Bordering the southeast coast of Victoria, The Great Ocean Road is a 243-kilometer drive surrounded by endless views, incredible lookouts, and various small towns.
If you know me personally, you would know that The Great Ocean Road has been on my bucket list since I moved from the U.S. to Australia. You can imagine how excited I was when the day finally came for our Great Ocean Road Adventure.
Like many people, we love traveling with our pup, Freyja. With working from home the past year, Freyja’s definitely gotten used to our constant presence at home, and so the thought of leaving her was less than ideal. When it came to this particular trip, we wanted to find a way to travel the Great Ocean Road, but in a pet-friendly way.
If you’ve done some research on the Great Ocean Road, you will find that majority of the Great Ocean Road is actually not pet-friendly at all. With most of the Great Ocean Road encompassing various National Parks, dogs are usually not allowed in any National Parks in Australia.
This makes traveling the Great Ocean Road in a pet-friendly way rather tricky. After hours of searching for pet-friendly accommodations, we decided that instead of leaving Freyja in an Airbnb for hours on end while we were out exploring, a campervan seemed like the perfect solution to explore but have Freyja with us the whole time.
Unfortunatley, the dilemmas didn’t stop there. After we arrived at the solution of a campervan, we found that most campervan rental companies aren’t actually pet-friendly. Thankfully, Apollo Camper, one of Australia’s most popular campervan rental company is, in fact, pet-friendly!
Our Wandering Mind is thankful to be partnering with Apollo for our Great Ocean Road Pet-Friendly Adventure. As always, all opinions are my own.
Apollo Euro Tourer
During our trip, we opted for Apollo Euro Tourer, a two-seater Mercedes campervan. This top-of-the-range deluxe campervan features a few luxurious features that made our campervan experience a bit more luxurious while on the road. It’s ideal for couples with only two seats, but we found it the perfect size for the three of us.
When it comes to traveling with your pup, Australia does have pretty strict laws, but at the end of the day, it’s your responsibility to restrain your dog while driving. Freyja is used to being in her kennel when riding in the car, so we opted to bring her kennel along. If your pup prefers to be buckled in, you will have to opt for a different size campervan with more than two seatbelts. Luckily, Apollo Camper has various campervans, motorhomes, 4WDs, and cars available to suit your needs.
The Apollo Euro Tourer is 7 meters long or 23 feet which provides you with more than enough space to travel and stay comfortably in the vehicle. Surprisingly, the Euro Tourer was incredibly easy to drive as well and you just need your standard driver’s license to drive it!
As someone who tends to avoid driving in the city of Melbourne, I was honestly surprised by how easy it was to drive the Euro Tourer throughout our trip.
Overall, traveling with Apollo in our Apollo Euro Tourer, just made our trip easy, even with traveling with our dog.
Let’s Take a Tour
Inside the Apollo Euro Tourer, you’ll find everything you need for your trip away from home. With a kitchen, bathroom, a table that converts into a bed, and even a TV, you have all the same luxuries you would find in most apartments or hotels, but instead, conveniently with you on the road. All dishes, pots, and pans were provided, along with bed linens, pillows, and a couple of towels as well. We did bring a few other items, such as a spare towel for Freyja.
I have listed some essentials that we ended up bringing along at the end of this blog post.
There’s ample storage space in the closet and through several upper cabinets. We found that the van had more than enough space for the three of us and all of our belongings.
When plugged into a campsite, Apollo Euro Tourer features AC or heating. Since we were traveling the Great Ocean Road during Australia winter, being cold at night was something that I was initially concerned about. Thankfully, with Apollo, you can conformably travel year-round in their campervans!
Apollo has several different motorhome options that feature a bed and a table. Initially, I thought this would be something that I would prefer instead of constantly converting the dining area to the bed every night. The process seriously couldn’t be easier to make the bed. Simply placing the table down and another board located behind the driver’s side, the dining area, is converted to a surprisingly comfortable double bed in under 5 minutes.
Cooking on the Road
One of the many benefits of having our Apollo Euro Campervan – cooking homecooked meals every night.
Although we did eat out from time to time, when traveling through remote areas in Australia, there aren’t many options for restaurants. Being able to cook comfortably in our campervan, rain or shine, early or late at night, was such a luxury that we definitely didn’t take for granted. Being able to cook when traveling is also a great money-saving hack as well – something that I mention a lot during my travel guides! With the 80L fridge and freezer combo, we could easily store food for several days in our van.
With how easy homecooked meals were during our trip, we happily cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner in our campervan.
Where We Went
With an Apollo Campervan, you can go practically anywhere and everywhere. With the Great Ocean Road specifically, there are many incredible places to stop along the way. Even with 6 days on the road, we still didn’t feel like we could visit them all. With a basic itinerary planned, we were able to see some must-see destinations on the Great Ocean Road and explore areas that shouldn’t be missed.
Apollo Bay
On day one, we drove down to Torquay, the official start on the Great Ocean Road. When traveling along the Great Ocean Road, you should expect it’s going to take you longer to reach your destination.
