Australia Independent Travel | Day Trips from Perth | The Pinnacles Sunset & Stargazing Tour | Sandboarding at Lancelin | Lumineer Adventure Tours
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| The Pinnacles |
The Pinnacles is one of the most famous attractions in the countryside around Perth. It's only about a two-hour drive from downtown Perth, which isn't far at all, and the nearby sandboarding at Lancelin is another very popular experience. It's perfect to visit both spots in a single day, either by self-driving or by joining a local tour.
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| Lancelin Sand Dunes |
🗺 The Pinnacles Sunset & Stargazing Tour
Since we weren't planning to drive ourselves on this trip, we decided to join local tours for all the out-of-town excursions. We originally booked a three-day, two-night Pink Lake tour, but three days beforehand we were told it had been cancelled due to insufficient numbers, so at the last minute we searched KKday for tours related to The Pinnacles and Lancelin.
There are quite a few different packages covering The Pinnacles and Lancelin — presumably combinations offered by different local tour companies. Aside from these two spots, most of them also include a visit to a lobster factory to sample lobster. In the end, though, we chose this tour, which lets you watch the sunset and go stargazing at The Pinnacles, since even with your own car it would be hard to get a chance to stargaze in the desert.
Booking is quite easy too: once you've booked and paid on KKday or Klook, the day before departure you'll receive a notification email from the local travel agency telling you what time and where to meet. This time the local operator was Lumineer Adventure Tours. As long as you're staying at a hotel in downtown Perth, they'll come pick you up at the door — just wait outside at the appointed time.
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| The Lumineer Adventure Tours pickup schedule only arrives the day before departure |
On the day of departure we waited outside the hotel for a while before the Lumineer Adventure Tours vehicle finally showed up — a mid-sized van (?) seating roughly 10–15 people. It made a few loops around downtown Perth, and once everyone had been picked up, the day's itinerary began!
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| The Lumineer Adventure Tours van |
This tour only covers Lancelin and The Pinnacles, with the highlight being dinner and stargazing in the desert at The Pinnacles. It's about an hour and a half's drive from downtown Perth to Lancelin, and once you arrive in Lancelin everyone gets a short break in town for the restroom & to buy something to eat (if needed). But this little town is really quiet — hardly a soul around and nothing much to browse.
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| Lancelin |
🏝️ Lancelin Sand Dunes
Lancelin Sand Dunes
- Address: Beacon Rd, Lancelin WA 6044
- Opening hours: 24hr
The Lancelin sand dunes are the largest in Western Australia — vast and pure white. Because they sit right next to the Indian Ocean, waves and wind carry the sand inland, where it gradually piles up into these dune formations.
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| Pure white fine sand mixed with shell fragments |
Our tour had several sandboards ready in the van; if you come on your own, there are also shops nearby that rent sandboards.
How do you sandboard? Walk to the top and ride the board down 🤣
It's a lot of fun, and you pick up a fair bit of speed on the way down. Tilt off balance and you'll usually wipe out, but since it's fine sand you won't really get hurt — you'll just end up covered in sand. That said, the dunes are quite tall and steep, so hauling the board back up to the top is pretty exhausting, which is why most people only do it 2–3 times just for the experience.
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Lancelin Sand Dunes |
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great at first. It wasn't raining when we reached the Lancelin dunes, but the sky was completely dark and overcast, so we didn't get to see the gorgeous scene of blue skies over white dunes.
There was also a little incident before we left: our van actually got stuck in a sand pit! Everyone had to get out and push, and it took some effort to get free — another fun experience in its own right.
⛰️ The Pinnacles
After leaving the Lancelin dunes, it's roughly another hour's drive to reach The Pinnacles, located within Nambung National Park. The Pinnacles is one of Western Australia's most famous geological landmarks — thousands upon thousands of limestone spires rising from the desert, making you feel as though you've landed on another planet. This vast, serene wonder is truly worth experiencing in person.
