We will be driving this route and will be staying for 2 nights in Canberra along the way but have 2 nights free between Melbourne and Canberra and again 2 free nights between Canberra and Sydney. Any suggestions on where to stay and places of interest. Thanks.

DJE, as you have some time up your sleeve I wouldn't be spending much time on the shortest route, the Hume Highway, MEL-CBR or CBR-SYD. It's dead boring.

While in Melbourne get yourself some road maps from the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) - should be free if you're an AAA member. I'd head east from Melbourne and follow the Princes Highway up the Victorian and NSW coasts. If it's not too long a drive you could stay at the NSW town of Eden, a former whaling port, then head up to Batemans Bay (stop off at Tilba on the way but leave yourself time for a cruise on the Clyde River). This is a beautiful area and if you like oysters, look no further than the Clyde River variety.

Stay the night at the Bay, and Canberra is a 2-hour drive west. You could stretch your legs in the old town of Braidwood, about halfway in driving time.

At this point I should say that the Princes Highway doesn't offer freeway conditions, still less the Kings Highway from Batemans Bay to Canberra, but that's all part of the charm.

Between Canberra to Sydney, head up the Hume Highway and take the turnoff through Kangaroo Valley back to the coast and the Princes Highway. Personally, I'd chill out for a couple of nights in Jervis Bay, check out the dolphins or whatever, because I can't think of anywhere better - check out the websites below and see what you think. From there you can scoot up the highway to Sydney via Wollongong, and you'll even find some freeway conditions.

Two websites that will give you further info -
www.southcoast.com.au
www.naturecoast-tourism.com.au

Neil,

Many thanks for your reply. The route you suggest we take is what we had planned, going along the coastal roads for the most part but we didn't really know where to stop for overnights and all your suggestions are appreciated. I will have a look at the websites you mentioned.
We will be doing this segment of our trip in mid May and I am wondering if it will be necessary at all to book rooms ahead of time for the smaller towns?

DJE, school holidays are in April, and May is well past swimming season, so I can't see why you'd have any need to book ahead. There are plenty of motels and B&Bs, and there's resort-style accommodation if you like that, albeit rather overpriced IMHO.

Just to be on the safe side, I'd check the local websites to be sure that some bugger hasn't organised a big blues festival or something equally inconvenient. Don't worry about folk festivals - hippies and new-agers camp out, or at least should, as many smell. Fortunately, though, not a real lot happens on the Coast. After you spend a couple of days there you'll probably want to buy in. Most people do. Unfortunately, the Sydney real estate boom has rolled southward, exacerbated by baby boomers taking early-retirement packages.

Buffalo Mountain National Park is not far off the Hume Highway, beyond Melbourne. You can drive on top of this 1700-meter giant rock massif, with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. At the summit, there is a lodge that we enjoyed staying in - nothing fancy, but a great location.

You can also detour into the skifields when you enter the Dividing Range. We took the Great Alpine Highway up through Falls Creek and Alpine National Park. Great mountain scenery, but some of the roads are rough and unsealed, particularly if you choose to continue past Falls Creek, instead of returning back down the way you came. We rented a ski lodge high up on a hillside near the Falls Creek Skifield - a great view!

Another choice would be to detour onto the Snowy Mountains Highway and head over to Mt. Kosciusko, which also has beautiful mountain scenery. We again stayed at a skifield lodge in Thredbo Village, which had quite a bit of activity, despite the fact that it was late Spring, with not a drop of snow anywhere. We also visited Perisher Blue, which has a train called the Skitube, which runs in a 6-km long tunnel through the Great Dividing Range, before emerging on the other side. An interesting little trip.

Can't say much about what to do between Canberra and Sydney.

Thank you Neil and ALF for all the additional information and suggestions. They will definitely help us with this portion of our trip and we are very much looking forward to our upcoming journey back to OZ.