The Great Ocean Road is pretty much THE place to go to when you’re in Melbourne. The first time I went to Melbourne, I only had two days to explore the city so I didn’t manage to include this in my itinerary. So this time around, I knew I had to go! Unfortunately, because it was only me and my sister, my initial plan of renting a car and doing the Great Ocean Road tour on our own was out – since we’re both super lazy to drive LOL. Instead, we decided to join the Go West tour because it came highly recommended. Even better, it was selling at a discounted price on Klook while we were booking!

Having said that, if there are four or more of you in your group and you’re willing to drive, I highly recommend you simply rent a car via GoGet. It’s ridiculously easy to rent, a lot cheaper vs paying the per person fee for a tour, and you have more control over your time. Win-win-win for all scenarios in my opinion

Anyway, this blog is meant to share some of my thoughts on:

• Tips on what to bring with you
• What’s my suggested itinerary for the Great Ocean Road tour?
• Sharing of my Great Ocean Road experience
• Would I recommend Go West’s Great Ocean Road tour?

Tips on what to bring

• Fully charged phone, camera and powerbank: You’ll pass through truly beautiful sights throughout the day. It would be such a shame if you weren’t able to capture them!
• Raincoat, cap, and umbrella: It rains nonstop at the rainforest (Great Otway National Park), plus weather in Melbourne is ridiculously unpredictable. Better safe than sorry!
• Wear rubbershoes with good grip as certain areas are slippery, especially during the rainy season
• Picnic or packed lunch: While you can grab lunch at Apollo Bay, they also have picnic tables laid out where you can enjoy your delicious packed (and cheap) lunch for free! There are also water fountain stations where you can refill your water
• Download the Go West Tours app before you go! Even if you don’t join the tour, the Go West app provides super helpful commentary and history on the key sites you’ll pass along the Great Ocean Road. It’s like you have a guide in your pocket – for free!

Suggested itinerary (for a DIY tour)

6:00 AM Depart from Melbourne

10:00 AM Twelve Apostles Visitor Facility: suggest you head here first so that you can get ahead of the tourist crowd

11:00 AM Loch Ard Gorge

12:00 PM Great Otway National Park: this is optional – it’s essentially a rainforest

1:00 PM Lunch at Apollo Bay

3:00 PM Kennet River: get the chance to see cute koalas

4:30 PM Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch at Eastern View: learn the history of how the Great Ocean Road came to be

5:30 PM Visit the beach at Torquay

8:00 PM Back at Melbourne

Sharing of my Great Ocean Road experience

Note: This is based on the Go West tour and follows the set itinerary provided. As such, it will vary from my suggested itinerary (above) – which is based off how I would’ve laid out the itinerary if I were on a DIY tour

Pick up from Rendezvous hotel

Pick up time was 7:45 AM, which is such a ridiculously early time, especially when you’re on vacation – but we managed! Here’s a photo of the coaster van that picked us up. The best part? There’s free WiFi AND the next stop (Torquay) is roughly ~1.5 hours away – plenty of time to get some additional shut eye. Interestingly, on the way out of Melbourne, you’ll cross a bridge and see all the industrial factories that’s outside the city AND the hell-ish traffic jam of folks who live in the suburbs coming into the city for work

Torquay: Beach visit + complimentary morning tea

Torquay is a surfing town, renowned for its waves that come straight from Antarctica. While its waves aren’t the biggest, they are known to be very consistent – hence why surfers come here throughout the year. Fun fact: This is also the town where Rip Curl and Quiksilver, two of the biggest surfer brands, started!

While here, we took advantage of the bathroom (very clean), and had a quick breakfast courtesy of Go West. The breakfast consisted of free tea, milk, chocolate, coffee, and cakes! If you’re done eating, you can stroll along the beach (check out the waves!) as well as the marshland

Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch at Eastern View: History lesson + photo stop

While here, you can read up on an informative commentary about the Great Ocean Road’s history and its place in Australian folklore. Who knew that the Great Ocean Road was built to give ex-servicemen jobs after the World War, and to link up all the seaside settlements for better access? Well, now you know!

Kennet River: Koala sighting

Kennet River is a sweetly-scented eucalyptus forest where you can enjoy chance sightings of local koalas in their native habitat!

While here, our guide shared a couple of fun facts about koalas, such as:

–          Koalas are marsupials, which essentially means they have a pouch

–          Koalas are only pregnant for 30 days and they give birth to really small koalas, who then remain in the pouch for 9 months to a year. Once they become too big to carry in the pouch, they’ll then leave and hang onto their mom’s back until the mom kicks them out to have another baby

–          Koalas always live in eucalyptus forests, since eucalyptus leaves = their main food. However, eucalyptus leaves have very little nutrional value. Implication: they need to eat vast amounts of leaves, plus their digestive system needs to work really hard just to get the needed nutrients. Likewise, they have to conserve energy which is why they sleep for close to 20 hrs each day

Lucky us! While we were there, we had a couple of koalas cross our path and had the distinct pleasure of seeing one koala waddle past us, and another koala happily cling to a eucalyptus tree while munching away

Apollo Bay: Lunch

The food at Apollo Bay ranges from 10 AUD to 35 AUD, so it’s actually pretty decently priced. Likewise, there’s a famous scallop pie that’s sold here. I was keen to try but given the long queue and the price (12 AUD), I decided not to bother.

