Hunting for a clean, comfortable and nice accommodation is always time-consuming in a vacation planning process. It might be because we are similar to other travelers who always want the best yet cheapest deal!
Usually, we tend to stay in hotels or hostels during our vacations. But, for Perth or perhaps the entire Australia, you might get a better deals staying in Airbnb instead of hotels since the former have kitchen facilities for you to cook yourselves (dining outside is quite expensive). It can’t be denied that some hostels in Perth have very good deal too. Eventually, it all comes to your own preference with concerns about the budget, facility, number of persons, convenience, etc.
For this blog post, we will mainly be sharing about our experiences and feedback about our 1 night stay in Margaret River’s Riverview Tourist Park and 5 nights stay in an Airbnb apartment in Maylands, Perth. Before going into the details, perhaps you would like to know what made us decide on these selections. First and foremost, we have never considered staying in hotels due to its price which we felt is too expensive. Secondly, dining outside in Australia is quite costly as it can easily range between AUD17-20 per meal without any drinks. With this in mind, we figured that cooking by ourselves could reduce our travelling cost by a lot and the money saved can be used to buy more souvenirs or visit more attractions. Hence, we ended up with Airbnb and hostels as our only options and decided to go for Airbnb in the end. The drawback for hostels is probably the shared bathrooms which might not be convenient for older folks.
#1 Riverview Tourist Park in Margaret River, Perth
The reason for booking this is due to our great experience of staying in a cabin in Tromsø, Norway back in 2017. It provided us the confidence to book something similar again in order to get close to the nature yet comes with a cozy, comfortable and nice environment equipped with basic facilities at an affordable price.
The cabin comes with basic cooking utensils and cutlery for 3 persons. You wouldn't have any problem if you decided to cook a simple meal.
The cabin isn’t very large but it is sufficient for 3 persons. Anyhow, we only stayed for one night so it didn’t really concern us much.
Most importantly, the room, beds and floor are clean and in good condition as well. We certainly didn’t have any complains about the cabin’s cleanliness and comfort.
As for the bathroom which we are quite particular with, we didn’t have any problem with its cleanliness but we have something to highlight about the shower cubicle. It might be due to some stuck pipes as the water in the cubicle flowed out quite slowly. It took us some time waiting for the water to completely flowed out before the next person can take his/her shower.
Other than the shower cubicle, everything was fine. We were even provided with towels and soaps.
If you are worry about the parking, rest assured as every cabin comes with its own parking spot just beside it. The reception area is also opened until 7.00pm daily if you need any help.
In short, Riverview Tourist Park is a good place to stay and we could really enjoy the nature here. We enjoyed staring at the wonderful starry sky accompanied with Voyager Estate’s grape juice from the cabin’s veranda and greeted by ducks early in the morning before heading towards Margaret River Farmers Market. It is definitely a peaceful and nice place to stay at. The location of this place is relatively close to three supermarkets and the busiest street of Margaret River is just less than 5 minutes of driving distance away.
Riverview Tourist Park
Address: 8 Willmott Ave Margaret River 6285
Website: http://www.riverviewtouristpark.com/
#2 Apartment in Maylands, Perth
We spent a lot of time screening through the many apartment options available in Airbnb website. In the screening process, the apartment should meet our requirements and have decent pictures of the unit and its surroundings before we proceed to read through the reviews by other guests. Of course, the quantity and quality of reviews, positive feedback and price will play important roles in deciding our accommodation choice.
We finally chose to stay here after communicating with the host via email clarifying on things that concerned us. Our host, Chris, is definitely one the best hosts that we have ever dealt with. He was very helpful and responded promptly to all of our emails before and after we made the booking with him. He even sent us a very detailed house manual as well as a copy of Perth’s travel guide by Lonely Planet right after we made the booking. Such a warm, helpful and fantastic host!
If you have the experience of booking an accommodation online, you may know that it is very common to find that the photos that you see while booking online is very different from what you see when you check in the accommodation. Chris’s apartment did not disappoint us at all! The moment we stepped into the apartment, everything that was captured by our eyes is exactly the same as what was pictured in Airbnb.
Let’s start the house tour (by words of course)!
