Extraordinary Western Australia

In October, along with a small group of travel agents, I was very fortunate enough to experience the fantastic sights of Perth, Scarborough and Broome in Western Australia. I flew out from Heathrow on Qantas' fantastic A380 aircraft onto Dubai and then connecting flight to Perth operated by their airline partner Emirates.

Perth makes the perfect base for a very unique Western Australian experience. It is bustling with new bars, restaurants and shopping. Situated beside the Swan River, the best views of all of the city are from Kings Park and Botanic Garden - one of the biggest inner-city parks in the world. Larger than New York's Central Park, there are so many ways to enjoy its 400-plus hectares of sculpted gardens.

Perth is also the sunniest state capital, averaging 3,000 hours of sunshine per year and boasting a string of 19 beautifully clean and uncrowded beaches, from iconic Cottesloe to the surf hotspot of Scarborough.

After an interesting walking tour around the maritime historical town of Fremantle, we caught a ferry over to the car free paradise island of Rottnest, with no cars on the roads, riding is the best way to get around, with bicycle hire available at the ferry terminals and on the island. On its shores, there are 63 stunning beaches, 20 beautiful bays and many coral reefs and wrecks invite you to enjoy some of Australia's finest swimming spots, snorkel trails and surf breaks. You'll also get to meet the cutest mini marsupial, found only in Western Australia, the world famous quokka.

We then flew up to Broome (which is around 2 hours), the gateway of the Kimberley, to experience the rich pearling industry that this small town is famous for. The colourful sunsets here at Cable beach over pure white sands are a must - also a sunset camel ride! At certain times of the year, you can also witness the Staircase to the Moon, this natural phenomenon is when the full moon rises over the sea at extremely low tide and creates a beautiful optical illusion of stairs reaching to the moon!

Located on the tip of the Dampier Peninsular, we took the road from Broome up to Cape Leveque which is all part of the adventure, following the four wheel drive track - a guided tour for the three and a half hours. A quicker scenic route is available by air - at Cape Leveque you can see some of the Kimberley's most stunning coastal wilderness - a stunning contrast of pristine white sands and red rocks. If you want to venture a little further north (by air) you can also have a bird's eye view of the world's only horizontal waterfalls.

From seeing a humpback whale as we travelled to Rottnest Island, to the incredible colours of the sunsets at Cable Beach - for me it was my first ever visit to Australia and it most definitely exceeded all my expectations!