Australia is made for road trips. With over 7.7 million square kilometres of land, a relatively sparse population, and some of the most jaw-dropping scenery on the planet, there is no better way to experience this country than from behind the wheel. I have driven tens of thousands of kilometres across Australia — from the red dust of the Outback to the glittering coastlines of the east and the rugged cliffs of the south — and I can tell you with absolute certainty that Australian road trips are unlike anything else in the world.
But with so many incredible routes to choose from, where do you even start? That is exactly why I have put together this ranked guide. Whether you have a week, a month, or a whole year, there is a road trip here that will change how you see this extraordinary country. Some of these drives are iconic and well-known; others are a little off the beaten track. All of them are worth every single kilometre.
📋 TL;DR — the quick version
- ✅ The Great Ocean Road is number one: It is widely considered the greatest coastal drive in the world, and after doing it, you will understand why.
- 🗺️ The Red Centre Way is unmissable: Uluru, Kings Canyon, and Alice Springs in one epic Outback loop — this is the real Australia.
- 🚗 Western Australia has the most underrated drives: The Coral Coast and the Gibb River Road are world-class but still feel like secrets.
- 🌊 The Pacific Coast Touring Route is perfect for first-timers: Sydney to Cairns along the coast is one of the best road trips for those new to Australia.
- 🏔️ The Snowy Mountains Highway surprises everyone: Most travellers overlook it, but it is one of the most beautiful drives in the country.
- 🌿 Tasmania is a road tripper’s paradise: Small enough to drive around in a week, diverse enough to keep you entertained for a month.
- ⛽ Fuel up often on remote routes: Some stretches between petrol stations in the Outback can be 300+ kilometres.
🏆 How I ranked these road trips
Ranking road trips is inherently subjective — what blows one traveller away might leave another cold. So I have used a combination of factors: scenery, accessibility, variety of experiences, road conditions, and that hard-to-define feeling of being truly immersed in Australia. I have driven all of these routes personally, and I have talked to hundreds of travellers about their favourites over the years. The rankings reflect both my own experience and the collective wisdom of people who love this country as much as I do.
I have also tried to include a balance of routes from different parts of the country. Australia is enormous, and it would be a shame to suggest that all the best driving is in one region. From the tropical north to the temperate south, from the arid interior to the lush east coast — great road trips are everywhere if you know where to look.
🌊 1. The Great Ocean Road, Victoria
There is a reason the Great Ocean Road tops almost every list of the world’s best coastal drives — it is simply stunning. Stretching 243 kilometres from Torquay to Allansford along Victoria’s south-west coast, this road hugs dramatic limestone cliffs, swoops through ancient rainforest, and delivers the kind of ocean views that make you want to pull over every five minutes. The Twelve Apostles are the headline act, but the journey there is just as spectacular as the destination itself. I have driven it four times and I still get excited every single time.
Allow at least two days, ideally three. The towns along the way — Lorne, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell — are worth lingering in. Sunrise at the Twelve Apostles, when the golden light hits the limestone stacks and barely anyone else is around, is one of the most beautiful moments I have ever experienced in Australia. Drive it west to east in the morning so the sun is behind you for the best photography.
👉 Book a Great Ocean Road guided tour on GetYourGuide →
🔴 2. The Red Centre Way, Northern Territory
If the Great Ocean Road is the most beautiful drive in Australia, the Red Centre Way is the most profound. This roughly 1,100-kilometre loop connects Alice Springs, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and Kings Canyon, passing through landscapes so ancient and otherworldly that they can genuinely make you reconsider your place in the universe. The red dirt, the spinifex, the silence — there is nothing like it anywhere else on Earth.
Uluru alone is worth the trip. Standing at the base of the rock at sunrise and watching the colours shift from deep purple to orange to burnt red is one of those experiences that lodges itself permanently in your memory. But Kings Canyon, often overlooked in favour of its more famous neighbour, is arguably just as spectacular. The 6-kilometre rim walk rewards you with views over the lost city of domes and a sense of scale that is hard to process. Allow at least four days for this route — rushing it would be a genuine crime.
