Best Things to Do in Margaret River: Wine, World-Class Surf, Caves and Coast

Tasting your way along the cellar doors is the experience most people come to Margaret River for, and it lives up to it. Around 200 wineries sit within an easy drive, the densest cluster strung along Caves Road through the Wilyabrup and Cowaramup sub-regions, and the standard ranges from architectural flagships with acclaimed restaurants to small family rooms where the winemaker pours. The region’s strengths are Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay above all, with strong Sauvignon Blanc–Semillon blends alongside.

The trick is restraint: pick four or five cellar doors rather than ten, book a long lunch at one, and space them out so the day doesn’t blur. It suits couples, friends and serious wine lovers most, but plenty of cellar doors are relaxed and family-friendly too. The one non-negotiable is the driving — if you want to taste properly, book a designated-driver tour or nominate a non-drinker, because the spots are too far apart to walk and WA drink-driving enforcement is strict.

Surfers Point at Prevelly — known to surfers as Main Break — is the region’s headline wave and the home of the WSL Margaret River Pro each April, when the world’s best compete on a powerful left-and-right reef break with the notorious slab called The Box close by. Even if you never paddle out, the viewing deck above the point is one of the best free spectacles in the region, especially on a big Indian Ocean swell when the sets stack to the horizon.

For surfers, this is serious, heavy water over reef — not a place to learn. Experienced surfers will find it among the best waves in the country; everyone else should come to watch from the deck and then learn somewhere gentler, as the region’s surf schools run beginner lessons on more forgiving beaches. The walk down to the rivermouth at Prevelly is worth doing regardless, and the sunsets here are exceptional.

Beneath the ridge that runs between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin lies a system of limestone caves formed long before the first vines, and several are open to visit. Mammoth Cave is the easiest to do independently — a self-guided boardwalk through huge chambers with an audio guide, and partly accessible for limited mobility. Lake Cave descends to a still underground pool beneath a suspended ‘table’ of rock and is seen on a guided tour, while Jewel Cave near Augusta is the largest show cave and Ngilgi at Yallingup carries deep Wadandi cultural significance.

The caves are the region’s best all-weather card — cool and dry whatever the sky is doing, which makes them the obvious move on a hot or wet afternoon. They suit families, couples and anyone curious about the geology under the wine country. One cave is usually enough for most visitors; choose Mammoth for self-paced ease, Lake for the underground pool and a guide, Jewel for scale.

The Cape-to-Cape Track runs roughly 135 kilometres along the coast between the Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin lighthouses, taking in clifftops, headlands, long beaches and pockets of forest. Few people walk the whole thing — most do it as day sections, and that’s where the value is for a normal trip. Short, spectacular stretches near each cape, around Wilyabrup’s sea cliffs, or down from Prevelly give you the best of it in a couple of hours.

It suits walkers of most abilities provided you pick the right section — some are gentle clifftop strolls, others involve soft sand and rock-hopping. Spring brings wildflowers along the track and winter and spring bring whales offshore, so a coastal walk often doubles as wildlife watching. Carry water, sun protection and a charged phone, check the tides for any beach sections, and tell someone your plan if you’re heading out alone.

Margaret River’s craft-beer, cider and distillery scene is every bit as serious as the wine and a lot more relaxed about it. Forest beer gardens and brewery taprooms are scattered through the hinterland — the natural place to land in the afternoon after a morning of cellar doors, usually with a kitchen, plenty of space and a far more casual feel than a tasting room.

This is the part of the day that suits everyone — families with kids who can run around the garden, designated drivers who’d rather a cider than another red, and groups after a relaxed late lunch. Many of the breweries sit in genuine bush settings, so you’re drinking among the trees rather than in a town. Most are open daily; on weekends and holidays the popular ones fill up, so arrive early for a table or call ahead for larger groups.

Hamelin Bay, in the south of the region, is a wide arc of white sand and clear water best known for the wild stingrays that cruise the shallows by the boat ramp. Smooth and eagle rays come in close to the beach, gliding past ankle-deep visitors as they forage — one of the most reliable and genuinely memorable wildlife encounters in the South West, and it costs nothing.

It’s a standout for families and a magnet for photographers, and the beach itself is beautiful enough to justify the trip even on a quiet ray day. A few sensible rules apply: don’t feed or chase the rays, keep your feet shuffling and movements calm, and watch small children closely, as these are large wild animals with a barb. Mornings tend to be calmer and quieter. Pair it with the short detour to nearby Boranup Forest on the way.

A few kilometres from the surf coast, the Boranup Karri Forest is the region’s quiet surprise — a stand of pale, towering karri trees, some over 60 metres tall, that you drive through on the unsealed Boranup Drive off Caves Road. The light through the trunks in the early morning is the reason photographers set an alarm for it, and standing among trees this size feels like another climate entirely from the beach nearby.

There’s a lookout over the forest canopy to the coast, short walking loops if you want to stretch the legs, and a section of the Cape-to-Cape Track that passes through. It suits everyone — an easy, free, low-effort highlight that slots neatly between Hamelin Bay and the township. The drive is gravel but generally fine for a normal car in dry conditions; take it slowly, watch for oncoming traffic on the narrow sections, and check conditions after heavy rain.

At the southern tip of the region, near Augusta, Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse marks the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet — the most south-westerly point of mainland Australia and the tallest lighthouse on the mainland. The setting is genuinely dramatic: a windswept headland, churning seas, and on a wild winter day some of the biggest weather the coast throws up.

You can visit the grounds and the historic precinct, climb the tower on a guided tour for views along the coast, and watch for whales offshore in season — Augusta’s whale window runs roughly May to August. It’s a fair drive south from the township, so most people pair it with the southern beaches, Jewel Cave or a southern Cape-to-Cape section to make a half-day of it. The grounds and water-wheel are worth the stop even if you don’t climb.

The Saturday-morning farmers market in the township is the best single window into what the region actually grows and makes — fresh produce, cheese, bread, smallgoods, honey, flowers and prepared food, sold by the people who produced it. It’s a genuinely local affair rather than a tourist setpiece, and it’s become a fixture of a Margaret River weekend for visitors and residents alike.

Go early, take cash and a bag, grab a coffee and breakfast from the stalls, and stock up for a self-catered lunch or a picnic to take to a beach or the forest. It suits everyone — families, couples, self-caterers and anyone who likes to eat where the food comes from. As an outdoor weekly market the exact day and hours can shift around holidays, so confirm the current schedule before you build a Saturday around it.

Beyond the wine, Margaret River is dense with food producers you can visit directly, and stringing a few together makes a relaxed, free (or cheap) half-day. The Margaret River Chocolate Company is the crowd-pleaser — free tastings and a viewing window onto the kitchen — and around it sit a cheese company, a venison and a dairy producer, olive growers and providores, most with samples on the counter.

It’s the easiest thing in the region to do with kids and the natural fallback when the weather turns, since most of it is indoors or under cover. It also makes a sober alternative to the cellar doors for non-drinkers and designated drivers. Many of the producers are free to visit with tastings; you’ll spend on what you take home rather than on entry. Check individual opening hours, as the smaller producers keep shorter and seasonal times.