Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road

Melbourne hides itself: the good bars are up unmarked staircases, the best coffee is down a graffitied lane, and the city reveals almost nothing from a tourist bus. Give it a few days and it becomes the most liveable city in Australia. Then drive west, where one of the world's great coastal roads ends at a row of limestone stacks standing in the Southern Ocean.

Getting Around Melbourne

• Trams are the city's circulatory system, and the Free Tram Zone covers the entire CBD at no cost
• Outside that zone you need a Myki card, bought and topped up at stations and convenience stores
• Tullamarine is the main airport, with the SkyBus into Southern Cross station in about 30 minutes
• Trains run to Geelong for the start of the Great Ocean Road, though the road itself needs a car
• The CBD grid is walkable, and the laneways only work on foot

What to Do in Melbourne

• The laneways — Hosier Lane for street art, Degraves and Centre Place for coffee, and half the city's best bars behind unmarked doors
• Queen Victoria Market — produce, cheap eats and a night market in summer
• NGV — the National Gallery of Victoria, free for the permanent collection
• Royal Botanic Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance, with the skyline framed behind it
• St Kilda — the pier, the cake shops on Acland Street, and little penguins coming ashore at the breakwater around dusk, for free
• Fitzroy and Brunswick — vintage shops, live music and Brunswick Street's bars
• The MCG — catch AFL between March and September; nothing explains the city faster

Driving the Great Ocean Road

The road runs 243km from Torquay to Allansford, and it was built by returning First World War soldiers as a memorial — which makes it the largest war memorial in the world. Most people attempt it as a day trip from Melbourne and spend eleven hours in a car for twenty minutes at the Twelve Apostles. Give it two days, ideally three, and stay overnight along the coast.

• Torquay and Bells Beach — the surf coast start, and the famous break
• Lorne and Apollo Bay — the two main towns to break the drive, both with beaches and places to eat
• Kennett River — wild koalas in the gum trees along Grey River Road, best in the early morning
• Cape Otway — rainforest, a lighthouse and more koalas
• Loch Ard Gorge — a beach inside a collapsed cavern, and the better stop of the two
• The Twelve Apostles — fewer than twelve now, and still extraordinary at sunrise or sunset
• Gibson Steps — 86 steps down to stand on the beach beneath the cliffs, tide and conditions permitting

Practicalities

• Drive west from Melbourne and the sea sits on your left, which makes the lookouts easy to pull into
• Fuel up in the larger towns; stretches between them have nothing
• Without a car, small-group tours run from Melbourne, and the three-day versions are far better than the one-day dash
• Melbourne's weather genuinely does do four seasons in a day — carry a layer whatever the forecast says
• Eat: brunch is a religion here, the Vietnamese food in Richmond and Footscray is superb, and a chicken parma in a pub is the local staple
• Stay: the CBD for trams, Fitzroy for nightlife, St Kilda for the beach; Lorne, Apollo Bay or Port Campbell on the road

Sleep at Port Campbell and walk to the Apostles for sunrise. The coaches arrive mid-morning, and before they do you can have the most famous view in Victoria nearly to yourself.