Have you booked or are you thinking of booking the Hike the Great Ocean Walk tour by Intrepid Travel? Here’s a review to help you make your decision and provide you some additional insights into what to expect.

All information valid as of May 2025, unless otherwise indicated, and -no- I was not furnished to write this review.
(Updated June 2026.)

(Prior to reading, please consider reviewing the “My Ethics” page.)

Bottom-Line Up Front

The Hike the Great Ocean Walk tour by Intrepid Travel is the best hassle-free way to see the beautiful Victoria, Australia coastline between Apollo Bay and the Twelve Apostles; however, you way wish to consider other options if the start and return point of Melbourne is inconvenient for you. While stretches of the track are physically demanding, the majority of the walk is within the capability of anyone with a moderate fitness level, and -owing to Intrepid Travel’s excellent logistics- opting out of segments is certainly viable should you choose. The tour’s guides and choice of lodging are exceptional. This remains one of the best group tours I have ever taken.

Tour Booking Information

Why I Booked the Hike the Great Ocean Walk Tour

Without exaggeration, the Great Ocean Walk is one of the world’s most beautiful hiking tracks and absolutely one I wanted to complete. Anyone wishing to complete the trek has three options:

• Bring camping gear and complete the trek self-supported,

• Use a shuttle service to ferry you between hotels and complete sections on day hikes, or,

• Join a group tour which handles all trip logistics, including transportation, food, and lodging.

Visiting from the United States, I found the third option far and away the most desirable.

At the time I booked, hands-down the best group tour option for me was the one organized by the Australian trekking company Inspiration Outdoors. At the time, this company was nearing their completion of a merger with Intrepid Travel and booking was available through either company. The tour product currently on offer through Intrepid Travel is identical to the one I booked.

You’ll certainly find other tour operators offering guided and semi-guided tours focusing on the Great Ocean Walk - what led me to choose Inspiration Outdoors / Intrepid Travel was that it handled the logistics of transfers to and from Melbourne. All other things being equal, to use the shuttle service or another tour operator, I would have had to incur additional time and expense transferring to and from Apollo Bay.

Why You Should Complete the Great Ocean Walk vs. Simply Driving the Great Ocean Road

If you are unfamiliar, there are two ways one can travel between Apollo Bay and the Twelve Apostles: via automobile along the Great Ocean Road, or on foot along the Great Ocean Walk. Given this, you might think the two experiences are identical enough to not necessitate the hassle of a multi-day walking trek, but nothing can be further from the truth. Let me show you what I mean:

The red line above represents the route of the Great Ocean Road, while the black line represents the Great Ocean Walk. Turns out the name “Great Ocean Road” is a bit of a misnomer (or, at least it is along this stretch) as -save for a couple of overlooks- you hardly see the coastline.

Simply put: if you truly want to see this staggeringly beautiful coastline, you must travel along the Great Ocean Walk.

The Tour

A Quick Day-by-Day Breakdown

I am quite fond of Intrepid Travel; however, I find the pre-travel information they provide on their website lacking (particularly compared to their competitors.) While I won’t totally rehash the itinerary for this trip posted on their website, I will provide some additional insights here and there.

Day One - From Melbourne to Apollo Bay and Walk to Shelly Beach: You’ll see your pickup location is the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne where you are expected to be present at 8AM. Your overnight baggage will be loaded into a trailer which you will not be able to access until that evening, so be sure you have everything you need for the day in your day pack, which will remain with you in the tour van. Prepare for a long but rewarding day. The morning is spent navigating the Great Ocean Road east of Apollo Bay, with several scenic stops en route. Your short initial journey along the Great Ocean Walk is relatively easy and is no doubt a convenient way for the staff to sort out everyone’s relative hiking skills. The day is capped off with dinner and a lovely sunset activity at Wildlife Wonders. While your lodging may differ, we stayed at the Apollo Bay Motel.

Day Two - Shelly Beach to Parker Inlet and Overnight in Johanna: You’ll pack up your overnight bag before being shuttled back to Shelly Beach to start your first long day on the Walk. The morning is spent headed inland and is the first true uphill stretch, while the afternoon is a slow descent back to the coastline. It is worth noting the last stretch of the day is a short-but-steep climb, so save some energy! In the evening, you’ll make your way to Johanna Seaside Cottages, your lodging for the next several days.

Day Three - Parker Inlet to Castle Cove: While this is the longest day of hiking of the trek, you should feel well-rested from your stay at the shared accommodation and will hopefully have found your walking stride by this point. The terrain is undulating but there are no truly difficult sections. You’ll pass the Cape Otway Lightstation, but -regrettably- you won’t have much time to explore there. You will arrive for a relatively late lunch at Aire River, so certainly consider bringing a snack to keep fueled. Back to Johanna for the evening.

