Explore Victoria - Britz

Three nights at a time, and three separate routes out of Melbourne in a campervan rather than one continuous itinerary: the Great Ocean Road, a Gippsland loop and the High Country.

The Great Ocean Road runs west through Torquay, Lorne and Apollo Bay to Port Campbell and the Twelve Apostles, then Port Fairy, along a coast built on limestone and shipwrecks.

The Gippsland loop goes east instead, taking in Walhalla, a gold town in a valley so narrow that the sun reaches it late, Lakes Entrance on the Gippsland Lakes, Wilsons Promontory at the southernmost tip of the mainland, and Phillip Island for the penguins. The High Country is the third, up through Wangaratta to Mount Buffalo, a granite plateau of tors and waterfalls, and over Mount Hotham at around 1,800 metres to Omeo.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Treating these as three separate trips rather than one is the sensible reading: each works as a long weekend from Melbourne, and between them they cover coast, lakes and alpine country. The High Country roads can close for snow between June and October, while the Great Ocean Road is busiest through the summer. Autumn suits all three. For a visitor with a week or two in Victoria, picking two of them and leaving the third for another trip produces a better holiday than attempting all three in sequence.