If you’re considering visiting Australia, a road trip is the best way to see this fascinating country. Here are the top 10 adventurous Australian road trip itineraries.
Choosing the shortest path from A to B on an Australian road trip with vast vistas would be imprudent.
It’s time to put down the boarding pass and pick up the road map to enjoy this Great Southern Land. Here are some spectacular road journeys that showcase the finest of Australia.
1. Tasmania’s East Coast
This Australian road trip tour follows the coast from ancient Hobart to the magnificent Bay of Fires. Passing through St Helens, Swansea, and Bicheno.
Tasmania’s East Coast is stunningly gorgeous and wonderfully calm, with abundant products such as wine, cheese, and seafood, walking trails with plenty of animal sightings, vacant beaches, and a distinct convict heritage.
Take a diversion to Freycinet National Park, rich in granite mountains, calm beaches, blue seas, and abundant birds. If time allows, join the award-winning Freycinet Experience Walk.
- Tips: If staying on the Apple Isle for an extended time, consider bringing your car from Melbourne via the Spirit of Tasmania to save money on car rental.
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2. Great Alpine Road, Vic
This Australian road trip begins in Wangaratta in the state’s northeast and travels 500 kilometers through the Victorian High Country to Metung in the Gippsland Lakes area.
The highest accessible cemented road in Australia travels through mountain ranges, deep valleys, wine districts, and the sparkling rivers of the Gippsland Lakes region. This picturesque splendor is interspersed with ancient communities such as Beechworth, Bright, and Omeo.
Mt Hotham, Victoria’s highest alpine hamlet, is a delight all year, with superb downhill skiing and cross-country routes (245 hectares), trekking, horseback riding, and fishing in the summer.
- Tips: If you’re taking this road in the winter, make sure your car has Diamond Pattern wheel chains.
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3. The Big Lap
This road journey follows Highway One, which connects seven big cities and closely skirts the coastline between Sydney, Cairns, Brisbane, Broome, Darwin, Esperance, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Hobart.
If you have the time (at least six months) and a 4WD, this will be one of the most amazing excursions you’ve ever made. The road encompasses everything fantastic about Australia in one continuous journey, from large city lights to tranquil coastal villages, luscious green rainforest to dusty red desert, lonely waterholes to sugar-white beaches, and ancient rock art to garnish big things.
Detour off the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory to include Kakadu, Uluru, and Alice Springs for the ultimate itinerary.
- Tips: Spend April to September traveling between Broome and Cairns across northern Australia to take advantage of the best weather. This is the dry season when temperatures are mild and most highways are open (during the wet season, they can be closed).
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4. Gibb River Road, WA
This 660-kilometer route, built in the 1960s to carry cattle stock, runs from Derby to Wyndham in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. It is one of the best Australian road trip you should experience!
This is a one-of-a-kind 4WD experience through the gorgeous and inaccessible Kimberley environment, complete with outback cattle ranches, ancient gorges, thunderous waterfalls, sacred Aboriginal sites and rock art, a distinct pioneering history, and interesting individuals.
Bell Gorge; it’s a bit of a trek to get there, but it’ll be worth it. This multi-tiered waterfall falls down layered sandstone into multiple bathing pools.
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5. The Grand Pacific Drive, NSW
This is the best magnificent coastal road trip of 140 kilometers that takes you through rainforests, over the famed Sea Cliff Bridge, and through the coastal cities and townships of Wollongong, Kiama, Shellharbour, and Shoalhaven.
The Grand Pacific Drive showcases New South Wales’s most magnificent beaches while also passing through some of the state’s most spectacular cliff faces.
A chance to visit Kiama and see the impressive blowhole is amazing to experience!
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6. The Savannah Way
This best road trip begins in Wangaratta, Australia, in the state’s northeast and travels 500 kilometers through the Victorian High Country to Metung in the Gippsland Lakes area.
The highest accessible cemented road in Australia travels through mountain ranges, deep valleys, wine districts, and the sparkling rivers of the Gippsland Lakes region. This picturesque splendor is interspersed with ancient communities such as Beechworth, Bright, and Omeo.
