The The Great Alpine Road is a 5-day, 339 km drive from Wangaratta to Metung by campervan. Any 2WD campervan is fine - it's rated moderate. Best in Autumn (Mar-May) or Spring (Sep-Nov) or Summer (Dec-Feb). Budget from about A$700 per person, plus roughly A$81 in fuel.
Some road trips reveal themselves slowly; the Great Alpine Road throws everything at you at once. In five unhurried days you climb from the vineyards and gourmet larders of the Ovens Valley to the snow-gum ridgelines of Mount Hotham - at 1,861 metres, the highest point on any sealed road in Australia - before dropping to the still, silver waters of the Gippsland Lakes. It is a single ribbon of bitumen that stitches together three utterly different Victorias, and a campervan is the ideal way to travel it: slow, self-contained, and free to linger wherever the view demands it.
Five days is the sweet spot. Long enough to walk on Mount Buffalo, taste your way through Bright, and idle a morning on the lakes; short enough that no leg feels like a transit day.
Morning coffee among the autumn colours of Bright, mid-afternoon above the clouds on Mount Hotham, and dinner beside the Gippsland Lakes with dolphins working the shallows - all on the same road.
Why drive the Great Alpine Road?
The appeal is the sheer range of it. Few drives change character so completely, so quickly: rolling farmland and cellar doors, then rugged alpine peaks, then a serene coastal lake system, each within an easy day of the last. It is a foodie’s route as much as a scenic one, threaded with craft breweries, cool-climate wineries and country bakeries.
Because it is fully sealed, the logistics stay simple and any 2WD van will do - the only real caveat is winter, when snow chains must be carried over the high country. Pick autumn for the golden light through the Ovens Valley, or spring for wildflowers and the first warm days, and the mountains will do the rest.
Hire your campervan from Wangaratta
From A$700 per person for 5 days. Compare the main operators:
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Day by day
339 km total · about 6 hours behind the wheel across 5 days.
- 1
Wangaratta to Bright
75 km · 1hEase out of Wangaratta with a fridge full of King Valley produce, then detour up to Beechworth, where honey-coloured 1850s streetscapes and the smell of the Beechworth Bakery pull you in. Roll on into the Ovens Valley to Bright, hemmed by hills that blaze gold in autumn, and stretch your legs on the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail before the light drops behind the ranges.
Highlights Beechworth · Bridge Road Brewers · Murray to Mountains Rail Trail · Bright
Stay NRMA Bright Holiday Park · from A$50/nightcheck availability
- 2
Exploring Bright & Mount Buffalo
90 km · 2hTrade the valley floor for a granite plateau on a day trip up Mount Buffalo, where the road switchbacks past waterfalls to the wind-scoured summit of The Horn and its 360-degree view over the Alps. Back in Bright, cool off with a tasting paddle at Bright Brewery and graze the town's produce stores before another night beside the Ovens River.
Highlights Mount Buffalo National Park · The Horn · Bright Brewery
Stay NRMA Bright Holiday Park · from A$50/nightcheck availability
- 3
Bright to Omeo over Mount Hotham
110 km · 1.5hToday is the big one. The climb from Harrietville to the 1,861-metre summit of Mount Hotham is one of the most spectacular sealed drives in the country, snow gums giving way to bare ridgelines and lookouts that fall away on both sides. Wind down the far side into Omeo, a weathered gold-rush town where the pace slows and the past lingers in its timber shopfronts.
Highlights Mount Hotham summit (1,861m) · Alpine National Park · Omeo Historical Park and Museum
Stay Omeo Caravan Park · from A$35/nightcheck availability
- 4
Omeo to Metung
120 km · 1.5hDrop out of the mountains and into Gippsland, the road unspooling from alpine ridges to the still, silver expanse of the Gippsland Lakes. Metung waits at the end of a slender peninsula - a boating village where yachts nod in the marina and the Metung Hotel serves some of the freshest seafood in Victoria across the water's edge.
Highlights Gippsland Lakes · Metung marina · Metung Hotel
Stay Metung Holiday Park · from A$40/nightcheck availability
- 5
Gippsland Lakes & Departure
Spend a slow morning on the water - a lakes cruise glides you out among the channels where dolphins and pelicans work the shallows, and the horizon opens toward Ninety Mile Beach. From Metung it's an easy run east along the coast or roughly four hours west back to Melbourne, the mountains already feeling like another country.
Highlights Gippsland Lakes cruise · Ninety Mile Beach · Metung waterfront