Chasing whales, wildflowers and open studios: Margaret River in the spring window

Three hours south of Perth, a ridge of old limestone runs between two lighthouses, and along it sits one of the strangest concentrations of good things anywhere in travel: a hundred caves, a hundred cellar doors, surf breaks that host a world championship, and a coastline where three species of whale commute past on their way south. Condé Nast Traveller put the Margaret River region on its Best Places to Go list for 2026, and the month that makes the case is September — when the southern spring switches everything on at once. The whales arrive in Geographe Bay, roughly 2,500 wildflower species come into bloom, and for a fortnight the region’s artists prop open the doors of studios built into barns, sea containers and old railway carriages.

155 open doors

Margaret River Region Open Studios is Australia’s largest event of its kind, and its 13th edition runs 12–27 September 2026. The format is disarmingly simple: 155 artists across a hundred kilometres of coast and forest, from Busselton down to Augusta, open their working spaces to anyone who drives up. No tickets, no bookings — you plan a route with the event’s itinerary builder, follow the roadside markers, and end up talking glazing techniques with a ceramicist in her shed while the kettle goes on. Painters, printmakers, jewellers, furniture makers; the launch Art Party on the 12th auctions anonymous works, signatures revealed only after the hammer. It is the best possible structure for seeing the region, because the studios pull you down side roads the wine route never touches.

Whales on the way south, orchids underfoot

September is when the region’s whale watching moves to its gentler second act. The humpbacks and southern rights that spent winter in Flinders Bay off Augusta begin their southbound migration along the capes, and the tour boats follow them into the shelter of Geographe Bay off Dunsborough — mothers with calves, close in, on flat spring water. Legend Charters runs daily departures with a free-return guarantee if the whales don’t show, which tells you how rarely that happens.

The same weeks put on the wildflower show. Western Australia’s south-west is one of the world’s recognised biodiversity hotspots, and from September the heathland along the coast turns into a botanist’s fever dream — kangaroo paw, spider orchids, pink fairy orchids, more than 150 orchid species in all. This wildflower guide points you to Ambergate Reserve near Busselton and the Boranup karri forest. The best way to walk through it is on the Cape to Cape Track, 130 kilometres of clifftop and beach between the Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin lighthouses — a six-to-seven-day thru-hike for the committed, or a series of superb day sections for everyone else. Surfers get their share too: the winter swells still run in September, and the region’s 75-plus named breaks include Main Break at Surfers Point, where the world tour holds the Margaret River Pro each April.

Underground on Caves Road, and a walk above the sea

The limestone ridge that gives the region its wine also gives it caves — around a hundred of them, several open to visitors along the aptly named Caves Road. This guide to the seven show caves sorts them honestly: Jewel Cave near Augusta is the biggest and holds some of the longest straw stalactites on earth; Lake Cave drops through a sinkhole to a permanent underground lake, toured in groups of fifteen; Mammoth is the self-guided, fossil-embedded one to do with children. Back on the surface, Busselton Jetty runs 1.8 kilometres out into Geographe Bay — the longest timber-piled jetty in the southern hemisphere, with a little solar-powered train and an underwater observatory eight metres down amid coral that has colonised the pylons since 1865.

Cabernet country

Margaret River makes around a fifth of Australia’s premium wine from a few per cent of its grapes, and the cellar doors — about ninety of them — are the region’s living rooms. Start at Vasse Felix, the founding estate, where vines went in back in 1967 and the restaurant overlooks Wilyabrup Brook. Leeuwin Estate is the other essential: home of the Art Series Chardonnay, a gallery of commissioned Australian art, and the 2026 WA Good Food Guide’s Regional Restaurant of the Year. In the 2026 guide’s Top 100, seven of the region’s winery restaurants made the list — the full rundown is here — and the one to book furthest ahead is Wills Domain at Yallingup, whose seven-course menu over the Gunyulgup Valley has held four chef’s hats three years running. For a wider sweep of tables, Australian Traveller’s winery-restaurant guide covers eleven with useful candour. In September you can still get a Saturday table somewhere good — by November you cannot.

Yallingup, Margaret River town or Augusta

The region is an hour end to end, so base choice shapes the trip. Yallingup, at the northern cape, has the beaches and the two best splurges: Smiths Beach Resort, directly on the sand where the Cape to Cape Track passes the door, and Yala Yallingup, a spa retreat in the bush that collected a Michelin Key in 2025. Margaret River town is the practical middle — and newly interesting, because the Margaret River Hotel, the town’s heritage-listed 1936 pub, reopened this year after a five-year restoration with 28 rooms and a dining room run on WA produce. Augusta, at the southern end, is the quiet option near Jewel Cave and the lighthouse where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet.

The landscape, on screen

The region from the air and through a wine glass:

8:19

9:49

The logistics

Nearly everyone drives: Perth to Margaret River is 270 kilometres, a flat three hours down the Bussell Highway, and this four-day road-trip itinerary turns the transfer into part of the holiday. Jetstar also flies direct from Melbourne to Busselton Margaret River Airport three times a week, 45 minutes from town — note the Sydney route is paused until 21 September 2026, so east-coasters connect via Melbourne or Perth. September weather is proper spring: mid-teens, changeable, green — pack a rain shell for the same afternoon you’ll need sunglasses. For the full menu of what’s on, Nomadasaurus’s 25 things to do and this local’s list of 40 cover the region from surf lessons to forest mountain-biking.

Open Studios starts on 12 September and runs a fortnight; the whales in Geographe Bay won’t wait much past November. The studio-trail planner, the whale-boat details, the seven-cave shortlist, the winery restaurants worth booking and the beds from beach shack to Michelin-Key spa are gathered in our Margaret River collection — save it, book the Melbourne or Perth leg, and be standing in a sculptor’s sea-container studio with cabernet plans for lunch.

Curated using Epic Itineraries. Log in to save this collection to your own plan.