This is Part 5 of our Melbourne and Great Ocean Road road trip – 22 to 30 November 2018
So far I’ve covered our 2 nights in Melbourne, a quick stop off at Torquay and Bells Beach and another quick stop and explore at Aireys Inlet and Split Point Lighthouse and our 1 night stay in Lorne. This post covers our stay in Apollo Bay (1 night).
As we drove into Apollo Bay my breath was literally taken away. It was so beautiful! It’s a picturesque little town on a gorgeous beach and surrounded (like a hug) by The Otways.
Get your scrolling finger/s ready because even though I tried really hard to restrain myself from including too many photos, there are still quite a few from Mariner’s Lookout (where I was a bit smitten and took heaps). There’s a mix of phone and DSLR camera shots and a few videos (all very brief – the longest is about 55 seconds).
MARINER’S LOOKOUT
We arrived too early for lunch or to check-in just yet so after a quick drive around the town we decided to drive up to Mariner’s Lookout for a birds-eye view. I have to say that this place was stunning and I wanted to stay there forever. I truly didn’t want to leave. As you might have guessed by now, to say I was impressed is an understatement. You only have to look at the camera roll on my phone and the amount of photo’s taken on my camera to know I was smitten! But rather than me babbling on about how gorgeous it all was, I’ll let my photo’s and video’s tell the story.
LUNCHTIME
After finally dragging ourselves away from Mariner’s Lookout we headed into town for lunch, finally settling on a Bistro lunch at the Apollo Bay Hotel. We sat outside so we could enjoy the water outlook across the road. The food was delicious and the view across the road was gorgeous, however, I had another view I hadn’t been counting on (see pictured below). 🤔😲😆
WHERE WE STAYED
We stayed at The Apollo – motel rooms and luxury apartments. I wish I could say we stayed at one of their luxury apartments but alas we stayed in a motel room. It was clean, modern and comfortable – with a kind of side glimpse of the water from our little balcony area (see pic below).

Taken from our little balcony area (The Apollo)
APOLLO BAY HARBOUR
After settling and freshening up we head off to check out the Apollo Bay Harbour.
THE BEACH
You might be able to tell from the photos but it had been raining on and off today and there was a break in the rain and I was itching to hit the beach and so we did. Not only did we walk along the beach but being the Queenslander that I am, I had to roll up my jeans and get my feet in the water. It was icy cold but very refreshing (see 2nd video below)!
DINNER
After the beach, we headed back to ‘The Apollo’ to get cleaned up and changed and then headed into town for dinner. I can’t remember the name of the place we ate but it was quite casual with reasonably priced meals. We had some seafood from memory!
The rain had settled in again so our exploring for the day was over. Tomorrow we set off towards our next overnight stay at Port Campbell, but not before a few stops along the way – the first being Cape Otway which I’ll cover in the next post of this series.
Ciao for now,
Link up here at WOTM or with another of us in the Lovin’ Life Linky team:
Leanne of Deep Fried Fruit
Deborah of Debbish | Jo of And Anyways
It doesn’t matter where you link up as it will magically appear on all our blogs.
16 Comments
How beautiful, peaceful and restorative is Apollo Bay? I’ve never been there, Min, but I got the sense of all of this from your photos.
Thanks for sharing them!
SSG xxx
I’m glad you got a sense of it from the photo’s and videos SSG. It was a blissful place that I would love to go to again but for longer next time. xo
I loved Apollo Bay, Min, although we only really had a coffee there as we passed through. Gorgeous photos and thanks for bringing back some lovely memories. #lovinlifelinky
I loved Apollo Bay too Sue. This place really appealed to me (moreso than Lorne). I’d love to go back but for longer! xo
Oh. My. Goodness. The colours. The scenery. That blue and green. I can see why you said my pics of the Coromandel reminded you of Apollo Bay. Just gorgeous.
Loved this place a lot. It was special! 🙂 xo
Really gorgeous photos there. What a lovely spot
Thanks Lydia – it was most certainly a lovely spot! 🙂
Stunning pictures again Min and I love that the bay is not hugely overcrowded – the houses don’t go back for miles. And yes, I had to laugh at the bum-crack!
It’s a beautiful little township Deb – loved it there! Oh that bum crack – what a view to eat lunch by! *sigh*!! LOL
Beautiful pics and the scenery is just gorgeous. Loved them all – although I could have done without seeing the Plumber’s crack thanks all the same 🙂 I’m useless for remembering to take photos of scenery so it was nice to enjoy someone else’s.
Thanks Leanne! I couldn’t resist including the plumber’s crack. A little bit of humour! 😉 xo
This part of the world is such a beautiful place and always brings back wonderful happy memories when I was a child. All the surfing, the swimming, the camping, the laughing and fun family times is what I think of when I see Apollo Bay.
Ahhh so you grew up in that part of the world. How lovely! I absolutely loved Apollo Bay! 🙂 xo
Those are fantastic images Min! I loved Apollo Bay and the Great Ocean Road. I did the Great Ocean Walk in 2017 and that was awesome too.
Thanks Sanch! The Great Ocean Walk would be fabulous. I’m not sure how difficult it is though – might need a bit of training first! 🙂