We are going on our annual holiday driving from Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast. We always drive the quickest route so this year we will be driving the coast route, allowing a week to do it.Where are some good spots to stop? I have been told Lakes Entrance is a must and we really want to show our son some snow, not for skiing but just enough for him to play in, but I have absolutely no idea where to go.We will be travelling at the start of October, 1 week to get to Qld spending 2 weeks staying on the sunshine coast then another week to drive back.

Tiffany.

Hi Tiffany,

How long does it take to drive from Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast by the quickest, most direct way?

The reason I'm asking is I can't understand why you are giving equal time to the trips to and from the Sunshine Coast. From Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast, via the Prince's Highway, is an awfully long way to travel. Even if you have a week, you'll barely have time to do justice to the route.

How about making the outwardbound journey longer than the homewardbound journey? You could, for example, stretch the outwardbound, coastal journey to 11 days if you could do the return journey via a direct route in, say, 3 days.

Just a thought.

Hello Judy,

It took us 19 hrs to drive to the Gold Coast last year but it is the WORST drive, hours and hours of no scenery, especially the Hay Plains.So that is why we want to go the coastal route.But you do have a good idea about taking longer to get there and coming home quicker, we will do that I think, that way we could spend more time on The Great Ocean Rd. and a couple more days in some snow.

Tiff.

I really don't think you will be able to see any snow in October, unless we really have a really really bad winter. Usually snow season finishes about August.
What about following the Murray from Adelaide to Echuca, cutting across to Bright and following the Alpine Way to Omeo, and then north along the coast. (If the snow season is late, you may see some snow along this route.) Another alternative is to take the Newell Highway to Tamworth, then head to the coast at Port Macquarie.
Coming home from the Sunshine Coast, we have gone a bit further north to Gympie, then started south through Nanango, Yarraman and Toowoomba.
Sorry, I lost track of your request for good places to stop. Merimbula is a must, as is Batemans Bay. Port Macquarie, Yamba, Ballina, Bryon Bay are good overnight stops but there are so many nice small coastal towns that it is hard to chose the best.

Thanks for your ideas Marg.
Speaking to a few people about the snow and they said they were still skiing through November.So hopefully we will see some.
I can't wait to see the NSW coast, I have heard so much about how wonderful it is.My Husband is a photographer so we will probably be stopping every 10km's or so!

Tiff.