Three days gives the Great Ocean Road enough breathing room for lighthouse walks, forest detours and an evening beside the Southern Ocean. Drive west from Torquay and keep the final night near Port Campbell or Warrnambool.
Day 1: Torquay to Apollo Bay
Leave Melbourne early and make Torquay the first proper stop. Bells Beach, Point Addis and the clifftop road around Aireys Inlet are better enjoyed before the afternoon traffic builds.
Apollo Bay works well for the first night. A holiday park gives you showers, power and an easy resupply, while nearby national park camps offer a quieter base. Book summer weekends well ahead.
Day 2: Cape Otway and the forest
Turn into Great Otway National Park for tall forest, waterfalls and the Cape Otway coast. Aire River East and Aire River West are useful bases when access conditions suit your vehicle. Johanna Beach is exposed but memorable in settled weather.
Expect weak reception away from towns. Carry water, check fire restrictions and do not rely on arriving late at a small campground. Coastal wind can make a mild forecast feel much colder after sunset.
- Aire River East Campground
- Johanna Beach Campground
- Apollo Bay Holiday Park
Day 3: Port Campbell and the western cliffs
Reach the Twelve Apostles early, then continue to Loch Ard Gorge and the quieter lookouts beyond Port Campbell. The scenery improves when you leave time to walk instead of collecting viewpoints through a windscreen.
Finish in Port Campbell or continue to Warrnambool for a wider choice of caravan parks, groceries and fuel. If you are returning to Melbourne, the inland highway is faster than retracing the coast.
Drive it westbound
Travelling Melbourne to Warrnambool puts you on the ocean side of the road, which matters on a route where the lookouts are almost all on the coast. Eastbound you spend the trip crossing traffic to reach every stop.
The road is narrow, winding and busy with tour coaches, and it carries a poor crash record involving visiting drivers. Overtaking opportunities are rare and the pull-offs are small, so plan on a slow average and let faster traffic past.
Allow three days minimum. Done in one it becomes four hours of concentration past things you did not stop for, which is the single most common regret on this route.
- Drive westbound for the lookouts
- Three days minimum
- Coach traffic and few passing spots
Where the camping actually is
Aire River and Johanna Beach are the standout low-cost options inside Great Otway National Park, both requiring booking through Parks Victoria and both filling over summer and school holidays. Neither has powered sites.
Apollo Bay and Port Campbell carry the commercial parks with showers, laundry and power, and they are the practical reset points on a three-day run. Book these well ahead between December and January.
Free camping along the road itself is essentially non-existent and heavily policed. Treat the corridor as a booked-accommodation route rather than one you can improvise through.
- Book Parks Victoria sites ahead
- No realistic free camping on the road
- Apollo Bay and Port Campbell for services
Timing the Twelve Apostles
Sunset is the classic time and also when the car park is fullest, with coaches arriving in a block. Sunrise gives you comparable light with a fraction of the people, and the walk down to Gibson Steps is far more pleasant early.
The helicopter flights operate from beside the visitor area and give the only view that shows the full stack formation. They are weather dependent and worth booking for the morning so a cancellation can be moved.
Loch Ard Gorge, a few minutes further west, is quieter than the Apostles and arguably the better stop. The shipwreck story and the beach access make it worth more than the ten minutes most people give it.
- Sunrise beats sunset for crowds
- Loch Ard Gorge is quieter
- Book flights for the morning
The Otways and the wildlife
Turning inland into the Otways gives you tall wet forest, Hopetoun Falls, Triplet Falls and the Otway Fly treetop walk, all within a short drive of the coast road. It is a completely different landscape and a good wet-weather option.
Cape Otway is the reliable place to see wild koalas along the road through the manna gums, though numbers have fluctuated with the health of the trees. Watch for them from the vehicle rather than approaching, and never feed them.
Glow worms appear in the Melba Gully area after dark, and the walk is short and easy. Take a red light and let your eyes adjust rather than sweeping a torch around.
- Otways are the wet-weather option
- Koalas along the Cape Otway road
- Red light for the glow worms
Beyond the Twelve Apostles
Most traffic turns around at the Apostles, which means the coast west to Warrnambool through the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Martyrs is quieter and arguably as good. It is worth the extra hour.
Warrnambool itself has the Logans Beach whale nursery between May and October and works as a final night before turning inland or continuing to South Australia.
Port Fairy at the western end is a preserved fishing town with good camping and far fewer visitors than the eastern half of the route, which makes it a calm final night.
Check the Parks Victoria site for current campground status before you leave Melbourne, since storm damage and fire recovery work close individual sites at short notice along this coast.
- Traffic thins west of the Apostles
- Bay of Islands is quieter
- Whales at Warrnambool May to October
Orte entlang der Strecke
Nimm es mit auf die Straße
Stopps speichern. Ganze Reise planen.
Bau aus gespeicherten Orten eine geordnete Route, berechne die Entfernung und behalte Termine, Notizen und To-dos daran.