🌿 3. The Pacific Coast Touring Route, NSW to Queensland
Running from Sydney all the way to Cairns — nearly 2,900 kilometres — the Pacific Coast Touring Route is one of the great long-distance drives in the world. It is also the most accessible introduction to Australian road tripping, passing through a steady succession of beach towns, national parks, and coastal cities that give you a real feel for the breadth of what the east coast has to offer.
The route takes in Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, the Whitsundays, and Cairns, among dozens of other stops. Most travellers take two to four weeks, but you could easily spend three months on this stretch if you let yourself slow down. The beaches of the Sunshine Coast, the rainforests of the Daintree, the reef off Cairns — it just keeps giving. If you are doing your first big Australian road trip, start here.
🦘 4. The Gibb River Road, Western Australia
The Gibb River Road is not for the faint-hearted. This 660-kilometre unsealed track cuts through the heart of the Kimberley — one of the last great wildernesses on Earth — and it demands a properly equipped 4WD, some experience with remote driving, and a healthy respect for the elements. But if you are willing to make that commitment, the Gibb River Road will reward you with gorges, waterfalls, and landscapes so magnificent they will make your jaw drop.
The gorges are the stars of this route — El Questro, Bell Gorge, Windjana Gorge, Manning Gorge. Each one is a world unto itself, with turquoise swimming holes surrounded by ancient sandstone walls and more wildlife than you can count. Camp under the stars, swim in the gorges at dawn, and let the Kimberley work its magic. This is one of the most remote and extraordinary drives in the country, and the people who have done it talk about it for the rest of their lives.
🌸 5. The Coral Coast, Western Australia
Perth to Exmouth along Western Australia’s Coral Coast is a drive that most east-coast Australians have never done, which means it still feels genuinely wild and uncrowded. The route passes through Cervantes and the Pinnacles — thousands of eerie limestone spikes rising from a yellow desert — then continues north through Geraldton, Shark Bay (where you can swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia), and the Ningaloo Reef, where whale sharks gather between March and July.
The Ningaloo Reef alone makes this drive worth doing. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, you can snorkel directly from the beach — no boat required — and the marine life is extraordinary. Manta rays, turtles, reef sharks, and thousands of colourful fish are just a few strokes from shore. The road itself is easy and well-sealed for most of the route, making this a great choice for road-trippers who are not comfortable with serious off-road driving.
If you’re planning further afield, our guides to Best Family Road Trips Australia and Best Road Trips Western Australia are well worth a look.
🌲 6. Tasmania’s Grand Circle Route
Tasmania packs more remarkable landscapes into its small area than almost anywhere else in Australia. The island is roughly the size of Ireland, but it contains ancient temperate rainforests, dramatic mountain ranges, sweeping river valleys, and some of the cleanest air in the world. A circuit of the island — roughly 1,000 kilometres including major detours — is one of the most varied and satisfying road trips in the country.
The highlights are plentiful: the Freycinet Peninsula with its iconic Wineglass Bay, Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park with its challenging Overland Track, the Tasman Peninsula with its breathtaking sea cliffs, and the Huon Valley with its ancient Huon pine forests. Hobart is a surprisingly sophisticated base, with an outstanding food and bar scene centred around Salamanca Place. Allow at least ten days, and slow down — Tasmania rewards patience.
🏜️ 7. The Nullarbor Plain crossing
Few drives in the world test your sense of adventure like the Nullarbor. Crossing between Adelaide (or Perth) and the other, this legendary highway stretches across a flat, treeless limestone plain that seems to go on forever. The longest straight stretch of road in the world — 146.6 kilometres without a single bend — is here. The sky is enormous. The silence is profound. And the Southern Ocean cliffs near the Head of Bight, where you can watch southern right whales from clifftop platforms, are simply magnificent.
The Nullarbor is less about scenery than about experience. It is about understanding the scale of this continent, the isolation of the interior, and the particular pleasure of driving for days through emptiness. Pack plenty of water, a good audiobook collection, and an open mind. The roadhouses are friendly and the sunsets are extraordinary. This is the drive you do when you want to understand what Australia really is.