Day Four - Castle Cove to Milanesia Track: Your day starts with a steep descent back towards the ocean before some beach-walking en route to Johanna (nearby to the shared accommodation) where you will have lunch. From here, the track slowly but steadily rises upwards and inland, a section which involves some road walking. Wrapping up in the early afternoon, you will pass through the village of Lavers Hill before returning to Johanna.

Day Five - Milanesia Track to The Gables: A relatively drama-free day, you descend back towards the ocean before tackling some more undulating bluffs above the coast. In the afternoon, you’ll briefly turn back from the sea before descending to The Gables outlook to end your day. One last night in Johanna awaits.

Day Six - The Gables to Gibson Steps: You’ll check out of the shared accommodation in the morning before hitting the trail. This is a long distance day, but the terrain is very forgiving and you’ll spend most of your time navigating rolling hills on the cliffs above the ocean. You’ll conclude your day at the ceremonial end of the Great Ocean Walk before making your way to your accommodation in Port Campbell, which for me was the Loch Ard Motor Inn. You’ll have a farewell dinner for your last night at a local restaurant.

Day Seven - Gibson Steps to the Twelve Apostles and Return to Melbourne: After packing up one last time, you’ll make a short walk down to Gibson Beach before continuing to the Twelve Apostles. You’ll have the option to take a helicopter to see the coastline from the air. Following a quick stop at Loch Ard Gorge, you make your way back to Melbourne with a lunch stop en route (ours was in Colac). You’ll reach the city in the early evening, so -indeed- don’t book a flight unless it departs rather late in the day.

Optional Activities

There is only one optional activity on the trip, a helicopter ride at the Twelve Apostles. I did not opt to take it, but the flight lasts about 15-20 minutes and -as of 2026- costs around 195 Australian Dollars.

Everything else on this trip -save some minor food items I’ll discuss below- is included.

Hotels

We had three lodgings during our journey - motels in Apollo Bay and Port Campbell, and a shared homestay in Johanna. I’ll dig into these a bit more here in a moment, but know up-front the lodging for this trip is fantastic! In my experience, Intrepid Travel always manages to find excellent accommodations, particularly as compared to their major competitors, and this trek is no exception.

Apollo Bay Motel, Apollo Bay

Owing to the sunset experience at Wildlife Wonders, you won’t check-in at the Apollo Bay Motel until later in the evening. As such, there isn’t much time for you to do anything at this hotel other than take a shower and get a much needed night of sleep.

Somewhat uncharacteristically, I forgot to take a photograph of my room! That said, it was super clean and quite cozy, and -as it turns out- renovated in 2020. It is a short distance from a handful of pubs if you want to grab a nightcap.

The property is a mix of standard hotel and apartment-style rooms; your guides will stay in the latter, and in the morning you’ll have breakfast in the apartment’s common area … a bit snug, but certainly quite manageable!

Johanna Seaside Cottages, Johanna

After the stunning coastlines you’ll see on the Great Ocean Walk, Johanna Seaside Cottages is the star of the show for this trip.

Our crew stayed in The Valley, a positively splendid, immaculately clean, well-appointed, and sprawling five bedroom, three bathroom home set on a large farm property a short distance from Johanna Beach and the Great Ocean Walk trail.

It will serve as your base of operations for much of your trip. In total, you’ll stay four nights here, enjoying large family-style group dinners prepared by your trekking team in the large farmhouse kitchen.

There is a pool on the property and -perhaps more importantly- the house has a washer and dryer.

The rooms themselves are of a great size and featuring plenty of closet space. You should feel incredibly relaxed here.

If you haven’t gotten enough walking in, you can make your way down to the overlook above Johanna Beach for the sunset - it is totally worth the extra 30 minutes of walking, in my opinion. You’ll also have a very high chance of encountering kangaroos; while this probably isn’t special for many of you, for an American this is quite a treat!

Loch Ard Motor Inn, Port Campbell

While the shared accommodation set a really high bar, the Loch Ard Motor Inn continued the trend of excellent overnight stays. Centrally located in downtown Port Campbell, these bungalow-style hotel rooms had a good seaside village vibe to them. It made for a really relaxing end to the journey. Again: great choice, Intrepid Travel!

Much like in Apollo Bay, your guides will likely have an apartment-style bungalow where you will eat breakfast on your last day.

Food and Drink

With the exception of dinner in Port Campbell, every single meal is provided by Intrepid Travel on this trek. And trust me when I say the food is superb and plentiful, particularly the trekking crew-made dinners at the shared accommodation in Johanna. Seriously, the crew went above and beyond on these!

Daily coffee and tea -along with biscuits and fruit- are provided along the track, as well.