Mt Hotham, Victoria’s highest alpine hamlet, is a delight all year, with superb downhill skiing and cross-country routes (245 hectares), trekking, horseback riding, and fishing in the summer.
- Tips: If you’re taking this road in the winter, make sure your car has Diamond Pattern wheel chains.
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7. The Great Ocean Road, Victoria
From Torquay to Allansford in Victoria, one of the country’s most famous road excursions, one of the best road trips in Australia, runs along its southern coast.
What makes it one of the best? A trek down the Great Ocean Road is considered an Australian rite of passage. It travels 243 kilometers through some of Australia’s most beautiful coastline, passing through rainforest, sunburnt cliffs, shipwrecks, and, of course, the renowned Twelve Apostles – now down to eight.
Beyond the Apostles, explore Port Campbell National Park. Loch Ard Gorge, the site of a 19th-century shipwreck; the Island Archway, which collapsed in 2009; and the cliff-face Gibson Steps are all located here.
- Tips: If you’re just going one way, start at Torquay to be on the ocean side of the road, making it easy to stop for lookouts.
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8. Cairns to Cape York, Qld
This 1000-kilometer best road trip begins in Cairns, the gateway to the Barrier Reef, and concludes in the northernmost point of mainland Australia, Queensland’s tip, Cape York.
This picturesque route comprises the Wet Tropics, where two World Heritage locations (the Reef and the Daintree) meet. It consists of red soil, croc-infested river crossings, ancient rock art, and lush rainforest.
The Quinkan Galleries at Laura include a collection of rock art that is said to be 30,000 years old. The Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre provides guided tours.
- Tips: The scenic coastal route via Cape Tribulation, the Bloomfield Track and the Daintree necessitate a four-wheel drive, whereas the inland route follows the fully sealed Mulligan Highway.
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9. Perth to Ningaloo, WA
This west coast road trip in Australia takes you from Perth to Exmouth via WA’s magnificent Coral Coast, passing through Cervantes, Geraldton, Monkey Mia, and Carnarvon.
Is there a more stunning scene than when the blue Indian Ocean meets the rocky outback? Mother Nature at its best, with the Pinnacles Desert, World Heritage Shark Bay, swimming with dolphins, whale sharks, manta rays, and the spectacular gorges of Kalbarri National Park.
From June through September, the colorful wildflowers that blanket this parched environment will also take your breath away.
- Tips: Supplies north of Carnarvon are limited and costly, so plan ahead.
10. The Nullarbor, SA
The road trip to Australia Nullarbor runs for 1256 kilometers between the goldfields of Western Australia and the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.
This famed (nearly) treeless plain meets the Great Australian Bight’s towering sea cliffs. It is home to diverse fauna (emus, kangaroos, dingoes, camels, etc.), unusual caverns, fascinating outback personalities, and the world’s longest golf course.
The remains of Eucla Telegraph Station, which was erected in the 1870s for the overland telegraph and is slowly being consumed by shifting sand dunes.
- Tips: The Nullarbor is sealed but incredibly isolated, so having a full tank of petrol and lots of water is necessary when traveling into the outback. The lodging is simple.
People Also Ask:
How much does a road trip around Australia cost?
You’ve almost certainly heard the average $1 per kilometer rule, and it’s usually correct. If you do a lap of Australia (say, 30,000km), you should budget around $30,000 for the trip.
Is Australia suitable for road trips?
From the lush green rainforests to the nearly 25,000 miles (40,000 km)Â of coastline to the red dust of the Outback, the vertical scale of picturesque road trips available in Australia is difficult to match.
What is Australia’s most scenic drive?
The Great Ocean Road is not only one of the most suitable scenic drives in Australia, but it is also one of the most picturesque routes in the planet. Beginning in Melbourne, your high-quality rental car will take you through some breathtaking scenery, including Bells Beach and the Twelve Apostles.
What is the best beach in Australia?
Misery, a little-known Western Australian beach, has been named Australia’s Best Beach.
