Fremantle: the perfect place
Sonia & Marica
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07/04/2019
Fremantle has been our home for 6 months. It’s the place where we have been working in the lovely pub ‘The Left Bank’ (East Fremantle). By the way the latter is the perfect spot for the sunset and it has many weekdays’ deals and live music on Friday and Saturday.
It is called FREO by the locals and when we visited it for the first time, in a day trip from Perth, we felt soon in love with it. We decided to move there and we found a lovely house just in the centre (paying 220$ for a double room per week). Before that we have been staying in the ‘Fremantle hostel’: 26$ for a female dorm of 6 people with breakfast included. It is a little bit expensive but this is the average here. It is a clean hostel with a big common area and kitchen. We can definitely suggest it.
Fremantle it’s just 20 minutes by train from Perth. Defined by a classic cache of Victorian and Edwardian architecture, ‘Freo’ is a port town with amazing beaches nearby (South Beach and Coogee).
So many Italians, Greeks and Croatian live here; they came during WWII and they built their family.
WHAT TO SEE IN FREO
- Fremantle Prison (different ticket options from 20$): with its 5m-high walls, the old convict-era prison still dominates Fremantle. Really interesting tour and with so many things to learn. We did a tour of 1h and a half where the guide explained to us what the convicts where doing and how they were treated.
- Fremantle Arts Centre (free): neo-Gothic building surrounded by lovely gardens, it was built by convict labourers as a lunatic asylum in the 1860s. It is a very nice place to go during the summer just for a coffee and admire exhibitions. Moreover very often, during summertime, you can find concerts and events.
- Fremantle Markets (every Friday, Saturday and Sunday) :originally opened in 1897, these markets were reopened in 1975 and today attract many crowds of people both locals and tourists. You can find many souvenirs, boomerangs, vintage clothes, jewellery and food. It is one of our favourite place in Freo.
- Op shops : second-hand shops are just everywhere in Freo. You can get crazy and do shopping all day long. Our favourite is : ‘Cheep’.
DRINKING AND ENTERTAINMENT IN FREO
Fremantle is full of welcoming cafes. Our favourite ones: Moore & Moore , The Raw Kitchen (vegan), Il Cibo and Wild Poppy.
Place where to hang out : Bathers Beach House, The National Hotel, Sail & Anchor, Little Creatures (brewery), Norfolk Hotel, Monk, Gipsy Tapas, Freo Social (newest pub in Freo), Mojo’s (North Freo) and The Left Bank (East Freo). Best Italian restaurants :Sandrino, Gino’s and La Sosta.
Place where to party all night long: Hugo’s and Newport.
As you can probably understand, we love Fremantle because it’s a perfect size town, you can ride the bicycle everywhere even to the amazing South Beach (10 min from our house). Or just catch a free bus (Blue CAT) from the train station to the beach. And then it’s so close to the city so if you need anything just grab the train and go to Perth in 20 min.
At the end it was for us the perfect place to live with lovely friends and flatmates and so hard to leave after more than 6 months; local people really made us feel like home and we will forever grateful to them!
We are glad we chose Perth for our second year because Fremantle was where we found the perfect balance between working and enjoying our free time.
P.S. If you visit Fremantle, don’t miss out the amazing Rottnest Island (SEE ARTICLE)