Which tour wins?

Which Pinnacles Desert tour is best?

The sunset and stargazing tour for most people. It is the cheapest day apart from one, reaches the pillars at the best hour, and adds dinner and a telescope.

Here are all eight, sorted by when they reach the park:

Which tours go to the Pinnacles at sunset?

Two: the sunset and stargazing tour with a picnic dinner, and the sunset tour with a pub dinner in Cervantes. Both leave Perth later in the day and shift their times with the seasons.

The Autopia sunset tour meets outside the Criterion Hotel on Hay Street and heads up the coast via Guilderton Lookout, Lancelin and Hangover Bay. At the park the listing has a guided walk, then dinner with sparkling wine, a telescope and Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. The pub dinner tour stops at Yanchep for koalas, reaches the park in the late afternoon, drives into Cervantes for dinner after dark and then returns to the pillars for the stars. The listing puts you back in Perth around 11pm.

The difference in one line: picnic under the sky, or a table in a pub. The pub tour is the one listed as wheelchair accessible. The sunset tour isn't suitable for wheelchair users or children under 6.

Which tour has the most activities?

The koalas, 4WD and sandboarding day. Caversham Wildlife Park, fish and chips in Cervantes, the Pinnacles walk and about 45 minutes in a 4WD truck on the Lancelin dunes, in 11.5 hours.

This Australian Pinnacle Tours day is the long one. Caversham means koalas, wombats and hand-feeding kangaroos. The 4WD truck is custom-built and the listing says the dunes part always runs in it, even if the rest of the day goes by coach. The 4WD part isn't suitable for pregnant travellers or anyone with back problems.

The sand dunes adventure is the small-group version: Yanchep, an hour at the Pinnacles, lunch at the Lobster Shack with half a lobster and a factory tour, then an hour of sandboarding at Lancelin. A fly net is on the list of inclusions, which says something about the season.

Koalas, kangaroo feeding, fish and chips, the pillars and a 4WD truck over the Lancelin dunes, all in one long day.

★ 4.7 · 11.5 hours · from $187

Explore the koalas, 4WD and sandboarding day → Tour details

What is the cheapest Pinnacles tour from Perth?

The lobster tour, from $121. It includes park entry, morning tea at Yanchep and Lake Thetis, but lunch at the Lobster Shack is at your own cost.

Wildlife Tours Australia's day leaves the Criterion Hotel at 9:30am and returns around 7pm. It is the only tour here with a stop at Lake Thetis and a visit to the Discovery Centre. Add the cost of lunch before you compare it with the $139 sunset tour, which feeds you.

Which tours include lunch and park entry?

Four day tours include lunch: two with fish and chips and two at the Lobster Shack. The two sunset tours serve dinner instead. Park entry is listed as included on all but the pub dinner tour, whose listing doesn't itemise it.

• Fish and chips in Cervantes: koalas and 4WD, and Yanchep and Swan Valley.
• Lobster Shack lunch: the wine day, with optional lobster upgrades booked 48 hours ahead, and the dunes day, with half a lobster.
• Dinner: a picnic on the sunset tour, a pub meal on the pub tour.
• Not included: lunch on the lobster tour, and all meals on the three-day trip.

Driving yourself, the park fee is A$17 per car. Every tour price covers far more than that, mainly the driving.

Are there small-group Pinnacles tours?

Yes. Both WA NT Tours days, the wine day and the dunes adventure, cap the group at 12 and need at least 2 to run. The others use mini-coaches or coaches.

The Swan Valley wine day picks up in Perth City, Fremantle or Scarborough, stops at Yanchep for photos, visits the Pinnacles before lunch, eats at the Lobster Shack and ends with a tasting at Lancaster Wines. Tasting is for over-18s and the tour isn't suitable for children under 4. If the minimum of two isn't met, the listing promises a full refund.

Where do Pinnacles tours pick up?

Mostly central Perth. Two meet at the Criterion Hotel on Hay Street, two collect from CBD and Northbridge hotels, and the WA NT Tours days also cover Fremantle.

Departure times on the sunset tours change through the year. Check the confirmation the day before.

Is a multi-day tour worth it instead?

Only if you want to see more of the coast. The three-day trip reaches Kalbarri and the Pink Lake and visits the Pinnacles on day three, on the drive home.

The three days to Kalbarri includes two hotel nights, park fees and a guide in English and Chinese, but no meals. You see the Pinnacles in the afternoon of the last day, not at sunset. If the pillars are the point, a day tour does them better. If the Coral Coast is the point, this is a fair way to see it without a hire car.

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