The best walks and hikes in Great Otway National Park

Elliot Ridge Great Ocean Walk Campsite is a permitted campground that requires booking well in advance via the Parks Victoria Booking System. Dispersed or wild camping is strictly forbidden in the area. The campground is hike-in only, with no direct vehicle access or car-camping. Campers will find eight individual hike-in camp pads (each large enough for a 2-3 person tent) and two group areas. There is also one shelter, a communal, three-sided timber park shelter equipped with a large camp table and bench seating. The campground has two eco-friendly composting drop toilets and rainwater collection tanks, but it's very important that the water must filter or chemically treat it before drinking.

Great Otway National Park is a conservation reserve stretching over 103,000 hectares where towering rainforests meet rugged coastlines and ancient waterfalls flow. The rainforests here are thick and full of Myrtle Beech trees, prehistoric tree ferns, and towering Mountain Ash. Mountain Ash is the tallest flowering plant on Earth. The coasts are made up of rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and windswept shores shaped by the powerful surf of the Southern Ocean. Some of the many waterfalls in the park include Erskine Falls, Triplet Falls, and Hopetoun Falls. Keep your eyes and ears open for the sounds of wild koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, and platypuses who call this protected reserve home.

Blanket Bay is a stunning area of the coast, with reef-sheltered beaches, tide pools, native bushland, and access to the Great Ocean Walk. The intertidal rock pools are highly popular for beachcombing, snorkelling, and animal spotting for wild animals like Eastern grey kangaroos, koalas, swamp wallabies and short-beaked echidnas. There's a large day-use car park and the overnight area, Blanket Bay Campground. The campground offers non-flush drop toilets, shared picnic tables, and designated fire pits. There is no electricity, and visitors must bring their drinking water. Blanket Bay is also a stopping point on the iconic multi-day Great Ocean Walk.

You'll find a stout wooden picnic table, grill, water tap, and pit toilet by the carpark. A kiosk with a map marks the trailhead.

You get views down to the coast and Aireys Inlet as you follow the track higher. There is an overlook with a bench as the track starts its final switchbacks.

A small overlook adjoining the trail marks the viewpoint for the falls along Distillery Creek. Depending on when you come, the falls may be dry, but either way you get a view of the cliffs and bush flora.

Surf Coast Walk is a long coastal trail stretching roughly 44 kilometres from Torquay to Aireys Inlet, connecting beaches, clifftops, and coastal heathland along the Great Ocean Road. This well-marked path passes Bells Beach and Point Addis Marine National Park, with expansive ocean views and access to a series of smaller bays and lookouts. It's ideal for walking in sections, or as a multi-day route, mixing natural scenery with plenty of cultural and geological points of interest along the way, all shaped by the beautiful Southern Ocean.

Point Addis Marine National Park covers 4,600 hectares, including a 10-kilometre rugged section of coastline between Torquay and Anglesea, known for its ochre-coloured cliffs, sandy beaches, and beautiful panoramic ocean views. The area protects diverse marine habitats and is also a popular spot for surfing, walking, and wildlife observation, with coastal trails tracing the clifftops above the Southern Ocean. Several access points lead down to beaches surrounded by picturesque geology, where changing tides reveal rock platforms that add to the park’s stunning coastal landscape.