Discover the beautiful South Coast of New South Wales and the unique nature of the Snowy Mountains with this 5 day Sydney To Melbourne road trip itinerary!
Driving from Sydney to Melbourne is an iconic road trip, whether you choose to take the Great Ocean Road or the Inland route via the snowy mountains that I will be talking about in this blog post! Being only a short distance, compared with other Australian road trips, the drive from Sydney to Melbourne gives you the opportunity to slow down and spend a little more time exploring each destination along the way! This trip is perfect for a long weekend or week long break and is best done during the summer time!
This Sydney to Melbourne road trip guide includes
- The road trip itinerary
- Road trip tips
- Where to stay along the way
- The best places to visit between Sydney and Melbourne
Our 5 Day Sydney to Melbourne Road Trip Itinerary
Tips for Australian Road Trips:
Great apps to use:
- Camper Mate – Shows all the camping spots and what type of vehicle you can take there, the cost and the facilities
- NSW Parks – A great app to discover the national parks of NSW
- All Trails – A hiking app with descriptions or walks and places to visit
Best things to pack on an Australian camping road trip
- A tent – We bought ours really cheaply from K-Mart and it was perfect
- A portable charger – Most free campsites don’t have power!
- Outdoor chairs and/or a picnic mat
- A torch and a light to hang from the tent
- Toilet paper, baby wipes, sanitiser etc.
- 2 Towels (if you have space) – one for the beach and one for a shower
- Blow up beds and duvets instead of mats and sleeping bags if you are diving and have space in the car!
Where to Stay on the Sydney to Melbourne drive
We decided that on the drive from Sydney to Melbourne, we wanted to make our road trip as close to nature as we could. This meant stopping at all the natural wonders, swimming in lakes and waterfalls, and camping. This meant that we could drive into the bush and stay in the National Parks in the Snow Mountains and along the beach in Durras! Below are the campsites we stayed at!
Campsites between Sydney and Melbourne:
Durras Lake North Holiday Park, Durras
$33 a night for an unpowered camp site
This was quite an expensive campsite but it was the only one open at the time of year we were travelling (late March). It was located just 100m from Durras North Beach, a beautiful plane of golden sand. The amenities were all really nice (although you did have to pay extra for the shower) and there was a BBQ and picnic area!
Goongerah Camping Ground, Lakes Entrance
Free campsite
This was a free campsite that we found through the CamperMate App. It was on an off road track, which we drove in a 2WD and it was ok, but i would not necessarily recommend it! The road was about 10 minutes long, down a big hill. At the bottom was the most incredible little campsite next to the river! You could swim here in the river and it is a great place for kids!
The campground has a toilet and each site has its own fire pit!
The best places to visit on your Sydney and Melbourne road trip
Sydney to Durras
This drive takes around 4 hours without including stops! There are so many places you can stop on this part of the drive, and I would recommend spending a night along the way maybe in Jervis Bay if you have time! There are some great campsites in the bush and secret beaches to go and see!
Seacliff Bridge
You have probably seen so many pictures of this bridge! It is on Lawrence Hargrave Drive just south of Clifton. When you arrive there is a 10 minute hike up to this amazing lookout! This is a great spot to put the drone up too!
Kiama
Kiama is a super beautiful seaside town 2 hours south of Sydney. It is known to be a place most people go for weekends away to escape from the city so can be quite busy on weekend! If you stop here you have to stop at the Kiama Blow Hole. It is a big blowhole on the cliff that you can walk down to and have a look at!
Jervis Bay
An hour further south of Kiama is Jervis Bay. This is a big bushland area with national parks, seaside towns and beautiful beaches! I would recommend staying one or two nights here, either camping in the national park at somewhere like Green Patch, glamping at The Woods Farm, or staying in a hotel in Huskison.
Places to visit in Jervis Bay:
- To Eat: Kanpai Japanese
- Honeymoon Bay
- Hyams Beach
- Murrays Beach
- Scottish Rocks
- Steamers Beach
Durras
Durras is known for having a beautiful long beach that captures the sunset perfectly! There is little in the town itself so I would recommend bring your own food here to cook at the campsite or eat as a picnic on the Durras North beach!
Durras to Lakes Entrance
Mallacoota beach
This is probably one of the most beautiful and photogenic beaches I have been to! When you arrive in the car park the part of the beach you see doesn’t look so great but if you walk down to the right, past all the rocks and around the corner, you reach this amazing little rock pool area with crystal clear blue water and big rock formations! We spent hours here swimming around, snorkelling with fish and exploring the rock pools!
Lakes Entrance to Bright
Joop’s Jetty
Joop’s Jetty is a crater that was man made as the dismantle site of a gold digging dredge. It is said to be 40m deep at its deepest part! It was such a beautiful swimming spot. There is a jetty to jump off, a floating barge to swim to, and if you swim across to the other side there is a rope swing that you can jump off! It is a beautiful place to stop and swim, or even just have a picnic!
Bright
Sinclair’s Waterhole
Sinclair’s waterhole is a part of the river that passes over rocks and forms this amazing pool. The top of the swimming hole is many rocks forming small waterfalls you can sit in, almost like a natural spa! It is not so busy here and a great place to spend the afternoon swimming!
Chinamen’s Waterhole
This is more of a big lake with a beach entry. Its a really beautiful place to swim too but there is less fun aspects to it that the others that are more waterfalls!
Mount Buffalo
Mount Buffalo National Park covers the whole bushland mountain area next to Bright. It has so many waterfalls, hikes and trails you can follow, as well as ski fields in the winter! The Horn at Mount Buffalo is a great walking track, around 45 minutes, to the highest point in the mountain ranges, where you can see a view of the whole landscape! Its amazing!
Ovens River Swimming Pool
This is the main swimming area in Bright, located in the centre of the town by a little park. This area gets incredibly busy, but there is still a lot of space around to find a place to set up and feel like you are by yourself in the water! There are a lot of families around here so it’s a great place to bring kids for a swim!
Lady Bath Falls
These are located in Mount Buffalo National Park. There is a beautiful small waterfall, surrounded by flat rocks and shallow rock pools, so you can sit and enjoy the water flowing down the river! This is probably my favourite of the waterfalls we saw, especially as it was so quiet and there was hardly anyone there! From here, there is a track to 2 other waterfalls, but these are both just view points and neither of them can be swum in!
Rollasons Falls Track
This is a 3km bush track that ends in the most beautiful waterfall! It is very easy walking, although it is all down hill (and then up hill on your way back). The waterfall itself has so many layers and different pools to swim in! The main waterfall has a small pool half way down, and then a larger pool at the bottom (as you can see in the photos below). The water then continues to flow down smaller waterfalls, through rocks pools, to another waterfall further down. It is again, like a natural spa!
Bright to Melbourne
From Bright to Melbourne it is about a 3.5 hours drive. You could split this up and make stops along the way as the whole area to the south is made up of different national parks! We were on a tight schedule and had to drive back straight from Bright unfortunately!
