Thinking about leaving Melbourne and spending some time at the Hot Springs there. What do we think?

Is this instead of your plan to drive to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road?

http://www.peninsulapages.com/hotspr...LE/Activities/

You could do it in a day trip, but to take full advantage of the spa areas, I'd take at least one night as well. It's a lovely area.

It's part of it. I was thinking to drive out of Melbourne on day 2, then head over to the Mornington Penisula, poke around, soak in the hot springs, and then crash. The next day, take the ferry and head out on the GOR and spend three days just driving and stopping until we reach Adelaide, crash, and then fly to Sydney

Looks like a great plan.

Did you see the Mornington Peninsula website?
http://www.visitmorningtonpeninsula.org/

It's only a couple of hours from the airport to Mornington. I did a loop down there, across to Wilsons Prom and back through Gippsland & the Yarra Valley last October and it was just superb. I only had 3 days but it was certainly enough to make me want to go back again.

In Mornington, there's a good restaurant right on the water called The Rocks which is part of the Mornington Yacht club - open from 8am. www.therocksmornington.com.au

If you go to Queenscliff, there are two very charming old Hotels housing good restaurants - The Queenscliff Hotel and the Vue Grand Hotel. Both worth a look even if you don't eat there.

On the Great Ocean Road, make sure you allow enough time to stop at the viewing spots as the sandbanks obstruct the view from the road in lots of places.

Port Fairy is one of my favourite places on the GOR, lovely fishing village with a "stopped in time" feeling.

For the " poke around " part of the Mornington Peninsu;la choose carefully as the Rye / Rosebud area is a sprawling and generally not a very attractive spot which you need to drive through or near to get to the spa .

It is possible to explore places like Flinders / Red Hill etc and some of the wineries or just drive to Flinders , stop ( a charming little town with very unspoilt beach and rockpools and nice food stores ) and then cut across to the other side of the Peninsula where the spa is located .It is gorgeous rolling countryside and a lovely drive .

The other option is that Gunnamatta Beach is near the spa and is a National Park on a wild surf beach and a nice spot to walk along .

Thak you so much, both of you! This is exactly the type of information that I wanted!

Happy to help .

You can now drive on a part freeway /part tollway to the Peninsula .Use either of South Eastern Freeway or Eastern Freeway to connect with Eastlink which takes you to Frankston and then it becomes the Mornington Peninsula Freeway with signs to turn off to various parts of the Pen.

It takes about 1.5 hours from the city to Flinders or Rye , maybe less depending on the time of day eg avoid late afternoon .

Car hire companies provide a sensor for the tollway .

I have found www.drivenow.com.au to be a good website to assess car hire deals from all Australian Hire companies .

I live here. If you hit the Mornington area around lunchtime here is a little treasure I've just discovered - the Barmah Park Vineyard cafe.
http://www.barmahparkwines.com.au

If it's a gorgeous day, make sure you get up to Arthur's Seat - it's a very high vantage point with a glorious view.

Hi! I'm not sure if i'm too late to reply to this. If you've already been, I hope you had an awesome time. I'm from Sydney but was recently down in Melbourne and spent a couple of days around the mornington peninsula area. I usually like to explore places myself, but ended up going on a great tour that I found online when doing trip research http://www.godo.com.au/activity/NTTS103. It was a tour around Port phillip Bay and the peninsulas. Includes boat trip, lunch and visit to winery. Have fun!