Experience the best of Great Ocean Road

Returned soldiers built the road between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to those killed in the First World War. It begins near Torquay, where Bells Beach is one of Australia's famous surf breaks, and ends near Warrnambool, clinging to cliffs above the Southern Ocean and dropping into seaside towns such as Lorne and Apollo Bay.

Inland from the coast, the Great Otway National Park has tall tree ferns, waterfalls and eucalypt forest, and koalas often sit in the trees at Kennett River. At Cape Otway, a lighthouse completed in 1848 is among the oldest on the Australian mainland. Further west lies the Shipwreck Coast, with the Twelve Apostles, stacks of limestone standing off the cliffs, and Loch Ard Gorge, named for a ship wrecked there in 1878.

Seafood suits the route, from fish and chips on the harbour at Apollo Bay to rock lobster, with cool-climate wines and cheese from farms behind the coast. The weather changes quickly on this shore, and southern right whales come close to Warrnambool between about June and September.