city swims here before work, and the whole city comes back in the evening to watch the sun drop into the ocean, something Sydney and Melbourne cannot do. You stay here for the water when you wake up, for the children and for the sunset. The downside: thirty minutes by car or bus to the center, no luxury hotel, and beach hotels that have aged, reviews say so.