The Towns in the Great Ocean Road

Before I wrap-up my Great Ocean Road travel story, I need to write in a separate post the towns that you will more likely to stop and stay while travelling on this long road. The Great Ocean Road is indeed a long stretch with 243 kilometres starting from the town of Torquay to Allansford.

It is one of the most scenic coastal drives in Australia that you really have to stop and admire this nature trip. Maybe 2 full days would be enough but in our case we stayed for 3 nights, thus we stayed in 3 different accommodations in 3 different towns. We were immersing ourselves in each town we stopped by going to the shops, buying local products and eating in the area’s popular cafes and restaurants. You don’t have to do it on your GOR adventure but these are the requirements of my boys if I will make them travel with me. They’re high maintenance (I know, right?) but it’s my excuse too to not cook and wash dishes at least on those days.

Lorne

On our first we day we went directly from Melbourne airport to Lorne which is a really beautiful town, it is where you can find the Memorial Arch and the Pool House (pictured above). We never stayed here but we drove around and had breakfast on our second day at Lorne Larder. We originally planned to eat at the more popular Swing Bridge café and backed out because of the long queue. But Lorne Larder was not a disappointment, they had the most delicious ham we’ve ever tasted. After breakfast we drove up to Teddy’s lookout for that incredible view of a winding part of the Great Ocean Road. It was a sunny day and I haven’t seen the bluest sea anywhere else but here.

Port Campbell

I find this small cosy town pretty and livable. It sits on a little inlet with a safe swimming beach and a big Surf Life saving club next to it. We stayed at Sea Foam Villas on our second night and we’re glad it was next to the beach with awesome water views (hotel reviews on my next post). I reckon you have to stay in Port Campbell for a night because it is the closest town to the 12 Apostles and the other attractions. The weather was really good that day when we arrived that we got time to have a mini picnic on the beach just to chill after a long driving.

We had breakfast the next day at Grassroots Deli Café, I loved their soy latte and they had shelves of local products that I ended up buying 2 packs of chocolate mix granola.

Aireys Inlet

This is such a quaint charming town that I’ll never forget because of its stunning lighthouse and incredible sunset. My family had so much fun on our first night of stay, see full story here.

Torquay

Torquay was the last town we stopped and stayed the night in. Although it was really cold and windy the entire time we were there, we still had a fabulous stay and mostly because our accommodation at Wyndham was top-notch. After checking in at the hotel we swang by Bells Beach which is known as the surfing capital of Australia and the birthplace of iconic brands Rip Curl and Quicksilver. But I still don’t know how those surfers survive the freezing water temp.

For our dinner we went to Italo’s and enjoyed their crispiest garlic pizza. We also ordered a calzone but the nutella was forgotten so they ended up not charging us for it, nice gesture from them at least.

How weird it was to experience extreme weather conditions in only a few days at the Great Ocean Road so it’s really important to bring different kinds of clothing. There are other nice coastal towns worthy of visiting like the Apollo Bay and Anglesea but we just can’t stop at every town that we passed by.