The Great Ocean Road, an Australian National Heritage stretch of road, is one of the many (natural) attractions Australia has to offer and always is among the top 3 when you search for the best coastal roads in the world. Having driven this magical road ourselves, we will share the highlights you will be able to experience, from world-famous like the Twelve Apostles to not so famous, like Shelly Beach.
I list the following highlights in driving direction from Melbourne to Port Campbell.
- Torquay
- Bells Beach
- Split Point Lighthouse
- Lorne & Erskine Falls
- The stretch between the Memorial Arch and Apollo Bay including Kennett River
- Hiking to Shelly Beach in the Great Otway National Park
- Cape Otway Lightstation
- Port Campbell National Park:
- Multiple Lookouts
- Gibson Steps
- Twelve Apostles
- Loch Ard Gorge - Port Campbell Town
In this article, I will be going into more detail about each highlight. I will also help you decide how many days of your trip you should invest in the Great Ocean Road, as well as where to best park and camp with your campervan. I will, of course, share with you our route and experiences as well.
This article covers days 2-3 of our 18-day road trip itinerary along the southern East Coast of Australia. Click on the yellow 'Show Entire Route' tab on the top left, to view our in-depth guides to each stop for an even greater insight for your own road trip through Australia.
Highlights of the Great Ocean Road
Start your day early, leaving Melbourne to experience as much as possible of the Great Ocean Road and its surrounding areas. After about 1.5 hours of driving, you will hit the ocean and beach for the first time, and the highlights tour begins.
The entire Great Ocean Road is 243 km / 151 miles long, stretching from Torquay to Allansford. This article will cover the highlights between Torquay and Port Campbell (187 km / 116 miles).
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Torquay
The Great Ocean Road begins in Torquay, a quirky small beach town and the home of surfing, hosting the National Museum of Surf. Both Ripcurl and Quicksilver were founded in Torquay by local surfers. Take a stop at Whites Beach to get a first glimpse at the ocean and inhale some fresh ocean breeze. For us, it was a wow moment and marked the beginning of our 18-day road trip.
Bells Beach
One of the most famous surf beaches in the world is located about ten minutes south of Torquay. Bells Beach offers magnificent views over the small bay and attracts large crowds each Easter weekend for the Ripcurl Pro Surf Championship.
Split Point Lighthouse
Located in the sleepy town of Airey's Inlet about half an hour from Bells Beach, the Split Point Lighthouse is worth a stop to get more of a taste of the orange limestone cliffs and a great view along the shipwreck coast. It was built in 1891 and was automated in 1919. Nowadays, it still guides ships along the coast. If you wish to climb up the 100+ steps to have an incredible view of this stunning coast, be aware that there is an AU$10 fee to enter.
Lorne & Erskine Falls
On your 30 minute drive to Lorne, you will pass through the famous Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch and reach Lorne in time for lunch or a snack on its quirky Esplanade full of shops and restaurants.
Take a stroll to the beach and watch locals play beach volleyball and take in the lively atmosphere of this town. Maybe you will also get cockatoo visitors next to your van and have your first wildlife encounter.
Be sure to head back to your car and take a small 10-minute detour before you continue along the Great Ocean Road and head inland into the temperate rainforest to experience the 30-meter Erskine waterfall. We didn't have the time to do so; however, this one is highly recommended by my sister; thus, she provides you some lines about the Erskine Falls.
The road is a little steep, but possible to drive with any car. There is a parking place directly at the entrance to the falls, and it only takes you a few steps to the upper lookout at the falls. If you follow the steps further down, you get to see the entire waterfall and can deep dive into the Australian rainforest with many beautiful ferns.
To be honest, this place was so beautiful to us that we considered following the river further down even though we didn‘t have a backpack with water with us. Luckily we didn‘t 🙈, as we realized later, that this would have been an 8 km one-way route down to Lorne.
If you have some more time and are prepared to walk around 3 hours, we can imagine it is a wonderful hike. Maybe you can find someone who gives you a lift up to the Erskine Falls entrance (leaving your van down in Lorne) so that you can then take the Erskine Falls Walking Track back down. Just make sure you only do this trip when the river water is not high, as some parts of this hike are not passable during high water.
