The best hotels in Great Ocean Road

Lorne is the most complete town on the Great Ocean Road. Mountjoy Parade is the main strip, running parallel to the beach at Loutit Bay, and you can walk from the Cumberland Lorne Resort to the Mantra and then to the Lorne Hotel in under 15 minutes without touching the car.

The beachfront here is the real deal. No highway between you and the sand, unlike some towns further west that bill themselves as 'coastal' but put you on the wrong side of a busy road. The $140-235/night beachfront rate at Cumberland and Mantra is honest pricing for a genuinely beachfront position.

Avoid the side streets south of Deans Marsh Road if you're not driving. The town centre on Mountjoy Parade is where everything happens, and anything more than 10 minutes' walk from the main strip means you're isolated from the restaurants and the beach. Drive in January and you'll sit in Lorne Street traffic for 45 minutes. park once and walk.

Apollo Bay doesn't try as hard as Lorne, and that's the point. The Collingwood Street foreshore is where the Apollo Bay Hotel sits, and the harbour is a 3-minute walk east from there. The Fishermen's Co-op on Harbour Road sells fish straight off the boats most mornings.

This is the last proper town before the road gets remote heading west. Stock up on supplies at the IGA on Great Ocean Road before pushing toward the Otways or Port Campbell. The backpackers on Gambier Street is perfectly positioned for people doing the road on a tight budget, 5 minutes from the V/Line bus stop.

The Maits Rest Rainforest Walk is 18 kilometres north of town on the Otway Lighthouse Road, and it's one of the most underrated short walks on the whole route. Go early morning for the light through the 300-year-old myrtle beeches.

Torquay is technically the start of the road, not the middle of it, which means it functions as a Melbourne weekend escape as much as a road trip destination. Peppers The Sands on The Sands Boulevard is the only genuinely upscale property here at $260-380/night, and it earns that rating with actual quality rather than just location premium.

Aireys Inlet sits 15 kilometres west of Torquay on the Great Ocean Road. The Split Point Lighthouse on Federal Street is the town's obvious draw, and it's free to walk around the grounds. The Aireys Inlet Hotel is a short walk from the lighthouse and from the clifftop section of the Surf Coast Walk.

These two towns attract a different crowd than Lorne. Torquay is surfers, surf industry workers, and Melbourne day-trippers. Aireys Inlet is couples and weekenders after something quieter. Both are within 90 minutes of Melbourne's CBD via the Surf Coast Highway, which means Friday afternoon traffic in summer is genuinely brutal.

Wye River barely qualifies as a town. It's a bend in the road between Lorne and Apollo Bay, with a general store, a beach, and a scattering of holiday houses on the hillside. That's exactly what makes it work as a retreat destination.

The Wye River Hinterland Retreat sits above the township with Otway hinterland views rather than direct ocean frontage. At $175-240/night it's mid-range pricing for what feels like a private escape. The General Store below is a 5-minute walk and one of the better coffee stops on the entire route.

This works best for a 2-night stay midweek, not as a base for doing the whole road. You're 20 minutes from Lorne and 25 minutes from Apollo Bay, so day trips in either direction are easy. But the point is to not go anywhere and just decompress.

Port Campbell is a small town with one main street, Lord Street, and a caravan park that fills every summer. The Comfort Inn on Lord Street is the most practical option at $105-160/night, and it's genuinely the best positioned hotel for an early morning visit to the apostles before the buses arrive.

Princetown is even smaller. a few houses, a pub, and the edge of Port Campbell National Park. The lodge-style retreat here at $350-520/night is in a different category entirely. You're essentially buying exclusivity and proximity to the national park, and the 9.1 rating backs that up.

The Twelve Apostles are 9 kilometres west of Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road. The Loch Ard Gorge, London Arch, and The Grotto are all within 5 kilometres of the main apostles car park. Budget a full day here rather than rushing. the Shipwreck Coast between Port Campbell and Peterborough has more than 700 documented wrecks and the geology alone is worth 3 hours of your time.