Backpacker Buzz

When I booked my flight from Adelaide to Perth, I figured I'd just stay at the Perth City YHA. I called them the day before to find out they had no space. So I did what any responsible backpacker would do - left it and figured I'd sort it out after my plane landed. 

Turns out that didn't magically make space for me at the hostel, so I consulted my guidebook while my backpack made a few rounds on the baggage carousel. Perth, apparently, is a busy spot. You'd think after two years of telling travellers that it's a good idea to book ahead in the summer months I'd have avoided a situation like this. 

There was tentative space at YHA's beachside hostel in Scarborough - about 45 minutes by bus from downtown Perth. The woman on the phone told me they don't take reservations, but that if I showed up, I "should be OK." So after 45 minutes by bus from the airport to downtown, and another 45 from downtown to Scarborough, I was pleased to get given a bed when I walked into the Perth Beach YHA. 

I wasn't all that stoked to be staying so far from a city I'd heard was pretty nice. But after dropping my bags, waking up my German roommate and walking a block to the beach, I high fived my lack of pre-planning skills because I'd found myself the perfect place to be. 

I've been carrying the rain around Australia with me since I arrived a month ago. In Sydney it rained. Along the drive to Melbourne, it rained. As soon as I hit the Great Ocean Road, it rained. It rained on Kangaroo Island. 

I must've duped the rain by flying to Perth because Scarborough Beach was being doused in sunshine when I arrived and the midday temperatures were sitting around 32 degrees. 

I bussed into the city the next day to check it out, and it definitely is a nice spot - a riverside city with palm trees and parks. But it was nice getting back to the beach in the late afternoon. I walked down to the beach with a few other people to watch the sunset, and the hostel's small patio was Christmas light lit and filled with chatty people when we got back.

I still highly recommend you pre-book your accommodation in the high season, but like a lot of people say, things often have a way of working themselves out. 

(But do book ahead.)