🏄 8. The Legendary Pacific Highway, NSW
The old Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane — the original coastal route before the Pacific Motorway was built — is one of those drives that feels like going back in time. It meanders through small towns, national parks, and beaches that the motorway travellers zip past without a second glance. The Manning Valley, Coffs Harbour, and the Tweed Coast are particular highlights, each offering a different flavour of New South Wales coastal life.
This is also a great route for surfers. The beaches along this stretch of coast — Crescent Head, Scotts Head, Angourie — are legendary in the surfing world, and the waves are often uncrowded. Even if you do not surf, walking the headlands above these breaks and watching the sets roll in is one of life’s genuinely great pleasures.
🌋 9. The Savannah Way, Queensland to Western Australia
The Savannah Way is an epic 3,700-kilometre route from Cairns to Broome, cutting across the top of Australia through some of the most remote and dramatic country in the world. It passes through Gulf Savannah, Kakadu National Park, Katherine Gorge, the Bungle Bungle Range, and into the Kimberley — a procession of natural wonders that would take a lifetime to fully explore. This is genuinely one of the great road trips on Earth.
This is not a drive for the unprepared. You need a solid 4WD, sufficient spare tyres, and a good understanding of remote travel safety. Sections of the route can be impassable in the wet season (November to April), and some stretches are more than 200 kilometres from the nearest town. But for those who are ready for it, the Savannah Way is transformative. The sheer wildness of it — the saltwater crocodiles, the vast floodplains, the ancient rock art — is unlike anything you will experience in southern Australia.
🌄 10. The Flinders Ranges, South Australia
The Flinders Ranges rise dramatically from the South Australian plains north of Adelaide, offering some of the best outback driving in the country without requiring you to venture thousands of kilometres from a major city. The centrepiece is Wilpena Pound — a vast natural amphitheatre formed by ancient quartzite ridges — but the whole region is extraordinary, from the ochre cliffs of Brachina Gorge to the wildflower-carpeted plains of the Flinders in spring.
Based from the town of Hawker or the Wilpena Pound Resort, you can spend three or four days exploring the ranges by car and on foot. The night skies here are extraordinary — with minimal light pollution and high elevation, the Milky Way stretches overhead in a way that leaves most visitors speechless. The Flinders Ranges is one of the most underrated destinations in Australia, and the drives through it are some of the most beautiful in the country.
👉 Book a Flinders Ranges tour from Adelaide on GetYourGuide →
🌊 11. The Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
The Eyre Peninsula juts into the Southern Ocean south-west of Adelaide and is one of the best kept secrets in Australian road tripping. The coastline is extraordinary — wild, windswept beaches of brilliant white sand backed by blue-green water that rivals anything in the tropics — and the food culture here is exceptional. The oysters, the prawns, the tuna — the Eyre Peninsula produces some of the finest seafood in the world, and eating it fresh off the boat at a coastal roadhouse is one of life’s great pleasures.
The route around the peninsula — from Port Augusta to Port Lincoln and back via Streaky Bay and Ceduna — covers around 1,800 kilometres and takes about a week at a relaxed pace. The Coffin Bay National Park, where you can collect your own wild oysters at low tide, and the Murrawijinie Caves outside Streaky Bay are particular highlights. This is a drive that rewards those who are willing to go a little further and a little slower.
🏔️ 12. The Snowy Mountains Highway, NSW
The Snowy Mountains Highway from Canberra to Albury is one of the most overlooked great drives in Australia. It passes through the highest accessible terrain on the continent, winding through alpine meadows, past ski resorts and glacial lakes, and over mountain passes that offer views stretching to the horizon. In summer, the wildflowers are extraordinary. In winter, the snow-covered peaks and frozen lakes are genuinely breathtaking.
For more inspiration, check out Australian Cities Ranked and Best Road Trips South Australia.
Kosciuszko National Park is the star attraction here, with Australia’s highest peak (Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228 metres) accessible by a short walk from the car park at Charlotte Pass. The Charlotte Pass Village and Thredbo are great bases for exploring the high country, and the Yarrangobilly Caves — a system of ancient limestone caverns — are a fascinating detour. Most Australian travellers have never done this drive, which means you will have much of it to yourself.
