Western Australia

With over 3,000 hours of sunshine every year, Perth, Western Australia, is the country's sunniest city. But Western Australia tourism stretches far beyond the state capital – go swimming with whale sharks on Ningaloo Reef, visit the unique Bungle Bungle Range, or catch a camel ride on Cable Beach. And if all that sightseeing has left your stomach rumbling, then visit Margaret River and find out why it is one of the nation's premier food and drink regions.

There are lots of Western Australia tours to choose from for the bigger attractions, but for a more low-key pastime take in a film at Sun Pictures, Broome, reputedly the oldest outdoor cinema in the world. The Antony Gormley Sculptures on Lake Ballard are also a visual treat set across 10 square kilometres of white salt plains.

Many of the top restaurants in Western Australia can be found in and around Margaret River, where you will also find 120 wineries. Meanwhile, further north, Swan Valley is Western Australia's oldest wine region and is now a gourmet paradise. You can eat dinner in a scenic vineyard, tour a produce farm, or visit one of the growing number of distilleries or microbreweries.

One of Western Australia's biggest appeals is the sheer remoteness of it all, so why not wallow in the emptiness a while with a stay at a wilderness lodge near Kimberley, which has fewer people per square kilometre than almost any other place on Earth? For a more grandiose feel to your Western Australia accommodation, there are lots of heritage buildings in Kalgoorlie and Goldfields in Australia's Golden Outback.

For the best in Western Australia shopping you must visit Perth, which has a mix of major stores and independents as well as the popular Perth Markets. The nearby 19th Century seaport of Fremantle – the best preserved city of its kind in the world – is also a surprisingly good place to shop, with boutiques, art galleries and niche stores all vying for trade.

Western Australia is the setting for one of nature's greatest spectacles – the Staircase to the Moon. This natural phenomenon occurs three nights per month between March and October when the full moon rises over the low tide of Roebuck Bay creating the illusion of a staircase climbing to the moon.