Self-Guided Trip - 4 day - Mornington Peninsula Highlights

Our self-guided itinerary allows you to travel on your preferred dates (subject to availability), with private transfers and advice from our locally based staff. You’ll be picked up each day with a private transfer arranged to suit your walking pace and abilities.

We’ll provide you with a briefing to get you started, our exclusive walking app for navigation and local information, 2 transfers each day, and well located pre-booked accommodation with on-site cooked breakfast and excellent meal options for dinner nearby.

Our rates are based on mid-week stays, if you want to stay over a weekend starting in Flinders then a higher supplement charged by the hotel there applies, with the below prices:

• Friday night: additional $50 per room per night
•  Saturday night: additional $140 per room per night

Welcome to the Mornington Peninsula! Meet at 8am today at Frankston train station (approx. 1 hour by train from Melbourne CBD). Alternatively if arriving by car we can meet you near the start of the walk at Dromana (with car parking available) and we can drop you back to your car at the end of the walk today.

You will be transferred to the start of your walk at Dromana, just below the hill of Arthur’s Seat. Here you’ll start with a climb on the flanks of Arthur’s Seat following the Two Bays Walking Track, which winds from coast to coast across the Peninsula. As you climb you’ll get fantastic views of the Peninsula and Port Phillip Bay spread out below you. The Two Bays Walking Track is identified by a circular symbol displaying a Blue Wren, which can be seen on signage along the track. You will be provided with a picnic lunch today to enjoy at one of the many beautiful locations on today’s route.

After climbing Arthur’s Seat you descend through parkland to emerge briefly in a residential area before you’re soon back in the countryside again. It’s a beautiful and varied walk today through native bushland, banksia groves, Eucalypt forest, past vineyards, rolling hills and pastoral land. Birdsong accompanies you along the way and there’s a very good chance you will spot some native wildlife – many wallabies and echidnas use the trail. You will be picked up at a pre-arranged time and transferred to your accommodation, giving you time to look around the village and wonderful walks to the Old Pier and West head lookout.

Alternative: Walk extension to 21km

If you wish to extend today’s walk it is possible to walk further and make this a 21km day by continuing through the Green’s Bush and Mornington Peninsula National park section of the walk. This will bring you to the road head at Boneo but would need 6 -7 hours of walking time and needs to be pre-arranged with your driver and assessed on daylight hours at the time of year you are walking. You’ll walk through dense groves of very old grasstree forest and then open heathland where large mobs of kangaroos can be seen grazing. At the finish of today’s walk you’ll find a RAW Travel vehicle waiting to transfer you to your accommodation.

Tonight you will overnight in Flinders, a charming village with art galleries, cafes and a relaxed atmosphere.

Meals: Lunch

Overnight: Flinders Hotel, Flinders

After breakfast, you’ll be transferred to the trailhead to start your walk on the Bushrangers’ Bay Track, which leads to the historic Cape Schanck lighthouse. The first section is an easy track above a valley that leads to the wonderful rugged expanse of Bushranger’s Bay, a favourite of local walkers. Take a stroll on the secluded beach before heading off on a well-formed track that will lead you to Cape Schanck.

You’ll start to get glimpses of the red-topped lighthouse that sits on the clifftop overlooking Bass Strait. Constructed from limestone blocks and in operation since 1859, this working lighthouse continues to provide ships with safe passage between the Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne through Bass Strait. It has an impressive light range of 26 nautical miles (48km). Today a historic tourist site, it houses an interesting museum in the old lightkeeper’s quarters. Before you leave make sure you take the impressive boardwalk that leads down to the beach with its multi-hued rock and dramatic views back to the lighthouse and coast you’ve just walked.

From the light station take the beautiful coastal walk that descends to the famous surf beach of Gunnamatta, a popular spot for Aussie surfers. The views along the Peninsula coast and beaches from here are fantastic. Continue walking along the surf beach at Gunnamatta and track to reach Rye beach where you will be picked up and transferred to your accommodation at Flinders.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Overnight: Sorrento

Set out from your accommodation this morning and embark on the Coastal Walk along the southern face of the Mornington Peninsula bound for Portsea. The scenery along the Coastal Walk and the views across the Bass Strait coast are nothing short of breathtaking. The first stretch sees you walk via inland tracks and around small headlands and past the distinctive Lizard Rock to reach the idyllic Dimmicks Beach from where you follow the Lifesavers Track for the next 11km. This track was established in the 1890s to ensure look-out points for ships in trouble, as well as to provide access pathways for rescuers to assist survivors of shipwrecks. It’s a reminder of how treacherous this coast is and the many ships that have to come to grief here. The track cuts in and out of some beautiful rugged coves and beaches. The section near Bridgewater Bay is particularly beautiful. From Bridgewater Bay to Sorrento you’ll pass Spray Point and walk to Koonya Ocean Beach and Diamond Bay before continuing on to the Coppins Track heritage trail, eventually arriving into Sorrento is a  popular holiday haven for Victorians in the summer months. The town’s large boulevard is dotted with hotels, restaurants and cafes, and the pretty foreshore area offers shaded picnic spots and sheltered waters for a beach swim.

Consider a trip to the famed Peninsula Hot Springs after your day’s walk and take a well-deserved and rejuvenating soak in an award-winning complex of natural hot springs (entry fees & taxi transfers not included).

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch – Overnight Sorrento

This morning walk from Sorrento to Portsea via the stunning Artists Trail, otherwise known as the ‘Millionaires Walk’, a spectacular clifftop walk which on a clear day offers views across Port Phillip Bay to the adjacent Bellarine Peninsula and across to Mount Dandenong. The village of Portsea, one of Australia’s most exclusive addresses, is overflowing with cliff-top mansions and grand estates. The town itself is dominated by the famous Portsea Hotel, originally built in 1927 and extended over recent years.

Continuing on through Portsea you will arrive to the entrance of the Point Nepean National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty and historical interest.   Walking along both coastal and bushland tracks you will pass a number of historic sites including the Quarantine Station, (Australia’s largest and most long-running) and many former military defences, which in WWII played an important role in protecting Victoria’s coast. Also on the walk to the Point you’ll pass the memorial to drowned Prime Minister Harold Holt at rugged Cheviot beach. reaching the Point itself there are incredible views either side of you of Bass strait and the Narrow entrance to Port Phillip bay known as the heads, one of the most treacherous straits of water on the planet for ships to navigate in rough weather.

Please note that on this section of the walk it is up to you how far you walk in Point Nepean National Park as there is a National Parks bus if you choose to skip the return leg (fare paid on bus).

After your walk today, you will be met by your driver at the Park Entrance Visitor centre and transferred from back to Mornington or Frankston train station where your trip comes to an end.

Looking for more or less days or distances on your walk? We can customise and provide flexibility around your travel plans. Speak with us today to design your trip.

• 3 nights centrally located hotel accommodation (twin-share basis)
• 3 breakfasts and 4 lunches included
• Trailhead transfers with RAW Driver & van ( some transfers may be shared)
• Luggage transfer on day your accommodation changes (1 bag per person)
• Briefing with experienced local RAW Travel driver
• Walking app for navigation and track notes
• Pick-up/drop off from Frankston train station
• Your trip is carbon offset and a native tree planted

• Travel insurance
• Dinners
• Single room supplement ( odd numbers) – please enquire a price on your chosen dates
• Items of a personal nature
• Our rates are based on mid-week stays, if you want to stay over a weekend starting in Flinders then a higher supplement charged by the hotel there applies, with the below prices:
  1. Friday night: additional $50 per room per night
  2.  Saturday night: additional $140 per room per night