Nambung National Park
- Address: Nambung WA 6521
- Opening hours: 24hr
It's worth mentioning that on the road from the Lancelin dunes to The Pinnacles we got hit by fairly heavy rain, though it stopped before long, leaving small puddles on the road. As we approached Nambung National Park, lots of wild kangaroos came out onto the road to drink — we spotted at least 20 wild kangaroos along the way!
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| They hop back into the bushes as the van gets close |
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| A wild kangaroo right beside the van |
The driver first stops everyone at the restrooms near the visitor centre, because once you head into the desert there are no toilets — right through until after dinner.
The Pinnacles are part of Nambung National Park. Thousands upon thousands of limestone pillars rise from the desert, looking like oddly shaped stalagmites — some people call it the "strange rock formation." Against this vast expanse of desert, the scenery is truly magnificent and otherworldly.
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The sand here is mixed with tiny shell fragments |
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| Looking out over the desert from the viewing platform |
The biggest advantage of this tour is that you get to see The Pinnacles at three different times of day. We arrived around six o'clock, when the sky was still bright, and then came the sunset — watching the sun go down over The Pinnacles is absolutely stunning, with the whole desert dyed orange-red, a completely different mood from the bright scenery earlier.
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| Waiting for the sunset |
🍽️ Dinner in the Desert
This tour ran with two vehicles in total, and the tour leaders/drivers then started preparing everyone's dinner — mainly some salads and light bites, plus freshly grilled hot dogs in buns, paired with red and white wine!
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| They bring their own gas canisters and grill for freshly cooked hot dogs |
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| A simple yet generous dinner |
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| Help-yourself red and white wine and soft drinks |
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| Help yourself, buffet style |
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| Dinner! |
Besides dinner, the tour also sets out chairs so you can sit and enjoy the sunset and, later, the star-filled night sky. Everyone helps themselves to the food and dines in the desert with the sunset as a backdrop. The meal itself is simple, but eating in a setting like this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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| Slowly welcoming the sunset |
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| Taking in the view with a glass of red wine in the quiet desert |
🌌 Stargazing in the Desert
Next comes the real highlight of the day: "stargazing in the desert"! The tour brought two astronomical telescopes and set them up right there in the desert so everyone could actually observe the stars, and they also handed out small binoculars for everyone to use.
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| A sky full of stars with zero light pollution |
Out here in the desert there really is absolutely no light pollution, and you can see a sky brimming with stars. The drivers-cum-guides start introducing celestial objects and various constellations, pointing out directions so you can understand which constellations are which along with some of their stories. Honestly though, it's a serious English listening test — all sorts of astronomical jargon combined with the guides' thick Australian accents meant I only half-understood, and suddenly felt like my English had reset to zero 😅. But even if you can't follow it all, you can still soak up the environment and the beauty with your own senses.
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| A shot taken with a long exposure |
We stayed here until around nine at night before heading back to downtown Perth, finally arriving back in the city around 11:30 pm, wrapping up the day's itinerary.
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| The road out of the desert on the way back is pitch dark |
This Pinnacles sunset and stargazing tour wasn't originally in our plans — we only picked it at the last minute because the Pink Lake tour was cancelled. But it turned out to be the most memorable and most highly recommended part of our entire Australia trip: the beautiful desert scenery, the sunset, the star-filled sky, and our first-ever dinner and stargazing experience in a desert all left a deep impression.
Also, this was probably the day we used the most English. When we first got on the van, I happened to sit right up front next to the driver, and he chatted with me the whole way — that thick Australian accent was really tough at first... and once you add astronomical jargon during the stargazing, it became completely incomprehensible 🤪. The other people on this tour were all very friendly and happy to strike up conversations, which felt quite different from the two tours we joined earlier in Melbourne.
In conclusion, this tour comes highly recommended. If you're visiting Perth and want to see The Pinnacles, why not go for a more in-depth Pinnacles experience!
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