Australia Independent Travel | Melbourne Day Trips | The Great Ocean Road Day Tour | Twelve Apostles & Great Otway National Park | Go West Tours
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| The Twelve Apostles |
The Great Ocean Road is a coastal highway in southwestern Australia, just outside Melbourne. It runs for about 243 kilometres, starting at Torquay and ending at Allansford. As one of Australia's most famous natural attractions, it is not only a must-see when visiting Melbourne, but also a place countless travellers make a point of visiting when they come to Australia.
🗺 How to Travel the Great Ocean Road
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| Great Ocean Road sign (Memorial Arch at Eastern View) |
The Great Ocean Road takes in many attractions, such as the famous Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and London Arch. Because the route is so long, getting around by public transport is basically impossible; the most convenient options are usually self-driving or, like us, joining a local tour.
If you only have one day to spare for the Great Ocean Road, a one-day group tour is worth considering. If you have two days or more, renting a car lets you explore the Great Ocean Road in depth!
Great Ocean Road attractions: Great Ocean Road Google Maps route plan
- Bells Beach
- Memorial Arch at Eastern View
- Lorne
- Apollo Bay
- The Twelve Apostles
- Loch Ard Gorge
- London Arch
🚌 Booking a Local Tour
We weren't planning to drive ourselves on this Australia trip, so for the Great Ocean Road we also went with a group tour. We chose an English-language tour booked through KKday, which arranges the tour for you with Go West Tours.
Booking is quite simple: after purchasing the tour you'll receive a confirmation email from Go West Tours, and from then on you can contact them directly by email for anything you need. That said, you generally don't need to get in touch before departure — just show up at the designated meeting point at the designated time.
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| The confirmation email from Go West Tours, with the meeting time and place |
🗺 Setting Off on the Great Ocean Road - Torquay
From 7am the tour bus starts picking people up around the city one stop at a time. The stop closest to our accommodation was the 7:50 pickup at the Rendezvous Hotel, which is almost the last stop before leaving the city. As soon as we boarded we found the roughly 20-seat minibus was already nearly full. The bus arrives quite punctually, so don't be late — the driver-guide has a name list, and once your name is confirmed you can hop on.
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| The packed minibus |
Before setting off I'd seen "Morning Tea and Cake" listed on the itinerary and assumed we'd be taken to a restaurant for breakfast. After an hour and a half of driving out of the city, our first stop was a small car-park park next to Torquay Surf Beach, where the guide pulled out three thermoses of hot water along with a selection of tea bags and cakes, so everyone could have a little something and take a short break before continuing 🤣
This is Torquay, the start of the Great Ocean Road and a surfing mecca. The weather that morning wasn't great, though — there were intermittent showers and the sea breeze was extremely strong and bitterly cold, so only a handful of surfers were out on the beach.
🗺 Memorial Arch at Eastern View
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Great Ocean Road sign (Memorial Arch at Eastern View) |
About another 30 minutes' drive brings you to the Memorial Arch at Eastern View, home to the sign marking the start of the Great Ocean Road, also known as the Great Ocean Road arch. Next to it stands a memorial honouring the people who built the road.That said, this stop really is just hop off, take a photo and you're done — there isn't much else nearby.
🌳 Koala Sleeping Tree
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| A wild koala! |
Next, before lunch, we stopped at a small rest stop 45 minutes' drive from the Memorial Arch, Kafe Koala, where there's a trail along which you can spot wild koalas. Since they're wild — and we only stayed about half an hour — the guide told us in advance there was no guarantee we'd see any. Luckily we spotted two wild koalas; they were up in the trees so we could only see them from a distance, but it was a fun experience. (For a proper close-up look, though, the zoo is still best.)
🏝 Apollo Bay
Apollo Bay is a small coastal town on the Great Ocean Road. In 1845, during a fierce storm, a schooner named the Apollo sheltered in these calm waters — and that's how the bay got its name. It's also where most tour groups and self-driving travellers stop to rest or have lunch. There's plenty of accommodation here too, so if you're planning a two- or three-day trip, you could stay a night here.
Apollo Bay has plenty of restaurants as well as a supermarket, making it an important rest and resupply point on the Great Ocean Road. But our tour only stopped for 45 minutes, so even just having lunch felt rushed — a sit-down restaurant would have taken too long, so we went with a traditional Australian meat pie recommended by our guide.
Apollo Bay Bakery- 125 Great Ocean Rd, Apollo Bay VIC 3233
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| Apollo Bay Bakery |
🌲 Maits Rest Rainforest Walk
Australia has plenty of rainforest ecosystems, and on the Great Ocean Road, within Great Otway National Park, there's a walk that takes you through old-growth rainforest — the Maits Rest Rainforest Walk. It's only about a 15-minute drive from Apollo Bay. Our guide led us along the trail, explaining the rainforest ecology and plants along the way. The path is easy and only 800 metres long, making it a relaxed, refreshing part of the itinerary.
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| Our driver-guide, a retired postman |
Apart from the walkway itself, the rainforest is kept completely pristine, with huge trees, ferns and lots of birdlife — and absolutely no phone reception 🤣. Before leaving, the guide had us all close our eyes, breathe deeply, open up our senses and really take in the feeling of the rainforest.
🏞️ The Twelve Apostles
Next comes the highlight of this Great Ocean Road day trip: the Twelve Apostles!
Along the coast within Port Campbell National Park stands a series of naturally formed limestone stacks. They were once called the "Sow and Piglets", but the name was later changed to the more appealing "Twelve Apostles". Eight of them remain today.
The stacks were formed by wave erosion. Over the past 10 to 20 million years, storms and gales from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the relatively soft limestone cliffs, carving out numerous caves. These caves kept growing until they became arches, which eventually collapsed.
The tour bus drops everyone off at the visitor centre, and it's just a few minutes' walk along the path to the coast to take in these magnificent views. You can also pay extra to take a helicopter flight for an aerial view of the whole Twelve Apostles — a very different kind of grandeur — but if you're on a group tour, choosing the helicopter means you won't have time to walk out to the coastal viewpoints.
When I was researching attractions before coming to Australia, photos of the Twelve Apostles didn't look all that impressive, and I'd even seen people online say Taiwan's east coast is prettier. But after visiting in person, I was genuinely blown away by how vast and magnificent the scenery is!
Just a couple of minutes further down the road is another spot — Gibson Steps, a staircase built into the cliff face. The steps are narrow and fairly steep, so take extra care. At the bottom you reach the beach, where you can view the Twelve Apostles from sand level amid scenery so magnificent it feels like an alien planet from a movie.
🏞️ Loch Ard Gorge
The final stop on our day tour was Loch Ard Gorge, about 2 kilometres from the Twelve Apostles. It's named after the Loch Ard, a British immigrant ship that struck the reef and was wrecked here; the site was named "Loch Ard Gorge" in memory of those who lost their lives.
It's a beach enclosed by towering limestone walls, with the sea flowing in through a narrow entrance — it feels like a hidden paradise, and photographs beautifully. This was the tour's last stop, and the guide gathered everyone for a group photo to round off the Great Ocean Road day trip.
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| The stunning Loch Ard Gorge |
After finishing at Loch Ard Gorge it was around 6pm, and from there it was a 200-plus kilometre drive back to central Melbourne, with one stop along the way for a quick, simple dinner. We got back to the city after about 9:30pm.
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| A mob of wild kangaroos we spotted on the way back |
The Great Ocean Road is one of the must-visit attractions when you come to Melbourne. But if, like us, you only have one day for it and don't want the exhaustion of driving yourself, joining a tour is a great option — it condenses the very best highlights into a single day.
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