Welcome to the Grand Pacific Drive

Lets face it, most travellers arrive in Sydney, drool over the harbour bridge and the opera house before heading on up north towards Byron Bay, the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef. The Grand Pacific Drive doesn’t even come onto their radar. I say this with reasonable confidence as in 2008 I joined the legions of travellers adding my footprints to this well trodden path.

Heading out on the Grand Pacific Drive

With the way our flights, Christmas and car hire plans planned out we landed in Sydney on Jan 1st 2018 and we were flying out to Hobart on Jan 10th. So we had a grand total of 9 days, not a huge amount of time. Especially as one half wanted a couple of days in Sydney. 

We landed at 10:00am and by 10:45 we were in our bright blue Toyota corolla that we had affectionately named Doraemon (机器猫). We were traveling during the busiest domestic travel season of the year. Kind of like Australia’s version of the China’s National Day Holiday only with way less people to go alongside the inflated prices.

We booked our accommodation en route which ended up being a blessing in disguise as we ended up staying in some amazing locations. Without the sky high prices elsewhere very much limiting our options we may not have found the amazing places we did.

When people think of a coastal road trip from Sydney, they envisage heading north towards the sunshine and gold coast. The Grand Pacific Drive extends a few hundred kilometres south of Sydney with a smattering of people and plenty of gorgeous deserted beaches and sublime coastal walks. 

Our first destination was the cute little town of Nowra right on the edge of Jervis Bay and the Booderee National Park. After that we stayed in Moruya, in between Narooma and Batemans Bay. This trip is easily accessible to anyone with a car and it gets you off the backpacker trail. We met a huge number of Australia tourists, but no foreign tourists, unbelievable.

This is not an exhaustive list of everything to do on the Grand Pacific Drive. There were plenty of heavyweights that we missed out on such as the Royal National Park and Kiama for example. 

Day 1: Sydney to Nowra

Only 2 1/2 hours from Sydney, traffic depending of course, is Nowra. There isn’t a huge amount in the town itself. The advantage its close proximity to Jervis Bay and the Booderee National Park. Prices here are significantly cheaper than in the town of Huskisson, the main town in Jervis Bay, especially during the time we traveled. We arrived mid afternoon after taking a lazy drive down from Sydney. We took in a walk along the coast down in Huskisson which is beautiful and much quieter than during the heat of the day.

Day 2: Huskisson and Hyams Beach

There is a pod of approximately 100 bottle nose dolphins in Jervis and there are a couple of companies that run excellent dolphin watching tours. Whale watching tours are also run during migrating season.

We booked a dolphin tour with Jervis Bay Wild for $35 a person, unbelievably cheap. The two hour tour takes you around the northern side of the bay on the search for these beautiful creatures. After spotting 2 groups of 3 and 4 respectively we were soon surrounded by a pod of over 10 dolphins who swimming alongside the front of our boat. A truly amazing sight, and the scenery wasn’t too bad either. 

In the afternoon we headed for Hyams Beach. This beautiful beach’s claim to fame is that it has the whitest sand in the world. Be warned this beach is understandably popular as it is stunning. Parking can be a bit of a nightmare and rangers are out in force to issue fines. Whilst this beach is indeed beautiful there are more beautiful beaches, in our opinion, in the Booderee National Park. Since there is only one road in a one road out of Hyams Beach, traffic can be a nightmare.

Day 3: Booderee National Park

A hop skip and a jump down from Huskisson and Hyams Beach this stunning national park forms the southern corner of Jervis Bay. Considering how busy Huskisson and Hyams Beach were this place seemed empty.  It costs $11 dollars to get in and is not covered by a National Park pass. We headed straight for Murrays Beach. If it was a choice between Hyams or Murrays beach the latter would definitely come out on top.

From the beach there is a lovely short walk up to governors head. After that we picked out a prime piece of beach and spent the afternoon relaxing and snorkeling. The left hand side of the beach is home to plenty of wildlife. I was lucky enough to spot a baby wobegong shark hiding on the sea floor.

Head down to the old lighthouse for some stunning coastal views and interesting historical info. Although be warned the road here is unsealed. From here we headed down to the tiny town of Moruya.

We stayed at Moruya for 2 reasons, one it was the only place we could find a room. Post new year in this part of Australia is extremely popular with domestic tourists. Two, fortunately for us this was slap bang in between Narooma and Batemans Bay – our next destinations

Day 4: Narooma

How this little piece of paradise is not more widely written about is beyond me. Located an hour or so from Moruya. The coastline here is gorgeous, weather you want to swim, hike, sunbathe or surf, its all here.

However there was another reason we were here: Seals. Snorkelling with them to be more precise. A fantastic company called underwater safaris takes small boats out to Montague Island, about 20-30 minutes from Narooma itself. Upon arriving at the island we donned our gear, switched on our newly purchased GoPro and jumped in. No sooner were we in the water the seals joined us and came to investigate. As they came over to check us out, it was hard not be bowled over. 

Truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Day 5: Batemans Bay

This beautiful beach town is bigger than Huskisson, with nicer beaches (in our opinion). We took a wander around the town itself which included wandering under a number of lampposts that happened to be the resting places of a huge number of pelicans.

We then headed down to Mckenzie Beach. A beautiful stretch of coastline with decent snorkelling around the rocks. Be warned this beach is stunning and as a result is very popular. If you want something quieter you will need to head over to Guerilla Bay. You will need to park up outside some cottages and then walk through the undergrowth to get there, but it is definitely worth it. The snorkelling here is definitely better than at Mckenzie. Plenty of puffer fish, a grouper and a monster 2 metre wide stingray. Fantastic.

Day 6: Beach hopping around Batemans Bay

We headed back towards Sydney stopping off at any beaches that we fancied. It seems that there are beautiful beaches every few kilometres, so really the choice is yours.

I’m not sure if it was just the time of year, but there were very few foreign tourists on the Grand Pacific Drive, but it was very popular with Australians enjoying their summer holidays. It is a truly stunning area of the country. Easily accessible without a huge amount of driving. If you are in the area for a short time this is a great itinerary to follow.

Other road trip ideas!

If you’re looking for more inspirational road trip ideas in Australia check out these posts on Tasmania’s East Coast and Cradle Mountain.