Taking a Broome to Perth road trip is on the bucket list of many Australian backpackers (and Aussie locals alike). You start in the red dirt of the Pilbara region and carry the iron ore stains down towards the turquoise waters of the Ningaloo Coast.

You’ll share the road with mining equipment ten times the size of your car, hear stories of death adders lurking under tents, and if you’re especially lucky, take a swim with whale sharks in the Indian Ocean.

This post is a part of my Outback Road Trip series. 

If you choose to take a tour, you can also discover the hidden grottos and rock pools of the red rugged north, dip into the crystalline waters of Turquoise Bay, and admire the world’s oldest living organisms in Kalbarri before finishing up in laidback Perth.

You can book your West Coast Australia trip here.

Broome to Perth Road Trip: Karijini, Exmouth, Monkey Mia

I’ll walk you through each day of this adventure tour of Australia’s west coast.

There will be tips and personal stories throughout, but each day will have a summary at the top for all my skimmers out there.

Also, before you book, read up on how to get this tour for up to 20% off the total price.

Even if you are more interested in doing a self-drive tour of Australia’s West Coast, this itinerary is pretty solid and easy to follow for couples and families as well.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 1: Broome to the Pilbara

Accommodation
Bunkhouse at Pardoo Station

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Great Sandy Desert, Eighty Mile Beach, Pilbara Cattle Station

The total driving time today is around 6 hours and approximately 525km. The total walking distance is approximately 1km.

Meals Included
Lunch / Dinner

I had just finished spending three days in Broome resting and recharging after my 10-day Kimberly camping trip when I boarded the bus. Some of our friends had left us in Broome with a few more joining us for this leg of the tour, including a new tour guide named Storm.

The bus was a bit different, now we didn’t need a 4-wheel drive anymore as we would be driving on sealed roads all the way down to Perth. It was more of a mini-caravan type of situation instead of an off-road tank-like bus in the Kimberley. We had a lot of road to cover, so as we loaded up the bus, crammed in tightly (this leg was pretty full), we were off.

Storm played music out of the speakers, but the rest of us chose to pop in our headphones and do our own thing on the long drive from Broome to the Pilbara.

The day was mostly driving as Western Australia is a whole lot of nothing with spackles of cool bits in between.

We stopped off at eighty mile beach, which as it’s known for its stunning natural beauty. The long stretch of white sand beach, crystal clear blue waters, and spectacular sunsets make it a must-see. If you’re into bird watching, the area surrounding eighty mile beach is home to over 200 species of birds, including the rare and endangered Hooded Plover.

That night, we slept on a real working cattle station in airconditioned twin rooms. Fran, my dear English Rose and emotional lifeline on this trip, and I bunked in together. We couldn’t believe our luck that we were sleeping in real beds, after sleeping in swags on the ground the whole week before in the Kimberley. The rooms were small and you had to walk about two minutes across a small field to get to the bathroom, but it felt like staying in a palace to me.

After dinner, we took a dip in the pool and spent some time getting to know the newest additions to our traveling team. It was nice to start the trip off slowly, as there were plenty of active days just around the corner.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 2: Karijini National Park

Accommodation
Camping (with facilities)

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Port Hedland mining site, Karijini National Park

The total driving time today is around 6.5 hours and approximately 520km. The total walking distance can be up to 3km, and some sections may be through water.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

We left the cattle station bright and early to head south toward Karijini National Park. I remember at the time I kept calling it “Nagini” which is the name of Voldemort’s snake in Harry Potter. On the long drive down to the park, I was overwhelmed by the rich colors of the Australian desert. I hadn’t been to the red centre yet, so the rusty browns of iron ore country were the most authentic “outback” I had seen to date.

I could feel the excitement building in my stomach because my surroundings were really starting to resemble the Australia I had seen in books growing up.

For lunch, we had wraps and salads at a roadhouse that was 100% straight out of Mad Max. The roof was brown, the sandy dirt surrounding the building was brown, the dust swirling in the air was brown. I was sure it had formed a permanent coating over my eyeballs at this point, adding a reddish hue to everything I saw.

As we continued south toward Karijini, we stopped off in Port Hedland. Port Hedland is one of the largest ports in Australia and the world’s largest bulk export port. It sends off huge quantities of iron ore, salt, and other minerals, making it a crucial contributor to the Australian economy. We had a look at some of the mining equipment and were totally in awe of the large scale of the operation, although we couldn’t take photos. Yet I do remember the wheels on one truck alone were twice my height.

