What is there to do in Esperance?
Two daysOne for Cape Le Grand, one for the Great Ocean Drive.
Two days: one for Cape Le Grand, one for the Great Ocean Drive. The national park east of town has five beaches that would each be famous anywhere else — Lucky Bay, Hellfire Bay, Thistle Cove, Le Grand Beach and Rossiter Bay — and Lucky Bay's sand is among the whitest in Australia, with kangaroos on it morning and afternoon. West of town, the Great Ocean Drive is a 40km loop past Twilight Beach and the wind farm. Our trips camp two nights at Lucky Bay.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
Esperance is a small town on the bottom corner of Western Australia, a long way from anywhere, with the best beaches in the country on either side of it. Two days covers it and nobody regrets the drive.
Day one — Cape Le Grand National Park
- Lucky Baythe famous one, white sand so bright it is hard to photograph, and the kangaroos come down onto it in the early morning and late afternoon. Not seasonal; it is the hour that matters.
- Hellfire Baythe one most people prefer once they have seen both. Granite headlands on either side.
- Thistle Covewith the Whistling Rock above it.
- Frenchman Peaka steep climb of around 45 minutes to a cave near the summit with a view over the whole park.
- It is about 50km east of townon sealed road.
Day two — the Great Ocean Drive and the town
- The Great Ocean Drivea 40km loop west of Esperance past a string of bays, with Twilight Beach the pick of them.
- The wind farm lookoutwhich is better than it sounds and has the best view back over the coast.
- Pink Lakewhich is these days rarely pink — worth knowing before you go looking for it.
- The Esperance Museum and the town jettyfor an hour when the weather is against you.
The trips that stay there
| Trip | Length | Where you sleep | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Day Margaret River & Esperance Tour | 6 days, 5 nights | 5 nights swag camping with amenities — Four Mile Campground in Fitzgerald River, two nights at Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand, Tozer's Bush Camp near Bremer Bay, then Hamelin Bay Holiday Park on the beach. | $1299 |
| 10 Day Perth to Adelaide Tour | 10 days, 9 nights | 9 nights in single swags — Fitzgerald River, two nights at Lucky Bay, a night bush camping on the Nullarbor, Fowlers Bay, Coodlie Park Farm Retreat, Camp Nyroca, then two nights at Mikkira Station. All have showers and toilets except the Nullarbor. Bring your own sleeping bag and pillow. | $3000 |
| 10 Day Adelaide to Perth Tour | 10 days, 9 nights | 9 nights swag camping — Mambray Creek, a swag hut at Coodlie Park Farm Retreat, Penong, a night bush camping on the Nullarbor, two nights at Lucky Bay, then the Stirling Ranges, Quinninup and Margaret River. All but the Nullarbor night have showers and toilets. | $3000 |
All three camp two nights at Lucky Bay, inside the national park. That is the detail worth having — you are on the beach at the hours the kangaroos are.
Two nights at Lucky Bay is the thing to look for. A day visit means arriving mid-morning, when the kangaroos are in the shade behind the dunes. Camping there means you are on the sand at dawn.
Getting there
Esperance is roughly 720km south-east of Perth — a full day's drive — which is why almost everyone arrives as part of a longer trip. The 6 day loop from Perth takes in Margaret River on the way down; the 10 day crossings carry on east across the Nullarbor to Adelaide.
When to come
December to March for the warmest water and the longest days — Esperance averages 25 to 26°C over those months and as little as 18mm of rain in December. Winter is cold, wet and empty, and the sand is exactly the same colour. There is a month-by-month breakdown on our best time to visit Esperance page.
Where this comes from. Where each trip camps, its length and prices are that trip's own details as held on its page here, and prices update on their own. Cape Le Grand's beaches and the Frenchman Peak walk are WA Parks and Wildlife's published notes. Temperatures are Bureau of Meteorology long-term averages for Esperance.