Melbourne to Sydney Coastal Drive: 1384 km/859 miles (Approx 19 hours)
Make the most of your trip by travelling at your own pace and choosing what suits you best, from our suggested itinerary below.

Take the coastal route for fine food and wine, fabulous beaches and charming beachside towns.

Sample the region's finest at the wineries dotted along the Mornington Peninsula. Drive on to Phillip Island to spot koalas in the trees, watch seals at play and see the little penguins come in after a day in the ocean.

Travel east, taking in dramatic landscapes, deserted surf beaches and the pristine waterways of the Gippsland Lakes along the way. Go slow and spend some quality time unwinding amid the stunning natural surrounds of the Wilsons Promontory and Croajingolong national parks, and stop off in Narooma for a day of whale watching out on the Tasman Sea.

Soak up the coastal vibe, enjoy a variety of watersports, and dine on ocean fresh seafood at resort towns like Merimbula, Batemans Bay and Lakes Entrance as well as smaller, quieter communities in Metung, Mallacoota and Paynesville.

DAY 1 MELBOURNE - MORNINGTON PENINSULA (80Kms)
MORNINGTON PENINSULA is arguably Melbourne's best kept secret. Some of the highlights of the area include Art and craft markets, antique stores, coastal and bush walks, and koala and penguin reserves, enabling viewing in a natural environment. The region has much of Victoria's earliest history, excellent golf courses, great restaurants and one of Australia's finest wine producing regions. There are a number of good vineyards to explore such as Dromana Estate and MainRidge Estate. Perhaps visit Peninsula Hot Springs, the first natural hot springs and day spa centre in Victoria. Natural thermal mineral waters flow into the pools and private baths providing the idyllic setting for relaxation and rejuvenation. At Peninsula Hot Springs you can bathe in the naturally healing waters of mineral rich thermal pools.

There will be time today to explore the many fascinating attractions that abound on this scenic peninsula. There are plenty of bush and coastal walks that can be taken, you may wish to visit one of the eighty vineyards and wineries here or spend some time on one of the beautiful surfing beaches at nearby Portsea and Sorrento.

SORRENTO / PORTSEA – Attractions in Sorrento include the Marine Aquarium on St Albans Way where visitors can see the seals being fed, or take a cruise on Port Phillip Bay and swim with dolphins and seals. Sorrento Beach, along the Nepean Highway, is ideal for swimming in the safe waters while the back beach with its tall imposing cliffs, larges waves and strong currents, is favoured by surfers.

DAY 2 MORNINGTON PENINSULA - LAKES ENTRANCE (364 kms)
TRARALGON has always been a stopping-off place on the way to somewhere else. In the earlydays, it was frequently used by either graziers on their way to the mountain country, or prospectors heading to the goldfields. While today the town itself has a large commercial base, with paper and power industries in the area, it is still used as a stopover on the way to the Alps or the lakelands of Gippsland. The Tambo Cheese Factory is based in Traralgon and offers a wide variety of Gippsland cheeses along with local crafts. Traralgon is close to the Moondara State Park and reservoir and Baw Baw National Park.

SALE is situated on the Melbourne side of Lakes Entrance and is the operations centre for the nearby Bass Strait Oil Fields. The Sale Canal and port can be found just off the main highway at Cullen Park. Further along the canal is the swing bridge, built across the Latrobe River in 1883. The bridge provided a route across the river to Port Albert, the main port of entry to Gippsland in the mid-1800s. There are many features of interest in this old town, including the ornate St. Paul’s Cathedral which was originally built in 1885; Bishops Court, resident of the Bishop of Gippsland, constructed in 1885; and the Our Lady of Sion Convent, built in 1892-1902.

BAIRNSDALE is the gateway to Victoria's Gippsland Lakes District, a popular holiday resort for fishing and water sport enthusiasts. The town features galleries, craft shops and museums. The Hillmay House Antique Museum is an 1890’s furnished historic home, which contains a nursery with an excellent display of baby furniture and dolls. The Historic Museum and Resource Centre is a two storey building housing memorabilia while the grounds are scattered with machinery from a bygone era. In the Main Street you will find St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, which was built in 1913 and is noted for its exquisite murals.

DAY 3 LAKES ENTRANCE
LAKES ENTRANCE is at the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes, Australia's largest inland water system. It is a popular holiday destination with wonderful beaches as well as a spectacular hinterland with mountains, rivers and forests. Wildlife in the area includes dolphins, water birds, kangaroos, wombats and koalas. The artificial entrance of the lakes to the ocean was completed in 1889, and there are still visible signs of the equipment used to bring logs and rocks from the inland for the construction. A short walk across the footbridge brings you to the Entrance and Bass Strait, with Ninety Mile Beach stretching away into the distance.
 
Take a full day to explore Lakes Entrance. In Lakes Entrance itself, the information centre, located on the corner of Marine Parade and the Princes Highway, is a good starting point for an investigation of the town and the general area. There are free tourist drive brochures, arts and crafts, maps, souvenirs and national park information.

Day 4 LAKES ENTRANCE - MERIMBULA  (270 kms)
ORBOST is a timber town which sits high in the forested mountains that support its main industry. Much of the area is protected as parkland and the Rainforest Centre run by the Conservation Department details the intrinsic value of the temperate rainforests found in the area. North of Orbost the Snowy River National Park offers excellent walking tracks and the Snowy River is popular with rafters and canoeists. Errinundra National Park further east is a plateau that is home to a magnificent cool temperate rainforest which features raised walking platforms and information boards. The Slab Hut Information Centre on the edge of town was built by John Moore in 1872 and provides a wealth of information on the township of Orbost and the surrounding area.