The stretch between the Memorial Arch and Apollo Bay
The most impressive stretch of road is the 60 km (37 miles) between the Great Ocean Road Arch and Apollo bay, as the road sits right next to the ocean and winds its way along its curves and switchbacks. That is 1,5 hours of pure ocean view to the left and charming villas built into the hills on the right. Take your time and take in those views; it would be a shame to rush through.
One great stop also recommended by my sister is Kennett River, where you can often spot many koalas, parrots, and cockatoos. The birds there are quite used to people, so they come very close and even land on your head, shoulder, or arm. It is a fantastic opportunity for not your everyday picture 😅. Just please remember to respect wildlife and don't feed the birds, koala, kangaroos, or any other cute wild thing you will meet.
Apollo Bay is yet another small coastal town, offering a charming promenade lined with restaurants and shops to the one side of the Great Ocean Road and an open park and beach to the other side.
Hiking to Shelly Beach in the Great Otway National Park
Be sure not to just drive through the Great Otway National Park to head to the West Coast of the Great Ocean Road. You would miss a couple of highlights!
We can highly recommend you do the best short walk along the Great Ocean Road to Shelly Beach. The car park to start your 45 mins hike is only a 10-minute drive from Apollo Bay. Turn left on Elliott Road once you start heading inland. You will begin driving through an unexpected lush rainforest until you reach the car park. Follow the signs to Shelly Beach for a surreal experience. Temperate lush rainforest, including the sounds of chirping birds, koalas in the treetops above you, and not one other human soul around you. You will hit a small beach cove allowing you sea-level access to this powerful ocean stretch. For us, this was pure magic and so unexpected! Who expects a rainforest in Southern Australia right next to the beach?!
Cape Otway Lightstation
Again be sure to take that detour to the Cape Otway Lighthouse Station for some spectacular views and the chance to dive into some history. It is only a 30 minutes drive from the Shelly Beach car park. Take a good hour to discover the Cape and both of its coasts. Climb up the Lighthouse and learn about the shipwrecks along the coast. There is also an Aboriginal experience to learn about their culture and heritage.
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In general, the Cape Otway area is fantastic for spotting Koalas, even on the main Great Ocean Road. Whenever you see cars parked on the side and people looking up, you will know there is one of those furry, cuddly balls up in the tree.
The entrance to Cape Otway is AU$19.50 per adult.
Port Campbell National Park
The next highlight is for many people, the biggest highlight of the Great Ocean Road - the Port Campbell National Park. It will take you about one hour to drive from the Cape Otway Lightstation to get to the beginning of this National Park - most of this stretch is not along the coast but through the beautiful landscape.
Multiple Lookouts
Be sure to take several smaller, sometimes unpaved side roads or car parks as a stop to head over the dune and take different looks at the magnificent coast ahead of you. You will keep bumping into the Great Ocean Walk and might even meet some hikers.
Gibson Steps
The first big famous stop is at the Gibson Steps, where a wooden staircase allows you the way down these orange limestone cliffs to the dark yellow sand beach. Depending on the time of day, this will be the first time you will meet a lot of other people. Be sure to keep walking along the beach to find some quiet spots.
Twelve Apostles
This is the most popular highlight, and you will notice by the number of coaches and mainly Asian travel groups congesting the way to the cliff lookouts. If you visit during regular daytime, this will be the only time you will feel like a tourist.
The following highlight is as well presented by Miriam. Go ahead, big sis!
Loch Ard Gorge
The Loch Ard Gorge parking space offers many more fantastic lookouts to the beautiful coastal rocks. It only takes you a few minutes to walk to see The Razorback, Tom and Eva Lookout, Island Arch Lookout, and Loch Ard Gorge itself. Loch Ard Gorge is a small beach surrounded by rocky cliffs with only a small entrance for the ocean to enter. Depending on the time of day and season, it is also an excellent opportunity to have a short dip into the water.
