How to See the Great Ocean Road in 2 Days: A Realistic Itinerary

The Great Ocean Road gets squeezed into a single rushed day trip more often than any other drive in Australia, and it’s a shame, because two days changes everything about how it feels. You go from ticking off the Twelve Apostles for a photo to actually experiencing the coastline, the rainforest detours, and the little towns strung along the way.

I’ve done this drive as a rushed day trip and as a relaxed two-day loop, and there’s no comparison. Two days lets you stop when something looks good instead of watching the clock the entire time.

This itinerary starts and ends in Melbourne, covers around 500 kilometres of driving in total, and builds in enough flexibility that a slow coffee stop won’t wreck your afternoon.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🚗 Day 1 covers Melbourne to Apollo Bay, via Torquay, Bells Beach, and the rainforest at the Otways.
• 🪨 Day 2 covers Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles and back to Melbourne, the most iconic stretch of coastline.
• 🌅 See the Twelve Apostles at sunrise or late afternoon for far better light and dramatically smaller crowds than midday.
• 🏨 Book Apollo Bay or Lorne accommodation ahead, especially on weekends and school holidays.
• 🌳 Don’t skip the Otway rainforest detour, it’s a completely different landscape from the coast and most day-trippers miss it entirely.
• 🐨 Kennett River is the best spot for wild koalas, often visible right from the road without any tour needed.
• ⛽ Fuel up before Lorne, prices climb steeply the further you get from major towns.

🌊 Day 1: Melbourne to Apollo Bay

Leave Melbourne early, ideally before 8am, to give yourself the whole day without racing the sunset on the first leg.

1. Torquay. The unofficial start of the Great Ocean Road and Australia’s surfing capital. Stop at the Australian National Surfing Museum if you have half an hour, or just grab a coffee before the drive properly begins.
2. Bells Beach. A short detour off the main road to one of the most famous surf breaks in the world. Even if you’re not surfing, the lookout over the point break is worth the five-minute stop.
3. Anglesea. A quieter beach town with a golf course famous for the kangaroos that graze on the fairways most afternoons.
4. Lorne. A good lunch stop with a proper main street, plus the Erskine Falls detour just inland if you want a short rainforest walk before continuing.
5. Kennett River. Slow down here — this stretch of road is one of the most reliable places in Victoria to spot wild koalas dozing in the gum trees right beside the road.
6. Great Otway National Park. Turn inland for the afternoon and drive through cool temperate rainforest to see the Otway Fly treetop walk or the Maits Rest boardwalk, both easy, short walks through genuinely beautiful forest.

Arrive in Apollo Bay by late afternoon, check into your accommodation, and use the last light for a walk along the town’s long, quiet beach.

👉 Book a Great Ocean Road Day Tour on GetYourGuide →

🪨 Day 2: Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles and home

This is the day most people picture when they think of the Great Ocean Road, and it deserves an early start to make the most of it.

🌄 Cape Otway Lightstation

A short detour to Australia’s oldest surviving lighthouse, with dramatic cliffside views and a decent chance of spotting more koalas along the access road.

🌊 The Twelve Apostles

Arrive as early as you can manage. By mid-morning the car park fills with tour buses, and the viewing platforms get genuinely crowded. Early light also does the limestone stacks more justice than the flat glare of midday.

🕳️ Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto

Just a few minutes further along, this gorge has a proper beach you can walk down to and a shipwreck history worth reading about on the information boards. Most day-trippers skip it entirely, which makes it feel far less crowded than the main Apostles viewpoint.

From here, you have a choice: continue on to London Bridge and Port Campbell for a slower finish, or turn inland via the fast route through Colac back to Melbourne if the day is running long.

👉 Book a Twelve Apostles Sunset Tour on GetYourGuide →

🏨 Where to stay overnight

Apollo Bay is the obvious midpoint, but it’s not the only option, and each choice changes the shape of your second day slightly.

• 🏘️ Apollo Bay keeps you close to Cape Otway and gives you an early start on the Twelve Apostles, roughly an hour’s drive away the next morning.
• 🌲 Lorne is a better base if you’d rather spend more time in the Otways and don’t mind a longer second-day drive.
• 🪨 Port Campbell puts you right at the Twelve Apostles’ doorstep, ideal if you want sunrise photos without an early alarm.

⚠️ Mistakes that ruin the two-day version

The most common mistake is trying to also fit in Grampians National Park on the same trip. It’s a beautiful region, but bolting it onto a Great Ocean Road itinerary usually means rushing both.

The second is skipping the inland Otways detour entirely to “save time” for the coast. This is where a lot of the trip’s variety comes from, and missing it makes the drive feel like one long coastal road rather than a proper regional loop.

The third is not checking the return route. Driving the entire coast road both ways adds hours; cutting back to Melbourne via the Princes Highway from Port Campbell is significantly faster if you’re short on time for the return leg.

Two days is genuinely the sweet spot for this drive — enough time to slow down and actually see the coastline, without needing a full week off work. Book your overnight stay ahead of a weekend trip, start both mornings early, and you’ll come home with a very different impression of the Great Ocean Road than the day-trip crowd.