6 beaches I loved in Australia

Well, well. The time has come. 

The Ireland posts are finished, and I’ve caught you all up on my life so far in France. 

It’s time to continue onto…The Backlog.

I’ve been traveling since 2008, but Expat Edna has only been around since late 2011 (and if I’m being honest, I didn’t start really throwing myself into this site until February of this year). That’s three years of adventures I’ve been aching to write about; every time I browse through old travel photos I think, “I need to write about this someday.” Well Someday has come. 

I’m going to start with Australia, then move onto the Southeast Asian travels. Of course, I’ll still be writing about Paris and any current travels as well. Read my 2011 travel recap for a preview of the stories to come.

Let’s kick off Australia with a highlight of one of the country’s best features — its beaches. From Perth to Sydney, here are six beaches I loved in Australia:

Rottnest Island

Located off the coast of Western Australia, Rottnest Island (or “Rotto” as the abbreviation-loving Aussies call it) was the location of a former Aboriginal prison and is now a popular holiday destination, especially for day or weekend trips from Perth. Rotto’s beaches will remain forever imprinted in my memory for their unbelievably clear waters that showed off the wildest, most varied shades of blue. I thought I’d seen beautiful beaches before in Thailand and Indonesia, but none come close the jaw-dropping beauty I found in Rotto.

Bondi

Sydney’s Bondi is one of the most famous and recognizable beaches in the world, and understandably so. Surfers love the waves; beach bums enjoy relaxing on the kilometer-long stretch of sand and relaxing before such a gorgeous view. While I’m neither surfer nor beach bum, Bondi took my breath away for one reason: its enormous, almost-perfect, pounding waves. I could have watched them crash on the rocks for hours.

Floreat

One of several beaches you’ll find in the suburbs of Perth, I only found myself at Floreat because I tagged along to the Christmas staff party of my best friend and his bottle-shop coworkers; they wanted a quiet beach to enjoy some daytime drinking. Floreat was perfect for just that: in the five hours we spent there, the only other person I saw on the beach was the occasional kite-surfer. To add to Floreat’s appeal, the waves were massive (see the guys in the photo for a wave-to-person ratio)!

Newcastle

While I didn’t get to actually take a dip in the waters of Newcastle’s beaches, I did get a chance to tour them from above thanks to a pilot friend. The Newcastle coastline is stunning — but those are details for another post. The beaches seem quite family-friendly too, as when we drove past them later they were packed with families with young children.

Salamander Bay

Located in a small town a few hours north of Sydney, I spent four days in Salamander Bay relaxing at a mentor’s beach house after leaving Perth. With the water right at our doorstep, I spent my days drinking wine, playing catch with the family’s puppy along the beach, and watching dusk cast a gorgeous orange glow on the bay every evening. It’s the perfect place to get away and decompress.

Fremantle

Of the four weeks I spent in Western Australia, half that time I was in Fremantle — a small city near Perth and host to the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships (the event that had brought me to Australia in the first place). While Rotto may have the most beautiful beaches, Freo is dearest to my heart for the memories. I spent the better part of three weeks on this beach: watching and reporting on world class sailing races, drinking locally brewed Little Creatures beer with my best friend, and catching stunning sunsets almost every night.

What are your favorite beaches in Australia?