Many international visitors -- and for that matter, many east coast Australians -- never make it to Western Australia. It's too far away, too expensive to fly to, and too big when you get there, they say. That's all true, especially about its size (2.5 million sq. km/975,000 sq. miles), but don't dismiss a trip out of hand. Domestic flights are getting cheaper all the time, and international travelers can use air coupons. It's worth the trip for some of Australia's best snorkeling and diving, most historic towns, splendid natural scenery, and fantastic wine regions. Every spring (that's Sept-Nov Down Under), wildflowers carpet much of the state. The capital, Perth, has great food, a fabulous outdoor life of biking and beaches, plenty of smallish museums well worth a look, and a beautiful historic port, Fremantle.

The Southwest "hook" of the state, below Perth, is the prettiest part of Western Australia, and the easiest region to visit outside of Perth. Massive stands of karri and jarrah trees stretch to the sky, the surf is world-class, and the coastline is rugged. The Southwest's Margaret River region turns out some of Australia's most acclaimed wines. En route to the Southwest is a special phenomenon -- a visit by wild dolphins to the town of Bunbury. You can swim with them, if they are in the mood for socializing.

Head east 644km (400 miles) inland from Perth and you strike what, in the 1890s, was the richest square mile of gold-bearing earth the world has ever seen. The mining town of Kalgoorlie, still Australia's biggest gold producer (nearly 2,000 oz. a day), is a place of ornate 19th-century architecture. If Australia has an answer to the Wild West, Kalgoorlie is it.

Head north of Perth and you're in the Outback. Red sands, scrubby trees, and spinifex grass are all you see for hundreds of miles. About 850km (527 miles) north of Perth, wild dolphins make daily visits to the shores of Monkey Mia. Another 872km (541 miles) on is one of Australia's best-kept secrets, a 260km (161-mile) coral reef called Ningaloo, along the isolated Outback shore. It's a second, largely undiscovered, Great Barrier Reef.

The rugged northwest portion of Western Australia is known as the Kimberley, where cattle farming, pearl farming, and tourism thrive in a rocky moonscape of red cliffs, waterfalls, rivers, sparse gums, and wetland lagoons. Here you can visit a million-acre cattle station (ranch) rich in Aboriginal rock-art sites, tour the world's largest diamond mine, cruise the lush Ord River to see hundreds of native birds, ride a camel on the beach, and shop for the world's biggest South Sea pearls.