First, understand the distances
Western Australia is built for road trips, but it punishes anyone who treats it like a smaller place. The state covers about 2.5 million square kilometres, which is larger than Western Europe, and the gaps between towns are measured in hundreds of kilometres, not tens. A drive that looks like a short hop on a map can swallow most of a day. Get your head around that before you plan anything else, because the single most common mistake visitors make here is trying to cover too much ground in too little time. It is far better to drive one route slowly than to spend your holiday staring at a windscreen.
The good news is that the main touring routes are sealed, well signed and genuinely rewarding, and you can do most of them in an ordinary car or a campervan. The serious four wheel drive country is the exception rather than the rule, and it is clearly marked out below. Here are the routes worth your time, from the easiest to the most demanding.
The Coral Coast run: Perth to Exmouth
This is the classic, and for good reason. Heading north from Perth along Indian Ocean Drive and the North West Coastal Highway, you reach Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef after about 1,270 kilometres, and the road strings together a remarkable run of stops. The Pinnacles at Cervantes, the port city of Geraldton, the river gorges and coastal cliffs of Kalbarri, the dolphins and stromatolites of Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, then Coral Bay and Exmouth, where you can snorkel a World Heritage reef straight off the beach. Allow seven to fourteen days depending on how long you linger, and travel between April and October, when the weather up north is dry and mild rather than fierce. Many people fly home from Exmouth or Learmonth and drop the hire car there, which turns a long return drive into a one way trip.
The South West loop
If you have a week and want variety rather than distance, the south west loop is hard to beat. From Perth you drop down to Bunbury and Margaret River for the wineries, caves and surf, carry on to Augusta at the tip, then turn east through the tall timber country around Pemberton and the tree top walk at Walpole. The road continues through Denmark and on to Albany, with its wild coastline and whaling history, before you head back to Perth either inland past the Stirling and Porongurup ranges or along the south coast. Seven to ten days is comfortable. This loop works almost year round, but it is at its best from October to May, when the south is warm and dry, and it is the route that suits wine lovers, walkers and anyone who would rather not drive enormous distances.
Perth to Esperance and the south coast
East and south of Perth lies a quieter run that many visitors miss. The direct route takes you out through the Wheatbelt to Wave Rock at Hyden, a wall of granite shaped like a breaking wave, and on to Esperance on the south coast. There you will find some of the whitest sand and clearest water in the country, with kangaroos that genuinely lounge on the beach at Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park. Give it four to six days, more if you continue west along the coast towards Albany. It is a fine trip in spring and autumn, and a hot one in midsummer.
The long haul: Perth to Broome
The drive from Perth to Broome is the big one, around 2,240 kilometres of highway and three to five days of driving with stops, passing through Geraldton, Carnarvon, the Exmouth turnoff and Port Hedland. It is a genuine adventure and a lesson in just how empty the country can be, but be honest with yourself about how many hours you want to spend behind the wheel. A popular compromise is to drive one way, taking in the Coral Coast at your own pace, and fly the other, which gives you the journey without the backtrack. Tackle it in the dry season from about May to October, when Broome and the north are at their best.
The Gibb River Road and the Kimberley
The Gibb River Road is the one route on this list that is not for everyone. It runs roughly 660 kilometres between Derby and Kununurra across the heart of the Kimberley, much of it unsealed, corrugated and crossed by rivers that can run high early in the season. You need a high clearance four wheel drive, proper preparation, recovery gear and a realistic plan, and it is strictly a dry season trip, open from about May to October and impassable in the wet. The reward is a string of gorges and swimming holes, from Windjana and Bell to Manning and the homestead country around El Questro, in some of the most remote and spectacular landscape in Australia. If you are not equipped for it, a small group guided tour out of Broome or Kununurra takes the logistics off your hands and is no shame at all.
Crossing the continent and the Goldfields
Two more routes are worth a mention. The Goldfields run east from Perth to Kalgoorlie, around 600 kilometres of sealed highway, opens up frontier mining history, the enormous Super Pit and the back roads of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail. And for those leaving the state entirely, the Eyre Highway across the Nullarbor from Norseman towards South Australia is one of the great long drives, including the longest straight stretch of sealed road in the country. Both are big country trips that demand the same fuel discipline as everything else out here.
Choosing the right vehicle
The vehicle decides which of these trips you can take. For the Coral Coast run, the South West loop and the south coast, an ordinary two wheel drive car or a standard campervan is all you need, because those routes are sealed the whole way. A campervan, or a car set up with a rooftop or ground tent, suits the long coastal drives well, since caravan parks and low cost campsites are spread along them, and you save both the expense and the booking hassle of motels in small towns. The moment you point yourself at the Gibb River Road, the Dampier Peninsula tracks or the remote station roads of the interior, the picture changes: you need a proper high clearance four wheel drive, good tyres, ideally a second spare, recovery gear and the knowledge to use it. Plenty of hire firms in Perth, Broome and Exmouth rent vehicles set up for exactly this, but read the contract closely, because many standard hire cars are not insured on unsealed roads at all, and one puncture on gravel can turn into a very expensive day.
Refuel whenever you can, not when you must. On the remote routes, fuel stops can be 150 to 300 kilometres apart and roadhouses keep their own hours. Top up at every town with the tank still half full, carry drinking water for everyone in the car, and never assume a single roadhouse will be open when you arrive.
What it costs, and when to go
Fuel is the budget line that catches people out. Distances are long, prices climb the further you get from Perth, and the remote roadhouses charge a clear premium because they can. Build that in and treat a full tank as cheap insurance. Beyond fuel, the big regular cost is accommodation, which camping cuts hard, and national park entry, which a four week holiday Parks Pass covers across the whole state for less than the price of a handful of single visits. Timing matters as much as money. The north, from Exmouth up through Broome and the Kimberley, is a dry season destination, comfortable and reliable from about May to October and uncomfortably hot and storm prone over summer. The south west and south coast run the other way, at their easy best from October to May. Spring, roughly September to November, is the sweet spot for combining regions, since it overlaps with the wildflowers, the tail of the whale season and mild driving weather almost everywhere. Whatever the season, the school holiday peaks fill the popular caravan parks fast, so book those weeks ahead even if you plan to improvise the rest.
Driving in Western Australia: the honest advice
A few habits keep these trips safe and easy. Do not drive at night in the country if you can avoid it, because kangaroos, emus, cattle and wandering stock are most active at dawn and dusk, and a collision a long way from help is the real danger out here, not crime. Watch for road trains, the very long trucks that need room and time to overtake. Mobile coverage drops out for long stretches once you leave the towns, and Telstra has the widest reach, so download offline maps and consider a satellite phone or a personal locator beacon for anything genuinely remote. Check road conditions with Main Roads Western Australia before you set out, especially in the north after rain. Respect the quarantine checkpoints that stop you carrying fruit and vegetables across certain borders. And build in rest: fatigue creeps up quickly on long, straight, empty roads, so swap drivers, stop often, and treat the driving as part of the trip rather than an obstacle to it. One more habit is worth building before you leave the bitumen: tell someone reliable your route and your expected arrival, then check in when you get there, because in remote country a simple plan shared with another person is worth more than any gadget in the glovebox. Our campervan guide and itineraries cover the gear and the day by day staging in more detail.