JIW

Thinking of renting a car and driving from Sydney to Melbourne...take our time, see the sites, stay in Melbourne a while, then return to Sydney...good idea or not? This would be in March, 2004.
Thanks for you input.

PixieChick

Would be beautiful that time of year! There are two routes from Sydney to Melbourne...I would go down via the coast (the Princes Highway) which takes longer, but it much more scenic (coastal views, little towns, etc.) You could easily take 3 days, although the drive is about 12 hours. I would do that, then stay in Melbourne, and come back via the Hume Highway, which is inland. On the Hume, you'd go through really interesting towns like Albury and the like. That way you'd get a sense of the farming and cattle areas. All in all, it'd be a wonderful trip that would allow you to see much more than those who fly around would see.

Actually, perhaps I'll do the same! Heck, I live in Sydney and haven't done the drive all the way! Where are my keys....

Doh

We did this one way and really enjoyed it. We stopped off in Canberra to tour parliament and stayed overnight in the "Australian alps" which are not tall, but do have something of an unexpectedly european feel. You can climb the tallest mtn. in Australia fairly easily if you want. Then we hit some wineries on our way into Melbourne. Sigh...

Daneille

I'd go down via the Hume (which you can easily do in a day - or stop at Albury for the night and then it's an easy drive into Melbourne the next day) I would then take the coast road back . It's really lovely - try to stop for two nights - once at Lakes Entrance and once at Bateman's Bay. If you are travelling during school holidays do book accommodation in advance as we did the same trip last year with no booked accommodation and could not get in ANYWHERE for the night and ended up driving the whole way through which was very long and tedious.

Even if you do take the coast road you can take a turnoff and go via Canberra back to Sydney. It is a bit of a detour but our nations capital is worth visiting.

Doh

p.s. a nice bonus of doing this is that you can drive the great ocean road at your own pace if you want, instead of having to take a tour bus.

I think the name of the town where we stayed overnight was Thredbo, which was a nice place to stay even in summer.

prue

If you decided to take the coast road you will find that a great deal of the way the highway is actually inland from the coast - so if you have time it is nice to take the narrower coast road where you will see some wonderful small towns with great beaches and scenery.

Daneille

Just a word of warning regarding the message from DOH. The Great Ocean Road is not the coast road from Sydney to Melbourne (and vice versa) it is the coast road from Melbourne to Adelaide. You'd be very unhappy if you took this road and ended up in our South Australia instead of NSW. The coast road between Sydney and Melbourne is called the Princes Hwy in Victoria and the Pacific Hwy in NSW/Qld.

Thredbo is in the Snowy Mountains and would be very much out of your way unless you were planning on doing a tour of the Snowy Mountains via Canberra.

PixieChick

JIW,

Ditto Danielle...BUT you should definitely consider doing a wee bit of the Great Ocean Road. About 3-4 hours out of Melbourne's worth will get you the well-known sights and some nice towns to lunch in/stay in (ie the 12 Apostles, Lorne, Apollo Bay....)

PerthGirl

You can dricve melbourne to brisbane in 16 hours with no stops - but everything is lovely, and youll have a lovely time regardless of the route you choose...