Road tripping with kids in Australia is genuinely one of the best ways to travel as a family — and I say that having done it myself, more than once, with children ranging from toddlers to teenagers. The country is made for long drives: the roads are good, the distances between interesting stops are manageable with the right planning, and the sheer variety of landscapes, wildlife encounters, and experiences keeps kids engaged in a way that airports and hotel lobbies simply can’t.
The key to a successful family road trip in Australia is choosing a route that balances the driving time with genuinely exciting stops — ideally ones that get kids out of the car and into nature. These are the routes I recommend most often, based on experience and on the feedback of families who’ve actually done them.
📋 TL;DR – Best Family Road Trips in Australia
- ✅ The East Coast is the easiest family route: Sydney to Cairns by road has something for every age at every stop — beaches, reef, rainforest, and plenty of wildlife.
- 🚗 Keep driving legs under 3 hours for young kids: Australia’s distances are large — plan realistic daily mileage and build in regular breaks and interesting stops.
- 🦘 Wildlife stops keep kids engaged: Build in kangaroo parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and places where animals can be seen in the wild — these are often the trip highlights for children.
- 🏕️ Camping adds a lot: Kids love camping — and Australia’s national park campgrounds are affordable, beautiful, and full of wildlife. A rooftop tent or family tent trailer opens up huge options.
- ☀️ Choose your timing carefully: School holidays book out fast, and summer temperatures in the Outback are dangerous for children. Aim for April–June or September–October for the best balance.
- 🌊 The Great Ocean Road is perfect for families: Short, dramatic, and full of wildlife — koalas, echidnas, and the Twelve Apostles keep kids talking for years.
🌊 The Great Ocean Road, Victoria
The Great Ocean Road is Australia’s most iconic coastal drive and one of the best family road trips in the country for a very simple reason: almost every stop delivers something genuinely spectacular, and the distances between stops are manageable even with restless children in the back seat. The road runs for 243 kilometres between Torquay and Allansford in Victoria, and it can be driven in a day — but two or three days is far more enjoyable.
The Twelve Apostles are the headline attraction — limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean in configurations that evolve slightly every year as erosion takes its toll. They’re dramatic from the clifftop viewing platforms and even more impressive on a helicopter flight, which is well within the budget of most families and takes only about 15 minutes. Loch Ard Gorge, a few kilometres west of the Apostles, tells the story of a shipwreck in 1878 and has excellent interpretive signage that makes it genuinely engaging for older children.
The koala factor along the Great Ocean Road is significant and completely reliable. The Cape Otway region — particularly the area around Bimbi Park campground — has one of the highest concentrations of wild koalas in Australia. You’ll often see three or four in a single tree without having to leave the car park. For families with young children, a koala in a gum tree at eye level is frequently the single most memorable moment of the entire Australia trip.
🐠 Sydney to Brisbane, the Pacific Coast way
The drive from Sydney to Brisbane along the Pacific Highway and Pacific Coast Touring Route takes about 10 to 12 hours non-stop, but that’s exactly how not to do it. Stretched over four or five days with the right stops, it becomes one of Australia’s great family road trips — a journey through coastal towns, national park beaches, subtropical hinterland, and some outstanding wildlife experiences.
The first major stop north of Sydney should be the Hunter Valley — Australia’s oldest wine region, which also happens to have excellent family-friendly accommodation, hot air ballooning (a memorable family experience), and good restaurants. North of Newcastle, the coast opens up into a series of beautiful beach towns: Port Stephens is excellent for dolphin-watching cruises and whale watching in season; Port Macquarie has one of Australia’s best koala hospitals, where injured koalas can be seen recovering in outdoor enclosures.
Coffs Harbour, about halfway along the route, is home to the famous Big Banana — Australia’s most beloved roadside attraction and a genuinely fun stop for kids — as well as excellent surf beaches and the Solitary Islands Marine Park, which has great snorkelling. The Dorrigo National Park, a short detour inland, contains ancient Gondwana rainforest that is genuinely awe-inspiring, with a skywalk canopy boardwalk over the treetops. Byron Bay at the end of the NSW section is family-friendly, beautiful, and full of things to do.
👉 Book a Sydney Dolphin Watching Cruise on GetYourGuide →
🦁 Adelaide to Kangaroo Island and the Fleurieu Peninsula
For families based in or flying into Adelaide, the loop through the Fleurieu Peninsula and across to Kangaroo Island is one of Australia’s most satisfying short family road trips — compact enough to do in four or five days, but packed with wildlife, beaches, and coastal scenery.
Pair this with Australian Road Trips Ranked to round out your trip.
The Fleurieu Peninsula, about an hour south of Adelaide, has excellent beaches at Goolwa and Victor Harbor — where the horse-drawn tram across the causeway to Granite Island is a child-friendly institution — as well as a natural penguin colony and whale watching off the coast between June and September. Victor Harbor’s Encounter Bay is one of the most reliable whale watching locations in Australia, and the southern right whales often come remarkably close to shore.