Aside from restaurants, there are also souvenir shops, supermarkets and retail stores (where they sell discounted jackets and souvenirs). The stop usually lasts for 45mins, so you have to order food quickly. Otherwise, you can bring your own food and there are picnic tables where you can camp out. There are also bathroom facilities and water refill station available by the camp area

Because I hate eating in a rush, which is what inevitably happens in these types of tours, my sister and I decided to pack our own lunch and eat them at our own pace. Given all the extra time we had, we managed to roam around the town and window shop! There’s not much worth buying though…

Great Otway National Park: Rainforest and rain galore

Interestingly, this was my first time to experience a cool temperate rainforest vs the typical tropical rainforest found near the equator. Pfft, to be honest, this part was pretty meh – all I know is there were lots of trees, it kept on raining, and everything was ridiculously muddy! While here, we checked out this track (~20 mins to go around), where you start at the waterfall area, take the slippery stairs up and keep walking. After awhile, it’ll loop back to your original starting point

Couple of fun facts: If the rest of Melbourne is raining, for sure, it’ll also be raining here as rain clouds pass by this rainforest to get to the city. However when it’s hot, the humidity in the rainforest also rises and coalesce into small rainy clouds over the forest

I highly recommend you bring an umbrella, cap or rain proof gear + wear rubbershoes with good grip if you want to trek around the rainforest. Otherwise, you’ll get rained on and potentially slip on the slippery and muddy ground

Port Campbell National Park: 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge

To be honest, I thought the 12 Apostles was kinda anticlimactic. They’re essentially rocks jutting out of the sea… There’s loads of that in the Philippines too! Not only that, but there aren’t even 12 rocks – apparently, there’s only ~8 or so… Just goes to show what good marketing can do! Anyway, here’s a photo of the 12 Apostles in all its rocky glory

Keep in mind that it’s SUPER windy here, so don’t wear any loose items. I almost lost my cap here! It can also get pretty cold – good thing you can buy coffee at the info center

After the 12 Apostles, we passed by Loch Ard Gorge, which is just a ~3 mins drive from the 12 Apostles Visitor Facility. This gorge was named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground after a 3-month long journey from England to Melbourne. Out of all its passengers, only two people survived: Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael. Tom was such a strong swimmer – he was actually the one who swam out and saved Eva! This captured the public imagination and there was huge clamor for them to get married. Eva refused though, and she sailed back to Ireland soon afterwards. Tom would go on to be part of other ship crews, 2 of which also ended up aground. So, either Tom is a really good swimmer or he has really really bad luck – probably a mix of both!

Anyway, there are three trails for you to choose from while here. I highly suggest doing the rightmost one first (if you’re short on time). This trail goes down to Loch Ard Gorge and you’ll see the most beautiful rock formations!

Afterwards, you should check out the leftmost trail (think it’s called the Island Archway) as it provides a nice top-level view of the gorge.

Finally, you can do the middle trail (Razorback) if you have time.

Gibson’s steps

Ordinarily, there was supposed to be one more stop before dinner at Gibson’s Steps. Unfortunately, due to the strong windy and surf weather, these steps were closed so we weren’t able to check it out. Totally fine with me, our guide shared some horror stories where people were swept away by wind and surf while here!

Dinner

Afterwards, we were brought to this nice Chinese place for dinner. It’s essentially rice/noodle in a box. My sister and I were SO happy to see Southeast Asian staples such as Char Kway Teow and Nasi Goreng. Unfortunately, they put way too much soy sauce in their dishes. Given the price though, it was pretty good value for money (HUGE servings!)

From here, it was another ~2 hours to get back to Melbourne

Would I recommend Go West’s Great Ocean Road tour?

Obviously this was the only Great Ocean Road tour I’ve ever tried, but I was really pleased with it for a couple of reasons:

• Tour started and ended on time. I love it when tours are punctual as it also allows me to plan my day better
• Amazing tour guide! James was super friendly and very enthusiastic. Even though we spent most of the time on the coaster asleep, he kept his energy and enthusiasm all throughout the tour. I also thought his music choices were super funny and in tune with the scenery we were passing through at the moment
• The tour group size was just right: ~20 people in one coaster. I also really liked our tour group because everyone was conscientious and would show up on time – so we didn’t waste time waiting around for people
• Itinerary was planned out well. I felt like we went to all the key areas I would’ve wanted to see, without feeling rushed despite being part of a tour group
• Available WiFi on the coaster – admittedly, I didn’t need this since we purchased a data plan for Australia, but this is always a plus in my books

Overall, the tour price isn’t cheap (around ~USD 90), but given how smoothly everything went, I thought it was money well-spent. Will definitely recommend this to my other friends and family!

MELBOURNE BLOGS

• What to see and do when in Melbourne
• Eating my way through Melbourne – top picks!
• Day trips from Melbourne (Great Ocean Road, Brighton Houses, St Kilda)
• Great Ocean Road tour experience

DETAILED SYDNEY 6-DAY ITINERARY

• Tips and tricks to enjoy a family trip to Sydney
• Day 1: Airport + Hotel and supermarket + The Rocks Tour
• Day 2: Taronga Zoo + Manly Beach + Golden Century dinner
• Day 3: City Tour + Fish Market + Paddy’s Market + Darling Harbor
• Day 4: Blue Mountain + Leura Village
• Day 5: Opera House + Rocks Market + Australian Heritage Hotel
• Day 6: Bronte to Bondi Coastal Walk + Watson’s Bay + Harbor Bridge + Luna Park

OTHER SYDNEY BLOGS

• Eating my way through Sydney – top picks!
• Best nature trails and areas in Sydney – my top picks!
• Events to catch in Sydney – my top picks!
• My experience skydiving with Sydney Skydivers