8 budget-friendly road trips to take during uni holidays

Great Beach Drive, Sunshine Coast

Distance: 380kms
Duration: 3 days

Take to the roads and experience some of Australia’s most impressive coastline on the Great Beach Drive.

Located on Australia’s Nature Coast, this is the triple-threat of Queensland road trips this uni holidays. Using Noosa as your starting point, this route ticks off a large part of Australia’s Nature Coast, taking in big ticket locations in national parks and World Heritage-listed areas; Rainbow Beach, Lake Mckenzie, Maheno Shipwreck , 75 Mile Beach and Hervey Bay make Great Beach Drive a visual feast for the eyes and the senses. And no, we’re not being overly dramatic.

Extend your time along Great Beach Drive on this epic week-long adventure.

Distance: 100kms
Duration: 1 day

As day-tripping goes, it’s hard to beat a gentle drive with your favourite uni crew to the Scenic Rim. Less than 2 hours from Brisbane, it’s the ultimate budget-friendly uni road trip, but still packs a punch.

This is World Heritage National Park country, with the option of exploring areas of Lamington National Park, Binna Burra, Mount Tamborine National Park and O’Reilly’s. Hikers (and those on the hunt for the best lookout points) can tackle sections of the Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk. Avid hikers will want to ditch the car and complete the entire 54km route.

Foodies will also get lucky on this beautiful day trip; tuck in to local produce and Scenic Rim’s craft beer brewery, Scenic Rim Brewery and Café, sip on local drops at Kooroomba Vineyard and Lavender Farm, or drop in to any number of the quaint cafes and produce stores you come across. You won’t go hungry here.

For some inspiration, check out this weekend Scenic Rim itinerary and foodies long weekend foodie itinerary.

Distance: 40kms
Duration: 1.5hours (including 40 mins by ferry)

A pristine sub-tropical oasis surrounded by the Gold Coast’s famous blue waters, South Stradbroke Island is a chilled out road trip when you’re looking for things to do these uni holidays.

Swim, dive, surf, fish, hike; South Straddie doesn’t just feel like the more rugged, wilder little island sibling of North Straddie, it is. In fact, the lesser-known Straddie is arguably more accessible, with water taxis departing from a handful of mainland marinas including Runaway Bay, Sanctuary Cove and Main Beach.

Steeped in tradition and Indigenous culture of the Quandamooka People, stay a while and learn more about the Quandamooka Coast and this incredible part of the world. South Stradbroke Island Camping is budget-friendly and offers sites right on the sand.

Southern Great Barrier Reef Road Trip

Winding its way through the Southern Great Barrier Reef region, make tracks from Bundaberg to the Capricorn Coast on a four-day road trip that takes in the breathtaking scenery of Queensland’s coast and countryside.

You could spend days tasting your way around Bundaberg and the surrounding region (take a look at the perfect itinerary here), but the life of a roadie is calling; dip your toe in the crystal clear waters at Agnes Water and 1770, meet the local turtles at Mon Repos, watch the sun set over the ocean in Yeppoon, and go off-grid on Great Keppel Island. 

Matilda Way, Outback Queensland

Scorched lands, sweeping vistas, red dirt, and a certain song by Banjo Paterson; go walkabout in this most epic of road trips, the Waltzing Matilda Way. Stretching almost the entire length of Queensland, start at the NSW border in the south and make your way to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the far north.

Pass through the iconic country towns of Cunnamulla, Charleville, Longreach, Winton, Cloncurry, and Karumba in a mammoth multi-day driving tour of the outback, hitting up country towns (and their infamous country pubs), countless natural wonders, ancient Indigenous sites, dinosaur fossils and the friendliest folk along the way.

Naturally, you’ll want to stay a little longer out west – the red dirt and country air mesmerises. Take any of these outback routes for your next road trip.

Brisbane to Queensland Country

Distance: 1200 km (approx.)
Duration: 6 days

Head deep into Southeast Queensland’s enchanting hinterland region on a multi-day road trip to Queensland country, where the rainforests slowly give way to red dirt country.

Chock full of National Parks, untold wildlife encounters and hiking trails, this mammoth road trip also ticks off some must-visit country towns including Toowoomba, Roma, and Chinchilla. Tack on a long weekend eating your way through Stanthorpe and the Southern Downs to really round out the Queensland Country experience. 

‘Big Things’ Road Trip

Distance: 1680km

Duration: 4 days

Swap the sea and sand for sightseeing all the state’s Big Things. A Queensland road trip of a different kind, Australia’s penchant for fiberglass kerbside ‘décor’ makes for quite the photo op – plus, the locations are second-to-none.

Take a drive to the Big Pineapple on the Sunshine Coast, the famous Ned Kelly statue in Maryborough, Bundaberg’s ‘Big Bundy Bottle’, and cruise inland along the famous Capricorn Way to the giant Van Gogh easel in Emerald. As well as making quite the holiday photo album, often these quirky statues are found in (or very near to) the region’s top tourist attractions. Fresh mango sorbet or juice beneath Bowen's Big Mango? Now that’s hard to beat.

Distance: 2079kms

Duration: 12 days

Driving through some of Queensland’s the most remote stretches of the country in the tropical north – we’re talking big sky country, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree - Great Tropical Drive is the ultimate Queensland road trip to take these uni holidays. Hitting up Cairns, Port Douglas, Cooktown, Charters Towers, Townsville, and every fantastical thing in between, this is

Want to swim with turtles, or swim in the lagoon at Malanda Falls in the Atherton Tablelands? Keen to learn more about early settlers in Charters Towers, or listen to ancient stories from Aboriginal elders in Cooktown?

Using Cairns as your starting point, think of this as your gateway to our most tropical region. The wild north is waiting.