We found ourselves constantly stopping at lookout after lookout along the Great Ocean Road and found that it’s definitely a road trip that you can leave Netflix or your book behind so you don’t miss any of the incredible views along the way.
If you want to experience the road trip with us, over on my Instagram I have put together a highlights reel where I shared our journey every day during our trip!
After arriving on the Great Ocean Road, we decided to explore the Great Otway National Park. We did some hiking and enjoyed some incredible views from Apollo Bay, one of the area’s largest towns. Since Day 1, we did a lot of driving to get to Apollo Bay; we didn’t get to explore the Great Otway National Park as much as we would have liked to. There are so many unique trails and waterfalls in this National Park that it’s somewhere that we’ll definitely want to come back to and explore another time!
Where We Stayed: Marengo Family Caravan Park
Just located a couple of minutes outside of Apollo Bay, Marengo Family Caravan Park is a fantastic pet-friendly option right along the Great Ocean Road. The Caravan Park is located right on the beach, which made for incredible sunrises and sunsets. The facilities were comfortable and clean, always an essential aspect for me when traveling. Although being in a prime location, the area was nice and quiet as well.
Marengo has options for everyone with extremely affordable prices and powered, unpowered, and cabins available! If you’re searching for a pet-friendly option around Apollo Bay, Marengo should definitely be your go-to! You can learn more about their caravan park here.
The 12 Apostles
The 12 Apostles are a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park along the Great Ocean Road. They are, by far, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area and, like many, was one of the main reasons we wanted to explore the Great Ocean Road. With how breathtaking they are in person, this is not surprising in the slightest.
There are several different lookouts to get views of the 12 Apostles, including the 12 Apostles Lookout and Gibson Steps, both places we highly recommend.
Keep your eye out! I have dedicated a whole blog post to all the must-see stops along the Great Ocean Road since there are so many different attractions and lookouts. Check out my detailed blog post: Must-See Attractions Along the Great Ocean Road, for an outline of every destination that we visited during our Great Ocean Road Adventure!
The Great Ocean Road Attractions
The 12 Apostles are a major highlight of the Great Ocean Road and Port Campbell National Park. Still, there are many other stunning lookouts and destinations on this road. Therefore, exploring this section of the Great Ocean Road is one of our main destinations during our adventure and led to our decision to spend a couple of days in the area.
If you haven’t done much planning before traveling along the Great Ocean Road – no need to stress! You’ll find when driving, the most popular tourist attractions are conveniently advertised on the side of the road with the brown signs.
Although I did some planning before our trip, looking at other blog posts and visiting the Great Ocean Road Tourism website for ideas, I knew specific attractions that we wanted to see ahead of time. That being said, we found following the brown signs handy and found ourselves just exploring the Great Ocean Road that way for the majority of our trip instead of following a strict itinerary.
Another fantastic thing about traveling in the campervan – you don’t need to stress about where you’re going to have lunch, where the closest bathroom is, or where you can take a break. Everything is conveniently in your campervan, so you can stop and have lunch by the 12 Apostles or on the side of the road.
With hardly any options for food or accommodations nearby, we found that there was so much flexibility with the campervan, especially in the Port Campbell National Park, and therefore, made having a campervan extremely convenient to have for this type of trip.
Where We Stayed: Great Ocean Road Tourist Park
Located in the small town of Peterborough, The Great Ocean Road Tourist Park is a prime campground right outside of the 12 Apostles. Although the town itself is tiny with practically only one pub and one service station, the lovely beach and tranquil scenery make it the perfect place to stay during your Great Ocean Road Adventure. In fact, we stayed at the Great Ocean Road Tourist Park for two nights due to its ideal location between several attractions, including Port Campbell, 12 Apostles, and Timboon.
Timboon
The town of Timboon is located about a 20-minute drive outside our campsite in Peterborough. Some of the local attractions we checked out included indulging in a delicious, creamy coffee and fresh cheesecake from the Schulz Organic Dairy Farm and some whisky tasting at the Timboon Railway Distillery Shed. Both, very much worth the visit.
Warrnambool
Warrnambool is one of the largest towns along the Great Ocean Road. Warrnambool features multiple grocery stores, practically any retail store you’re after, and countless restaurants. If you need to stock up on groceries, purchase a new dog toy from Kmart, or check out a trendy cafe, Warrnambool is your place! Along with the various retail outlets available in the town, there are also quite a few lookouts and nature reserves in the area as well including whale watching at the Logan Beach Whale Watching Platform.
Deep Blue Hot Springs
Located inside of Warrnambool is the Deep Blue Hot Springs. Although not dog-friendly, we found that the hot springs were a great way to escape some of the not-so-pleasant rainy weather outside and have a relaxing morning. Booking is essentially depending on the time and session you want to attend.
We’ve been to a couple of different hot springs before in New Zealand and around the world. Some hot springs I find pretty underwhelming, but the Deep Blue Hot Springs were great! With several different hot pools to choose from and a spa-like interior, a day at the Deep Blue Hotel and Hot Springs is well worth the visit.
