ChrisSylvester

Capel is seriously my favourite place to live (and I've lived in a LOT of places). It's slap bang in the heart of some of the best holiday territory in the country (South Western Australia) and a stone's throw to many of the popular holiday resorts without being in the thick of tourism central.

For a small town, it's incredibly functional, it has a pretty good IGA, Post office, 3 bottle shops, a hardware store, a couple service stations an excellent butchers, pizza store, library (I could go on), not to mention a very function industrial area that you wouldn't even know was there if you didn't drive around a bit. So it's got pretty much everything you need. If, by some chance, you need to some major retail therapy, then Capel is situated slap bang in between my two favourite South West Cities: Bunbury and Busselton (and they've both got EVERYTHING). This means that by living in Capel, you get the the best of both worlds - small town lifestyle with all the amenities of two major centres just 15-20 minutes drive in either direction.

Better yet, it's only a few minutes drive to one of the best beaches you'll ever see - Peppermint Grove Beach. Long white sandy beach with gorgeous views of in either direction. I don't think I've ever been on this beach and seen more than a dozen people in either direction (as far as the eye can see) - even on a public holiday! So you pretty much have the place to yourself AND it has a great little playground for the kids, BBQ facilities and a modern toilet block with outdoor showers (so you can wash yourself down before you jump back in the car) and plenty of parking.

That's the other great thing about Capel - it's just the other side of the highway from Peppermint Grove Beach but the real estate costs are about half of what you'd expect to pay to be in Peppermint Grove Beach itself. So you have quick access to the beach, more amenities and shops on your doorstep at about half the price.

Then there's the winery - Capel Vale Winery - an AMAZING collection of wines that you can taste at the cellar or you can dine for lunch in their first class restaurant, overlooking the vineyard (well worth it).

Donnybrook (fruit growing capital of WA) is just 25 minutes down a beautiful country drive and it has an amazing playground for kids and BBQ facilities, under cover tables, benches etc.

If that's not enough for you, consider that Margaret River is just a 40 minute drive from Capel, Dunsborough is only 30 minutes away and did I mention that Busselton was only 15-20 mins away?

The town itself is incredibly well funded through community sponsorships of local business and Industry, not to mention the rates that it pulls in from the enormous sub division of Dalyellup, 15 minutes away. So there's always something going on.

There's a couple of great new subdivisions opening up in Capel and the land is well worth the money.

Oh, one more thing - you can be in Perth in less than 2 hours now that the new freeway has opened up. Or there's Mandurah that's about an hour away.

Capel - it's a small country town in the centre of the universe! (and the best kept secret in WA)