The Best Road Trip from Byron Bay to the Blue Mountains

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The journey from Byron Bay to the Blue Mountains can be done in one day, however, this would be a long and sometimes arduous journey and possibly much more pleasant spread over 2-3 days.



Depending on how far you wish to travel each day, there are quite a few destinations and stops along the way. In this instance, I have decided to make it a fairly even halfway stop in Port Macquarie.

On the way up, we drove Sydney to Coffs Harbour, doing the largest travel on the first day, (if we wanted to do a similar trip on the way back, we probably would have chosen Byron Bay to Newcastle on the first day). However this time, we wanted some stop-offs on the first day and thus chose the shorter travel time initially.

Having the luxury of plenty of time, we checked out of Byron Bay in the morning and made our way up into the Hinterlands to the Crystal Castle & Shambhala.

We allowed a few hours here and shared a beautiful lunch overlooking the valley before we continued on to Killen Falls .



A bit of a hike, a refreshing swim and around an hour later, we were ready to continue our journey into Alstonville.

We had booked into the Arabella Hotel . Expecting it to be a very basic roadside motel, we were incredibly surprised about the quality and the relaxation that this place offered. Only about 35 minutes drive south of Byron Bay, we were here around 2 pm and spent a leisurely afternoon reading and relaxing by the pool, before walking to dinner at the tavern next door.

The next morning we were on the road, once again (as we were not in a huge hurry), we were able to drive the 2 km into Alstonville and enjoy the very quaint village feel of the town, enjoying the cafes and the local little shops before continuing on to the Pacific Highway.

A pretty straightforward 2 hours drive had us landing back in Coffs Harbour. We stopped for the obligatory frozen chocolate-dipped banana at The Big Banana .

Refreshed, we were on the road again and once again a fairly straightforward to our drive down the Pacific Highway brought us to Port Macquarie.

Arriving at around 2 p.m. we had plenty of time to explore the harbour, the local beaches and wander through some of the shops and have an early dinner before retiring to one of the many hotels, motels or apartments available.

The next morning we were up relatively early and had booked the 8:30 a.m. tour at the Koala Hospital. As a special treat, our breakfast was had at the Billabong Zoo cafe overlooking the monkey enclosure. A very fun one to share breakfast with the primates.

Although not really hungry, about 45 minutes down the Pacific Highway we just had to stop for another scone at the Moreland cottage cafe .

Continuing on the Pacific Highway for about 4 hours, slightly bypassing Sydney we made our way out to the Blue Mountains arriving at Leura around 4 p.m.

Have you done this journey? Use the comments box to share your thoughts, suggestions and alternative routes with us; the suggestions here are just one option.

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