Some of us are lucky enough to call Australia home.  If you’re interested in beautiful beaches, unique sunset snapshots, remnants of the Cretaceous era, beautiful pearls, or especially all of the above, you need to visit the town of Broome, found in Western Australia. While the town has a population close to 15,000 (as of 2016), this number swells to nearly 50,000 when tourist season arrives. There’s a good reason so many people make Broome their holiday destination. It’s home to a picturesque natural environment, immense dinosaur footprints, and great places to eat and shop. If you choose to travel to Broome by car or motorcycle, here are some of the things you can expect to do and see.

White Sand Beaches and Camel Rides

Now, Broome is where you can find Cable Beach, so named because it’s where an 1889 telegraph cable that ran from Java, Indonesia, came up onto the shore of Western Australia. Today, that beach offers a flat expanse of lovely, clean, white sand that extends for more than 20 kilometers. It’s a great place to wade into warm, ocean water, and the sunsets that can be viewed from here can be spectacular. What Cable Beach adds to that already amazing equation is the possibility of riding a camel on the beach, as the sun proceeds to dip below the horizon. If you’re looking for a travel picture and experience that truly stands out, it’s hard to beat something like that.

Huge Dinosaur Tracks

For travelers looking to find a way to connect with the Earth’s prehistoric periods, Broome offers coastal areas which contain what are possibly the largest footprints of dinosaurs to be found. Some of these dino footprints, thought to be made by sauropods, measure as much as 1.7 meters in length. They can be spotted along the coast when the tide is low. All in all, it appears that there are more than 20 kinds of dinosaur tracks (including those of the ankylosaurus and stegosaurus) in the area. That said, it’s a good idea to hire a guide when visiting the coast. The dinosaur tracks may be difficult to spot at first to the untrained eye, but once you’ve seen them, they cannot be unseen.

Local Pearl Industry and History

Broome also offers many great places to shop for pearls. The town has a long relationship with the pearl industry, from oyster harvesting in the late 1800’s, all the way to the pearl farms being used today. This means that the town has many boutiques where visitors can window shop, try on, and buy pearl jewelry. Dampier Terrace, with its various stores, is sometimes referred to as Australia’s pearl capital. And if you’re looking to learn more about the history of Broome’s pearl industry, there’s the Memorial to Indigenous Female Pearl Divers, as well as the local Japanese cemetery, where hundreds of Japanese pearl divers are buried.

Clearly, Broome is a town which has much variety to offer to visitors and travelers. It has lovely beaches that are great for watching sunsets and taking pictures. It offers huge dinosaur footprints for people looking to get a glimpse into prehistory. And Broome has many shops where people can buy lovely South Sea pearl jewelry, as well as markers and memorials that recall the history of pearl diving in the area.