Wild beaches or whale tales: Which dazzling WA beach town should you choose?

But if you're heading south from Perth, which way should you turn? Do you chase Esperance's blinding-white sands and island-studded seas, or stop sooner in Albany for history, whales and food worth travelling for? Our duelling experts go head-to-head to help you decide which WA wonder deserves your next road trip.

Welcome to two WAs to go, starring a pair of standouts on our biggest state's south coast - a stretch so famously spectacular that nobody's going home disappointed.

Driving south from Perth, you could stop at Albany - about 4.5 hours away - for some admittedly lovely heritage.

Or you could follow the majestic coastline for another 500 kilometres, watching the wild beauty around you amplify and expand into a universe of blue so breathtaking it's narcotic.

I defy anyone who thinks humans or AI could ever out-design nature to traverse the 40-kilometre Great Ocean Drive loop around the little port town of Esperance and not change their mind.

Standing atop Rotary Lookout or Frenchman Peak, with the Southern Ocean all around, the Recherche Archipelago's 110 islands scattered across it like spilled gems, you're amid splendour on a scale so grand that all problems - the world's and your own - seem to shrink to the size of a plankton.

This scenery exhausts superlatives. Perhaps that's why Esperance's beaches have such basic English names: West Beach, Nine Mile Beach, Fourth Beach ... European settlers just didn't have words for what they saw.

Lucky Bay at least tells you how you'll feel when you're on its five-kilometre, sparkling swathe kissed by turquoise blue. It's officially Australia's whitest beach, an award bestowed not by marketers but scientists from the National Committee on Soil and Terrain (who certainly are smart, because they gave themselves the job of visiting all the country's lushest holiday spots, collecting sand samples). Lucky Bay is also one of the few places you can see kangaroos sunbathing on a beach without needing to worry about what was in your cocktail. Charmingly surreal, a Lucky 'roo with a view is a must for your bucket and spade list.

Blue Haven beach is exactly what it promises - a sheltered little slice of azure paradise.

Families love Twilight Bay for its perfect swimming conditions, and whoever named an idyllic vision of crystal waters and snowy sands Hellfire Beach frankly had some weird ideas about what constitutes punishment. It's stunning everywhere you look; through the inland rolling heathland of Cape Le Grand National Park, to the rainbow-hued saltwater lakes including rosy-pink Lake Hillier on Middle Island, offshore from Esperance. Right now, the bushland is about to burst into bloom with wildflowers. Take to the walking trails and you'll find yourself wandering among carpets of blazing blossoms, a technicolour fanfare to spring.

Esperance has manmade attractions, too: Australia's only fish skin tannery, where you can buy a barramundi handbag, and the world's only full-scale replica of Stonehenge. Impressive though that is, you could build a full-size Taj Mahal here, too, and the natural landscape would still steal the show. Compared to the extravaganza of Esperance, Albany's an also-ran alternative. - Amy Cooper

When I was a schoolboy in Perth in the mid-70s, my class went to Albany on a school camp. This was traumatic for two reasons: my disastrous first snog (sorry, Lee, wherever you are) and because we 12-year-olds actually saw whales hauled out of the water and butchered.

Today, whale watching has replaced whale slaughter, and from June to October, you can see them frolicking in the bays and the surrounding ocean, on a path known as "Humpback Highway".

Australia's last whaling station was decommissioned in 1978 and is now Albany's Historic Whaling Station. (It was briefly known as Whale World until the Griswold family turned up and were as disappointed as young Lee.)

A Heritage-listed site and the 2024 WA Tourist Attraction Gold Award-winner, the Whaling Station showcases artefacts and memorabilia, a spectacular shell display, the only preserved chaser ship in the world, a blue whale skeleton and intricate scrimshaw art.

Albany and its surrounds are a natural feast, even if it no longer includes cetacean sashimi.

Mother Nature shows off her architectural flair at Torndirrup National Park with the Natural Bridge rock formation and The Gap, a spectacular channel carved into the 40-metre-high coastal granite. The Southern Ocean angrily throws itself against the rocks here, and you can catch the salty spray from an overhanging lookout. In Spring, the region's palette of wildflowers bursts forth.

Overlooking King George Sound, the National Anzac Centre tells of the 40,000 Aussies and Kiwis who departed from Albany to fight in World War I. HMAS Perth II was scuttled off Seal Island in the Sound, and is now a burgeoning coral reef and dive site.

Albany is also renowned for its fabulous restaurants, with regional produce faithfully prepared at top-end diners such as Monty's Leap, Rock Salt, Liberte (Gourmet Traveller's 2024 Bar of the Year) and Kirby's Atelier de Cuisine, which does a degustation of local goodies paired with Alkoomi wines. Every Saturday, the Albany Farmers Market offers everything but an apostrophe.

The dining is good in Esperance, too, if you're a shark and like your protein served with a neoprene glaze.

Albany is a great place to visit in any weather, as the Pie and Pint counter lunch in front of the fire at the Earl of Spencer Historic Inn proves.

Esperance, on the other hand, only shows off its turquoise water and photoshopped sand when the sun is out and there is no breeze. On most days, the Esperance wind will exfoliate you as you enjoy the view.

It takes five hours to drive from Perth to Albany, and three more to get to Esperance. That's a lot more travel just to get a photo of unionised kangaroos lazing on the beach. - Mal Chenu