The historic port city of Fremantle, known to locals as “Freo”, is a vibrant cultural hub, embracing both the past and present. Old buildings, carefully restored, still stand in Fremantle along narrow streets – remnants from the days before cars.
The suburb of Joondalup in the northern suburbs of Perth is new enough to still be finding its feet, but established enough to be worth a look. As with many suburbs of Perth, its name has an aboriginal origin and the suburb is named after Lake Joondalup; curiously, nobody seems to be sure what the meaning of the word "Joondalup" actually is.
Situated only a few kilometres from central Perth in the town of Vincent, the suburb of Leederville is synonymous with the terms café and funky.
Look up cosmopolitan Perth in the dictionary and it will say “see Oxford Street, Leederville”. The suburb buzzes with cheap eateries, quirky fashion outlets, cool music and book stores, trendy cafes, and a cinema that is a quintessential Australian experience in itself. There are also plenty of bars and pubs to crawl through if that is your bent.
Situated to the west of the city centre, Claremont is one of Perth's oldest suburbs and with a superb location on the river, conveniently between the city and the coast, and directly on a railway line, it's also one of the most expensive! Fortunately it's free to visit and you can find all manner of interesting restaurants, shops and nightclubs there, as well as important Perth landmarks like the Claremont Showgrounds and Claremont Oval.
Nightlife central, arts and culture hub, international district, restaurant capital, Northbridge is all that and more.
Head north a couple minutes from the Perth CBD and enter into the vibrant lifestyle of Northbridge. Northbridge was once counted as part of the CBD, but in 1981 it became its own distinct suburb. It was named Northbridge because it is literally north of the pedestrian bridges that cross the rail tracks.
