The best time to visit the Great Ocean Road

6 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

There is no closed season on the Great Ocean Road. The Port Campbell National Park is open all year, and the tours from Melbourne run in every month. What changes is the length of the day, the number of people at the lookouts, and when the sun goes down behind the Twelve Apostles. Daylight at the Apostles ranges from almost 15 hours in late December to under nine and a half in late June, and that alone shapes how much of the coast you can fit into a day.

Summer, December to February

This is the warmest and busiest part of the year. Average highs at Cape Otway, the nearest long-term weather station to the Apostles, reach 21.5 °C in January and February, which is about four degrees cooler than Melbourne. Rain falls on five to eight days a month. Victorian schools break up from 21 December 2026 to 27 January 2027, and the towns, beaches and car parks are at their fullest in that window.

Long evenings are the advantage. The sun sets around 8:52 pm at the Apostles in late December and civil twilight lasts until about 9:24 pm, so a self-drive day has time for Loch Ard Gorge in the late afternoon and the stacks at sunset. The visitor centre closes at 8 pm, so check the time of your booked slot. Summer is also when lifesavers patrol the main beaches: at Torquay, volunteers cover weekends and public holidays from November to April, and paid lifeguards add weekdays from December to February.

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race runs from 27 to 31 January 2027 around Geelong, Barwon Heads and Torquay, with the elite races on 30 and 31 January. Expect traffic on the Surf Coast on those days. From summer into autumn, check the Fire Danger Rating each day; the CFA says never to travel into a high-risk bushfire area on a day declared Catastrophic.

Autumn, March to May

School is back from late January, and March sits between the summer and Easter holidays, with average highs of about 20 °C at Cape Otway. Daylight saving ends on 4 April 2027, which moves sunset at the Apostles from around 7:21 pm on 1 April to about 5:40 pm by the start of May. Easter holidays run from 26 March to 9 April 2027 and bring a second busy spell. The Rip Curl Pro surf contest is held at Bells Beach each year; the 2027 date had not been published when this page was written. The Great Ocean Road Running Festival takes over Apollo Bay, Lorne and Kennett River in mid-May 2027.

Winter, June to August

Winter is the wettest season on the coast. Cape Otway records about 15 rain days in July and August, and average highs sit around 13 to 14 °C. On 21 June the day lasts about 9 hours 27 minutes, with sunrise around 7:46 am and sunset at 5:13 pm.

The short days change the tours. Several classic day tours run a cooler-month programme from May to September that adds London Bridge and a chance of sunset on the coast; one of the tour pages states plainly that sunset views cannot be guaranteed. On the dedicated sunset tour, the pickup time moves between 9 and 11 am with the season, and the return to the city between 9:30 pm and midnight.

Winter is whale season. Southern right whales calve at Logans Beach in Warrnambool almost every year between June and September, and a platform in the dunes looks over the beach. The park authority adds that southern right and humpback whales pass London Bridge in winter. No one can promise a sighting, so treat a whale as a bonus.

Spring, September to November

The days lengthen quickly: from about 11 hours 14 minutes on 1 September to 13 hours 43 minutes on 1 November. Daylight saving starts again on the first Sunday in October (4 October 2026), and sunset jumps past 8 pm by November. Rain eases after the winter peak, with around 12 rain days in October and 9 in November at Cape Otway. The park authority names spring and summer as the seasons with the most favourable weather.

From October to April the short-tailed shearwaters return to Mutton Bird Island at Loch Ard Gorge at dusk. Classic day tours switch to their daylight saving programme from October, with up to 90 minutes at the Twelve Apostles and the option of a helicopter flight at extra cost. 12 Apostles Helicopters flies from 10 am to 6:30 pm in summer and from 9 am until an hour before sunset in winter.

Sunset at the Twelve Apostles through the year

At the cliffs the light goes earlier than these flat-horizon times suggest. For the time of day, the park authority says the Apostles are busiest around midday and quieter early in the morning or late in the afternoon, which is the reason reverse tours drive inland first. The weather page has the monthly temperatures and what to pack.