CarlPost2

Hi all,

We (a couple, late 20s, no kids,) are traveling to Australia in November and are a little confused about the Great Ocean Road. We will be traveling from Sydney to Melbourne, and the first question is, should we drive or fly ? Can one go from Sydney to Melbourne via the GOR or is it better to fly to Melbourne and then do the GOR from Melbourne itself ?

If we do drive from Sydney to Melbourne via the GOR, I will probably do this in 2 days and stay overnight somewhere along the way. Any recommendations for where we might stay ? Ideally, I'd like to stay mid-way so that driving over 2 days is equally split up, but at the same time we are on a tight budget and dont want to blow up a lot of $$$ staying at prime locations along the GOR. Any suggestions ?

I know there have been a lot of posts about the GOR on this forum and I've read many of these, but am still confused, so please indulge me ;-) !!

Thanks a lot in advance !

scurry

The Great Ocean Road is the scenic highway between Melbourne &amp; Adelaide, <i>not</i> between Melbourne &amp; Sydney.

That might help settle some of the confusion.

CarlPost2

Thanks scurry ! So driving from Sydney is ruled out.

Any recommendations on where to spend a night along the GOR for a roundtrip from Melbourne?

Daneille

Hi CarlPost2,

I would stay at Apollo Bay as an overnight stop if you wanted to only go as far as the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and Maits Rest. Apollo Bay is a nice drive from Melbourne, will give you time to stop at say Lorne for lunch, o/n at Apollo Bay and do the attractions the following morning and early afternoon and you should be back in Melbourne by mid evening. Apollo Bay has good accommodation and some lovely restaurants. If you wanted to go any further than this I think you'd be making a rod for your own back if you were only intending a one night stopover.

You can certainly travel from Sydney to Melbourne via a coastal road, Highway 1 or the Princes Hwy passes through some gorgeous towns, Eden, Merimbula, Pambula, Lakes Entrance etc, and you can go via Canberra and the snowy mountains which is lovely. You'd need at least one night's stop over travelling. The road is quite good, very pretty, though not as spectacular as the GOR, but it can be a little winding and a bit trecherous in the rain.

Neil_Oz

If you do drive from Sydney to Melbourne the most direct route is the Hume Highway, but that's about all it has going for it. It bypasses most towns and scenically it's pretty ho-hum.

I agree with Daneille, you're better off following a less direct and more scenic route. There are plenty of reasonably-priced places to stay and decent-to-good places to eat in most towns. The roads are OK, it's just that they're mostly 2-lane, no freeway conditions. But you do get to see a variety of landscapes.

If you're an AAA member you should be able to get free touring maps etc. from Australian motoring organisations (NRMA in NSW, RACV in Victoria). One option would be to follow the coast down from Sydney to Merimbula, then cut inland to Bega and Cooma, then south to Melbourne via Orbost. Canberra is a llittle over an hour's drive north of Cooma if you wanted a make a further diversion. Depends how much time you have up your sleeve and what your interests are.