Tasmania & Victoria Highlights Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

Tasmania and the Great Ocean Road in one trip, which is a sensible way to use ten days. Self-guided from Melbourne, eight nights and 2,600 kilometres, with a Bass Strait crossing at each end of the island section.

Tasmania takes the middle of the trip. Cradle Mountain and the wet west coast come first, with rainforest and old mining towns, then Hobart on the Derwent, then the east coast with Freycinet, Wineglass Bay and the orange lichen boulders of the Bay of Fires. It is a small island with an unreasonable number of good roads, and a loop of it is the core of this tour.

Victoria provides the bookends. The Great Ocean Road runs west out of Melbourne along the base of the cliffs to the Twelve Apostles, then the Grampians rise out of flat farmland inland, and the Goldfields towns of Ballarat and Bendigo sit on the way back, built on the gold rushes of the 1850s and still showing it.

BikeRoundOz provides the bike of your choice, eight nights in three and a half to four star hotels, a detailed itinerary document, digital maps and pre-tour route advice. A pillion stays free on the accommodation. Fuel, meals, park entry and insurance are separate. The night count sits below the day count because of the overnight sailings, and whether the Spirit of Tasmania fares are included is worth confirming at booking. For riders who want both the famous coast road and the island most Australians rate above it, this is the efficient combination.