Iconic Great Ocean Road Tour From Melbourne Including The Great Otways National Park

Are you thinking of a Great Ocean Road tour from Melbourne? Do you also want to check out the Great Otways National Park? Well, this post will tell you all about a day tour with Hike and Seek from Melbourne. However, even if you are wanting to self-drive the Great Ocean Road, this post will give you some top places to stop on your journey.

In this post, I will be telling you all about a Great Ocean Road tour from Melbourne with Hike and Seek, and where to go in the Great Otways National Park including the Californian Redwoods and Hopetoun Falls.

This post is all about the Great Ocean Road tour from Melbourne including the Great Otways National Park.

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Hike and Seek:

Hike and Seek  are an adventure tour company who operate out of Melbourne. They have a couple of different tours, and personally I have been on three of their trips. Check out the links below for other tours I have done with them.

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I have really enjoyed using this tour company, as I found that the guides are very knowledgeable and interesting and the tour itself is a small group, active tour which takes you off the beaten track. I would highly recommend anyone to use this company if they are visiting Melbourne without a car and would like to escape into nature.

The Day Of The Great Ocean Road Tour:

The tour started at 7:20am outside Hamer Hall in Melbourne CBD. Mark, our guide for the day, greeted us and then our small group (8 people) jumped into the van heading for the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a fair distance from Melbourne (around 211km) and it took us around 2 ½ hours to get there. Hike and Seek do the Great Ocean Road tour in reverse to most other tour companies, meaning that they drive to the end and work their way back to the start in order to beat the crowds. This worked really well for us!

Here is a link to the actual tour:

First Stop: The 12 Apostles at Port Campbell:

Our first stop was at Port Campbell where we stopped to walk the short boardwalk in order to see the 12 Apostles. Even though the name includes the number 12, because of erosion, there are not actually 12 Apostles standing. However, the view from the boardwalk is not to be missed!

Second Stop: Gibson Steps:

The second stop which we made was to Gibson Steps. Here it is necessary to walk down the 86 steep steps to the beach in order to look out at the Gog and Magog sea stacks. The day I went, the weather was a little overcast, and the sea was very rough. However, still very impressive to see.

Warning: Watch out for snakes on the path on the way down Gibson Steps. There are warning signs up near the car park but they are quite common, especially when it is sunny!

Third Stop: Lunch:

By this time, it was already lunch time. We stopped at a fantastic restaurant called The Perch at Lavers Hill. I highly recommend stopping at this restaurant if travelling on your Great Ocean Road tour as it had a nice atmosphere as well as delicious food. Out at the back of the restaurant, there is also a beautiful garden with lots of bird feeders where you can watch many different birds swooping in.

For lunch, I took a lamb steak with mash potato and vegetables and it was delicious! I only wish I could have gone back again for another meal!

The Great Otways National Park:

After lunch it was time to head inland a little to the Great Otways National Park to go for some little hikes in nature. The perfect activity after eating such a delicious meal.

Fourth Stop: Hopetoun Falls:

Hopetoun Falls is in the Great Otways National Park and makes a perfect stop while on your Great Ocean Road tour! The car park is fairly small, and soon gets full – so be prepared to park on the side of the road and walk down. The walk to the waterfall itself is fairly short and all downhill but will include around 200 steps. The floor can get muddy so be careful not to slip.

If you are not able to do the walk down to the falls, by the car park there is also a viewing platform where you can look through the tree line down to the falls.

The waterfall is beautiful. You are not able to go all the way up to the waterfall, but the view from the platform will not disappoint you. It feels like you are deep in the rainforest (and haven’t walked only for 15 minutes).

After climbing back up the 200 steps and having a little breather at the top, it was time to hit the road again to continue our Great Ocean Road tour.

Fifth Stop: The Californian Redwoods:

The next stop was just a short drive away from the waterfall and this was to the Californian Redwoods in the Great Otways National Park. This forest is perfect for anyone looking to get lost in nature. There are around 1500 Californian Redwood trees here in the forest and some of them are up to 50-55 metres high! (They may not be as big as the ones in California, however, they are still very impressive).

These Californian Redwoods are a must on a Great Ocean Road tour but if you have longer, you could easily spend a whole day here. There are walking trails available, or you could just spend time in the peace of the forest, next to the small river that runs by the side.

After being awestruck by these grand trees, it was time for us to jump back in the van and head to Apollo Bay!

Sixth Stop: Apollo Bay:

Apollo Bay is a beautiful seaside village on the edge of the Great Otways National Park and part of the Great Ocean Road. It is the perfect place to stop, either to get some supplies, do a little shopping in some of the souvenir stores, or grab an ice-cream and head to the beach! I did the latter, and got a delicious ice cream from Dooley’s Ice Cream – and I can highly recommend. They had a huge variety of flavours as well as some very quirky or uniquely Australian ice creams such as Vegemite!! I took honey malt and stracciatella (1 scoop of each) and they were both creamy and delicious!

Seventh Stop: Kennett River:

After the beach and ice cream, we hopped back in the van and continued are Great Ocean Road tour to Kennett River where Mark told us, it is usually possible to see koalas in the wild. He was right, during our visit to Kennett River, we came across two different koalas. I was super excited about this, as I have been in Australia for MONTHS, but haven’t seen a wild koala and on this day, I got to see 2 in one day.

The first koala we saw was high up in a tree on the road behind the caravan park (to the left of the car park). The second koala was in the Kennett River nature walk area. The koala was so close I could have almost touched it! Incredible.

I would highly recommend stopping at Kennett River if you are wanting to look for koalas. Apparently it is very common to see Koalas here, especially in those two spots that I mentioned. If you have longer on your Great Ocean Road tour, there is also a longer 15km walk which starts at the Kennett River.

Then we got back into the van for one final stop before we headed back to Melbourne.

8^th Stop: Teddy’s Lookout:

If you are wanting a fantastic view over the Great Ocean Road, then Teddy’s Lookout is an unmissable stop for you! After driving up a super steep road, you will be rewarded with views of the Great Ocean Road along with the beautiful ocean. If you enjoy hiking and have a little more time, there are also some hiking trails which leave from here.

Finally, it was time to start heading back to Melbourne after such an amazing day. The people in the group were interesting and easy to get on with and Mark had made the day very enjoyable. We had done so much in our 12 hours since leaving Melbourne, I didn’t really want to go back to the city!

Conclusion:

If you are thinking of going on a Great Ocean Road tour, you will not be disappointed. Whether you self drive or go with a tour company like Hike and Seek (LINK), the beauty of that area will be unforgettable! The only regret I have, is not being able to stay for longer!

It has already been added to my list of places to go back to, including doing the multi day Great Ocean Road Walk.

Safe travels for your Great Ocean Road and Great Otways National Park adventure, I hope you have a blast.

Love,

Once again, here is the link to the tour:

This post was all about the Great Ocean Road tour from Melbourne including the Great Otways National Park