A Traveler Essentials Mini-Guide: For Buslifers, Vanlifers and travellers who love nature.

Have you wanted to venture up to Broome but heard mixed reviews?

Wondering if the beach town is too small for a bus lifer?

We’ve set off on the long journey by road and we personally loved Broome.

If you love the ocean, love nature and enjoy a slow pace to life, this is definitely your place.

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What you’ll find in Broome:

• Friendly locals and travellers

• Plenty of places to free-camp

• Gorgeous beaches that you can drive onto even without a 4WD (The Aussie dream!)

• Fuel is not that much more expensive as you would think in a remote area (similar to Darwin)

• SO much beautiful nature to explore that is relatively untouched

• A good amount of cafes and pubs

• A pretty good nightlife, with great conversations to be had for sure

• I would not say that crime would be a huge issue here, but of course be cautious and safe with how you handle your things. Small items do sometimes go missing, and some kids have been stealing cars, but the police force has been increased here and it has reduced the number of incidents.

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TRAVELER TIPS:

• Gantheaume Beach is where you’ll want to go to watch the sunset. You can drive onto this beach with a 2WD with no problems. I wouldn’t however recommend that you don’t take your bus on here still. It’s your bus though. A smaller bus is totally fine, there were a few on here but probably not a 40ft 20ton one like ours. The tide comes in overnight though so after sunset, head back up the ramp to free camp. [ I’d keep this info to yourself a bit to keep it less busy than Cable Beach for sure though! (unlike us sharing it here haha) ]

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• Cable Beach parking lot for cheeky free camping. It doesn’t sound glam we know, but it’s used by many and ends up feeling very much like a Caravan park because so many people stay here overnight without any issues. The breeze from the ocean is also lovely at night.

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• You can drive onto Cable Beach (with a 4WD) as well but it does have soft sand right at the bottom of a really steep ramp, so it’s unfortunately not 2WD accessible.

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• The Bird Observatory has quite inexpensive paid camping, and is only about 25kms from Broome. Where you can stay along the banks of the shore and regular vehicles can access this. Buses/caravans over 16ft will not fit though, so maybe take your extra vehicle here instead.

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• Coconut Wells is for floating and relaxing. If you’re looking for an area with a unique edge to it, we highly recommend you drive out to Coconut Wells, about 25min from Broome, around high tide (typically midday but check the charts). When high tide comes in here it creates these beautiful channels of water that people flock to with their inflatables to float down! So much fun. We don’t recommend you come earlier than high tide as the water is too low BUT the beach here is FANTASTIC and secluded as well so also a great option. We also found the water at the beach warmer here than at Cable Beach.

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MORE:

• Dinosaur footprints can be found down by the Port. Check the charts and head there at low tide to see them. Follow the signs to the “Port” and you’ll have no problems. They are fun to go hunting for! And the port is a great place to take a swim at high tide as well. The water is less wavy and rough here and you can swim next to the beautiful orange rock formations. Definitely bring swimming shoes or wear sandals to swim here as it’s a bit rocky.

• Town Beach Markets are every Thursday night between 4 pm – 8 pm (between June – September) and are one of the loveliest markets we’ve seen. The food selection is delicious and the stalls have the most beautiful jewellery and local Broome items.

• Camel riding on Cable Beach! This was a lovely experience. We rode with the Red Camels, who do a tour in the morning before the tide comes in for about $80pp. The guides are very friendly and let you know about each camel’s backstory as they are all rescued camels. We don’t love to give money to activities that are using animals, like aquariums etc, but rescued animals do need to continue to survive, and they are well taken care of here. It was a great experience.

THE TRAVELLER ESSENTIALS:

• Quiet roads to park on overnight. On the way to Coconut Wells, there is a great road there with nice homes away from the main roads, where you could easily pull up and have a good night’s sleep alongside the edge of that road

• Public toilets are not the neatest in Broome. We did find one however that wasn’t that awful, down at the Port. If you look up “Port Jetty Public Toilet” this at least brings you closer to a scenic view and is more secluded. This is right next to the Border Force building in the Public Parking Lot. Bring your own toilet paper and wet wipes still!

• Public toilets in the Town Centre and around Chinatown, we would recommend staying away from.

• Make use of McDonald’s, which opens around 7 am for their tidy toilets, or head to DragonFly Cafe for breakfast and use their toilet key! They open around 6 am.

• SHOWERS (for van lifers mainly). Make use of Life and Soul Gym and their great 7-day free pass! Or purchase a week pass for $65 or two weeks for about $90. Have a great place to shower that provides soap, shampoo and conditioner. As well as a straightener and hair dryer for women 🙂

• SHOWERS and Clean Toilets Option 2: There is also the Roebuck BP Truckstop which is only about 27 minutes from Broome for clean toilets and showers and friendly people serving coffee as well!

We hope you found this mini-guide useful! Hop on over to our Facebook Page if you want to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Enjoy your trip to Broome!