After finishing in Port Headlead and doing a bit of shopping, it was time to check into our campsite at Karijini National Park. The park is known for its spectacular geology, featuring ancient rock formations and deep, narrow gorges.

When I saw our camp there, I was thrilled. We were still sleeping in swags, but could place them on top of small cots inside permanent tents on platforms. It was a far cry from the swag sleeping on the ground in the Kimberley. There were also picnic tables lining the middle of our campground and the bathrooms (with flushing toilets and hot showers!) were a short walk away. I felt like I was in heaven.

We did a short hike (but a steep one!) down a nearby gorge and back up before dinner. The scenery at Karijini looks a bit like Jurassic Park, I thought.

That night, we met an Australian man near the bathrooms who was finishing up his vacation after a snake bite.

I gulped. A what?

Turns out, he has stepped off his tent and directly onto the back of a Death Adder, which turned around a bit him…as one does when they are bitten. He got Royal Flying Doctored down to Perth to recover and was now right back where he started to enjoy the park.

He also didn’t hold a grudge against the snake.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 3: Karijini National Park

Accommodation
Camping (with facilities)

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Karijini National Park

The total driving time today is 2.5 hours and approximately 180km. The total walking distance is approximately 6km, some sections may be through water.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Today was one of my tourmate’s birthday. Luckily, she had mentioned it earlier on the tour to a few of the girls, so we were able to plan ahead. One friend bought a whole bunch of balloons while we were in Broome, so a few of us blew them all up and filled her tent with them while she was in the shower that morning to surprise her.

After breakfast, we went on a long hike with three swimming holes. The best of which was Fern Pool.  Fern Pool – a lush oasis amongst the desert, it’s an idyllic spot for a refreshing swim. It is also a sacred place for the Banjima people. It specifically holds significance as a women’s place, and where the Creator Serpent lived after winding through the land and creating the rivers and gorges of the Pilbara.

There was a sign saying that the pool was a sacred spot and that you could swim, but please don’t splash or make lots of noise. I felt uncomfortable swimming there at all, as I didn’t fully understand how holy it was or what it was used for, so I sat out as did most of my tourmates. We enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere and the nature sounds without getting in the water.

Something infuriating did happen, though. There was a tree hanging low over the water, probably about five feet up. This group of European backpackers kept climbing the tree and doing cannonballs off its branches, yelling and whooping as they jumped.

The signs were everywhere, it’s not like they didn’t see them. They just didn’t feel like showing reverence while they were guests in this place.

“Can’t you read?” I asked one of them as he was toweling off. He had some choice words for me as he slipped on his flip-flops and headed back down the path.

Such jerks.

The rest of the hike was long and difficult. I had been on the road for more than two weeks at this point, including my trip through the Kimberley, and my body was starting to wear out. But the sound of the stream traveling the length of the canyon, the chirp of the birds, and yes, even the deadly snakes sunning themselves on the rocks alongside me kept me going.

That evening, I walked up to the community center in the camp and found an old copy of trivial pursuit. There was no service, so my friends and I passed the evening quizzing each other on the most recent events of 2004.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 4:Karijini National Park

Accommodation
Camping (with facilities)

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Karijini National Park

The total driving time today is around 2 hours and approximately 30km. The total walking distance is approximately 6km.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

I sat out from the tour today. My friends did a massive gorge walk in the morning, came back to camp for lunch, then seemingly hiked Mount Everest again in the afternoon. My feet hurt, I had a little bit of a sunburn at this point, and I just wanted some time to myself.

Instead of pushing myself to the limit, I sat back in the community center under a big ceiling fan in a comfortable chair and quizzed myself with the old Trivial Pursuit cards I had found the day before. I people-watched, ate ice cream from the information center, and read every single informational pamphlet inside.

At one point, an older man from Perth on my tour came to sit with me and talk. When he found out I was from Texas, he asked me if I “knew what the Alamo was.”

Just a general life tip for everyone reading, this is a very offensive question to ask a Texan, notwithstanding one with the same birthday as  Texas hero, Davy Crockett.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 5: Exmouth

Accommodation
Camping (with facilities)

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Outback scenery as you drive south

Total driving time today is around 9 hours and approximately 750km. Not much walking today.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

This day was mostly all driving. In the morning after leaving camp, we stopped in the small town of Tom Price for groceries.