🌺 13. The Tropical North Queensland loop
Cairns is the gateway to one of the most concentrated collections of natural wonders anywhere in Australia. Within a few hours’ drive, you can access the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest (the oldest surviving tropical rainforest in the world), the Atherton Tablelands with their waterfalls and crater lakes, and the rugged Cape York Peninsula. A loop from Cairns covering these highlights takes about five to seven days and delivers a remarkable diversity of experiences.
The drive to Cape Tribulation through the Daintree is one of the most extraordinary in Australia — you are literally driving through the world’s oldest tropical rainforest to reach a beach where the forest meets the reef. The fact that you can cross the Daintree River on a small cable ferry and then drive a well-maintained sealed road to one of the world’s most extraordinary environments is one of those things that makes Australia genuinely unique.
🌿 14. The Margaret River region, Western Australia
The drive through the Margaret River wine region south of Perth is one of the most pleasant in Australia — gently rolling hills covered in vines, towering karri forests, dramatic surf beaches, and an exceptional food and wine culture that rivals anything on the east coast. It is not a long drive — you can cover the main loop in a couple of days — but the density of outstanding experiences makes it feel much bigger than it is.
The Cape to Cape Track runs along the coast through the region, and even if you are not planning to walk the whole 135-kilometre trail, driving between the two lighthouse capes — Cape Naturaliste in the north and Cape Leeuwin in the south — gives you access to some of the best coastal scenery in Western Australia. Stop at the wineries, eat at the farmgate restaurants, and swim at Meelup Beach. This is the civilised end of Australian road tripping, and it is wonderful.
🐊 15. The Top End, Northern Territory
The drive from Darwin into Kakadu National Park and on to Katherine is one of the most culturally and naturally rich experiences in Australian road tripping. Kakadu is enormous — larger than some countries — and it contains ancient Aboriginal rock art, extraordinary bird life, billabongs teeming with wildlife, and waterfalls that plunge from escarpment faces into crystal-clear plunge pools. Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls, accessible only in the dry season (May to October), are among the most spectacular waterfalls in Australia.
Katherine Gorge — officially Nitmiluk National Park — is the highlight south of Kakadu, with a series of 13 gorges carved through ancient sandstone that can be explored by canoe, on foot, or by helicopter. The combination of Kakadu and Nitmiluk in a single road trip is one of the most rewarding experiences in the country, and the Aboriginal cultural heritage that pervades both parks adds a depth and meaning that is genuinely moving.
👉 Book a Kakadu National Park guided tour on GetYourGuide →
🚗 Essential tips for Australian road trips
No matter which route you choose, a few practical points will make the difference between a smooth trip and a stressful one. Australian roads can be long and remote in ways that travellers from smaller countries are simply not prepared for. Getting these basics right means you can focus on the scenery and the experiences rather than worrying about logistics.
- Book accommodation in advance during peak season. Popular spots on the Great Ocean Road, in Tasmania, and along the east coast fill up months in advance between December and February. If you are travelling during school holidays, book everything before you leave home — you will not find a room otherwise.
- Never drive at dawn or dusk in rural areas. Kangaroos, wombats, and other wildlife are most active at dawn and dusk, and hitting a large kangaroo at speed is genuinely dangerous. Experienced Australian road trippers avoid driving during these hours outside of urban areas. If you must drive, slow down and stay alert.
- Fuel up at every opportunity in remote areas. On routes like the Gibb River Road or the Savannah Way, you can cover 300+ kilometres between petrol stations. Running out of fuel in remote Australia is not just inconvenient — it can be life-threatening. Never pass a petrol station without topping up if you are less than half full.
- Get a SIM card with good data coverage. Telstra has the best rural coverage in Australia by a significant margin. If you are doing any remote driving, get a Telstra SIM or a roaming plan that uses the Telstra network. Google Maps offline maps are also essential — download them before you leave.
- Consider a campervan rental in Australia for long trips. Australia has an extraordinary network of caravan parks, free camping sites, and rest areas. A campervan gives you the flexibility to stop wherever you like and sleep in some genuinely incredible locations — clifftops, riverbanks, desert plains. For trips of two weeks or more, it is often more practical and more enjoyable than booking motels every night.
