Multi-day tours on the Great Ocean Road

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

A day tour from Melbourne spends close to eight of its hours driving. Stretch the trip over two days and the same distance leaves room for walks, a quieter evening on the coast and a morning at the lookouts before the day-trippers arrive. With three or four days, tours go inland to the Grampians or carry on west to South Australia and drop you in Adelaide.

The tours on this page are coast-only trips with a night in Apollo Bay, round trips from Melbourne that include the Grampians, and one-way journeys between Melbourne and Adelaide. Pickups are from inner-city points in Melbourne rather than hotels on most of them, so check the meeting place on the tour page.

Two days on the coast

Around and About Travel runs a 2-day tour in an 11-seat minibus that picks up from most central Melbourne hotels and hostels or a nearby point. It spends both days on the coast, with beaches, small towns, waterfalls and lookouts, and the chance to see kangaroos and koalas. The night is spent in Apollo Bay in a dorm bed in a shared room, with upgrades possible. Morning tea and fresh fruit are included on both days; other meals are not. Our page on Apollo Bay covers the town.

Australian Natural Treasures Touring takes a different approach for the same length. Pickup is at your city hotel or at Federation Square, and day 1 starts with the West Gate Bridge, the Geelong waterfront, Torquay and Bells Beach before morning tea and a kangaroo stop. The night is in a 4-star property with a two-course à la carte dinner and breakfast; lunch is extra. The operator can cancel if too few people book, with a full refund.

Into the Grampians

Most multi-day tours combine the coast with the Grampians, a mountain range inland that some itineraries also call Gariwerd. The base there is Halls Gap. The 3-day tour that tops our list follows the Great Ocean Road on day 1 with koalas, rainforest and the Twelve Apostles, and spends the night in Warrnambool. Day 2 goes to Tower Hill and up to the Pinnacle Lookout in the Grampians before the second night in Halls Gap. The 24-seat coach collects you from inner-city points in Melbourne, and the price covers shared rooms with communal facilities, two breakfasts, two dinners, all national park fees and guided bush walks of about 6.5 kilometres.

Reviews of this tour praise the guide, the planning and the walking. The only recurring wish is a little more time on the walks to stop and look at the views. The operator excludes children under 6, people over 80 and anyone with low fitness or limited mobility, so this is not a tour for a relaxed pace.

Autopia Tours runs a 3-day round trip on a similar plan: the Memorial Arch and the coast on day 1, a night in Warrnambool, then the waterfalls and lookouts of the Grampians and a night in Halls Gap. Rooms can be private with ensuite or budget shared rooms, and two breakfasts and two dinners are included, cooked with the group's help. Two 2-day tours squeeze the coast and the Grampians into one overnight in Halls Gap. One includes lunch at a bakery in Apollo Bay and returns to Melbourne at about 17:30 on day 2. On these shorter trips the bush walks are about 4 kilometres.

One way to Adelaide

Several tours link Melbourne and Adelaide one way, so you do not have to drive back. Autopia Tours offers the route in 2 days, with a stop at a chocolaterie, the Great Ocean Road and a night in Halls Gap, or in 3 days with nights in Warrnambool and Halls Gap and more time on the coast down to Apollo Bay. Each ends at a drop-off point in Adelaide city. On the 2-day version, guests aged 75 and over need a medical certificate.

See Adelaide takes four days and departs Melbourne on Monday mornings. Day 1 runs from Melbourne to Port Campbell; later days include the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves and a wine tasting with lunch in Langhorne Creek before Adelaide. You stay three nights in 4-star accommodation, lunch is included on every day and breakfast from day 2, while dinners are on you. There is no hotel pickup in Melbourne. For the opposite direction, a 3-day tour starts in Adelaide, hikes in the Grampians, passes volcanic landscapes and ends with the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge before Melbourne.

Walking the coast

The Great Ocean Walk runs for more than 100 kilometres from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles and is usually walked east to west over eight days. The park authority warns of stairs, long climbs and descents, and sections that turn wet, muddy or slippery. Beach and river crossings can become unsafe at high tide or in rough surf. Independent walkers need to book campsites in advance, at most three people per site, and groups or operators must lodge their itinerary at least 14 days before setting out; details are on the Great Ocean Walk page of the park authority. A 4-day guided hiking tour covers highlights of the walk with nights in 3.5-star accommodation.

Seasons and booking

These tours have no fixed season in their descriptions, but the time of year changes what you get. Around the winter solstice the Twelve Apostles have only about nine and a half hours of daylight, from 07:46 to 17:13, so a day that starts at the coast and ends in Halls Gap can end in the dark. In midsummer the light lasts until almost 21:00. From June to September, southern right whales calve at Logans Beach in Warrnambool almost every year, and the council has built a viewing platform in the dunes. Over summer the CFA asks travellers to check the Fire Danger Rating every day, and never to travel into a high-risk bushfire area on a day declared catastrophic.

Cancellation terms are the main practical difference from a day trip. Several of these tours refund in full only up to 14 days before departure, the 4-day tour up to 7 days. For ideas on combining a tour with days on your own, see our itineraries.