The town is named after Thomas Moore Price, who was the Vice President of the United States Steel Corporation, which was a major investor in the iron ore industry in Western Australia. Tom Price is an important town in the Pilbara region, as it serves as a hub for mining operations and provides services and amenities for the workers and their families who live there.

It was legit the only place for hundreds of miles where you could get food, water, or gas.

When we arrived in Exmouth, it was time to camp again. Same sort of situation as Karijni with swags on cots inside permanent tents on platforms. We checked out a nearby lighthouse and ate dinner at sunset on the beach before heading back to camp to do a big bonfire. This day felt a lot like being at summer camp and I loved it.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 6: Coral Bay

Accommodation
Hostel

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Ningaloo Reef Marine Park

The total driving time today is around 3.5 hours and approximately 300km. The total walking distance is approximately 2km.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

If you like snorkeling, this would be your dream day. After lathering on more reef-safe sunscreen than a person three times my size would need, I was off to see some sea turtles. Our guide Storm drove us right down to the beach and we splashed into the water.

The coral started just a few feet off the sand, as did the rich sea life that calls it home. There were colorful fish everywhere, and even a sea turtle or two. They are always my favorites to spot, as they tend to look a little bit grumpy…just like me.

After a morning of swimming, snorkeling, and stunning ourselves on Ningaloo Reef, we stopped into the Ningaloo Reef Visitor’s Centre for a spot of lunch and to check out the gift shop. The area is very popular with tourists from all over Australia, so the quality of gifts to buy had significantly increased from further up the coast.

That afternoon, a few people on the tour paid extra to go out snorkeling. We were out of whale shark season, but if you visit April to July, this is the day you would get to do it.

The rest of us chilled in the town center waiting for them to return. I remember there being a large Emu chilling in the park, but he was so still I was certain he was fake. He was in fact, real. And vicious.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 7: Coral Bay

Accommodation
Hostel

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Ningaloo Reef Marine Park

There is no driving today, just a short walk to Coral Bay Eco Tours and water activities.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

This was one of my favorite days on the entire tour. Our guide, Storm, was a little bit of a character. He was kind of grumpy (maybe some stuff going on in his personal life?) and not too keen on doing his job, I thought. So while I had wanted to go scuba diving in Exmouth, it didn’t work out because he didn’t book it. Instead, we all just went snorkeling instead.

Initially, I was disappointed, but when I hopped on the boat for a day of snorkeling, it faded. Coral Bay Eco Tours has some sort of relationship with the tour company, but if you are taking a Broom to Perth road trip, you shouldn’t miss it.

Because they take you out to snorkel with manta rays. The company has a helicopter that goes out on patrol all morning, so the boat knows where to go. From the boat, you get dropped in “waves” to watch the rays, so there are only a few of you looking at them at a time. They swim fast, but you are welcome to keep up with them as long as you physically can.

Snorkeling with manta rays in Coral Bay was a top 10 life experience for me. The creatures were so majestic. It looked like they were flying under the water. They were curious, too. They wanted to check us out as much as we did them.

This a small note, but worth mentioning. The sizing of the wetsuits for Coral Bay Eco Adventures was inclusive. It was the first time since I had started diving nearly two years previously that the wet suit zipped up on the first try and didn’t make me feel like I was going to throw up or burst out of it at any moment.

A win is a win.

That night, we watched the sunset again on the beach, but just before I popped into a convenience store to buy some chocolate as a snack. I had to laugh that all the chocolate bars on offer were in a refrigerator because it gets so hot in Western Australia that it would melt if kept on the shelf.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 8: Exmouth to Monkey Mia

Accommodation
Hostel

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Shell Beach, Monkey Mia

The total driving time today is around 6.5 hours and approximately 600km. The total walking distance is approximately 2km.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Today we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn. It meant that from that point on, the sun will never be directly above you. You should still wear a hat though. This day was literally all driving. I know it because my travel journal is about two lines.