Kangaroo Island, reached by a 45-minute ferry from Cape Jervis, is a wildlife paradise that consistently delights children. The wild koalas along the road to Flinders Chase National Park are abundant and easy to spot. The Australian sea lions at Seal Bay allow visitors to walk among them on the beach — one of Australia’s most extraordinary and family-friendly wildlife experiences. Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch in Flinders Chase are geological wonders that require very little effort to reach and produce genuine wonder in children of all ages.
🌴 Tropical North Queensland: Cairns to Cape Tribulation
The drive north from Cairns to Cape Tribulation is one of the most dramatic short road trips in Australia — 140 kilometres through tropical rainforest, across the Cape Tribulation ferry crossing, past wildlife-rich wetlands, and into the ancient Daintree Rainforest. It’s entirely manageable as a long day trip from Cairns but is much better done as a two or three-day journey with an overnight in the Daintree or at Cape Tribulation.
The Daintree is extraordinary for children — the rainforest feels ancient and alive in a way that is palpably different from other forests, and the wildlife is extraordinary. Crocodile river cruises on the Daintree River are a highlight: saltwater crocodiles up to five metres long bask on the banks, and the guides know exactly where to find them. The Mossman Gorge, just south of the Daintree River crossing, has crystal-clear swimming holes in a setting of enormous boulders and ancient rainforest — a perfect family swimming stop.
Cape Tribulation itself — where the rainforest meets the reef — is a magical place to stay overnight. Early morning walks on the beach boardwalk, night walks to spot tree kangaroos and lizards, and snorkelling on the nearby reef make for a genuinely immersive tropical experience. Children consistently describe this as one of the highlights of an Australia trip.
🐬 Perth to Monkey Mia, Western Australia
The drive from Perth north to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia — about 850 kilometres along the Indian Ocean Drive and the North West Coastal Highway — is a big drive, but it’s one of the most rewarding family road trips in Western Australia. The stops along the way are fantastic: The Pinnacles Desert near Cervantes (a landscape of limestone pillars that looks completely alien), Hutt Lagoon near Port Gregory (a lake that turns vivid pink during summer and can be flown over on scenic flights), and the Kalbarri National Park gorges.
Monkey Mia itself is one of those genuinely magical experiences that children never forget. Every morning, wild bottlenose dolphins swim into the shallow water at the beach to be hand-fed by rangers. The routine is brief and carefully managed, but being close to a wild dolphin in crystal-clear, knee-deep water — watching it look up at you with one eye — is as pure a wildlife moment as you’ll find in Australia. The surrounding Shark Bay World Heritage Area also has Shell Beach (a beach made entirely of tiny shells), stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, and dugong-watching boat trips.
🏕️ The East MacDonnell Ranges and Outback loop, Northern Territory
For families with older children who are up for something more adventurous, the West and East MacDonnell Ranges loop out of Alice Springs is an outstanding road trip. The ranges contain a series of spectacular gorges — Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge, Ormiston Gorge — each accessible on short walks and offering natural swimming holes in settings of extraordinary beauty.
Standley Chasm is the most dramatic: a narrow slot canyon that glows orange at midday when the sun penetrates directly down between the walls. Ormiston Gorge has one of the best swimming holes in the Territory. Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park — accessible by 4WD only — contains rare cabbage palms that have survived in the same remote desert gorge since the Ice Age, surrounded by red canyon walls. It feels genuinely prehistoric.
Alice Springs itself has excellent family-friendly attractions — the Alice Springs Desert Park, the Royal Flying Doctor Service Museum, and the Telegraph Station historical reserve — and makes a good base for two or three days of day trips before heading out into the ranges. Combining Alice Springs with a drive to Uluru (5.5 hours south-west) makes for one of the most complete Outback family itineraries available.
🐧 Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island
For families based in Melbourne looking for a weekend road trip that doesn’t require significant planning, the drive to the Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island is hard to beat. The Peninsula itself has wonderful beaches at Portsea and Sorrento, a short ferry crossing to Queenscliff (which children love), the natural hot springs at Peninsular Hot Springs (perfect for tired family legs), and some of Victoria’s best winery restaurants for adults.
Phillip Island, about 90 minutes from Melbourne, has the Little Penguin Parade — a nightly event in which hundreds of little penguins emerge from the surf and waddle up the beach to their burrows. The parade is entirely charming and is one of the most child-friendly wildlife experiences in Victoria. The island also has a large Australian fur seal colony at the Nobbies, excellent surf at Smiths Beach, and a very good koala conservation centre.
👉 Book a Phillip Island Penguin Parade Tour from Melbourne on GetYourGuide →
For more Australia travel inspiration, read our guides to best festivals in Australia, best snorkeling spots Australia, Australia travel tips for first time visitors, best hikes in Australia, east coast Australia road trip, best whale watching Australia, and best glamping in Australia.
