Start from 27 curated places around Esperance, AU, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Taylor St Quarters
Family-run waterfront eatery in a 1930s timber building at the foot of Taylor Street Jetty, the town's only proper bay-view dining room. Modern Australian plates leaning on local pork, scallops and Esperance seafood, plus the largest outdoor deck on the foreshore.
Fish Face
BYO seafood counter on Dempster Street with a daily-changing chalkboard built around whatever the Esperance boats landed that morning. Pick your fillet, choose grilled, battered or crumbed — the format hasn't changed in two decades because it works.
Trails & outdoors
Great Ocean Walk and Cycle Trail
The eight-kilometre sealed shared path from the Esperance foreshore west along the cliffs to Twilight Beach, then on to the Rotary Lookout. The single best half-day on foot or bike in town and the only safe way to do the start of the Great Ocean Drive without a car.
Kepwari Walk Trail
The seven-kilometre loop through the Lake Warden wetland system on the north-east edge of town, boardwalks across reed beds and three timber bird hides over the lake. Ramsar-listed waterbird habitat — pelicans, black swans and migratory shorebirds in season.
Things to do
Esperance Island Cruises
Half-day wildlife cruise departing Taylor Street Jetty, looping eight of the 105 islands in the Recherche Archipelago. Australian sea lions on Cull Island, NZ fur seals at Lion Island, bottlenose dolphins around the boat — the standard one-trip way to see the offshore islands.
Lucky Bay Brewing Taproom
The tap-room side of the Bandy Creek production brewery, twelve craft beers on tap, woodfired pizza on open afternoons and regular live music on Friday and Saturday nights in summer. The town's only proper craft beer venue and the standard pre- or post-park hangout.
Landmarks & sights
Esperance Jetty
The 415-metre replacement for the demolished 1934 Tanker Jetty, opened in 2021 with lower fishing platforms, fish-cleaning stations and wheelchair set-downs. Dolphins, stingrays and the occasional New Zealand fur seal cruise underneath, and squid is the standard evening catch from the rails.
Twilight Beach
The horseshoe of white sand and granite islets eight kilometres west on the Great Ocean Drive, with the 'Hole in the Rock' offshore boulder that is the town's photo. Patrolled by surf lifesavers on summer weekends and the safest swim on the drive.