Travelling along the Great Ocean Road we were lucky enough to stay at this wonderful place for a night and it was so good we returned for a second night on our way back. Modern clean room, view to die for and hosts you couldn't ask more of. If we were ever in this area again would travel a couple of hours longer or cut our journey short to stay here again. Hosts so nice we hope to keep contact.

The Great Ocean Road is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! My boyfriend and I hired a car and drove ourselves - which was great as we could stop when and where we wanted - which was a lot!! There are so many things to see - from bells beach in torquay to erskine falls in lorne and of course the 12 apostles!! We went in Aussie Summer - which meant eating great BBQ seafood and swimming in the ocean!! On our trip we stayed at a gorgeous hotel - The Haymarket Boutique Hotel - which has only 6 rooms and furnished with french antiques, organic pantry and wireless internet (which we used to catch up on emails!!) - we were told it just won Best Accommodation for the region - which didnt suprise us! Another favourite was Ba Ba Lou restaurant in Lorne - the tapas were soooo yum! We cant wait for our next holiday to The Great Ocean Road!!

We had one day to tour near Melbourne, so we decided to take a bus tour rather than rent a car and drive (you know, driving on the wrong side of the road didn't appeal, etc.)

We could have afforded a luxury bus tour, but a friend recommended we look into minibus tours instead. We choose Autopia (----), and we were delighted!

The bus driver made the day a lot of fun. Everyone in the bus introduced themselves, and for the rest of the day we talked to each other and helped each other out. Each stop was leisurely, with no rush to get back on time (indeed we were late returning to Melbourne). We stopped at more stops than the luxury bus. We saw koalas in the wild, hiked in a rain forest, and still had time for all of the standard ocean sights.

The best part came after we returned to our hotel, and my husband noticed that his cell phone was missing! We thought he might have left it on the bus, so we called the cell phone by making a US call from our hotel room. Imagine how relieved we were when our driver answered the phone!

As late as it was, he brought it to our hotel because he knew we had to leave at 7am to catch our plane (since we had such nice chats on the bus). And you know, this was pretty typical of the friendliness of the tour itself.

These buses are small, the seats are more like airplane seats than train seats, and there is no toilet on the bus. But we had far more fun on this tour than we would have had on one twice the price.