Apollo Bay to Port Campbell drive: Best stops, distance and time

Attractions between Apollo Bay and Port Campbell: Maits Rest and Castle Cove Lookout

Further along, you’ll come to the Maits Rest Rainforest Walk. This 800 metre boardwalk heads through the rainforest past 300-year-old trees. Again, there are good wildlife-spotting opportunities. The turn-off down Lighthouse Road towards the Cape Otway Light Station comes shortly afterwards.

Stay on the Great Ocean Road, however, and you’ll pass the Aire River Wildlife Reserve around Lake Hordern and reach the coast again at the Castle Cove Lookout.

It’s a very temporary coastal sojourn, however, as the route swiftly veers back inland towards Johanna and Lavers Hill.

In Johanna, the Johanna Ocean View Lookout is worth a photo stop, but surfers will want to take the detour down to Johanna Beach – one of the best surfing beaches in Victoria.

Apollo Bay to Port Campbell road trip: Lavers Hill and Melba Gully

Around Lavers Hill are a couple of waterfalls – South Chapple Falls is very close to the town centre, and Anne’s Cascades is the highlight of Melba Gully. You can also see glowworms at Melba Gully.

From there, keep going past the Crowes Lookout towards Wattle Hill, where there’s another potential beach detour. Wreck Beach and Moonlight Beach are next to each other.

Otherwise, the Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park in Gellibrand Lower provides a basic wildlife park experience, and the Great Ocean Road returns to the coast at Princetown. The Princetown Wetlands Boardwalk is an amiable diversion here, but many of the Great Ocean Road’s star attractions come on the stretch from Princetown to Port Campbell.

Click through to the next section: Princetown to Port Campbell.