MERIMBULA is the holiday 'resort' of the Sapphire Coast. Situated between Tathra and Pambula on the coast, Merimbula welcomes many thousands of tourists throughout the year. The town has a population of around 4,000 (and far more in summer) and is situated around the beautiful coastal waterways of Merimbula, Top and Back Lakes. These clean tidal lakes provide the perfect site for this holiday town. Their changing parade of blues each day and the many water sports that can be enjoyed on the lakes make Merimbula's waterways a major attraction for visitors.

DAY 5  MERIMBULA - BATEMANS BAY -(180 kms)
BEGA isset in a valley at the junction of the Bega and Brogo Rivers and is surrounded by rich dairy country. Bega is a handsome, historic town with a proud tradition of cheese making. Over the past 100 years, Bega Cheese has come to dominate the Australian cheese market, and the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre tells the story of the cheese-manufacturing process and the company’s growth. It's housed in a faithful reproduction of the original factory. The stunning, sculpted coastline of Mimosa Rocks National Park is close by.

BERMAGUI is an angler’s paradise. The reason why those looking for black marlin and yellow fin tuna are almost invariably successful is because the continental shelf is closest to the mainland here, so there is great fishing just off the shoreline. Bushwalking is also a favourite pastime at nearby Wallaga Lake – the biggest in New South Wales and a significant breeding area for black swans.

DAY 6  BATEMANS BAY- SYDNEY  (274 kms)
BATEMANS BAY is situated on the mouth of the Clyde River which boasts very pure water; the local oysters are excellent, as is the fishing. The local lakes of Durras, Coila and Tuross are popular for aquatic activities. Lake Coila is also famous for its prawns. Nearby Pigeon House Mountain in Morton National Park is renowned among bushwalkers, and there are walking trails like the CornTrail, which follows the route down the Clyde Mountain used by the early settlers to bring produce to the coast.

PEBBLY BEACH, located in the Murramarang Naional Park, is already known widely as the home of the surfing kangaroos (a myth arising from a photograph of a kangaroo in the low surf, probably chased there by a dog).

Although they will not be surfing when you visit, you will find a large resident kangaroo population at Pebbly quite happy to be patted or to pose for a photograph. The Pebbly Beach turn-off is about 10 kilometres south of Termeil and it is about eight kilometres over a gravel road to Pebbly itself.

NOWRA is a bustling centre for the Shoalhaven district, an area given to dairying, vegetable growing and timber milling. Nowra has a lot to offer the visitor including surfing, tranquil lakeside beaches, offshore and river fishing. Meroogal, a historic home built in 1886, is open for public inspection. Nowra also has an excellent historic museum.
BERRY is a historic town, which occupies part of what was a 28,300 hectare property owned by Alexander Berry in the early nineteenth century. The National Trust has classified many of Berry’s buildings, including the Bunyip Inn, a historic guesthouse that dates from 1889, when it was a bank building. The Coolangatta Historic Village Resort is housed in cottages once used by convicts. Berry has many antique shops, a museum, art galleries and good restaurants which draw people into town.

KIAMA’s name is thought to derive from the Aboriginal “kiaram-a”(meaning ‘where the sea makes a noise’). Tourists flock to see the blowhole, which shoots water into the air up to a height of 60 metres. Also popular, are the National Trust-classified row of restored timber terrace cottages in Collins Street, which now house craft and antique shops.

WOLLONGONG colloquially known as ‘the Gong’, was Australia’s first country municipality and is now the third largest city in New South Wales. The local lighthouse was built in 1872; the Illawarra Historical Society Museum has a Victorian parlour, Mount Kembla Village has a pioneer kitchen, blacksmith’s shop, original miners’ huts and a reconstruction of a tragic mining disaster in 1902.

HYAMS BEACH, is a popular holiday spot on the South Coast of NSW. The name refers to both the charming seaside village and the beach itself, which is surrounded by beautiful natural attractions that include Jervis Bay National Park to the north and Booderee National Park to the south. Hyams Beach is renowned for having 'the whitest sand in the world'. Choose from a charming assortment of seaside cottages, old-school beach houses and sleek modern homes to stay a mere stone’s throw from this amazing stretch of Jervis Bay.

ULLADULLA is a major tourist centre of the south coast. There is much to see around the harbour and wharf where trawlers of the fishing fleet are anchored in the harbour. Each Easter Sunday, the traditional Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony is conducted on the harbour breakwater. This is a religious custom, which has been performed by the Italian fisherman for many generations, and there is a great carnival atmosphere around this time. There are also many great diving locations around the area, and typical of resort towns along the South Coast, Ulladulla is surrounded by many beautiful beaches - Mollymook, Lake Conjola and Bendalong.

5 night option
- Mornington,  Victoria - 1 Night - Best Western Plus Brooklands of Mornington Motel    
- Lakes Entrance, Victoria - 1 Night - Best Western Coastal Waters Morot Inn Lakes Entrance     
- Merimbula, New South Wales - 1 Night - Best Western Fairway Motor Inn     
- Batemans Bay - New South Wales - 1 Night - Best Western Sun Seeker Motor Inn    

8 night option
As above plus
- 3 Nights accommodation at Clarion Suites Gateway Melbourne, Victoria   

16 night option
As above plus
- 3 Nights accommodation at the Sydney Boulevard Hotel
- 5 Nights accommodation at the Novotel Sydney Manly Pacific