Where to stay in Perth: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Perth's centre is a compact grid between the railway and the river, and it has loosened up a lot in recent years. The pedestrian malls of Hay Street and Murray Street carry the shops; the laneways between them hide small bars and coffee windows; and handsome gold-rush buildings from the 1890s stand between the mining company towers.

The best hotel in town occupies the restored nineteenth-century State Buildings, all high ceilings and quiet luxury. Others worth knowing include a heritage hotel reborn with contemporary rooms, and modern five-stars on Hay Street with city views. The free CAT buses loop around the centre, and the arena, the convention centre and the river are all a short walk. For two or three nights without a car, stay here.

Elizabeth Quay is where the city finally reached the Swan River: an inlet ringed with promenades, a spiralling footbridge and the wharves for river cruises and the ferry to Rottnest Island. Hotels here look straight over the water to the South Perth shore, with the skyline at their backs.

Follow the river east and the green expanse of Langley Park leads to East Perth, a calmer, residential stretch where several large hotels and apartment towers enjoy wide river views. Claisebrook Cove, a little inlet lined with cafés and bars, is the local hangout, and Optus Stadium is within walking distance across the footbridge. You trade a slightly longer walk into the centre for space, light and a view.

Cross the railway from the CBD and you are in Northbridge, Perth's eating and drinking quarter. The streets are dense with Asian restaurants, pubs, rooftop bars and clubs, and the cultural precinct at its southern edge holds the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the state museum and the State Theatre Centre. Yagan Square and the arena are just over the tracks.

It is noisy at weekends, which is rather the point. Stay in the middle of it for a night out you can walk home from, or a few streets north around Hyde Park and Highgate, where things turn leafy and residential and you will find small hotels and a five-star bed and breakfast. Not one for early nights or pushchairs.

Kings Park is Perth's pride: a huge sweep of bushland and botanic garden on a bluff above the river, with a lookout on Fraser Avenue that delivers the classic view of the skyline and the Swan. West Perth, the quiet district of offices and terraces beside it, and Subiaco, the café-lined suburb just beyond, make calm and well-priced places to stay.

Hotels include a rooftop-pool newcomer in Subiaco with views back to the city, and apartments opposite the river at the foot of the park with pools and tennis courts. The centre is a few minutes away by bus or train, or a pleasant walk downhill. It suits anyone who wants a morning run under the gum trees more than a bar downstairs.

On the far bank of the river, Burswood is home to the Crown complex, a self-contained resort of hotels, restaurants, a casino and a sprawling pool area, looking back across the water to the city towers. Optus Stadium is next door, so it fills up for big matches and concerts. The city centre is about five minutes by car and the airport around fifteen.

Further along the shore, South Perth is a leafy riverside suburb with the zoo, a foreshore park and apartment hotels overlooking the Swan. Both make sense if you want resort facilities or more space, and do not mind a short ride or ferry into town.

Perth's beaches face due west, and Scarborough is the liveliest of them: a long, broad strand of pale sand with reliable surf, a redeveloped foreshore with a pool, cafés and bars, and sunsets that stop conversations. The big beachfront hotel here has ocean-view balconies and is about 15 minutes from the CBD and 30 from the airport.

The coast continues north as the Sunset Coast. Sorrento has a beach resort that suits couples and families alike, about 20 minutes' drive from the city, and Hillarys Boat Harbour adds sheltered swimming, a dining precinct and a ferry to Rottnest Island. Choose the coast if the beach is the holiday. If you want museums and bars as well, stay central and take the bus out.

Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan about 20 minutes' drive from central Perth, feels like a different town because it is one. Freo, as everyone calls it, is a nineteenth-century port preserved almost whole: limestone warehouses, wrought-iron verandas, a convict-built prison and a weekend market that has been trading for more than a century. Add the fishing boat harbour, the craft breweries and the cappuccino strip, and you have the most characterful place to stay in the region.

Hotels fit the setting. The grand old Esplanade overlooks its namesake park near the harbour; a boutique hotel occupies a row of old warders' cottages by the market; and there are serviced apartments in the historic West End. Beaches and the Rottnest ferry are close at hand. The airport is about 30 minutes away.

Mandurah is a seaside town around a vast estuary, 45 to 50 minutes' drive south of Perth. Life here revolves around the water: a marina and boardwalk lined with restaurants at Dolphin Quay, canals threading between the houses, sheltered swimming beaches and dolphins that are regularly seen in the estuary.

It is firmly self-catering territory, with beachfront apartments overlooking Comet Bay, waterfront hotels with balconies over the canals and a family resort with indoor and outdoor pools a short walk from Silver Sands Beach. Families and anyone after a slow few days by the sea will be happy. Night owls will not.