There’s a good reason why Lucky Bay in Esperance really does live up to its hype. If you’re looking for information about visiting the famous beach, wanting to know what to expect when staying at Lucky Bay campground, you’ve come to the right page.
Having visited the pristine Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park recently, I’m sharing my personal experience to help you plan your trip. You might like to know about more of the best beaches in Western Australia as well.
1. Where is Lucky Bay?
Lucky Bay Beach is located in the jaw-dropping Cape Le Grand National Park, which is a 50 minute drive south of the small town of Esperance in the South West of Western Australia. It’s an eight hour drive inland to Perth via Wave Rock, or a 12h30m drive if you’re heading along the coast from Perth via Margaret River, Denmark and Albany (highly recommend).
If you’re thinking about staying in Lucky Bay Campground, do it because Esperance itself isn’t exactly a great town. It’s the type of place van trippers load up at Woolworths (there’s no Coles here) to get supplies before heading to the national park.
2. Is Lucky Bay Beach really that good?
Known as the world’s best beach in 2023, Lucky Bay beach really is exceptional. On our way there, as soon as we saw the beach, we both just stopped in our tracks.
Having been to over 110 countries between us and seen most of Australia, this beach really does blow you away. Like it’s that incredible, we had to pinch ourselves that we had finally made it to THE top beach which is supposedly Australia’s whitest beach.
3. Seeing kangaroos on the beach isn’t as easy as you might think
Now, if you’re like us and you’re expecting to see a lot of Lucky Bay’s inquisitive kangaroos bopping around on the beach, you’d be wrong. We saw a couple by our Star RV van, but that was it.
When we did an incredible scenic flight with Fly Esperance over Cape Le Grand National Park and the rainbow pink lakes (FYI the bubblegum pink Lake Hillier is no long pink), our pilot told us he had been living in the region for seven months and had only see kangaroos on the beach a couple of times. Turns out it’s not as easy to spot them like you would see at Cape Hillsborough on the East Coast of you’re looking for a wildlife encounter.
4. Visit at sunrise
When we arrived at Lucky Bay, one of our neighbours told us to get up for sunrise because it is spectacular. Turns out he was right. There was just us and one other couple on the beach that morning to see the sky turn pink. Trust us on this one, you won’t regret it.
In terms of seeing the sunset, you’re best to watch it from Hellfire Bay instead, which is a stunning beach in itself.
5. Seaweed on the beach
It did surprise us the amount of seaweed on the beach, but if you walk to the far East end of it, the sand will be clear of it.
6. You can drive onto Lucky Bay Beach
I was surprised that you can in fact drive onto Lucky Bay Beach if you want to. The beach is so big that it shouldn’t affect your experience and to be honest, when we visited in May, there was hardly anyone around. I have head in Summer it gets busy though.
7. No phone reception
If you’re staying at Lucky Bay Beach, please note there isn’t any phone reception. We got a little bit at Thistle Cove but we had a Star Link with us so we could get reception from our van if needed. To be honest, your best bet is to enjoy the insane scenery, sit out at nighttime and enjoy the spectacular star show.
8. Staying at the campground
Now, a few people told us that you have to pre-book the campsite, but we were lucky and booked a few days before we arrived. We learnt very fast that people tend pre-book campsites months in advance and not turn up. When we visited, there were still a few spots free. There are camping fees you need to pay online, which also include the national parks fee, but you can book a 14 or 28 day pass if you’re visiting other national parks (we paid for a 28 day pass at The Gap car park in Albany).
If you can’t get in, we heard the Duke of Orleans Bay campground is the place to go. Here you’ll find Wharton Beach which we were told is the locals favourite beach for having apparently whiter sand and bluer water.
If you are staying at Lucky Bay, here are a few things to know, other than that you don’t need a four wheel drive vehicle to get to this beautiful beach on the South Coast. Lucky Bay Road is a sealed road so you’ll have no problems.
No drinking water, food or power
You’ll need to bring everything with you and even leave the national park with your own rubbish too as there are no bins here. Don’t rely on Woolies in Esperance to get water as they only had plastic bottles left when we arrived.
There is a kitchen onsite but bring head torches as it will literally be pitch black if you’re cooking at night time.
There are showers and toilets at Lucky Bay
There are showers and toilets here and to be honest, they are super clean. I heard that the showers run off solar power so if you’re visiting on a grey day, you may end up having a cold shower.
9. How long to spend at Lucky Bay campground
We only booked two nights but we could have stayed for at least four days. To be honest, we would have stayed a week if we had time. This is such an exceptional part of Australia, you honestly won’t regret coming here.
10. Other places to visit nearby
The hiking tracks connect from Lucky Bay are in abundance! One of the most popular bushwalking trails is the walk to Thistle Cove is the most popular. It only takes 30 minutes to walk to and is beautiful. If you’re feeling more adventurous, do the Frenchmans Peak hike.
For beaches in the surrounding cape, head to Thistle Cove and Hellfire Bay which both have a beautiful sheltered bay. If you can be bothered to drive another 50 minutes, head over to Wharton Beach which we saw from the air and it looked amazing. You’ll walk around realising that you’ve just seen the most picture perfect beaches in the world.
Tips for visiting Lucky Bay
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