Albany, AU

A Parisian-cocktail-bar-meets-Vietnamese-bistro in the corner of the heritage-listed London Hotel on Stirling Terrace — the most-talked-about Albany dining room of the last decade, run by chef Amy Hamilton. French-Vietnamese small plates and a serious wine list. Best for a long, drink-led dinner.

An Iberian-leaning tapas and wine bar on York Street, opened by chef Mauricio Munoz — the room Albany locals point to first when asked where the food scene is going. Octopus, salt-cod croquettes, sardines, and a wine list that travels the peninsula. Small space, ten tables.

A chef-run fish-and-chip shop a kilometre back from Middleton Beach, serving sustainably caught Southern Ocean fish on a daily-changing board — multiple WA Fish and Chips of the Year wins. Counter service, BYO, no corkage. The lunch every Albany local takes visiting friends to.

The bar-restaurant in the ground floor of the heritage Royal George Hotel on Stirling Terrace — retro fit-out, share plates, harbour view, and live music most weekends. The reliable middle-of-the-night Stirling Terrace stop when Liberte and Sotao are booked out.

A long-running Mount Elphinstone fine-dining room with a Southeast Asian thread running through Modern Australian plates — chef-owned, refurbished in the last few years, with the seafood Saturday buffet that draws bookings from the wider Great Southern. Best for a sit-down anniversary or family dinner.

The restaurant inside the National Anzac Centre on Mount Clarence, share-plate Modern Australian with Great Southern produce and a wraparound deck looking down to King George Sound. The only sit-down meal with that view; functions as the natural lunch stop after the museum.

A family-run Stirling Terrace cafe operating since 1987 — booth seats, retro fit-out, harbour view from the side windows, and the generous-serve breakfast plates that have outlasted every food trend in town. The where-locals-grew-up answer.

A garden-set cafe in a 100-year-old Vancouver Street cottage, with seasonal contemporary Australian plates, in-house baking, and the coffee most Albany locals quietly call the best in town. Lunch-focused; closed evenings.

An 1884 English-style pub on Earl Street with open fires in winter, a beer garden in summer, and a tap list that goes deep on English ales and German lagers. Honest pub plates, live music on Friday nights, and the closest thing Albany has to a country-village inn.

The Albany craft brewery's taproom in the heritage former White Star Hotel building on Stirling Terrace — five core beers plus seasonal releases, plus a pub-food kitchen. The local-beer answer when the big-city bottle-shop brands lose their appeal.

A family-run Centennial Park Thai restaurant operating in Albany for over a decade — straightforward Thai standards cooked properly, generous-serve, BYO. The dependable Tuesday-night-out option locals keep on rotation.

A wide-windowed York Street breakfast and lunch room two blocks from St John's Anglican Church — careful breakfasts, gluten-free baking, the cafe most Albany weekenders settle into between heritage-walk stops in the CBD.

A 12.5km return ridge walk along the Flinders Peninsula in Torndirrup National Park — boardwalks, granite domes, soft-sand pinches, and the cleanest Southern Ocean view in WA at the far end. Grade 4, six to eight hours, the most-loved hard hike in the Great Southern.

A 7km loop through the native bushland of the Menang Noongar that links both heritage-park mounts — historic cannons, bunkers, the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, and Padre White Lookout. Moderate, about two hours, the in-town walk with the most history per kilometre.

A 500m sealed loop at the high point of Torndirrup peninsula with 360-degree views over Peak Head, the Southern Ocean, Princess Royal Harbour, and King George Sound. Wheelchair-friendly, ten minutes, the orientation walk every Torndirrup visit should start with.

A 7km dual-use path from Middleton Beach around Ellen Cove to the Albany Port and CBD foreshore — boardwalks, historical markers, ANZAC Peace Park, and the same departure-route view the troopships had in 1914. Flat, easy, two hours one-way.

A 4.6km return walk in Torndirrup that crosses coastal scrub and granite to Peak Head, the dramatic granite promontory with the Southern Ocean on three sides. Moderate, two hours, the under-walked alternative when Bald Head is booked out by the keen.

