The closest coastal town to Perth is Fremantle, or “Freo” if you’re Australian (they’ll abbreviate and add o’s to the end of any word), and the two are commonly intertwined in tourist guidebooks; you don’t go to one without going to the other. Freo is a port town so there’s not much of a beach as such, but don’t let that put you off. Since the America’s Cup came to town in the Eighties, the place has been cleaned-up and it shines well. People say that it’s a touch more laid back than Perth, although I didn’t think that Perth was a hard city in any way. There’s so many cafes along one street, that it’s been named the Cappuccino Strip. We had a lot of fun eating fish and chips out of paper bags at the fishing boat harbour, supping beer at the Little Creature brewey and scouring the markets for festive bargains.

We like Freo, possibly even more than Perth so we’ve decided to up-sticks from the (sort of) “Big Smoke” and look for an apartment here for a couple of weeks over Crimbo.