Everything you need to know before you go to Rottnest Island!
Rottnest Island is a beautiful little island off the West Coast of Australia, closest to the city of Perth. It is a hugely popular snorkelling destination and home to the world-famous Quokka! 🐻 This Rottnest Island 101 guide is filled with all the basic information you need to know about this little slice of heaven.
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Jump to
⛴️ How to get to Rottnest Island
🥽 What to bring to Rottnest Island
🚴🏽♂️ How to get around the island
🍴 Shops
🚁 Drones
How to get to Rottnest Island
There are 3 options on how to get to Rottnest. You can swim the 19kms and hope the sharks don’t get you, you can catch a local Ferry or the third option is a boujee move but you can jump in a helicopter and fly over. We recommend the ferry, even if we do both suffer from seasickness.
The Rottnest Express and Rottnest Fast Ferries are the two ferry companies to book your tickets with.
The different ferry terminals are :
⛴️ Fremantle B Shed – 30 Mins to Rotto
⛴️ Northport Rous Head Harbour, North Fremantle – 30 Mins to Rotto
⛴️ Barrack Street Jetty Elizabeth Quay, Perth – 90 Mins to Rotto
⛴️ Hillarys Boat Harbour – 40 Mins to Rotto
Quokka, the happiest animal in the world 🐻
A Quokka is in the same marsupial family as the Kangaroo🦘 Its basically a combination of a kangaroo and a large rat but it got a great smile. It soared to fame with the hashtag #quokkaselfie which saw these cuties become Instagram famous without them even knowing. They can only be found here in Western Australia, mainly on Rottnest Island. They have no natural predators so they are not scared of humans. There are about 10-12,000 of them living on Rottnest so you will be sure to find one in your time here.
Quokka selfies are actually really hard to get. It involves you laying on the floor, in their poop and hoping it looks up. We’ve found the trick to it is if someone else holds a leaf above the camera, it will look up and you will get that award-winning smile on camera!
THEY SHOULD NOT BE FED HUMAN FOOD! We can not make this more clear! Their little bodies can not handle our food and it makes them sick. Unfortunately, we are witness to the ‘resident crack head quokkas’ around the shops. These quokkas are addicted to sugar and are much more aggressive than the others on the island. We have even named one Mad Max that lives outside the bakery because he’s got so many battle scars.
Rottnest Islands Secret Spots can be found right here.
What to bring to Rottnest Island
With some of the most beautiful beaches, clearest water and the best snorkelling we’ve ever seen, Rotto makes for the perfect beach day.
👙 Swimmers
🥽 Snorkel and Flippers
🚴🏼♂️ Bike
👟 Shoes/clothes to cycle in – Bike shorts are your best friend!
🥾 Wet shoes to explore the rock pools and rough sea bed
🍻 Eske with some beers
🎶 Speaker for music in your room/beach/bike basket
🧴 Suncream
How to get around on Rottnest Island
↠ The Island express bus 🚌 There are no vehicles on Rottnest Island so you can’t rely on Uber here I’m afraid. The only two ways of getting around are either on the Islands Hop on Hop Off Bus or to cycle. The bus is roughly $20 for the whole day and the best way to explore if the weather is too hot. This bus goes in a clockwise direction and is one way. It takes roughly around an hour to do a full loop on the bus.
↠ Rottnest Island bike hire 🚴 You can rent a bike (Helmets are mandatory) from the ferry companies which are roughly around $30. You can get an e-bike for $60 and $200 deposit. We would suggest bringing your own bike and LOCK, unfortunately, Rottnest is not immune from crime. This way you can save money on bike hire and you know you will have a good bike for the day.
Beware Rottnest is extremely hilly, so a medium level of fitness is recommended for cycling around the whole island. This takes a few hours to complete…not that we have managed to get that far!
TRAVEL TIP↠ If you want to see lots of places and are only here for the day, we recommend just jumping on the bus and saving your self from exhaustion!
Check out our Rottnest Itinerary to plan your day out here.
The Settlement
The Settlement is the only area of shops on the island. There is a General store (IGA prices), Bakery 🧁, Clothes Store👚 , The Lane Cafe ☕, Subway 🥖, Frankie’s Italian🍕 , Dome, Thompsons and the Hotel. There is one more General store and cafe near Geordie Bay but that is it.
So if you are headed out all day, please take enough drinking water as most of the drinking taps aren’t always working. As we are writing this blog post we are currently working at the Bakery so we have to include how good the Pies and coffee are! You can’t come to Rotto without having got your self a morning pie for all the exercise you are about to do 🙂
Rottnest Island Accommodation 🏠
We would highly recommend spending a few days on Rottnest Island purely because there is so much to see here. We warn you, the accommodation is stuck in the past and looks like something from the ’80s but hopefully, you won’t be spending too much time in the room!
To see all the up to date prices for the accommodation on Rottnest Island Click on the accommodations below.
Discovery Eco Resort – Pinkys
$$$
Fyre festival meets Rottnest Island. Just kidding, its a brand new Eco Glamping experience on the island! Probably the best place to stay if we are honest! With a bar, pool and multiple accesses to the beach from your doorstep.
Rottnest Karma resort
$$$
This was the top place to stay on Rottnest before the new Discovery Eco Beach resort was built. The accommodation is clean and serves its purpose but is dated. Located in the centre of Thompson bay next to the main shopping area it is in the perfect location for a short stay on the island.
Camping on Rottnest Island
$
Located close to the Main Settlement and just a short stroll from The Basin, one of the Island’s most famous beaches.
The campground offers:
43 non-powered sand-covered sites accommodating up to a maximum of 6 people and 2 tents
Ablution block
Modern communal camp kitchen with cooking facilities including 4 BBQ plates and troughs
Drones on Rottnest Island
Flying a drone without a permit is not permitted on Rottnest. The rangers and Police on the island will give you a fine if you are caught filming without a permit. The application for the Drone permits can be found here. The application for one day is $50
Read our experience on the Rottnest Express Adventure boat here.
Rottnest Islands Best Bits
🥽 Snorkelling – Parkers Point, The Basin, Little Salmon Bay, Salmon Bay, Armstrong Bay, West End
🧴 Sunbathing – Parakeet Bay, Longreach Bay, Geordie Bay.
🏊🏻 Swimming – The Basin, Geordie Bay, Pinky Beach.
OUR FAVOURITE BEACH OF ALL TIME – Salmon Bay
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