{"id":487,"date":"2015-08-09T03:46:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T03:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/48-hours-in-perth-and-fremantle\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T23:20:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T23:20:51","slug":"perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know the story of the town mouse and the country mouse? Well, if Perth<\/a> is the trendy city slicker, Fremantle<\/a> is the more relaxed and down-to-earth cousin. So while one is busy being big and brash, the other revels in its peaceful seaside scene \u2013 check out both (it\u2019s only a 30-minute drive between them) and discover two perfectly complementary sides to this area of Western Australia. Here’s our weekend guide.<\/p>\n

Touchdown, time to refuel<\/h2>\n

You\u2019ve just arrived and you\u2019re eager to check out WA\u2019s glimmering state capital, but before you head to the bright lights and soaring buildings of the CBD, we\u2019ll let you into a little secret \u2013 Northbridge is where the cool kids hang out. This inner-city design hub is brimming with hip boutiques and happening bars. Take a walk down Beaufort Street and you\u2019ll see what we mean.<\/p>\n

Kick off the evening at Mechanics Institute \u2013 an intimate spot with a split-level balcony area illuminated by twinkling fairy lights. Sample wines from the nearby Margaret River and order some food from the burger joint, Flipside, downstairs. If you\u2019re after a slightly smarter dining experience, head for dinner at Pleased To Meet You (38 Roe Street), where the sharing menu sees Asia meet Southern America in a surprisingly successful mismatch of squid banh mi, duck tacos and pork cooked on a spit and sold in 100g batches, which makes this place a winner in our book.<\/p>\n

Where to finish up? If it\u2019s really fancy-pants cocktails you\u2019re after, you\u2019d better visit The Classroom. This North Perth institution is done out like, you guessed it, a classroom, with bottles stored in lockers and one particularly spirited offering served amid a cloud of smoke that pours out of a lunch box.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re partial to the odd G&T, you can take your appreciation to the next level at Frisk \u2013 with 209 varieties of gin on offer, the knowledgeable bar staff will guide you through the menu, suggesting delicious tonics and fragrant herb garnishes to complement your selection.
\n<\/p>\n

Get walking: Saturday in the city<\/h2>\n

Before you begin your explorations, pull up a plush armchair and enjoy brunch with the locals at Sayers Sister. Combining a stunning vintage-style fit out (think large gilt-framed mirrors and oversize antique sugar bowls) with some truly inventive and delicious dishes (we loved the charred fresh figs and pancetta on toasted sourdough with toasted almonds, baked ricotta and honey, and the coriander and cumin beans tagine with baba ganoush, poached egg and toasted linseed) it\u2019s easily worth the long walk down Lake Street. Grab a takeaway coffee and head back to the city for a spot of sightseeing.<\/p>\n

Northbridge is cool by night, cultural by day. Get your history fix at the Western Australian Museum. From dinosaur bones and centuries-old pieces of pottery to treasures salvaged from shipwrecks, the huge complex is home to 4.6 million fascinating artifacts.
\n
\nLearn more about Australia\u2019s past at Kings Park. Home to an indigenous gallery, there are also regular heritage tours through the gardens and some stunning bushland tracks to follow, which lead past colourful native flora and offer great views of Swan River.<\/p>\n

Next, check out the city\u2019s contemporary sculpture scene with a free Art City walk. Stride past mosaics, murals and a group of life-size kangaroos bounding along St Georges Terrace. Other guided (or self-guided via a downloadable podcast) tours include the Convicts and Colonials Trail and a tour of the city\u2019s Town Hall.<\/p>\n

With so much to see and do, it makes sense to base yourself somewhere central \u2013 we bedded down at the\u00a0Four Points by Sheraton<\/a>\u00a0on Wellington Street. Opposite the Convention and Exhibition Centre, it\u2019s just a short stroll from both the CBD and Northbridge. Expedia\u2019s Aussie travellers usually spend 1-2 nights in Perth and usually stay somewhere central to make the most of their time in the city.
\n<\/p>\n