Something to note, we did briefly stop in at the beach, but the thing I was the most interested in was the strange “gnome memorial” that Storm stopped to show us for no real reason at all.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 9: Monkey Mia to Kalbarri

Accommodation
Camping (with facilities)

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Monkey Mia Dolphins, Kalbarri National Park Entrance, Hamelin Pool

The total driving time today is around 5.5 hours and approximately 470km. The total walking distance is approximately 5km.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

We woke up early in Monkey Mia to see the dolphin show at the beach in Shark Bay. More than 2,000 dolphins inhabit Shark Bay and about 300 live in the waters around Monkey Mia. The dolphins at Monkey Mia are Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, a sub-species of the common bottlenose dolphin.

Due to strict management regulations for the ongoing welfare of all the dolphins, only five adult females are fed at Monkey Mia. They can be identified by staff by their dorsal fins. We saw a mother and baby swim into the bay and learned a bit about them. It was a sweet, ethical alternative to dolphin shows at places like Sea World. We were lucky to see them that morning, as sometimes they don’t show up at all.

They are wild animals after all. So, if you are trying to see the dolphins in Monkey Mia on your Broome to Perth road trip, don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t work out, or just budget multiple days for it.

After the dolphin show, we all piled back into the bus to head south toward Kalbarri. But first, we stopped in at Hamelin Pool.  It’s one of only two places on Earth where living marine stromatolites exist, and the location contains by far the biggest colony on Earth.  These stromatolites (which are found up to a meter high) are believed to grow at a maximum of 0.3mm per year – they are truly “living fossils.” I felt very lucky to be able to see them.

Finally, we stopped off in Kalbarri National Park at Murchison Gorge, where we could admire the landscape through Nature’s Window. It’s a great Instagram spot. On the way back to the hostel, Storm took us by a pink lake. It matched the color of my phone case, which was thrilling to me at the time.

We had a quick dinner at the hostel, then headed down to the pub where a drunk local got onto me and a few of the other women on the tour about “using daddy’s money to fund our travels” and how he “never had anything handed to him.

Insert eye roll.

Western Australia Road Trip Day 10: Pinnacles to Perth

Accommodation
Hostel

Broome to Perth Road Trip Included Activities
Nambung National Park (Pinnacles) Entrance, Sandboarding

Today’s driving will take approximately 7 hours and approximately 600km (with about 2km of walking). You’ll arrive in Central Perth around 6pm and there is no accommodation planned for this evening.

Meals Included
Breakfast / Lunch

And suddenly, it was the last day. As left Kalbarri, we headed south on the final stretch toward Perth.

We stopped to go sandboarding, but after all the camping, hiking, and swimming, I was running low on activewear and was in a dress, so I sat out. I did get some fantastic photos of myself against the dunes though, which at this point in the trip, was more than enough for me.

We then stopped off in Nambung National Park to see the Pinnacles. Thousands of huge limestone pillars rise from a stark landscape of yellow sand to form one of Australia’s most intriguing landscapes.

And yes, we treated them exactly how you might think.

We had lunch at the beach, a well-oiled machine of sandwich making and dishwashing at this stage of the trip.

Then Storm drove us down to Perth and into the city to start dropping us off at our accommodation. It was wild being on a large freeway again and seeing the skyscrapers of the downtown area as we came into it. It had been over three weeks since I left Darwin, which is by no means a bustling city, and ten days since Broome, a small beachside town.

I had bonded with these people on the bus with me. And then one by one, they got off at their hostels, Airbnbs, and hotels, said their goodbyes, and I realized that after nearly three weeks with some of them, I would probably never see them again.

Such is life.

Final thoughts on a Broome to Perth road trip

The tour runs a little differently than when I booked it. When I went, there was an option to book from Darwin to Perth, or Perth to Darwin. Now, the trip is sold in two separate legs with Broome in the middle. Because as we came down the coast from Broome we stopped camping and started staying in hostels and the days got more relaxed, I would recommend doing the trip from Broome to Perth, or if you want to do the entire thing, start in Darwin, not Perth going up.

You are going to be so tired that unless you are some sort of superhero, ENDING the trip with the intense bush camping in the Kimberley is going to break you.

Maybe you are just better than me and it won’t, but I can’t in good conscious recommend doing that lol.

I loved this trip. I loved the turquoise water and the onyx dirt. I loved the chocolate in refrigerators. I even loved the grumpy man who accused me of being a lowlife leach who does nothing in life.

Because I know that I’m not.

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