A 5km network of boardwalks weaving between 18 turbines on the Sand Patch cliffs west of town, with viewing platforms, surfing-coast lookouts, and the Bibbulmun Track joining at the eastern end. Flat, free, the easy half-day walk that surprises every visitor.

Two granite formations in Torndirrup National Park — The Gap is a 40m-deep slot the Southern Ocean rams into directly, viewed from a cantilevered steel platform; Natural Bridge is a wave-cut arch 80m away. Reopened in 2025 after a $3.3m platform upgrade. The Albany visit no one skips.

A 5km curve of white sand 4km east of the CBD, with a shark-net swimming enclosure, beach volleyball nets, playground, and the Ellen Cove boardwalk running its full length. The locals' default swim and the closest beach to the town centre.

The Oyster Harbour spit at the eastern end of the city, with calm shallow water inside the bar, a swimming jetty, splash park, BBQs, and Emu Point Cafe. The family beach when the south coast is too wild; the 7km shared path runs back to Middleton Beach.

The white-sand cove in Torndirrup between two granite headlands — voted Australia's best beach in 2022 by Tourism Australia. Sheltered, crystal water, no facilities; about a five-minute walk from the carpark down a sealed path.

A wide white-sand bay on Torndirrup's southern coast known for salmon-run rock fishing in autumn, with a sealed lookout above and stairs down to the beach. Wild Southern Ocean swell — not a swimming beach, a watching one.

A local whale-watching charter running from Albany Waterfront into King George Sound from late May to early October — humpbacks and southern rights with calves shelter in the sound to breed. Three-hour cruises on a purpose-built catamaran with hydrophones.

The 1888 former Albany Cottage Hospital on Vancouver Street, repurposed in the 1980s as the city's main visual-arts venue — three galleries, an artist-in-residence studio, and a rotating local-artist exhibition program. Free entry.

The 620-seat waterfront performing-arts venue on Princess Royal Drive — the regional hub for touring theatre, comedy, and music between Perth and Adelaide. Modern angular fit-out with a foyer bar overlooking the harbour.

An interactive World War I museum on the slope of Mount Adelaide overlooking King George Sound — the harbour where the first ANZAC convoy assembled in 1914. Visitors are issued the identity of a real soldier or nurse and follow their war through the galleries. The most-visited paid attraction in regional WA.

The 1893 coastal-defence fortress on Mount Adelaide, with restored gun emplacements, barracks, and the 10th Light Horse display — Australia's first federal fort, built when locals expected the Russians or French to attack. Free to wander; the National Anzac Centre sits inside the same heritage park.

The world's only complete preserved whaling station, at Frenchman Bay — the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company ran here until 1978, and the entire site sits exactly as the day it closed. Climb aboard the Cheynes IV whalechaser, walk through whale-oil tanks converted to short-film theatres, and read the on-site shift logs.

The Western Australian Museum's Albany branch on Princess Royal Drive, covering regional natural history, Menang Noongar culture, and the 1826 European founding of Albany — the first settlement in WA, three years before Perth. Free entry, with the Brig Amity replica moored next door.

A full-scale 1975 replica of the brig that landed Major Lockyer and the first European settlers on King George Sound in 1826 — moored permanently on the Albany foreshore next to the Museum of the Great Southern. Lower deck museum with audio guide explains the four-month voyage from Sydney.

The 1848 sandstone church on York Street — the oldest consecrated church in Western Australia, framed by the original peppermint trees on the National Trust register. Padre Arthur White, rector here in the 1930s, ran Australia's first dawn service on the slope above the church.

A granite outcrop in the median of Middleton Road shaped exactly like a dog's head when viewed from the west — known to the Menang Noongar as Yakkan Toort, a tamed-dog territory marker, and to Albany locals as the city's drive-by mascot. The dog wears a painted black collar maintained by the council.

The hilltop lookout above the Anzac Centre with the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial — the site of Australia's first ANZAC Day dawn service in 1930, run by Padre Arthur White. The clearest 360 over King George Sound, Princess Royal Harbour, and the Torndirrup peninsula.