What to do in Esperance, Western Australia?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

We have never been to Esperance, Western Australia before.

 

I was wondering would you recommend doing here for the day?? and If you have been here before, what did you do there for the day??

 

Any ideas / suggestions are very welcome 🙂

[Bpos]

8 hours ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

We have never been to Esperance, Western Australia before.

 

I was wondering would you recommend doing here for the day?? and If you have been here before, what did you do there for the day??

 

Any ideas / suggestions are very welcome 🙂

 

Not much

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Go ashore and look around.

[Aus Traveller]

There is superb scenery around Esperance. The Cape Le Grand National Park has some of the most beautiful beaches you can see anywhere - 'jaw-droppingly' beautiful. Lucky Bay appears on numerous calendars. The NP is around 50km east of Esperance - 45 minutes drive. I suggest hiring a car in Esperance and drive to Cape Le Grand. On returning to Esperance, you can drive a few km west of town to see the Pink Lake.

[lyndarra]

When there is a cruise ship in port there is an information tent set up where you come ashore off the jetty. From there you can book local tours. When there last we took a bus trip out to Stonehenge. It's a full size replica of the real one on the Salisbury plain in UK. From memory I think there was also a tour of a fish leather factory and a few other things I've forgotten about. There are certainly things to do there. It was market day when we were there too, lots of interesting stuff to look at and buy. We also did some geocaching.

As we were leaving the port we could see smoke on shore which developed into deadly bushfires that raged for days.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attractions-g495056-Activities-Esperance_Western_Australia.html

[lissie]

Cape le Grande is quite possibly the most beautiful beach in Australia (and there is some serious competition). It would immoral not to go there if you are in Esperance 

[MMDown Under]

28 minutes ago, lissie said:

Cape le Grande is quite possibly the most beautiful beach in Australia (and there is some serious competition). It would immoral not to go there if you are in Esperance 

I agree and I'm from Queensland, The Sunshine State, home of many beautiful beaches 

[MicCanberra]

I am planning to hire a car and drive about to look at the various beaches and such.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I am planning to hire a car and drive about to look at the various beaches and such.

Start with the spectacular beaches of Cape Le Grand National Park, then return to Esperance to see the sights close by - Pink Lake, Twilight Beach.

[MicCanberra]

That is the plan.

[Beanb41]

When we were there on the Solstice the weather cut up so rough that all the tenders that were ashore stayed ashore. Once the only catamaran capable of returning passengers back to the ship was available the tenders came back empty. In the interim the bar at the yacht club was opened with X picking up the tab. If I was going back I would stay on board as there is nothing ashore

 

[Aus Traveller]

13 hours ago, Beanb41 said:

When we were there on the Solstice the weather cut up so rough that all the tenders that were ashore stayed ashore. Once the only catamaran capable of returning passengers back to the ship was available the tenders came back empty. In the interim the bar at the yacht club was opened with X picking up the tab. If I was going back I would stay on board as there is nothing ashore

 

There isn't much in Esperance, but the surrounding area has spectacular scenery. The first time we went to Lucky Bay I wondered why it looked very familiar until I realised it often features on calendars.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Thank You everyone for your information  and replays, very helpfully 😊
 

We did not get ashore till 12 noon as the tender service was so slow on Cunard 😞 , so we just walked around the town had some food & drink and went to the bank to sort out a issuge we had.

 

[lissie]

Why so slow? We have tender ports in PNG -  I wasn't planning on wasting 1/2 a day getting off the ship! 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

49 minutes ago, lissie said:

Why so slow? We have tender ports in PNG -  I wasn't planning on wasting 1/2 a day getting off the ship! 

You can never rely on tendering ashore. Many factors come into play , sea conditions ,wind , shore landing conditions , etc , etc . Also passengers  can only board the tenders one at a time , a long time if you are looking at 2,000 people or more . 
We had several cruises where tendering was taking so long ,we just gave up going ashore and had a relaxing day on board .

[lissie]

I'm hoping the  ship isn't full - they still seem to advertising cabins in most classes. I'd be gutted if we didn't get off until midday - the ports are the reason I'm cruising 

[Docker123]

On 10/18/2019 at 11:32 AM, Aus Traveller said:

There isn't much in Esperance, but the surrounding area has spectacular scenery. The first time we went to Lucky Bay I wondered why it looked very familiar until I realised it often features on calendars.

Cape Le Grand is a beautiful place. Here are some photos from Lucky Bay. The colours of the water are astonishing.

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Great pics, love the roos on the beach.

[MicCanberra]

5 hours ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

Thank You everyone for your information  and replays, very helpfully 😊
 

We did not get ashore till 12 noon as the tender service was so slow on Cunard 😞 , so we just walked around the town had some food & drink and went to the bank to sort out a issuge we had.

 

A shame about the tendering.

[Aus Traveller]

On 12/18/2019 at 1:01 PM, lissie said:

I'm hoping the  ship isn't full - they still seem to advertising cabins in most classes. I'd be gutted if we didn't get off until midday - the ports are the reason I'm cruising 

If you are keen to get off in a tender port, make sure you are near the front of the queue when the cruise staff start handing out tender tickets. If the cruise staff advise that tickets will be handed out from (say) 8am, be in the queue ready to disembark by 7.45 at the latest. That way you are likely to get on the first tender before the tours are taken down to the tenders.

[lissie]

39 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

If you are keen to get off in a tender port, make sure you are near the front of the queue when the cruise staff start handing out tender tickets. If the cruise staff advise that tickets will be handed out from (say) 8am, be in the queue ready to disembark by 7.45 at the latest. That way you are likely to get on the first tender before the tours are taken down to the tenders.

Thats a really good tip - I assumed the cruise tours would go first - but this makes sense 

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, lissie said:

Thats a really good tip - I assumed the cruise tours would go first - but this makes sense 

The time for departure of the tours is set well ahead of time and even then, passengers aren't taken ashore until the tour operator has the buses ready. However, often the tenders are ready for use before the time for the first tour departure. We have often found that one of two tenders get away before the tours are ready.

 

Of course, the times for the tour departures are staggered and you will often find that each tender has some passengers on tours and some independent passengers. The only time this doesn't happen is if they use a separate pontoon for the ship's shore excursions.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

On 12/18/2019 at 1:49 AM, lissie said:

Why so slow? We have tender ports in PNG -  I wasn't planning on wasting 1/2 a day getting off the ship! 

 

I guess it did not help there was only once place for one tender at a time.