Adelaide to Melbourne inland road trip: Best stops, time & distance
The Adelaide to Melbourne drive along the quickest, inland route is 727km in distance, with an driving time of 8h5m. You may prefer to go the long way via the coast, although an inland Adelaide to Melbourne road trip offers several good road trip stops.
There are two ways of approaching a road trip from Adelaide to Melbourne. The first is to treat it as a thoroughly enjoyable road trip, largely hugging the coast and finishing off along the Great Ocean Road. Do it that way, and the Adelaide to Melbourne drive takes frankly as long as you want it to.
The second option is to go inland on the quickest possible route. This is mostly along the Princes Highway, Dukes Highway and Western Highway, and is frankly not nearly as interesting.
Adelaide brings food tours of the fabulous Central Market, Torrens River cruises, swimming with dolphins and the chance to walk across the roof of the Adelaide Oval. To book Adelaide accommodation, step this way. For a full range of Adelaide tours and experiences, explore here.
Upon arrival in Melbourne, consider ticking you may want to tick Melbourne Cricket Ground tours, Yarra River dinner cruises and cross-city hot air balloon flights off your wish list. For a great range of Melbourne tours and experiences, explore here. To track down the best value Melbourne accommodation, come this way.
14 fantastic experiences that make the most of your free time in Melbourne
- Get the very best views – on a hot air balloon flight over the city.
- See the changing colours of the river – on a sunset kayaking tour – with dinner. (Highly recommended ✅)
- Feast and see the sights at the same time – on a four course dinner cruise along the Yarra River.
- A genuinely excellent street art tour, led by prominent street artists. (Highly recommended ✅)
- The also superb Aboriginal heritage, plants and bush food tour in the Botanic Gardens. (💲 Great value 💲)
- Best of Melbourne bike tour – you can see more on two wheels than walking.
- Hidden laneways bar crawl OR foodie discovery tour OR chocolate and dessert tour.
- Combo ticket for Australian Sports Museum and MCG tour.
- Hassle-dodging advance tickets for the Melbourne Skydeck, Melbourne Zoo, the Ice Bar (with cocktails) and Sea Life Aquarium.
Adelaide to Melbourne distance and driving time
Go the inland route, however, and the Adelaide to Melbourne drive is 727km in distance. That makes for a driving time of around eight hours and five minutes.
15 fabulous Adelaide experiences to supercharge your visit
- DOLPHINS 🐬: Swim with wild dolphins, kayak with the resident bottlenose pod or watch them on a dolphin cruise.
- FOOD AND WINE 🍷: Indulge on Adelaide food tour including Adelaide Central Market. Or try a wine discovery tour with tastings at the National Wine Centre. Or the ultimate Penfolds Magill Estate experience with full estate tour & Grange tasting.
- WILDLIFE 🐨: Spot koalas on a guided Morialta nature hike. Or walk from Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty with entrance to Cleland Wildlife Park.
- CRUISES ⛵: Watch the sun set on a twilight coastal cruise, get to know the city on a Torrens River cruise or take a high tea cruise aboard the Popeye.
- SPORT 🏏: Dare to take on the Adelaide Oval Roofclimb or enter the fabled scoreboard on the behind-the-scenes stadium tour.
- ACTION 🚵♂️: Descend Mount Lofty on a downhill mountain bike tour or kayak along the Torrens River.
If you choose to go via the coast, Australia Travel Questions has a guide to travelling from Melbourne to Adelaide. Just put that into reverse. If you choose to go inland, though, there are a few places en route worthy of your attention.
Adelaide to Melbourne inland drive: Adelaide Hills & Murray River
The Adelaide to Melbourne drive starts off through the Adelaide Hills. Top stops include German-themed town Hahndorf. Here you’ll find German pubs like the Hahndorf Inn and wineries such as the Lane Vineyard and the Howard Vineyard. You’ll then pass the Monarto Zoo on the way to moderately interesting Murray River towns Murray Bridge and Tailem Bend.
Tailem Bend accommodation picks
The best Tailem Bend accommodation choices are:
- For good quality at relatively cheap rates (and a riverside location): Motel River Bend.
- For racetrack views: Rydges Pit Lane Hotel.
- For families: Big4 The Bend Holiday Park.
Once you leave the Murray, though, the Adelaide to Melbourne road trip gets seriously boring. You can enjoy some South Australian silo art in Coonalpyn, but the likes of Keith and Bordertown on the Dukes Highway don’t appear in tourist brochures for a good reason.
👇 7 great day trips while you’re in Melbourne 👇
- Great Ocean Road tour – with koalas 🐨.
- Brighton Beach, Moonlit Sanctuary and Phillip Island tour – with penguins 🐧.
- Yarra Valley wine tour – with gin, cider and cheese 🍷.
- Grampians National Park tour – with bushwalks and LOADS of kangaroos 🦘.
- Mornington Peninsula tour – with hot springs bathing 🛀.
- Wilsons Promontory tour – with all manner of native wildlife 🦘🐨.
- Dandenong Ranges steam train ride – plus wildlife at Healesville Sanctuary and chocolate-tasting in the Yarra Valley.
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Adelaide to Melbourne drive: Grampians and Ballarat
After you’ve left South Australia, things pick up a bit in Victoria, with the Little Desert National Park. That’s worth a detour to nosy around, but then you go through Dimboola to Horsham, one of the gateways to the Grampians region.
Top Horsham accommodation choices
The best places to stay in Horsham are:
- For central location: Comfort Inn Capital Horsham.
- For cabins by the Wimmera River: Horsham Riverside Caravan Park.
- For a solid, cheap motel: Best Westlander Motor Inn.
Mount Stapylton and Mackenzie Falls are among the highlights in the northern section of the Grampians National Park.
If you stick to the Western Highway rather than detouring via the Boroka Lookout, wildlife-packed Halls Gap and Lake Fyans, you’ll pass the Giant Koala at Dadswell Bridge, Stawell and Ararat. From there, Beaufort is the major stop before you hit Ballarat.
Adelaide to Melbourne inland road trip: Ballarat and Lerderderg State Park
The Goldfields city of Ballarat has plenty to do, including fabulous open air museum Sovereign Hill and former Olympics venue Lake Wendouree. The drive from Ballarat to Melbourne takes just under an hour and a half. Satellite cities Melton and Bacchus Marsh are far from thrilling, but there are some good gorge-side walking trails in the Lerderderg State Park.
If you’ve got a particular taste for masochism, you can take the Adelaide to Melbourne bus instead.
Pick your perfect Adelaide day trips
- Barossa Valley tours: 1. Wine-tasting with lunch 🍷. 2. Food and wine tour. 3. Small group wine tour with exclusive VIP tastings.
- Kangaroo Island in a day – including sea lions 🦭, koalas 🐨and national parks.
- Adelaide Hills tours: 1. Sights plus Murray River lunch cruise combo. 2. Small group cheese, chocolate & wine tour with Hahndorf German village.
- McLaren Vale tours: 1. Small group wine tour with lunch. 2. Hop-on hop-off wineries tour 🍷. 3. Food and wine indulgence tour, including the gloriously weird d’Arenberg Cube.
- Victor Harbor and southern highlights tour – including the Granite Island horse-drawn tram.
More South Australia travel
Float down the Torrens River in a BBQ Buoy.
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See the new circular Whyalla Jetty in Whyalla on the Eyre Peninsula.