Starting with the kitchen which is a nice and modern design but most importantly, it is well-equipped with everything you need. Just name it and you could easily find any kitchen tools that you need. You can even find baking tools which we didn’t expect at all in the apartment.
Chris even provided us with seasonings, herbs, cooking oil, etc. We were so happy to have these because it obviously helped to save some money. If we were to buy these cooking necessities, we would definitely ended up with leaving them in Perth or having the trouble to bring these opened ingredients back to Malaysia. Chris is definitely a very good, warm and caring host!
Upon opening the refrigerator, we also found a carton of full cream milk and some cooking sauces (pasta sauce, oyster sauce, etc.) which we believed were left by previous guests. Chris informed us that we are free to use anything that we found.
Next, the bedrooms which are very important since we will be staying for 5 nights.
Both the bedrooms were very clean, cozy and comfortable that they provided us with a sense of home feeling. You may notice that the host actually folded the towels nicely to welcome his guests and even place a chocolate bar in the basket as a welcoming gift. Words just couldn’t express how grateful we felt towards our host for such a warm welcome!
The master bedroom is quite spacious and you might be surprised with what you can find in the wardrobe. As for the other bedroom, it only comes with drawers as it didn’t have any wardrobe in it.
The items that you can find in the wardrobe include an ironing board, stuffs to shower a baby, a baby high chair and a box of baby toys! Seriously, Chris certainly put a lot of consideration in making his guests comfortable no matter if you are single, married or a family with kids. For those guests with kids, you may choose to bring fewer toys since the apartment has some and they are in good conditions. We will suggest those with kids to contact the host to know what items are available or provided so that you can bring less stuffs leaving more space for souvenirs. Haha.
Let’s move on to the next part of the apartment, a study table next to the kitchen area.
The spacious, modern and cozy living area.
You can even kill your boredom with the board games provided by the host!
The bathroom cleanliness is always our concern. Well, the bathroom was clean and is stocked with everything that you need with exception of toothpastes. We didn’t have any issues with the bathroom especially the water pressure, temperature, flow, etc.
Just outside the bathroom, you will find a laundry area which consists of a basin, a washing machine and a dryer. Well, Chris even provided us with laundry detergent to wash our clothes. It was a blessing getting such a good host during our Perth vacation.
Lastly, there is also a nice balcony for you to hang out in the day or even at night! Definitely a good place to have some drinks and small bites before going to bed.
Chris is so caring that he even prepared a hardcopy of the house manual with detailed steps guiding the guests on using the house appliances, throwing the rubbish, etc. We also found some takeaway menus of nearby restaurants, bus schedules and brochures of Perth attractions!
Besides describing how good the apartment is, we would also like to share about its location. Basically, the apartment is located approximately 7 minutes of walking distance from Maylands Railway Station. It is also surrounded by many eateries of different cuisines (Western, Asian, Mediterranean, etc.) and even fast foods. Also, there are two supermarkets nearby namely Coles and IGA for you to get your weekly groceries (IGA closes at 9.00pm everyday while Coles closes at 5.00pm in the weekends). If you are worried about the safety at night, we can assure you that there is nothing to worry about. There were a few nights that we came back at around 8.00–9.00pm and it felt safe!
If you are driving, cars aren’t allowed at the apartment’s parking spots but Chris will show you the nearest available free parking which is just about 3-5 minutes of walking distance away. There are plenty of parking spaces available there.
Finally, we would like to sincerely express our gratitude to Chris for the invaluable services and comfortable stay! Thumbs up for the apartment and services which are worth more than its price!
Café Strip Apartment near the Perth CBD
Location: Maylands, Perth, Australia
Kindly use my referral code for any Airbnb booking to get MYR120 of travel credit when you sign up. www.airbnb.com/c/jchee10
Notes:
1. You may notice that the price of accommodation is little high as we made the booking quite early when the currency exchange didn’t favor us. AUD1 = MYR3.30-3.40. Else, the price is actually quite reasonable.
2. Maylands is within Zone 1 of Perth’s transportation map. If your itinerary is focused in the city and you would like to reduce the travelling cost, we would suggest staying at the hostels in the city as the return fare from the city to Maylands is approximately AUD6.20. There are free shuttle buses in the city called CAT bus.
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