Crest the Strzeleckis above Foster in Victoria’s south-east and the physical presence of ‘The Prom’, Wilson’s Promontory, is overwhelming and breathtaking. And here, from high above, the ocean is everywhere. The unquiet deep blue of Bass Strait, the vast gold-rimmed curve of Waratah Bay and the pearlescent waters of Shallow Inlet and Corner Inlet, fill the eyes everywhere you care to look.

The Prom – a razor-backed range of wooded peaks and granite-crested domes stretching far into the blue as if dragged on a giant rope into Bass Strait – is as beautiful as it is mystical, and a magnet to tourists, bushwalkers and families alike.

But there is more to this South Gippsland coast than The Prom. Too-often overlooked by the tens of thousands travelling to the national park are the quiet coastal villages that sit like a string of pearls at its neck. And all less than a three-hour drive from Melbourne.

Better still, there is surprisingly good accommodation to be found, good eateries (and coffee), great beaches, and, outside of the summer season and Easter, there’s not too much pre-planning required for an inexpensive road trip getaway with the family.

Our plan: hit the South Gippsland highway out of Melbourne, follow the signs to The Prom through Korumburra, Leongatha, Meeniyan to Foster; and from there, through Toora to Port Albert (for our first night). The trip back to take in the spectacular coast roads to Port Welshpool, Port Franklin, then across the neck of The Prom to Sandy Point, Walkerville, to Bear Gully (for our second night’s stay), Cape Liptrap, and return.

Day one: from Melbourne to Port Albert.

Three days, two nights, and, to feed the soul, coastal walks along some of Australia’s most spectacular and unblemished beaches and foreshores.

What we're driving

We’re in a roomy Nissan X-Trail TL (the top-spec model) with a strong but economical 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine, a capable locking 4WD system (we’re planning a few beach drives), and really comfortable, well-sorted suspension. The relaxed and well-built tourer is loaded with premium features, including electric sunroof and heated leather seating all round. It’s just the thing, in fact, for a family road trip with a bit of adventure thrown in. It positively gobbled up the kays in comfort.

Day one

Melbourne to Port Albert

We hit Port Albert – an easy 225km from Melbourne – to the long rays of the evening sun dancing on the harbour and lighting up the small islands opposite.

On entry into Port Albert, the fraying main street gives little clue to this pretty coastal village’s vibrant historic past.

Established in 1841 at the eastern edge of Corner Inlet, Port Albert was once a major supply port for Gippsland.

The Georgian and Victorian buildings lining Wharf Street and the Customs House (now in disrepair) on the edge of the harbour echo a history of a bustling, once-grand centre of trade and commerce. All now long gone, hammered into a barely-remembered mist by the arrival of rail and road, there is a contemplative calm to Port Albert found only in these quiet, mostly forgotten, corners of the state.

Buildings like this shingle-roofed farm cottage give hints to the historic past of Port Albert.

The clipper ships are remembered in the Maritime Museum, the port’s moorings now filled with weekend cruisers and brightly coloured vintage couta boats. And, except for the busy summer holiday period, you would struggle to get run-over in the main street here.

Where you can stay

In Port Albert we overnighted at 'Dalmanock', a former fisherman’s cottage looking across to the water. It’s attached to Rodondo, an expansive historic solid-brick Victorian residence on the main drag to the old port.

With an unseasonable chilly southerly howling at the eaves, we were snug and comfortable, and could easily have stayed a week there. Importantly, for budget family travellers, Rodondo offers inexpensive accommodation – our cottage was $175 with comfortable home-style sleeping for five. Around Port Albert there is similar good accommodation available at the water or tucked into the coastal strip of bush at the inlet's edge.

There's plenty of exploring to be done around Port Albert.

For eating out, depending on the weeknight (in the off-season), Port Albert offers well-regarded eateries, such as WildFish Restaurant on the pier (and brilliant takeaway fish and chips next door), the Custom’s House Inn, and wine, good food and coffee at the Port Albert Cafe and Wine Bar. (And the Alberton Hotel, a 10-minute drive towards Yarram, is famous for its fresh fish fare.)

Day two

Port Albert to Port Welshpool

Next morning, after some sightseeing around the old port town (the Maritime Museum was closed), we took the 24km drive to Port Welshpool. We’d been there the week before to take the Wildlife Coast Cruise around The Prom.
Offering eight hours of fully catered cruising along one of the world’s most spectacular coastlines, and teeming with wildlife in the water and at the shorelines, it is a world-class adventure you’ll never forget.

Day two: from Port Albert to Bear Gully.

Beyond the tours, Pier Port Hotel (which offers meals and accommodation), and easy access to the pristine waters of Corner Inlet, Port Welshpool has little to offer visitors. Thankfully, there is work underway on its famous ‘long jetty’ to return it to use; it was once a favoured yacht mooring.
The road in and out of Port Welshpool links to the South Gippsland highway at Welshpool, a few kilometres inland. From here, you can triangulate the drive back to Toora by making a brief divergence to Agnes Falls, 6.5km off the highway.

Agnes Falls

The Agnes River slices the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, tumbling at the Falls nearly 60m into a deep granite gorge. Even with low water, it’s a beautiful spot for a family lunch – and becomes a spectacular roaring torrent after rain. Parks Victoria has picnic tables and a very well-maintained toilet block above the long, placid lagoon at the top of the falls. From here, it’s only a 200m walk (no trouble for little legs) to the fenced viewing sites above the gorge.

Agnes Falls was a perfect spot for a family lunch.

