Summer in the USA means a road trip vacation!

Think California Highway 1 past Big Sur, think Coastal Highway Route 1 along the Maine coast, and you get the idea.

But there are exciting road trips all over the world. One of my favorites was driving the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, with my daughter. Driving the road is easy-wide lanes and gorgeous vistas over cliffs and ocean. It was harder in the towns, where there are roundabouts instead of stoplights. I pulled over and let her drive then, as she was living in Australia and much more comfortable driving on the “wrong” side of the road.

The Great Ocean Road runs about 150 miles (244 km) along the southern coast of the state of Victoria.

Officially, the GOR starts in the town of Torquay, where the Australia National Surfing Museum is worth a stop. The great beaches along this southern coast are famous for the surf breaks, Bells Beach being one of the most well-known. The GOR officially ends in Allansford (Warnambool)-don’t miss the Cheese Shop and Museum there.

We picked up our rental car in Melbourne and headed west and south to catch up to the official start of the drive. This added just over an hour and a half to the day. Driving the GOR from east to west is the best way to see the cliffs up close and the easiest way to pull off at the road side stops.

The 2-lane highway continues south and west along the southern coast past surfing breaks, cliffs, sea mounts, arches, shipwreck spots, lighthouses, and more. This road connects to the Victoria Shipwreck Coast road, continuing along the southern coast, that can take you all the way to Adelaide, in South Australia. Doing that is a drive of 625 miles.

The big draw on the GOR is to see the Twelve Apostles in the Port Campbell National Park. A series of gigantic rock stacks have been left along the coast while the land eroded away. There are actually only 8 rocks left, as several have been claimed by the rough seas.

The other major landmarks are the Gibson Steps

The Loch Ard Gorge

The Arches

One of my favorite detours turned out to be the Otway Lighthouse Road-we saw wallabies crossing the road and koalas in the trees.

Good to Know:

IF you drive the GOR, and beyond, take 1 more day than you think you will need. We took 2 nights to drive from Melbourne to Adelaide and could easily have added one or two more nights just on the Great Ocean Road part of the trip, not to mention the Shipwreck Coast road in South Australia.

That way you will have more time for some of the cool side trips, plus more time at the attractions and lookouts along the road.

DO pull over at the various sights along the way. Take the walks down to the beach, around the cliff tops, to the lighthouses.  You probably are only going to do this once, so enjoy it!

We took our trip in September, and you can see from the photos that the weather was blustery and rainy. Since it was before the busy summer season, we had little traffic on the road. One downside to traveling then was that many restaurants and even hotels were not open for the season, so plan ahead.

Tourism Australia has many good resources to help you plan your trip. You can check out a sample itinerary here: 5-day Road Trip  from Melbourne to Adelaide. 

Another good resource is the Great Ocean Road Website

We stayed in a variety of accommodations.  There is a place for just about any budget at various towns along the road. Definitely book ahead in the summer and fall seasons, and whenever there are surfing and running competitions on.

If you don’t want to drive yourself, there are a lot of tours by motor coach and even helicopter from Melbourne. Check out the Visit Victoria website for some tour ideas. I can also help you with choosing the right tour for you or planning the road trip. Happy traveling!