We stayed for a moth in June/July 2022. We are from WA, but have lived expat for a long time. It was great to get back after Covid and see family and friends, but also fun to do some touristy things that you never do when you live here. The cottage is beautiful and we loved the stay!
Our kids loved sharing their room, and it was lovely to hear them chatting away before drifting off to sleep after a busy day. The esplanade park just a couple of minutes walk is a great to start the day, take the kids down to burn off some energy, it is an awesome park, (second favorite of our kids after the Bibra lake regional playground, 10 min drive). Bring along a really nice coffee from Gimlet just 2 doors down from the cottage. For the foodies among you, there is obviously all the amazing goodies at the markets next door, (too many good ones to mantion, but the quality was great all over), and Emily Tailor also next door was great, with really good service. So many good restaurants in Freo though, we loved Tonic and Ginger, Pizza Bella Roma, Rouccos, The Mexican Kitchen. These were all great. Our absolute favorite was Lions and Tigers though, look them up, 5 min walk from the house, and fantastic modern Indian fusion. Do yourself a favour and check it out while staying at the Warders' Cottages.
Even though we came in the middle of winter, we had great weather. It was nice to grab a coffee from next door in the morning, or a beer or a glass or White or Rose in the afternoon from the Sail and Anchor, across the road, or a nice glass of West Australian Red in the evening, and sit on the downstairs verandah or the upstairs balcony, and just sit and people watch or chat to the friendly people walking by. The kids loved to pop out in front of the cottages and listen to the buskers and watch the street performers on the weekends too.
The location in the middle of town was amazing. We had worried about the noise from the local night life, but it wasn't too loud even on Friday and Saturday nights. I think the solid build of the historic building helped to block out a lot of noise.
We made good use of the train station being only a few blocks away, to head into the city and to the state Museum, down to Elizabeth quay, and even across on the ferry to the zoo. A family day pass from transperth is good value.
The escape room, the mini golf and bowling at FOMO, and particularly the historic Fremantle Prison were also great fun and worth mentioning, all a short walk from the cottages. The tunnels tour at the prison was really cool, highly recommended and there are several surface tours, we did the convicts tour and I had to tear the kids away as we had some friends to meet later, but they would have stayed all day, great tour guides and super interesting history.
I like running, and there were great paths, (would be great for cycling too), south along the shore towards Coogee, north across the traffic bridge and back to the coast, or East towards Point Walter. Manning Park, a few km south also had some nice trail running which was a cool change, and had some amazing morning views both towards the ocean and the scarp.
This is a great place to stay if you want to keep busy. So much to do, we were never bored, that's for sure. A great home base, and such a beautiful building, was great to pop back in for a rest when required. Great kitchen, enough to make your own meals, (though we don't recommend with so many great cafes and restaurants around), great bathrooms, nice comfy beds to retire for the night. Everything we needed for a great trip!