Restorative Journeys by Debra Orringer

The Great Victorian Bathing Trail, a First-Timer’s Guide to Australia’s Hot Springs Road Trip

A coastal road trip across Victoria, Australia, that links sea baths, mineral springs and geothermal pools, and how to pace a first visit.

On the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour’s drive south of Melbourne, there’s a hot springs property beside the Tootgarook wetlands where the frogs are so loud after dark that guests are handed earplugs. National Geographic mentioned that detail in its piece on the Great Victorian Bathing Trail, and it’s the one I keep coming back to, because it says so much about how particular each stop on this route feels.

What the trail is

The Great Victorian Bathing Trail is a road trip of roughly 900 kilometers (about 560 miles) that strings together hot springs, mineral baths and sea pools across the Australian state of Victoria, from Portland in the far west to East Gippsland in the east. It began as a blueprint that people in Victoria’s hot springs business drew up in 2018 and 2019, and that plan looks ahead to a fully developed trail by 2030. The trail is still growing as a result, with some stops that have been welcoming bathers for more than a century, a few that opened recently and others that are still being planned. It works well as a loose route shaped around whatever is open when you travel, and that flexibility is a big part of its appeal.

The stops a first-timer can visit now

Geelong’s Eastern Beach is an easy place to begin, since the city runs a sea bath there that was built in the 1930s, enclosed against sharks and topped with a tall diving tower, all reached along an art deco style boardwalk. The City of Geelong opens the diving tower with lifeguards on duty from November 1 through mid-April, which lines up nicely with a winter escape from North America.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula, Peninsula Hot Springs is the property with the noisy frogs, and National Geographic describes its mix of underground mineral pools and tubs set on a hilltop. Close by in Fingal, Alba Thermal Springs opened in late 2022 on land that had been degraded and was replanted with native plants, so a soak there comes with the chance of spotting kangaroos or wedge-tailed eagles.

Inland, Hepburn Bathhouse sits in Hepburn Springs near Daylesford among more than 60 natural springs. Swiss-Italian settlers opened it in 1895 during the gold rush, and it’s one of the oldest mineral baths in Australia, which gives a visit there a strong sense of history.

Out on the southwest coast, Deep Blue Hotel and Hot Springs in Warrnambool was chosen by the trail’s planners as its starting point, and its director has described it as the first hot springs hotel in Victoria. Far to the east, Metung Hot Springs looks over the Gippsland Lakes from a clifftop, on a spring that miners found about a century ago while drilling for oil. Its original baths closed in the 1990s and new pools opened in late 2022, along with glamping tents that come with private outdoor soaks.

How to pace a first visit

Melbourne sits in the middle of the trail, so a first trip comes together most easily around one side of the city. A loop to the south and west can take in the Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and the inland detour to Hepburn Springs before heading out to Warrnambool, while an eastern version leaves more time for the Gippsland Lakes. Two or three bases are plenty for either version, which means fewer nights of packing up and more mornings where the first decision of the day is which pool to start in.

A hot springs stay is at its best when the soak lands at the right time of day, so bathing sessions are worth arranging alongside the rooms, whether that’s an early morning session or an evening one under the night sky at the properties that offer overnight bathing. When a trip mixes coastal and inland stops, placing the longest drive in the middle keeps the first and last days easy.

Why it suits this season of life

Victoria’s seasons run opposite to ours, so November through April is the warmer half of its year, when the sea baths are lifeguarded and the long evenings make an outdoor soak at dusk easy to linger over. The geothermal pools stay warm whatever the weather, which makes the trail work in the cooler months too. For women in midlife and menopause who want a trip where warm water, slow mornings and a good night’s sleep set the rhythm, this route gives each day a simple shape, with one soak in the morning, a drive or a walk in the afternoon and another soak to finish.

Restorative Journeys by Debra Orringer