Surrounded by farmland, it is also an oasis of bird and animal life – black cockatoos, eastern rosellas, wallabies, kookaburras and even owls can be seen here.

And from here, the scenic return drive skirting the windmills rimming the ridge-lines above Toora, then dropping to the vast delta, is breathtaking.

Agnes Falls to Port Franklin

There can be few places as easily missed as Port Franklin; 20km from Agnes Falls, it’s a place you stumble upon – sign-posted off the highway, but barely.

And you don’t go to Port Franklin for the views; they’re there, but you have to look for them. Sitting on a bend in the tidal mouth of the meandering Franklin River, Port Franklin gazes across mangroves and mud out onto Corner Inlet.

The river and town is named after Tasmania’s colonial seafaring governor, John Franklin. He had earlier served as midshipman under Matthew Flinders when exploring and mapping the Gippsland coast. Franklin later famously disappeared in the Arctic ice-pack searching for the North-West Passage.
This is a place for the seriously fishing-obsessed, you can smell the fanaticism at every mooring: it’s the smell of whiting, flathead and gummy shark.

Call in, do a mangrove walk, buy fresh fish direct from the wharf, but don’t bother looking for a coffee and croissant – there’s little here for the comfort of tourists; but Foster is nearby.

Shallow Inlet and Sandy Point

Besides, the coastal holiday strip of Sandy Point, nestled on the vast crescent of Waratah Bay's unbroken beach, is barely 30 minutes from Port Franklin.

The beach here, like so many beaches along this coast, is beautiful, uncrowded (deserted even), with fabulous surf and – as far as the eye can see – great swathes of unspoilt golden sand. That long expanse of beach and open water is a favoured spot for windsurfers.
No haute cuisine here but you can get a coffee and light lunch at Paradise Point Café, and supplies at the general store; head to Fish Creek if you’re looking for good eateries and barista coffee.

The road through Sandy Point terminates on the sands of Shallow Inlet.

Shallow and surrounded by immense dunes, it is a perfect spot for younger family members to paddle. You can park the car on the beach here, the sand is flat and hard, and explore the dunes in the coastal park.

From here, looking south-east, Wilson’s Promontory lends an otherworldly romanticism to the breathtaking views; cloud above and sea mist below, it appears to float into Bass Strait. It really is the stuff of picture postcards.

Walkerville and Bear Gully

Shadows lengthening, we headed for the second night’s accommodation – the Bear Gully Coastal Cottages on Cape Liptrap – a 28km drive west of Sandy Point. Facing seaward across Maitland Beach to Wilson’s Promontory, “spectacular” is desperately short of describing the views from this remote headland.
The two-bedroom Cuttlefish cabin we stayed in was $295 for the night (full rate $345, a two-night minimum). You normally need to book ahead, we lucked in on a last-minute booking.

Port Franklin is picturesque but easily missed.

To really get away from it all, the caravan park at Walkerville South offers lots of sites and maintained facilities, and its own stunning aspect. There is also beach house accommodation at Walkerville, and Binyara Coastal Retreat nearby.

But the Bear Gully Coastal Cottages – beautifully furnished, private, a short walk down a bush track to its own beach, and occupying a slice of heaven that few can be aware of – offer a rarely-found holiday experience. Bring your snorkel and flippers and spend time in the beautiful rock pools on the beach below.
We stumbled across a disinterested koala on the walk to the beach (hence “Bear Gully”), found no footsteps on the sand other than our own, and, on the return, were treated to the full glory of a sunset over Cape Liptrap.

We ate in with a very nice St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon, as you do when in heaven.

Day three

Next morning we back-tracked a little to Walkerville South. Split into ‘south’ and ‘north’, the astonishing Walkerville coastline offers up the secrets of a thriving lime-burning industry and an historic past as the port settlement of Waratah. Lime, from Roman times, was used to bind mortar (but replaced by cement late in the 19th Century).

Do take the lime-burner’s walk along Walkerville beach. The remnants of the kilns that served this industry can be found sitting at the water’s edge. And the coastline here, with steep sandstone cliffs watching over protected coves of golden sands, is truly something special. So special, in fact, that you can sometimes forget about The Prom dominating the far distance.

The remnants of kilns that seved an old mortar industry are littered around the Walkerville beach area.

Where else you can stay

The two bedroom ‘Cuttlefish’ cabin we stayed in was $295 for the night (full rate $345, a two-night minimum). You normally need to book ahead, we lucked in on a last-minute booking.

To really ‘get away from it all’, the caravan park at Walkerville South offers lots of sites and maintained facilities, and its own stunning aspect. There is also beach house accommodation at Walkerville, and Binyara Coastal Retreat nearby.

Getting home

Day three: from Bear Gully to Melbourne.

For the two-and-a-half-hour drive back to Melbourne, we returned via the coast road to Inverloch, then Bunurong Coastal Drive to Cape Patterson, and on to Wonthaggi and Kilcunda. This too is stunning – but that’s another story, another time.

The total journey there and back, for three days of road trip from Melbourne to The Prom coast and return, plus a little additional running around, ticked over around 620 kilometres. (Easy, even for the most reluctant travellers.)

So, what are you waiting for? Load up the family, hold a deaf ear to passenger complaints as you remove all iPads from luggage and put them back in the house, and hit the road.

Note: Always travel in a group if possible. Always take vehicle-recovery equipment. Our track ratings apply to travel during dry weather only; track conditions will change in wet weather.

Got any super-secret weekend trip locations in Victoria? Tell us in the comments below.