The The Grand Pacific Drive is a 3-day, 200 km drive from Sydney to Jervis Bay by campervan. Any 2WD campervan is fine - it's rated easy. Best in Summer (Dec-Feb) or Autumn (Mar-May) or Winter (Jun-Aug) or Spring (Sep-Nov). Budget from about A$400 per person, plus roughly A$48 in fuel.
Some road trips ask for a week and a fully kitted 4WD. The Grand Pacific Drive asks for a long weekend and any van you can point south. In three unhurried days it runs from the edge of Sydney to the turquoise shallows of Jervis Bay, stitching together sea-cliff engineering, blowholes, rainforest boardwalks and beaches so white they look retouched. It is the easiest great drive in New South Wales, and quite possibly the most photogenic per kilometre.
The signature moment comes early. Just south of the Royal National Park the road lifts off the hillside entirely and becomes the Sea Cliff Bridge - 665 metres of curved concrete cantilevered out over the Pacific, built after rockfalls closed the original clifftop route. Cross it once by van, then park at the southern end and walk back along the footpath, ocean breaking directly beneath your feet.
Morning coffee in a heritage main street, an afternoon swim over the whitest sand in the country, and somewhere in between a bridge that floats out over open sea. That’s the shape of a single day here.
Why drive the Grand Pacific Drive?
Because the payoff is wildly out of proportion to the effort. There is no remote outback leg, no permit paperwork, no long transit day - just a string of coastal towns, each with its own character, close enough that you’re never more than an hour from the next. Wollongong brings surf and city buzz, Kiama its spouting blowholes, Berry its donut van and boutiques, and Jervis Bay its glassy, protected water.
The final day belongs to Booderee National Park, co-managed by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, whose Country this is. It’s home to the only Aboriginal-owned botanic gardens in Australia - worth slowing right down for, on foot and with respect, as the trip winds to its quiet end.
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Day by day
200 km total · about 3.5 hours behind the wheel across 3 days.
- 1
Sydney to Wollongong
85 km · 1.5hSlip out of the city and into the Royal National Park, the world's second-oldest, where the road threads through eucalypt forest to a swim in the still lagoon at Wattamolla. Climb to Bald Hill for your first sweep of the Illawarra coast, hang gliders wheeling overhead, then roll onto the Sea Cliff Bridge - 665 metres of curved deck arcing out over open ocean. Finish with a dusk stroll along Wollongong's Blue Mile.
Highlights Royal National Park · Wattamolla Beach · Bald Hill Lookout · Sea Cliff Bridge
Stay Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort · from A$45/nightcheck availability
- 2
Wollongong to Kiama
40 km · 1hA short, unhurried hop south with time to linger. Start in the serene gardens of Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere, then chase the spray at the Kiama Blowhole, which can fire seawater thirty metres skyward. Detour inland to the Minnamurra Rainforest, where an elevated boardwalk carries you through dripping canopy and past tumbling waterfalls loud with birdsong.
Highlights Nan Tien Temple · Kiama Blowhole · Little Blowhole · Minnamurra Rainforest
Stay BIG4 Easts Beach Holiday Park · from A$55/nightcheck availability
- 3
Kiama to Jervis Bay
50 km · 1hBreak the drive in Berry, a heritage town of verandahed shopfronts made for a flat white and a warm donut from the famous van. Then arrive at Jervis Bay, where the water turns impossible shades of turquoise over some of the whitest sand on earth. Skip the Hyams Beach crowds for the quiet stretches at Greenfield and Murrays, then spend the afternoon in Booderee National Park, co-managed by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community.
Highlights Berry · Hyams Beach · Booderee National Park · Booderee Botanic Gardens
Stay Holiday Haven White Sands · from A$50/nightcheck availability