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There are many more places following the coastal road, where a small break with beautiful lookouts is possible. For example:
- Thunder Cave
- Bakers Oven
- London Arch (after Port Campbell)
- The Grotto (after Port Campbell)
If you have some time, it is worth stopping at each of them, but they are no absolute must-sees on the Great Ocean Road.
Port Campbell Town
You will end your journey of the Great Ocean Road in Port Campbell, a small coastal town with a large beach. It is only a 10 minutes drive from the Twelve Apostles, which is super close and makes it easy to drive back for sunrise. Just be careful with the wildlife while driving in the dark in the morning!
How many days should you take to drive along the Great Ocean Road
You will get different answers, depending on who you ask. We have friends who spend their entire two week trip to Australia only on the Great Ocean Road. If you don't want to spend two whole weeks discovering this part of the country and would like to discover more, then we would recommend two full days. This will allow you to dedicate one day to each coast on the Great Ocean Road: the east and west
Where to park your campervan during your Great Ocean Road drive
Every highlight mentioned offers a free car park for you to stop short term for wandering about and discovering. When it comes to overnighting, it is not allowed to free camp along the Great Ocean Road. We recommend you spend your first night in Apollo Bay and your second night in Port Campbell. In Apollo Bay, we can recommend the Marengo Holiday Park, where we had an unpowered site with ocean view. In Port Campbell, we recommend the NRMA Holiday Park with views of the Port Campbell Creek and within walking distance to the beach.
Our experience driving along the Great Ocean Road
For us, the Great Ocean Road was the perfect start to our campervan road trip Down Under. We picked up our Spaceship campervan in Melbourne early in the morning, took a little test drive around the block, stopped at an Aldi (the German within me 😅) to pick up groceries and headed down to Torquay. We drove down to Apollo Bay on that first day with the van and stopped at all the highlights listed above. Especially the drive itself was spectacular to us. Having done the Pacific Coastal Highway along the Californian Coast the year before, this stretch of road was even more impressive to us.
We started the next day with a walk to the beach from our campground. As it was low tide, we got to walk along the ocean rocks and really take in the coastal views. As mentioned above, the short hike down to Shelly Beach through the Otway rainforest was definitely a particular highlight, encountering our first koala and appreciating the vast empty natural spaces in Australia (we didn't know yet that there were plenty more of those moments to come).
We continued along to the Cape Otway Lightstation and the Port Campbell National Park. The crowds at the Twelve Apostles were a bit shocking to us, which was one of the reasons, why we skipped the Loch Ard Gorge and headed straight to Port Campbell to enjoy a pleasant stroll around town, a warm shower, and a delicious dinner.
We woke up very early the next morning to drive back to the Twelve Apostles and watch the sunrise from this magical place. It was so peaceful and with very few people compared to the afternoon beforehand.
When is the best time to drive along the Great Ocean Road
The best time is by far during the months of daylight savings. In Australia, this means from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. The more daylight, the more time to explore.
When we traveled in the second half of April, Daylight Savings Time was already over in Southern Australia, and hence we had a lot shorter days than my sister when they traveled in November. This is another reason why we could not visit all the highlights along the Great Ocean Road.
So when planning your trip, we recommend you skip the high season (Dec-Feb), which is a lot more crowded, more expensive and hotter and instead try to travel during the months of October-November and March.
What to pack for your Great Ocean Road adventure
Be prepared for chillier weather and some wind along the Great Ocean Road, especially if you are traveling in the shoulder season, as suggested above. That being said, it can also get quite warm, so layers are the keyword. During our trip, we dropped the jacket but never the long pants, and so did Miriam and Nico. Both of us experienced some rain at times, but a lot more sunshine in general. Just be prepared for anything pretty much 😆.
The only thing you can probably skip packing in your daily backpack is your bikini and swim shorts unless you are an experienced surfer and want to hit the waves or find a protected cove to dip in. Other than that, the ocean is very cold, and the waves are quite strong.
Continue to read about our road trip along the South-East Coast of Australia. Next up - Wilsons Promontory.
Have you been to the Great Ocean Road, or is there anything we missed, and you would like to know? Let us know in the comments below 😊.
