The Great Ocean Road is one of the most beautiful places in Australia that we have visited so far. It is perfect for a multiday road trip because there is so much to see along the coastal road.

This has been a tough year due to the lockdown and house hunting, and so we took an early 2021 Christmas break to recharge ourselves – and we also wanted to avoid the crowd and the Christmas closure period.

Five days on the Great Ocean Road might be too long for many people, but we really wanted to take our own time to enjoy and relax at the same time.

In addition, we took an uncommon route as we drove an inland route from the Melbourne city to Twelve apostles, and then drove along the coastline on the way back – usually people do it the other way round.

There are a few reasons, but the most important one is that we prefer a more relaxing trip with less stress because there are fewer cars in this opposite direction. The downside is that we were not able to visit many of the lookout areas along the coastline as they are mostly located on the other way.

 

Day 1: Visit Twelve Apostles, London Bridge

We started our trip at about 11am and reached our motel at Port Campbell just before evening… The Google Map states it would take 3 hours so you can imagine how slowly we drove. 🙂

Since the weather was excellent on the day, we decided to visit a few popular attractions although we just had a long drive. We visited the most popular attraction on the Great Ocean Road: Twelve Apostles.

This was not our first time visiting the Twelve Apostles, but it was exceptionally stunning this time due to the perfect weather!

The walk is very easy and suitable for older people as well. There were very few people here which is a totally different experience than last time – maybe because it was a weekday or maybe the tourism industry is still recovering from COVID.

In order to take advantage of the excellent weather, we also visited London Bridge on the Great Ocean Road – this is another stunning place and we really love the beautiful limestone.

 

Day 2: Visit Loch Ard Gorge and explore Port Campbell town

Loch Ard Gorge is another very popular attraction on the Great Ocean Road, and it is easy to understand why. When we arrived here, we were blown away by its beauty.

We walked some steps down to the beach and surprisingly, no one was here and it felt like a ‘private beach’ to us. So we sat down here for a while enjoying this magnificent view.

As we were staying in Port Campbell for two days, we also explored the town for a bit. But we realised the town is quite small and quiet so we did not do much here… just relaxed in a few cafes while enjoying the peacefulness. We also spotted a wild sleeping koala on a eucalyptus tree!

We especially like this café: Grassroots Deli Café, and we had been here twice as the breakfast was excellent.

 

Day 3: Walking in Otway National Park and reach Apollo Bay

We drove from Port Campbell to Apollo Bay and stayed a night at Apollo Bay Waterfront Motor Inn.

On the way, we took the Maits rest rainforest walk which is one of the most popular walks in Otway national park. It was a little bit steep and was a good short exercise for us.

 

Day 4: Visit Kennett River and Lorne while driving to Geelong

We drove from Apollo Bay to Geelong and stopped at a few places. First, we took the Kenneth River Koala walk hoping to see some koalas but could not find any of them… 😂

Then, we stopped at Lorne, a very popular destination for tourists. Unfortunately, the weather was not great so the view was so-so. We walked along the beach and found a beautiful café and enjoyed the scenery from here.

While driving to Geelong, we stopped by Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery along the way though we did not plan for this. This is a chain in Australia and we visited one in Yarra Valley before, but this time it gives us a more ‘Christmas feel’.

 

Day 5: Geelong

Not only did we drive the opposite route, but we have also done another uncommon thing on this trip which is staying a night in Geelong. It was not long to drive from Apollo Bay back to our home directly, but as I said, we wanted a relaxing trip…

The Geelong region itself is regional Victoria’s fastest-growing area and the houses prices here are surging, so we decided to explore Geelong to see what is so special about it.

The Geelong Waterfront is a beautiful and relaxing place with many statues around it which are really cute.

One thing that we wanted to do in Geelong is to have a good brunch, but then we realised most of the popular cafes are on Pakington Street which is a bit far as we stayed nearby the waterfront.

So we decided to have breakfast at a creperie café along the waterfront, and I had the ‘breakfast crepe’ which is very special and I actually quite liked it – it tasted like eggs benedict but in a crepe 😂

This is the end of our five-day Great Ocean Road trip. Maybe we will try the helicopter ride when our family visits us.