Coral Coast Western Australia: The Stops On A Perth To Exmouth Road Trip

The Coral Coast Highway is the named touring route that strings Western Australia's west coast together between Perth and Exmouth. Australia's Coral Coast, the region's tourism body, calls it "the 1,250km Coral Coast Highway between Perth and Exmouth", and the drive is the reason most visitors give themselves a week or more rather than a long weekend.

What Is The Coral Coast And Where Does The Drive Start And End?

The Coral Coast is the stretch of Western Australian coastline between Perth and Exmouth, linked by the Coral Coast Highway of about 1,250 km. Perth anchors the southern end, and Exmouth, gateway to the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area, anchors the northern end. Tourism body figures put Coral Bay about 12 hours' non-stop drive from Perth and Exmouth about 13 hours.

Those drive times are non-stop figures, so treat them as floor rather than plan: any real trip adds fuel stops, rest breaks and the sightseeing that is the point of the drive in the first place. Food and fuel can generally be found every 100 to 300 km along the route, according to the same tourism body page, which also notes that Integrity Tours (Perth to Exmouth) and TransWA (Perth to Geraldton) operate regular coach services for anyone who would rather not drive at all.

Five stops give the route its shape, and every multi-day tour in the lineup names some combination of them: the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park, Kalbarri National Park, Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, Coral Bay inside Ningaloo Marine Park, and Exmouth with Cape Range National Park beside it. If the full drive feels like too much, the question of whether to fly or drive to Exmouth comes down to how many of those stops you actually want to make, because flying skips all of them.

The Five Signature Coral Coast Stops In Order

Travelling north from Perth, the five anchor stops arrive in a fixed order: the Pinnacles at about 190 km, Kalbarri at about 570 km, Monkey Mia at about 850 km, Coral Bay at about 1,125 km and Exmouth at about 1,250 km. Each sits in a park with its own entry rule, and most standard vehicle entries cost AU$17, with Monkey Mia the notable exception.

The distances are rounded route-calculator figures except the Exmouth total, which is the tourism body's own. Turquoise Bay, inside Cape Range National Park and past Exmouth township, sits about 1,310 km from Perth. The entry rules matter more than most first-time visitors expect, because Monkey Mia Conservation Park runs its own per-person fee schedule and passes bought elsewhere are not valid there, a detail that catches out plenty of self-drivers budgeting only for the standard AU$17 vehicle fee.

Across the eleven tours, the Pinnacles, Coral Bay and Exmouth or Ningaloo appear on nearly every itinerary, while Kalbarri is named on every one of them, including the 7-day Kalbarri coastal adventure (return loop) at from US$1,205 per person and the 8-day small-group boutique tour (Perth to Exmouth) at from US$2,899 per person. The 10-day Perth to Exmouth, Karijini and return tour pairs the classic coastal stops with Karijini and the Pilbara, rather than skipping them.

Stop One: The Pinnacles At Nambung National Park

The Pinnacles Desert, about 190 km north of Perth inside Nambung National Park, is the first signature stop and the closest to the city. Standard vehicle entry of AU$17 applies, a valid park pass covers it, and the park's own page notes the landscape bursts into flower from August to October.

The Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre, the park's visitor centre, opens daily 9:30 am to 4:30 pm except Christmas Day, and dogs are not allowed. Nambung is also the stop most reachable as a standalone outing, which is why day-trip itineraries from Perth exist in their own right; the planning questions around a Pinnacles day trip are different from the multi-day questions, because you can visit and be back in Perth the same evening.

On the tour side, the Pinnacles is one of the most commonly named stops in the lineup: it appears on the booking pages of all eleven tours, from the 6-day one-way Coral Coaster through to the 10-day Perth to Broome via Ningaloo and Karijini route. If seeing the Pinnacles at sunrise or under stars matters to you, the operator's listing is where to confirm the arrival timing before you book. Official park details are on the DBCA Nambung National Park page.

Stop Two: Kalbarri National Park And The Skywalk

Kalbarri National Park sits about 570 km from Perth, and its headline draw is the Skywalk: two cantilevered platforms hanging in mid-air 100 m above the Murchison River gorge, which itself runs 80 km long. Standard entry of AU$17 per vehicle applies, and the platforms are wheelchair accessible.

The Kalbarri Visitor Centre adds the practical details: the Skywalk is 37 km from Kalbarri township on a sealed road, about a half hour drive, and needs a park day pass at AU$17 per vehicle per day, or AU$10 concession. Opening hours for the Skywalk are not reliably stated, so check the Kalbarri Visitor Centre or DBCA before you plan a dawn or dusk visit.

Heat is the real planning variable at this stop. DBCA's guidance for the park says temperatures can be extreme in the summer months and recommends planning hikes for the cooler months of May to October, and the Loop Trail, a different trail from the Skywalk, is closed after 7 am from November to March inclusive. In the lineup, all eleven tours name Kalbarri, and if the gorge country is a priority rather than a bonus, the dedicated Kalbarri touring options from Perth are worth a separate look. Official details are on the DBCA Kalbarri Skywalk page.

