Free things to do around Margaret River The coast is free. The caves are not.

Walking the Busselton foreshore costs nothing, and neither does Sea Play on the Bay, the adventure playground opposite the jetty.

Little Otto's runs a free factory tour at 2pm every day: 10 to 15 minutes in the chocolate and gelato room, ending with a tasting at the bark cabinet. It takes 15 people, so book. The jetty itself isn't free while its Interpretive Centre is open.

Meelup Regional Park runs 11.5 km of coast from Dunsborough to Bunker Bay, with no entry fee. Meelup Beach is the calm, shaded one, with change rooms, showers and toilets.

Point Piquet has a whale-watching platform. The park says September to November is the time, mostly humpbacks and southern rights.

The national park starts here, and it's free to enter. Sugarloaf Rock is the granite cone just offshore, where red-tailed tropicbirds nest. Watch from the lookout and don't cross to it.

A sealed 3.4 km path runs north to Cape Naturaliste, fine for prams the whole way. The cape's walk trails and whale lookouts are free. Only the lighthouse charges.

Canal Rocks is a line of granite split by a channel the sea has cut, with a timber footbridge across it. Free to park, free to cross.

A few minutes south, the Cape to Cape Track runs 2.6 km from Injidup Beach to Wyadup Rocks. It's a short coast walk with nothing to pay. In a big swell, stay well back from the edge at both.

Moses Rock has wide coast views and timber steps down to the beach. From here, the Quininup Falls Trail leads to a waterfall that only runs in late winter and spring.

The falls are a significant cultural site. Stay on the path and don't climb on them. The car park is gravel, with no marked bays.

Free entry, free tastings, and a window onto the production floor. The Margaret River Chocolate Company on Harmans Mill Road needs no booking for tastings, and it's open 9 to 5 every day but Christmas.

The window only shows chocolate being made when production is running, and there are no behind-the-scenes tours. The tastings make up for it.

On Saturday mornings, the Margaret River Farmers Market fills the Education Campus on Bussell Highway, 7:30 to 11:30, all year. There's no entry fee to browse. Arriving hungry is the expensive part.

Any day, Rotary Park by the river has a playground, picnic tables, barbecues and toilets. The Wooditjup mountain bike trails, more than 45 km of forest tracks, start nearby.

Surfers Point is the clifftop reserve above Margaret River's Main Break. The tiered lawn makes a grandstand at sunset, and nobody sells tickets.

Plaques tell the story of the break. A pro surf event can bring crowds and change access, so check before a big weekend.

In 1876 the Georgette was wrecked off this coast, and Grace Bussell and Sam Isaacs rode their horses into the surf to bring people ashore. Redgate is where the story is told, and a popular Cape to Cape section starts here.

It's unpatrolled, with dangerous rips, and lives have been lost here. Come for the story and the walk, not a swim.

A gravel road through tall karri forest, fine in an ordinary two-wheel-drive car. The lookout sees over the forest to Hamelin Bay.

Late afternoon light is the pick, and spring brings clematis, hovea and coral creeper. There are picnic tables and a toilet at the lookout, and a small car park. No pets: 1080 baits are laid here for foxes and feral cats.

Wild stingrays glide through the shallows here, mostly in summer. They don't charge either. Watch from a distance, and don't touch or feed them.

The 800 m Coastal Explorer Walk climbs the headland in about 20 minutes, past what's left of the 1882 timber jetty. Parking and toilets are free.

Built to pump water up to the lighthouse, the wheel has since been coated in limestone and turned to stone where it stands. Sealed parking, a toilet, and a short walk from the car.

The lighthouse next door charges for its grounds and tours. The wheel is the free end of the line.