Port Fairy
Port Fairy is another larger town that we visited and stayed at during our Great Ocean Road Adventure. Technically on the outside of the Great Ocean Road, Port Fairy is a popular destination for many Melbourne residents and our last stop in our adventure. The town has an abundance of cafes and restaurants, a few boutiques, and a stunning harbor, so it’s no wonder it’s a popular retreat for many families!
One of the lovely things that stood out to us as soon as we arrived at Port Fairy was how pet-friendly it was. Everywhere you look, you’ll see owners and their dogs walking along with the town, stopping at a cafe for a bite to eat, dog bowls out, and hardly any signs restricting dogs.
If you happen to be in Port Fairy on a Saturday, I highly recommend attending the local Saturday Farmers Markets. The markets, a walk along the harbor, and a bite to eat either from the local ice cream parlor or at The Hub made our time in Port Fairy relaxing and really enjoyable!
Where We Stayed: Gardens Caravan Park
One of the largest caravan parks we stayed at, the Gardens Caravan Park, featuring several different facilities and a prime location outside of the Port Fairy town center. With just a quick walk, you’re right in the middle of countless restaurants, shops, and walking trails.
Portland
Portland is an easy 30-minute drive from Port Fairy and is the farthest we traveled during our trip. If you make your way out to Port Fairy, driving the extra 30 minutes to Portland is very much worth the trip.
In Portland, we did the following….
Seal Colony
After parking the campervan at the Seal Colony Parking Lot, we took a 15-20 minute walk down to the seal colony reserve area. There, we were greeted with a few other people and a dock. At the end of the pier, dozens of wild seals just swimming around and splashing in the water.
We could get up close and personal with the wild seals on the dock, which was an incredible experience.
Helpful Tip: Wear sandals when visiting the area or pack them with you. Once you arrive at the seals, you’ll want to change into your sandals if you decide to venture on the dock as it occasionally went underwater when larger waves came past.
Cape Nelson Lighthouse
While visiting Portland and the surrounding area, Cape Nelson Lighthouse is a picture-perfect lighthouse. Only 10 minutes from the town center, the lighthouse features several walking tracks, historical tours, and even accommodations on site. If you’re looking for a quick photo opp like we were due to the heavy rain, you can conveniently park about a minute walk from the lighthouse.
Dog-Friendly Great Ocean Road Tips
The majority of the Great Ocean Road National Park isn’t actually dog-friendly, but we did find a trail here and there that had dogs on a lead sign. You will find that if dogs are allowed, it’s on a lead only.
The great thing about traveling during winter is that many beaches that dogs are not allowed on during the summer months are dog-friendly during the winter months. This meant that practically any beach (outside of the national park) Freyja was allowed run around and burn off some energy.
What We Packed
Although our Apollo Euro Tourer had all the basic necessities, there were a few things that we needed to pack that are a little unique. Especially with traveling with a dog, there are a few things that we found extremely useful to bring along.
- An Extra Blanket: There wasn’t a single night we were cold in the campervan, even on the coldest and rainiest days during our trip. That’s because when plugged in, our campervan had a heater. We brought an additional blanket so that Freyja could lay on the bed without worrying about the bed linens that were provided.
- An Extra Towel: Just like the bed linens, you’re provided with a couple of towels as well. We brought a couple of extra towels for our pup so we could wipe her pawns before getting in the campervan. It rained quite a bit during our trip, so having this extra towel to wipe her paws or lay on the floor near the entrance was extremely helpful.
- A Pet First-Aid Kit: Whenever we travel with Freyja, we always bring along a specific first-aid kit designated for dogs. Especially since we’re traveling through various remote areas, it provides us peace of mind that we’re prepared if something was to happen.
- Cooking Products: With the three-burner stove, large fridge, and microwave, we, of course, did plenty of cooking during our trip. We made sure to bring oils, herbs, and spices, so we could make some delicious meals while we were away.
- Essential Cleaning Products: Apollo has an option for you to pay a little bit extra, so you can simply just drop your campervan at the end of the stay, and they’ll take care of the rest. We opted for this package, so although we didn’t really need to worry about cleaning during our trip, we made sure to bring a few essential cleaning products like disinfectant wipes, paper towels, and a little dust broom, so we were comfortable during our time away. This isn’t required, but we found this extremely helpful when tidying up after cooking. It’s also important to note that all toiletries and dish soap, hand soap, etc., aren’t included, and you will need to provide your own.
If you’re interested in more information on how to make the most of your own Great Ocean Road Adventure, I encourage you to check out my other Great Ocean Road blog posts below, along with exploring the Great Ocean Road Tourism website here and download the Apollo Connect App.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of traveling with Apollo Camper, I highly encourage you to check out their website here and my pet-friendly tips on the Apollo Website here. Apollo has hubs around the world in Australia, New Zealand, the US, and beyond. Regardless if you’re looking to travel the Great Ocean Road with your pup or somewhere else, I highly recommend you try Apollo Campervan living!
Related Blog Posts:
Must-See Attractions Along the Great Ocean Road (coming soon!)
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