Bunbury is a large town situated about 1.5 hours drive away from Perth, since the flight in from Singapore lands around afternoon, this town is a ideal place to stop for the night before continuing the drive down south.
Back in 2011, we crashed at the YHA Dolphin Retreat for the night. This youth hostel had a range of private rooms and bunk beds with a communal living room; we had a total of six adults so our family took a triple room. The place was clean and relatively quiet but being a youth hostel, it depends largely on your neighbours. Most of which are pretty understanding and will lower their voices after some kind reminders.
We stayed with Airbnb in 2014 since we had to cater to different needs and you can find the review here. Generally, accommodation options are aplenty in Bunbury but watch our for an annual concert called Groovin’ the Moo where the minimum stay is two nights and the prices go up.
Bunbury is a pretty small town but food is still readily available. We had our dinner at Nandos in 2011, the portion size and quality of food put the Singaporean outlets to shame.
Dolphin Discovery Center is the go-to place when you visit Bunbury. Dolphins are frequent visitors to the lagoon and it is recommended that you should visit the center as early as possible to catch the dolphins visiting. Each entry ticket allows three visits to the lagoon, we haven’t managed to see any dolphins after two trips. Nevertheless, the center does have a indoor area where they have small exhibits on some information about dolphins and marine conservation in general. The lagoon is a great place for families to relax, enjoy the breeze and kids generally enjoy the playground and the small exhibits.
We visited Bunbury Farmers Market on our way out to Pemberton. We initially thought that the farmers market would have about a dozen stalls in ‘pop-up’ style in a field or carpark. This market however is located in a building much like a supermarket and have a large variety of food from around the area. Fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, bread, meat and even homemade sauces and soup, we took the opportunity to stock up for our following meals. This is a must visit if you come to Bunbury!
absolute honesty 