Blue Haven is a small cove on Esperance's Great Ocean Drive, about 6 km west of town, tucked between granite rock faces that shelter it from the wind. Travel guides describe it as ideal for swimming, sunbathing and snorkelling, with rocky surroundings to explore, but warn of a steep and winding staircase down from the car park.

The snorkelling is along the granite walls on either side of the cove, where kelp, coralline algae and small sponges cover the rock and fish shelter in the cracks: herring, sweep, old wives, wrasse, scalyfin, leatherjackets and juvenile fish, with rays over the sand. Visibility is often excellent over the white sand.

It is a shallow, easy site best suited to snorkellers and families who can manage the stairs. There are no facilities at the cove itself, so bring water and shade. Twilight Beach, with toilets, showers and summer patrols, is a few minutes further west.

Esperance's Great Ocean Drive is a sealed 38 km scenic loop that leaves town westward along Twilight Beach Road past West Beach, Blue Haven, Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Twilight Beach and Observatory Point before returning via the Pink Lake area. Blue Haven is about 6 km (8 minutes) from town. Park at the small car park above the cove; a steep, winding staircase leads down to the beach, so carry only light gear.

Enter from the sand and snorkel along the rock faces on either side.

Esperance's coast west of town faces south into the Southern Ocean, but the offshore islands of the Recherche and the granite headlands give partial shelter. The prevailing south-westerly swell and winter cold fronts make most beaches rough from May to September; summer brings calm mornings followed by strong south-easterly sea breezes, and the famous 'Esperance Doctor' easterly can blow for days. Blue Haven's rock faces protect it from wind, making it one of the more sheltered swimming coves on the drive, but large swell still surges into the cove and around the rocks.

Go on days of small swell, ideally in the morning.

Snorkel from the beach along one rock face to the mouth of the cove, cross over if calm, and return along the other side.

No operator – independent snorkelling.