The 7-day Kalbarri coastal adventure (return loop), from US$1,205 per person, is a Kalbarri-forward itinerary, naming the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, Ningaloo and Exmouth, and the return to Perth. No rating is shown for it, so weigh it on itinerary rather than review scores.

Stop Three: Shark Bay And Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia Conservation Park, about 850 km from Perth inside the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, is the dolphin stop, and it charges on its own per-person schedule: AU$15 for an adult day permit valid 24 hours, AU$10 concession, AU$5 for children 6 to 15, and AU$35 for a family of two adults and two children, with under-6s free.

Two fee rules separate this stop from every other one on the drive. First, park passes and entry fees bought at other parks are not valid at Monkey Mia. Second, a 28-day month pass also exists at AU$25 adult, AU$20 concession, AU$10 child and AU$60 family, which can make sense if your dates drift. Shark Bay Marine Park itself, by contrast, charges no park entry fee at all.

The dolphin experience has fixed rules rather than fixed times: DBCA says dolphins visit the beach more frequently in the early morning when rangers offer them small amounts of fish, rangers feed them up to three times a day, visitors never feed them, touching or approaching the dolphins is not permitted, and there is no boating in the interaction area, with a five-knot speed zone around the jetty. Times for the experience depend on if and when the dolphins visit the beach, and the official page is explicit that a visit is never promised. The rules are on the DBCA dolphin experience page, and the fee schedule is on the DBCA attraction fees page.

Several of the eleven tours include Shark Bay or Monkey Mia, among them the 6-day Perth to Exmouth with Monkey Mia at from US$1,120 per person. For the full stop-by-stop picture of this stretch, see the guide to getting from Perth to Shark Bay.

Stop Four: Coral Bay Inside Ningaloo Marine Park

Coral Bay, about 1,125 km from Perth, sits inside Ningaloo Marine Park, which charges no park entry fee. The reef itself lies close offshore, with a kayak trail of four buoy sites positioned 300 m to 1.8 km from shore, which is what makes this the swimming and snorkelling stop of the drive.

Because there is no entry fee at Coral Bay, this is the stop where your money goes to activities rather than permits. The region carries more than 200 licensed commercial tour operators across all commercial licences, per DBCA, so snorkelling and boat options exist as separate products on their own booking pages; confirm prices and schedules for those with the operator when booking. Fishing rules deserve a glance too: sanctuary zones such as Lakeside, Tantabiddi, Bundegi and Osprey restrict fishing, and the zone map is the authority on where those limits apply. Other pages covering the same trip are gathered on Perth To Exmouth Tour.

All eleven tours name Coral Bay, including both the 6-day one-way Coral Coaster, from US$1,326 per person, and the 7-day Exmouth Explorer (return to Perth), from US$1,385 per person and rated 4.9 across 345 reviews. The 10-day guided north tour (Perth to Exmouth), from US$1,215 per person, also names it alongside the Pinnacles and Exmouth. The Coral Bay touring guide works through what each of those itineraries does at this stop.

For a leaner stop list, the 6-day Perth to Exmouth via the Pinnacles and Shark Bay, from US$1,142 per person, names the Pinnacles, Shark Bay and Ningaloo on its booking page. And for anyone whose ambition runs past Exmouth, the 10-day Perth to Broome via Ningaloo and Karijini tour, from US$1,958 per person, names the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Karijini and Broome among its 19 stops. It is a new listing with no rating, so read its booking page carefully.

Stop Five: Exmouth, Cape Range And Turquoise Bay

Exmouth, about 1,250 km from Perth, is the northern terminus, and the stop list continues past the town into Cape Range National Park, where standard vehicle entry of AU$17 applies. Turquoise Bay, about 1,310 km from Perth, is the park's famous snorkel beach, and DBCA warns that dangerous currents can occur there.

The current warning deserves its own sentence. DBCA's page for Turquoise Bay recommends the Bay Loop parking area as the better snorkel access, well away from the potentially strong currents found at the sandy point, and says inexperienced swimmers should not swim or snorkel in strong currents but seek the services of a licensed tour operator. The Drift Loop has a natural current flowing from south to north. No tide times or safety guarantees exist in the official facts, so treat the beach as conditions-dependent every single day. Ningaloo Marine Park itself charges no entry fee; it is Cape Range National Park, the land beside it, that carries the AU$17 vehicle fee, with concession and motorcycle rates at AU$10 each and a valid park pass also covering entry. Details are on the DBCA Cape Range National Park page.

Every one of the eleven lineup tours names Exmouth or Ningaloo, which makes this the one non-negotiable stop of the route. What differs is what happens after: the Perth to Exmouth one-way tours end here (the Broome-bound tours carry on north), so confirm your return travel when booking, while return-loop tours such as the 7-day Perth to Exmouth and return with Monkey Mia, from US$1,256 per person, drive you back to Perth. Qantas flies direct between Perth and Learmonth (Exmouth) Airport daily in just under 2 hours, with the airport a 25-minute drive north to Exmouth, so a one-way tour paired with a flight home is a workable shape.

