New research has named Victoria's Great Ocean Road the country's best family road trip.
Car insurance comparison site iSelect analysed 22 of Australia’s most popular driving routes, looking at rest stops, mobile coverage, hospital access, weather, traffic, and family-friendly attractions. Victoria’s Great Ocean Road coastal drive came out on top with an index score of 76.15, beating Western Australia’s Cape to Cape and South West Edge routes.
Great Ocean Road ticked boxes across the board; 100 per cent mobile coverage, 4.81 hospitals per 100 kilometres, and 4.81 rest stops per 100 kilometres. Average temps sit at 15.42 degrees, traffic congestion scores low at 1.20 out of 10, and the family attractions rating hit 5.86 out of 10. Koala spotting and rainforest walks feature heavily, alongside the obvious coastal scenery.
Great Ocean Road
- Index score: 76.15
- Mobile coverage: 100 per cent
- Hospital density: 4.81 per 100km
- Rest stops: 4.81 per 100km
- Average temperature: 15.42°C
- Traffic congestion: 1.20/10
- Family attractions: 5.86/10
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Cape to Cape grabbed second spot with 75.87, thanks largely to having the most rest stops at 10.82 per 100 kilometres. South West Edge came third with 74.39 despite mobile coverage dropping to 89.6 per cent. Both WA routes run warmer, averaging above 19 degrees year-round.
Queensland’s Coral Coast Highway landed at four with 71.41 but got knocked back by patchy mobile coverage at 73 per cent and fewer hospitals at 1.14 per 100 kilometres. Legendary Pacific Coast rounded out the top five with 69.25, though traffic congestion there hit 6.20 out of 10 – more than five times higher than the Great Ocean Road.
Research looked at what actually matters when you’re driving with kids – how often you can pull over, whether your phone works when someone needs the toilet right now, and if there’s a hospital nearby when accidents happen. Scoring combined these practical elements with attraction quality and weather conditions.
Social media numbers show the Great Ocean Road generating 155,133 posts per kilometre, absolutely dwarfing the competition. Cape to Cape managed just 479 posts per kilometre, while South West Edge scraped together 32. That massive online presence means endless resources for planning stops and finding kid-friendly spots along the way.
The Great Ocean Road also topped the romantic road trips category with an index score of 79.06, ahead of the Coastal Sydney to Melbourne drive at 75.38 and Legendary Pacific Coast at 73.82. Solo travellers gave it second place at 78.07, just behind Legendary Pacific Coast’s 79.98.
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