Free and Cheap Things to Do in Perth for Students: Beaches and Parks

Perth’s best-known attractions cost nothing to walk into: the beaches, the biggest inner-city park in the world, and two of its major museums are all free, every single day. Here is what is genuinely free, what is genuinely cheap, and how to reach it without spending much on transport either.

The beaches: free every day of the year

Perth’s beaches need no ticket and no membership – Cottesloe, Scarborough and City Beach are the three most popular with students, each patrolled, each easy to reach by public transport, and each free to use for swimming, sunbathing or just watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean. Bring your own gear and there is genuinely no cost involved beyond getting there – see our Perth weather and sun safety guide before you go, since UV levels here are higher than most international students are used to.

Kings Park and Botanic Garden

Kings Park is the standout, and it costs nothing. At 400 hectares, it is one of the largest inner-city parks in the world, drawing close to 6 million visitors a year, and every part of it – the bushland trails, the Botanic Garden’s 3,000-plus varieties of WA native flora, and the lookout over the Swan River and city skyline – is free to enter. The single best free experience inside it is the Lotterywest Federation Walkway: a 620-metre path that climbs to a 52-metre elevated glass and steel bridge suspended through the eucalypt canopy, open 9am to 5pm daily, at no cost at all.

Free museums and galleries

Two of Perth’s major cultural institutions sit right next to each other at the Perth Cultural Centre, beside the main train station, and both offer free general admission with no booking required. WA Museum Boola Bardip gives free year-round access to its permanent galleries, covering WA’s natural and cultural history (special temporary exhibitions sometimes carry an extra charge). The Art Gallery of Western Australia, open Wednesday to Monday, 10am-5pm, is likewise free to enter, though a voluntary donation is welcomed on the way in.

Markets and free annual events

Fremantle Markets cost nothing to walk through – entry is free every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (the Hall runs roughly 9am-6pm on weekends, the outdoor Yard from 8am), and you only pay for what you actually buy: fresh produce, crafts, food stalls and buskers make it worth the trip even on a tight budget. Once a year, usually in March, Sculpture by the Sea transforms Cottesloe Beach into an open-air gallery of dozens of large-scale sculptures along the coastal walk – one of Australia’s most-visited free public events, and genuinely worth timing a visit around if it lines up with your semester.

Getting to all of this for less

None of this is much good if the transport costs more than the activity. Perth genuinely helps here too: public transport across the entire network is free every Sunday, and the CAT (Central Area Transit) buses that loop around the city centre are free every day of the week – useful for reaching the Perth Cultural Centre’s museums and galleries without paying a fare at all. See our Perth public transport guide for the full 2026 fare breakdown.

Bottom line

Cottesloe, Scarborough and City Beach cost nothing, Kings Park’s 400 hectares and Federation Walkway cost nothing, and the WA Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia cost nothing. Add free Sunday transport and the free CAT buses, and a genuinely full weekend in Perth is possible without spending much beyond food and a Fremantle Markets stall or two.