Top tips for renting a car on the Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road was one of the highlights of our Australian babymoon, and hiring a car gave us the freedom to explore it at our own pace. We were travelling from Adelaide towards Melbourne, with the Great Ocean Road forming part of our road trip, so having our own car was essential. We picked up our rental at Adelaide Airport and dropped it off at Melbourne Airport around a week later, after driving through some of the most spectacular scenery in southern Australia.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase or booking through one of these links, we may receive a small commission at absolutely no extra cost to you. This helps support our blog so we can keep creating free, comprehensive travel guides for our readers. Thank you for your support!
We booked a Toyota Corolla through Sixt after finding the deal on DiscoverCars.com, and the price was easily around half what some of the other rental companies we looked at were charging. By comparing major international brands alongside trusted local suppliers, they consistently uncover huge savings that standard search engines miss. We've also used them in South Korea, the USA and will be booking again for our New Zealand road trip.
If you're planning to drive the Great Ocean Road yourself, here are the things we'd recommend considering when booking your car.
Why hire a car for the Great Ocean Road?
There are plenty of organised tours from Melbourne that visit the Great Ocean Road, particularly the Twelve Apostles. If you're short on time, these can be a good way to see the main sights, but we'd recommend hiring a car if you have the time.
The Great Ocean Road is about much more than the Twelve Apostles, and having our own car meant we could decide where to stop and how long to spend there. We could pull over at coastal viewpoints, take detours inland, stop to look for wildlife and spend longer at places that caught our attention, without having to work around a coach timetable.
For us, that flexibility was particularly valuable because this was our babymoon. We wanted to see as much as possible, but we also wanted the freedom to take things at our own pace.
Compare car rental prices
Our biggest car-hire tip is to compare prices before booking. We searched around for rental cars and found a significant difference between the companies we checked. The deal we found through DiscoverCars.com, with Sixt as the rental supplier, was easily 50% less than the alternatives.
That made the decision fairly straightforward. DiscoverCars.com allows you to compare rental cars from different suppliers, so rather than visiting individual rental company websites one by one, you can see different options alongside each other.
That was particularly useful for us because we needed a one-way rental, collecting the car in Adelaide and returning it in Melbourne. Don't assume that the cheapest-looking car is automatically the best deal, though. Once you've found a price that looks good, check what is actually included.
Think about where you'll pick up and drop off
Most people driving the Great Ocean Road will start and finish in Melbourne, and that's a perfectly sensible option. You can hire a car in Melbourne, drive the route and return it there without needing to worry about a one-way rental.
Our trip was slightly different because the Great Ocean Road formed part of a longer Australian road trip. We picked up our Toyota Corolla at Adelaide Airport and dropped it off at Melbourne Airport around a week later. That meant we could travel in one direction rather than having to return the car to Adelaide, and the arrangement fitted neatly into our wider itinerary.
If you're planning a longer trip, it's worth looking at both options when comparing rental prices. A one-way rental can sometimes involve an additional fee, but it may still make more sense overall if it saves you from retracing hundreds of kilometres simply to return the car.
If you're doing the classic Melbourne-to-Melbourne Great Ocean Road trip, you won't have that consideration at all. Simply compare the available Melbourne rental options and choose the car and price that work best for your trip.
You don't need a specialist car
The Great Ocean Road is a major, well-maintained tarmacked road, so you don't need a 4WD or anything particularly rugged to drive it. Our rental was a Toyota Corolla and it was absolutely fine for the journey. Unless you're planning to head well off the usual tourist route, there's no need to spend extra money on a larger or more capable vehicle just because you're driving the Great Ocean Road.
Of course, choose a car that works for the number of people travelling and the amount of luggage you have. For a straightforward Great Ocean Road road trip, a standard rental car will do the job perfectly well.
Check the rental conditions carefully
Once you've found a good price, don't stop at the headline figure. Before booking, check the details of the rental, including the mileage allowance, fuel policy, security deposit, cancellation conditions and what is included in the price. It's also worth checking the rental company's rating and reviews.