Sunday session by the sea<\/h2>\n

When it comes to kicking back and taking it easy, Fremantle has got the good life covered. Its creative, bohemian vibe has attracted artists and writers for decades. Situated 20km south of Perth, this port city makes for a great day trip \u2013 combining history, waterside dining spots and spectacular beaches.<\/p>\n

First stop \u2013 coffee at Fremantle Markets. Home to fresh local produce, clothes shops and arts and crafts stalls, in our opinion, this historic hub (the Victorian-style hall and surrounding yard was established in 1897) wins the title of Australia\u2019s best market hands down. Why? It\u2019s got real heart. Local musicians provide the entertainment, tyres filled with flowers hang from the high ceilings and the fresh food offerings are to die for.<\/p>\n

Save some room (or burn off your breakfast with a brisk walk to the harbour) for lunch at Kailis\u2019 Caf\u00e9. Overlooking the water, this place has heaps of outdoor seating, so grab a pew and place your order at the counter. There\u2019s fish and chips, as well as oysters, whole lobsters and a range of seafood on offer \u2013 be sure to check out the display at the market section and sample their fish and chip gelato before you leave. Yes, fish and chip gelato!
\n
\nWash it all down with trip to Little Creatures. This brewing temple serves a variety of craft beers direct from the towering tanks behind the bar. It\u2019s tempting to set up camp on the waterside deck and linger till sunset, but with a stunning stretch of rugged coastline on Fremantle\u2019s doorstep, you need to hop in your car for the 15 minute drive back up to Cottesloe Beach. If you\u2019re in need of a little more dessert, stop at the attractive Indiana Pavilion where the wood-fired pineapple wedges with lime sherbet are a must.<\/p>\n

Back in the city there\u2019s just time for a torch-lit tour of\u00a0Fremantle Prison<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 from the solitary confinement cells to the morgue, this is a spooky way to check out the largest convict-built structure in Western Australia. It was completed in 1859, has held hundreds of thousands of prisoners over the years and, of course, is thought to be haunted.<\/p>\n

Settle your nerves with a pint or two at the Norfolk Hotel. A Fremantle institution, it has 22 beers on tap and holds regular gigs in its basement. It\u2019s a great way to wind down and soak up Freo\u2019s alternative scene before heading back to Perth.
\n
\nExpedia compensates authors for their writings appearing on this site, such compensation may include travel and other costs<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,39,14],"tags":[8,40,315,270,58,253],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-experiences","category-explore","category-food-and-wine","category-interests","tag-australia","tag-foodie","tag-fremantle","tag-perth","tag-tips","tag-western-australia","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expedia AU Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-09T03:46:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-08T23:20:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/blog-img\/7_2015\/9913_160_HT\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie McNeely\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie McNeely\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/\",\"name\":\"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-09T03:46:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-08T23:20:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce\"},\"description\":\"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Explore\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Experiences\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/experiences\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Explore\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/experiences\/explore\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/\",\"name\":\"Expedia AU Stories\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce\",\"name\":\"Jamie McNeely\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jamie McNeely\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/author\/jamie-mcneely\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories","description":"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories","og_description":"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/","og_site_name":"Expedia AU Stories","article_published_time":"2015-08-09T03:46:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-08T23:20:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/blog-img\/7_2015\/9913_160_HT"}],"author":"Jamie McNeely","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jamie McNeely","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/","name":"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle - Expedia AU Stories","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-09T03:46:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-08T23:20:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce"},"description":"From coffee to cocktails, check out the Perth and Fremantle weekend guide by Sharking for Chips and Drink.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/perth-and-fremantle-weekend-guide\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Explore","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Experiences","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/experiences\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Explore","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/experiences\/explore\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"48 hours in Perth and Fremantle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/","name":"Expedia AU Stories","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/7c3ff1d241163ecf78de48671f1787ce","name":"Jamie McNeely","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c6c5fcb9612549bc286e9121c24dc652?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jamie McNeely"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/author\/jamie-mcneely\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1594,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}