Wine, dine, surf and turf. This destination in Western Australia offers easy access to every visitor’s wishlist of quintessential Aussie experiences. We checked into Smiths Beach Resort to try one of the country’s most famous breaks, watch whales, and drink barrels of wine.
IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT most international visitors head for Australia with a standard list of must-sees. Top attractions tend to include the country’s pristine beaches, its dramatic landscape, unique nature, and outstanding food and wine.
Those with a month-plus in Australia can tick off all those boxes in fairly leisurely fashion. Visitors with less time, however, will need to be a bit more strategic. Checking in at Smiths Beach Resort in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Western Australia, is one way to maximise a few days’ stay and enjoy as many of the country’s core attractions as humanly possible.
The beach, that’s first and foremost, right? As its name suggests, Smiths Beach Resort is literally (or should we say, littorally) right on the ocean, facing a 1.5km expanse of sandy shoreline that boasts one of Australia’s most famous surf breaks: Supertubes, a moniker you can’t help but pronounce in Keanu’s voice. The waves are just moments away, whether you’re staying in one of the resort’s tastefully minimalist poolside villas or waterfront beach houses, from one to four bedrooms in size.
There are whale-watching opportunities here, and other marine life has been known to cruise by. Should you find the one-in-a-bajillion chance of a shark encounter off-putting and prefer to stay out of the sea, Smiths Beach makes for a magnificent sunset or sunrise stroll. Say g’day to the surfers, anglers and fellow amblers you pass along the way. Unlike the Great Whites, they definitely won’t bite.
Local residents are as friendly to visitors as they are antagonistic to developers, uniting in protest against proposed building projects through the years. Successfully, too. There’s hardly any build-up at all, with Smiths Beach Resort certainly the only five-star accommodations hereabouts, and the lion’s share of the surrounding area untouched bushland. The resulting lack of light pollution means skies at night are—look, there’s no other word for it—dazzling. Seriously, it’s like something from a Disney movie.
Daytime views are pretty memorable too, especially from elevated vantage points along the ‘Cape to Cape’ walking track. The resort is situated between Cape Naturalist and Cape Leeuwin, which are connected by a well-trod seaside trail, offering gorgeous ocean vistas, beautiful rock formations and swathes of fragrant native sage. Try the relatively easy-going three-kilometre stretch between Smith’s Point and Canal Rocks, stopping along the way for a dip in the crystal-clear natural rockpool known to locals as ‘the Aquarium.’
Smiths Beach is a nearly three-hour drive from Perth, so there’s an investment of time in getting there, but once you arrive, you’re within easy reach of the myriad Dionysian pleasures of the Margaret River region. Among the best meals we had during our tour of the surrounding countryside was a lunch at Meelup Farmhouse, a rustic Australian-meets-Hamptons style hillside restaurant with flavourful local seafood and great wines from nearby wineries like Picardy of Pemberton. (Whose Chardonnay is a revelation.)
Sharing Smiths’ disdain for apostrophes, Wills Domain is one of the region’s most respected, picturesque vineyards. Overlooking rolling hills of screensaver-esque lushness, its restaurant offers an excellent four-course tasting lunch—with magnificently matched wines, of course. Additional cellar doors just a short drive (hire someone to do this for you, please) from Smiths Beach include iconic WA names such as Vasse Felix, Cullen, Fermoy Estate, Howard Park, and Moss Wood. You’re spoilt for choice.
Vino-wise, the same goes even if you elect not to leave the hotel. Attached to Smiths Beach Resort is Lamont’s restaurant and wine shop (a rare apostrophe proponent). Here we were delighted to find a remarkable selection of Western Australian wines, including some seriously recherche bottles dating back years and even decades.
We picked up a Plantagenet Shiraz from Mount Barker (check the byline—see what I did there), bottled in the wife’s birth year. It would be indelicate to give the exact vintage, but let’s just say, disco was alive and well when the grapes were stomped.
Departing the hotel to return to Perth for the five-hour flight back to Singapore, a mob of kangaroos hopped across the road and bounced off into the bush. With which, the essential Aussie visit checklist was complete.
smithsbeachresort.com.au; one-bedroom apartments start from A$349 per night and include breakfast.
Images courtesy of Smiths Beach Resort, unless otherwise noted.