Rankings by distance

Australia’s Best Nature Road Trips

The best short nature road trips in Australia (under 520km): 8 routes ranked

1	Grand Pacific Drive	NSW	68.7	1	158.8	6.30	13.2	1	2	30.23	59.9	57.4	617.7	390	18.89
2	Great Eastern Drive	TAS	61.7	3	199.9	3.00	19.6	3	0	21.51	75.7	81.1	362.0	421	18.01
3	Waterfall Way	NSW	59.9	5	170.8	8.00	19.1	0	1	16.98	3.3	57.2	609.6	1,316	11.71
4	Great Alpine Road	VIC	55.6	7	345.1	5.85	15.4	1	1	6.95	0.6	70.7	494.1	1,369	17.39
5	Kosciuszko Alpine Way	NSW	55.1	9	431.0	5.05	25.6	1	4	9.74	0.0	61.9	424.5	1,241	8.12
6	Great Ocean Road	VIC	50.3	13	250.1	3.39	19.4	0	0	32.39	75.2	50.7	448.8	395	9.20
7	Southern Edge	TAS	36.1	23	283.0	2.00	15.7	0	1	15.19	32.0	65.1	306.3	739	8.48
8	Flinders Ranges & Outback (Explorers Way SA leg)	SA	33.2	24	497.5	3.95	6.5	0	0	20.30	18.4	37.7	559.9	526	9.85

The best medium nature road trips in Australia (520-1,065km): 8 routes ranked

1	Great Tropical Drive	QLD	64.6	2	556.3	4.56	32.4	0	3	9.71	26.2	61.4	655.5	877	18.69
2	Western Wilds	TAS	61.6	4	544.8	2.96	41.2	0	1	34.14	14.0	83.4	334.0	971	12.30
3	Legendary Pacific Coast	NSW/QLD	56.8	6	990.1	3.95	13.5	3	2	12.42	28.2	52.7	708.5	185	23.33
4	Capital, Coast & Country	ACT/NSW	50.4	12	521.4	4.33	15.3	0	4	9.21	12.6	60.7	516.4	1,072	9.97
5	Nature's Way	NT	47.5	15	877.4	2.34	37.9	1	2	6.50	7.2	91.9	607.1	195	8.66
6	Great Southern Touring Route	VIC	42.9	17	771.3	4.27	13.6	1	2	17.37	33.5	36.0	492.5	542	8.95
7	Southern Ocean Drive	SA	40.0	19	543.4	4.17	8.3	1	0	29.81	43.1	25.7	540.2	209	11.59
8	Seafood Frontier (Eyre Peninsula)	SA	31.1	25	1,027.5	2.48	19.5	0	0	10.12	39.8	52.6	552.3	149	6.81

The best long nature road trips in Australia (over 1,065km): 9 routes ranked

1	Sydney to Melbourne Coastal Drive	NSW/VIC	55.5	8	1,446.4	3.28	12.7	4	3	12.44	33.9	54.6	641.0	299	15.14
2	Pacific Coast Way	QLD	51.8	10	1,912.9	3.76	10.6	3	3	6.59	22.3	42.2	774.8	284	18.82
3	Sydney-Melbourne Heritage Drive	NSW/VIC	51.0	11	1,110.9	4.11	5.8	3	6	12.06	0.9	32.8	622.5	660	12.60
4	Coral Coast Highway	WA	48.7	14	1,660.7	1.82	17.8	0	6	5.42	39.7	81.6	641.9	220	6.68
5	South West Edge	WA	45.6	16	1,159.9	2.58	16.4	6	1	12.67	14.5	44.1	509.8	284	13.10
6	Great Inland Way	QLD/NSW	41.0	18	2,717.0	3.75	10.3	0	3	4.49	7.5	47.2	855.8	625	8.43
7	Red Centre Way (sealed 2WD option)	NT	40.0	20	1,228.4	3.49	32.8	0	3	1.47	0.0	100.0	481.9	233	2.77
8	Explorers Way	SA/NT	39.9	21	3,062.3	3.43	7.2	0	0	5.75	3.9	89.8	930.8	594	6.30
9	Warlu Way	WA	38.8	22	1,583.3	2.54	14.4	2	3	0.95	6.7	98.8	665.0	140	2.27

About the data

Routes are ranked against others of a similar length. National rank is out of all 25.
The index score is the average of ten measures, each rescaled to 0–100 across the 25 routes and weighted equally, then scaled so that 100 would be a route in the top 10% on every measure. Each measure is taken inside a corridor 10 km either side of the route.
Route lengths and alignments follow each route’s published start and end points on today’s roads, so they won’t always match the linked page, which may quote a return trip, one state’s leg, a multi-day itinerary or a network of connected routes, or may have changed since the routes were set. Where a route differs, its tooltip explains why.
In the table, a dot marks the highest value of all 25 routes on that measure.

Source: Redspot Car Rentals, Best Nature Road Trips Index 2026. Data from DCCEEW, Geoscience Australia, the Atlas of Living Australia, Copernicus and Full Range Camping. Redspot locations as listed on redspot.com.au.

See full methodology for details.