Which Tour Covers The Most Coral Coast Stops?

The 10-day Perth to Broome via Ningaloo and Karijini tour lists 19 stops: the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay and Exmouth, plus Karijini and Broome. Among Perth-to-Exmouth itineraries, the 8-day small-group boutique tour lists 14 stops, from Geraldton and the Pinnacles through to Exmouth and Cape Range National Park.

Stop counts are a blunt instrument, though, because they say nothing about time at each stop, so confirm the timings when booking. What the stop lists do tell you is shape. The 6-day one-way Coral Coaster, from US$1,326 per person and rated 4.8 across 55 reviews, names the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, Coral Bay, and Exmouth and Ningaloo, the full classic set in six days. The 6-day Perth to Exmouth via the Pinnacles and Shark Bay, from US$1,142 per person, names the Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay, Ningaloo and Exmouth, a leaner list at a lower from-price.

Only two tours on the whole lineup show a rating: the 6-day one-way Coral Coaster at 4.8 across 55 reviews, and the 7-day Exmouth Explorer at 4.9 across 345 reviews. For everything else, judge the itinerary itself. Every tour lists its meals, most list accommodation and park entry, cancellation is free at 6 full days or 30 days before start on nine tours (the other two list none, so check when booking), and no group size is quoted, so confirm the rest on the operator's live listing before you book.

Should You Drive The Coral Coast Yourself Or Take A Tour?

Drive it yourself if you want control over how long each stop gets, and confirm each tour's stop timings when booking; take a tour if the 1,250 km of driving, the accommodation bookings and the park permits are the part of the trip you would rather not manage. A 6-day tour starts at from US$1,120 per person, and only two of the eleven tours carry a rating at all.

The cost comparison is short. On the tour side you have the lineup from-prices, which vary with date and group. On the self-drive side, the facts list no fuel, hire car, campervan or accommodation prices, so a like-for-like dollar comparison cannot be made: check current rates for those costs when you book. What can be compared is structure. A tour bundles the driving, names its stops up front and finishes in Exmouth, back in Perth or in Broome. Self-drive gives you the flexibility to linger at Kalbarri or anywhere else, at the cost of planning every night yourself.

Hybrids work too. The Perth to Exmouth one-way tours finish in Exmouth, and Qantas flies direct back to Perth daily in just under 2 hours, so you can tour north and fly south. That shape suits the 6-day one-way options, and the one-way tour guide works through the endings. Note that no Exmouth to Perth one-way tour exists in the lineup; the only southbound one-way option is the 10-day Broome to Perth tour, which starts in Broome.

The 10-day Perth to Exmouth, Karijini and return tour, from US$2,039 per person, suits drivers who want the loop shape without the wheel: it names Exmouth and Karijini on its booking page and returns to Perth. As a new listing it carries no rating.

Common Mistakes When Planning A Coral Coast Road Trip

The three mistakes that cost the most are budgeting Monkey Mia as an AU$17 vehicle stop when it charges per person on its own schedule, treating the 13-hour Exmouth drive time as an itinerary when it is a non-stop figure, and assuming every tour with Ningaloo in its name stops at every classic stop, when the stop lists differ sharply between tours.

The Monkey Mia trap is the most expensive for families: a family day permit is AU$35 and a month pass AU$60, and none of it is covered by the pass you may have bought for the Pinnacles. The drive-time trap is a planning trap more than a safety one: the tourism body's 12 and 13 hour figures exclude fuel, rest and sightseeing, so a realistic multi-stop trip bears no resemblance to them. The stop-list trap is solved by reading each booking page's named stops before choosing, because the difference between a US$1,120 and a US$2,899 tour is often the stop list and the day count rather than a quality grade.

A fourth mistake deserves a line of its own: assuming park entry is included in a tour price. Many of the eleven tours do include national park entry in the price, so check the inclusions for your tour when you book, or budget AU$17 per vehicle day for the parks you will enter on your own account.

Do You Need A Park Pass Or Can You Pay As You Go?

Pay as you go at AU$17 per standard vehicle per park day, or buy a pass if you will enter parks on several days: DBCA sells a Holiday Pass in 4-week, 14-day and 5-day versions plus an Annual All Parks Pass, all covering vehicles up to 12 legally seated occupants, with an RAC WA member discount. Check the current pass prices on the WA Parks shop.

The arithmetic that decides it comes from your own itinerary. One entry fee covers more than one park on the same day, so a single day hitting both Nambung and Kalbarri costs AU$17 once per vehicle. Concession vehicle entry is AU$10, motorcycles AU$10, and large vehicles carrying more than 12 occupants pay AU$8 per person, or AU$3.50 concession. Walkers and cyclists pay nothing. None of that applies at Monkey Mia, which keeps its own schedule. The fee rules are on the DBCA park entry fees page and the pass types on the DBCA park passes page.

Common Questions About Coral Coast Stops