Lunch is often a self-carried packed sandwich, so I would encourage bringing along a container to keep it from getting crushed in your bag.

Transportation

You’ll be shuttled around in a crew van which tows a small trailer when it is necessary to move the luggage. The van is totally adequate, especially since the distances driven day-to-day are not incredibly far.

The Guides

Our two guides were super friendly, upbeat, accommodating, and aware of everyone’s needs. They were also superb cooks, which made our group dinners at the shared accommodations wonderful events. You could also tell they really enjoyed what they did for a living, which is always refreshing.

I could go on and on extolling their virtues, but I’d like to highlight one instance where they went above-and-beyond. Returning to Johanna, we were traveling on the Great Ocean Road just south of Lavers Hill when we came upon some livestock along the roadside. Clearly they had just found a hole in the fence, so the crew -without hesitation- pulled into the farm adjacent to the fence to warn the owner their animals had escaped. Sometimes its the little things….

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Logistical Considerations

What to Pack

For the most part, the packing list in the trip notes is spot-on, so I’m not going to rehash it. The only omission I will mention is the hard container for your lunch food so it doesn’t get crushed in your daypack.

I will stress the importance of bringing blister care items with you. Several members of my trekking group (myself included) suffered from blisters, likely the result of constantly changing weather and sand entering our shoes. Since you won’t get much of a break from walking day-to-day, it is important you stay on top of this.

Breakdown of Additional Costs

As I’ve mentioned, there isn’t much in the way of additional costs associated with this trip. You’ll want some extra spending money for snacks and drinks at shops you may pass along the way (although these places all take pin-and-chip), as well as hard currency for the tipping kitty. The one stray expense, as mentioned, is the cost of the farewell dinner in Port Campbell.

Overall Trek Difficulty

Intrepid Travel rates the difficulty of this trek as a four-out-of-five, which they define as:

Be prepared for some serious physical activity. The fitter you are, the more you'll enjoy it, as most activities will be challenging.

This is the same rating they apply to the Inca Trail, the Larapinta Trail, and the Lost City Trek, which -by all standards- are significantly more difficult than the Great Ocean Walk. Perhaps this rating is a bit over-inflated.

That said: the Great Ocean Walk is not an easy walk-in-the-park: there are long days, several strenuous uphill sections, and occasionally tough terrain, such as the steps rising from Parker Inlet.

In totality, though, this trek can easily be accomplished by anyone with a moderate level of fitness. If you can do 10 miles / 16 kilometers on level terrain on back-to-back days without stopping, you can certainly complete this trip.

The ace-in-the-hole of this trip is its multiple exit points. On each of the five long hiking days, the guide vehicle will have access to the track around midday; this means that if you just aren’t feeling it, you can opt out and continue on the following day. I’ve never experienced this on any other multi-day group trek, and this is certainly not a feature on any of the other four-out-of-five treks I named above.

My best advice: definitely prepare for long hiking days, put in your prep hikes, but don’t think you need to be Hillary or Tenzing to finish this.

My Opinions

The Best Parts of This Tour

There is so, so much to enjoy about this trip. The scenery is amazing, the choice of accommodation is top-notch, the pacing and organization are superb, the food is excellent, the guides were great, and the group size is perfection. I very much liked how pretty much everything was included in the tour cost so there was no price inflation you often see with group treks.

But, yeah, seriously: the scenery is amazing.

What Should be Improved with This Tour

Honestly … nothing. This tour is pretty much flawless. I mean this sincerely: this may well be the best group tour I have ever taken.

Why You’d Want to Book the Hike the Great Ocean Walk Tour

If you want a stress- and hassle-free way to see the real coast of Victoria and don’t find the Melbourne starting and ending point inconvenient, you really should consider the Hike the Great Ocean Walk tour from Intrepid Travel. You will certainly not regret it.

Why You Would Not Want to Book the Hike the Great Ocean Walk Tour

The main reason why you’d want to reconsider booking this tour is if the starting and ending point of Melbourne is inconvenient for you. It may be best to consider another option if you plan on continuing your Australia journey by heading further west to, say, Adelaide.

Naturally, you may want to skip this trip if you are truly second-guessing your level of physical fitness or are otherwise self-conscious about your hiking abilities.

On the complete opposite side of the coin, if you truly want an authentic outdoor or camping experience then this obviously won’t be a great fit for you. Similarly, if you wish to travel the track at your own pace day-to-day but don’t want the hassle of handling overnight accommodation logistics, certainly consider using a shuttle service instead.

I’ll certainly update this page if I think of anything else to add, but that’s about it for now. If you have any specific questions, or if you have been on the Hike the Great Ocean Walk tour with Intrepid Travel and have more feedback, please reach out to us at hdhuntphoto@gmail.com or drop a comment below!

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