Port Lincoln 3-day Itinerary: Making the Most out of Your Visit
This Port Lincoln itinerary in South Australia is based on the best experiences we had in the area. We spent over a week in Port Lincoln, but you only really need 3 days to see the highlights.
Being completely honest, when we first arrived to the Eyre Peninsula were like… where have heck have we come?
After spending 2 incredible weeks in Esperance, and driving the long slog that is the Nullabor, we figured it would take a few weeks to adjust to South Australia.
In the Eyre Peninsula, we learnt our van couldn’t drive down any of the dirt roads to get to the spots we wanted to check out. We were getting super frustrated.
So explored in a different way. We rented a 4×4 from Spanners and Sparks, went on tour to swim with the sea lions, shucked some Oysters at Coffin Bay, and explored Port Lincoln National Park. And honestly, it was the best decision we’ve ever made.
This 3 day Port Lincoln Itinerary will walk you through our best experiences in and around Port Lincoln in the Eyre Peninsula.
27 June 2022
Contents
Your 3 day Port Lincoln Itinerary
Day 1: Swim with the seals and/or cage dive with the Great White Sharks
Swimming with the seals
Prepare yourself for the best day of your Port Lincoln Itinerary, by far. Kangaroo Island was the best place we’ve swum with dolphins, but Port Lincoln is the best place we’ve swum with sea lions EVER.
The boat ride to Langhorn Island (aka the island of the sea lions) is about 1.5 hours each way, so pack a deck of cards or a good book.
A fair few people were worried about swimming with sea lions because… well, sharks. But the swimming area is super shallow, and sharks don’t approach the area because of this.
The sea lions are so playful, they just want to have a good time with you! You’ll be taught how how to get the most out of your seal swim so that the seals will actually swim with you. They will even come right up to you, like they did with us! Watch our above YouTube video below if you’re still not convinced.
Cage Dive with the Great White Sharks
Charlie has a poor imagination unless he’s experiences something first hand. So he didn’t want to cage dive with the Great White Sharks, because he didn’t want to be able to imagine a shark every time he swam.
So we didn’t do this experience, but it is one of the experiences we regret not doing the most! We’ve made a pact that we are 100% planning to go back to Port Lincoln and cage dive with the Great Whites because Port Lincoln is the only place in Australia that we know of that you can have an experience like this.
Fumo for dinner on day 1 of your Port Lincoln Itinerary
We don’t eat out much. So when we mention food places in a blog, know that the food is good.
The Eyre Peninsula and Port Lincoln are known as the seafood frontiers of South Australia, and the seafood at Fumo will show you why.
Whatever you do, get the salmon skewer. It’s so freaking good!
Day 2: Shuck your own oysters at Coffin Bay
Just like Eyre is known as the Seafood Frontier of South Australia, Coffin Bay is known as Oyster Frontier of Australia.
We got into our little Oyster Shuck outfits which make you feel like you’re about to slaughter something (or someone if you’ve seen Dexter), and walked through water to an oyster farm!
Charlie wasn’t a happy customer because he hates oysters… but I forced him to do this one. I love Oysters and by the end of the day I had to google weather eating too many oysters can kill you, because I had 16 in total (because we had lunch at Oyster HQ afterwards and they had the most gourmet style oysters I’ve ever seen!
If you watched the above YouTube video, you would have seen Charlie’s hilarious reaction to eating the oysters. It gets me every time,
Almonta beach
Images 1 and 2 in the embedded Instagram carousel are of Almonta beach. The perfect time to visit this beach on your Port Lincoln Itinerary is after shucking Oysters.
You drive through Coffin Bay National Park to get to Almonta, which is rated one of South Australia’s best beaches. It’s soooo expansive and we spent a good hour just strolling down the beach.
P.s. Along the drive keep an eye out for emu’s because we saw 7, and they’re everywhere!
Greenly Beach
Head out of Coffin bay to one of our top 5 beaches in South Australia: Greenly Beach and rock pools. This beach is just magical. It’s the first ever beach we visited in South Australia where we were like: okay South Australia, your beach game is pretty good. There are some pretty epic rock pools on the north side of Greenly Beach that you can walk to, but it will take a good 30 minutes to get there so we’d recommend driving.
Pro tip: you’ll need a good 4×4 to get to Greenly beach and rock pools, which you can hire for the day from Sparks and Spanners.
Day 3: Explore Port Lincoln National Park
Day 3 of your Port Lincoln Itinerary you can either do on your own provided you have a 4×4, or with Untamed Escapes. There’s a lot you can do in this National Park so just honestly go to town being an adventurous explorer for the day. That said, if you are an experienced 4WDer, you’ll be able to see a fair bit and do the more adventurous stuff, like 4WDing on the sand dunes and getting to Memory Cove. If you’re not experienced with 4WDs, we recommend going with Untamed Escapes and trying to get on a tour that will show you the sand dunes and the insanely beautiful Memory Cove (not all tours go to these locations unless you explicitly mention that’s what you’re here to do).
Memory Cove
Memory Cove will make you feel like you’re in paradise. You can camp overnight here if you want, and this is something we 100% wish we did. It is so remote and rugged, and the 17km 4WD track that leads to the memory cove takes 1 hour to drive down because of how rugged it is.
Our camera battery had died by the time we got there, so we don’t have a good picture to share unfortunately. That said, Memory Cove and Maslin Beach are our two favourite beaches in South Australia, and we honestly can’t pick a favourite of the two because they are both EPIC.
Drive along the sand dunes in the National Park
If you haven’t driven on sand dunes before, make sure you go with someone who knows how to. We heard many stories about inexperienced drivers who got bugged in the sand and couldn’t get out, but because no one is around they were stuck there for days!
So make sure you know what you’re doing. If you want to do a sand dune tour, go with Untamed Escapes. They’ll even pack a few sandboards for you to try out on the dunes.
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Sunset at Mikkira
Being your last sunset in this Port Lincoln Itinerary, be sure to check out Mikkira for sunset. At this time, all the best of Australian animals come out, and you’ll ever see koalas and emus just doing their thing here. Pack a picnic and bask in the animal glory.
What else to do in South Australia
Adelaide, South Australia’s capital, is definitely worth the visit. Check out the best gay bars in Adelaide and our favourite nude beach near Adelaide: Maslin Beach.
If you’re seeking an island adventure in South Australia, check out our 3 day Kangaroo Island itinerary.