This is particularly important when booking through a comparison website. DiscoverCars.com lets you compare different suppliers, but your actual rental agreement is with the company providing the car. In our case, that was Sixt.
Make sure you know where you need to go when you arrive at the airport, what documents you need to bring and what the collection process involves. A few minutes spent reading the conditions before you travel can save a lot of stress at the rental desk.
Check the insurance and excess
Car rental insurance is another area where it's important to know exactly what you're buying.
Check what protection is included in your particular rental and, most importantly, understand the excess and security deposit.
If you choose additional protection through DiscoverCars.com, make sure you understand how it works. Optional Full Coverage from Discover Cars is a reimbursement service, rather than the same thing as removing the rental company's security deposit or excess at the desk.
The exact terms vary between bookings, so read the conditions attached to your specific rental before travelling.
Give yourself time to stop
One of our biggest tips for driving the Great Ocean Road is to allow much more time than you think you'll need. On a map, it can look like a relatively straightforward coastal drive, but you're going to want to stop. There are beaches, viewpoints, dramatic cliffs, rainforest, waterfalls and wildlife along the route, and some of our favourite experiences weren't necessarily the places we'd originally put at the top of our list.
The Twelve Apostles are spectacular, of course, but the Great Ocean Road also takes you through the Great Otway National Park, past rainforest and enormous trees, and through areas where you're likely to spot Australian wildlife.
We spent time looking for koalas at Kennett River and exploring some of the less famous stops along the route. Having a car meant that we could pull over when something caught our eye rather than having to watch it disappear from the window of a tour bus.
Don't just stick to the coast
Another advantage of driving yourself is being able to explore inland, as well as following the official coastline route. The Great Otway National Park is one of the areas we'd recommend allowing extra time for. There are rainforest walks, waterfalls and enormous trees, and the landscape feels completely different from the dramatic coastal scenery.
We also visited the Californian Redwoods and went looking for glow worms after dark at Melba Gully. These are the sorts of experiences that can easily be missed if you treat the Great Ocean Road as simply a drive between Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles.
Having a rental car gives you the flexibility to build your itinerary around the places you actually want to see.t
Would we hire a car for the Great Ocean Road again?
Hiring a car was one of the best decisions we made for our Australian babymoon. It allowed us to turn the Great Ocean Road into a proper road trip rather than simply a day trip from Melbourne.
Our Toyota Corolla was comfortable, the one-way pickup and drop-off worked well for our itinerary, and finding the Sixt rental through DiscoverCars.com saved us a substantial amount compared with the other prices we'd found.
The Great Ocean Road is one of those bucketlist places where the journey really is part of the experience. Having your own car means you can stop when you want, take the detours that look interesting and spend longer at the places that appeal to you.
If you're planning to drive it yourself, we'd recommend comparing your options before booking. For us, DiscoverCars.com is where we always seem to find the best deals.
Related content
If you’re planning other parts of your Australia trip, you might find these useful:
4 day Great Ocean Road itinerary: Warrnambool to Melbourne - From the rugged limestone formations of the Shipwreck Coast to towering Californian Redwoods, magical glowworms and wild koalas, here is our ultimate four day Great Ocean Road itinerary
Great Ocean Road alternative stops - unique detours and things to do apart from the Twelve Apostles.
Where to see wildlife along the Great Ocean Road - the best spots for koalas, kangaroos, penguins and more on your drive.
How to visit Uluru from Sydney in 24 hours - a whistle-stop guide if you’re heading to the Red Centre before or after your coastal journey.
5 Sydney bars and cafes with views of the Opera House - tips on where to eat and drink with a view if your trip starts or ends in Sydney.
13 unmissable things to do in Adelaide, South Australia - explore another city on your Australia itinerary before heading to Warrnambool.
21 brilliant free things to do in Sydney - if you’re budgeting or looking for more Sydney ideas.
