Great Ocean Road by campervan: Melbourne to Adelaide in a week

Melbourne's depot is at Ringwood, on the eastern side of the city, and the Great Ocean Road starts on the western side. That is an hour of cross-city driving before you have left town. Plan the pickup for early morning, or accept that day one is mostly transit and start the coast at Torquay the next morning.

The alternative is to spend the first night at Geelong and start fresh. That is the better call if you are arriving on a late flight.

Torquay for Bells Beach and the surf museum, then the road proper from Anglesea. Lorne is the busiest town on the route and worth a lunch stop rather than a night. Apollo Bay is the right place to sleep — it has campgrounds, a beach and the start of the Otway rainforest.

The inland detour through the Otway Ranges to Cape Otway lighthouse is where you see koalas in the wild, sitting in the manna gums along the road. Then back to the coast for the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and the Razorback.

Go to the Apostles at sunrise or late afternoon. Midday is a bus convoy. The car park is large enough for campervans, which is not true of every stop on the route.

Warrnambool, then inland to the Grampians — Halls Gap, the Pinnacle walk, Mackenzie Falls. Two nights there is right. Then across to Mount Gambier for the Blue Lake and the caves, and on through the Coonawarra wine region to Adelaide.

This inland leg is the part people cut when they are short on time, and it is arguably better than the coast. The Grampians in particular deserve their own trip.

Large vehicles are restricted on parts of the Great Ocean Road, mainly around the tighter bends and the Memorial Arch. Standard campervans are fine; check your vehicle length against the signage before you commit to the route.

Camping is well served: national park campgrounds at Johanna Beach, Aire River and Blanket Bay, plus holiday parks in every town. Book in summer — this is one of the busiest campervan corridors in Australia between December and February.