How to get to Phillip Island - a guide for visitors from interstate and overseas
There is something about being told the distance that makes a place feel possible.
Phillip Island sits at the edge of Bass Strait, off the southern coast of Victoria. The drive from Melbourne takes around 90 minutes on a quiet day. The city fades, the highway opens out, and somewhere around Kilcunda - where the road dips toward the clifftops and the sea appears on the horizon - you begin to understand what you came for.
"The island is connected to the mainland by a single bridge at San Remo. You cross it and feel the shift immediately. The air changes. The pace changes. Something in the shoulders drops."
Flying in from interstate?
Most guests flying from Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin or Adelaide will arrive into Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. From there, the island is approximately two hours by car - collect your hire car at the airport and head south on the M1.
Many interstate guests spend a night in Melbourne on arrival and drive to the island the following morning, which we’d encourage. It breaks the journey, gives you a proper introduction to two destinations rather than one, and means you arrive on the island already rested rather than still travelling.
For guests flying from Perth in particular - where the time difference and the flight length make an early start followed by a long drive genuinely tiring - this approach makes a stay feel like it begins on arrival rather than 24 hours later.
We are happy to recommend Melbourne accommodation to guests who want it. Just ask.
Flying in from overseas?
Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport (MEL) is the main international gateway for visitors arriving from the UK, Europe, the US, Asia, and elsewhere.
Phillip Island is approximately two hours from the airport by car. The most straightforward approach for international guests is to hire a car at the airport and drive directly to the island, or - as above - to spend one or two nights in Melbourne first.
Melbourne rewards the time. It is a genuinely excellent city - food, culture, coffee that is taken more seriously here than almost anywhere on earth - and arriving with a day or two to recover from a long flight before the drive south makes the whole trip feel better calibrated.
For international guests unfamiliar with driving in Australia: traffic moves on the left, the roads between Melbourne and Phillip Island are well signposted and easy to navigate, and the drive itself - particularly the Bass Coast stretch from Wonthaggi south - is a pleasant one.
Driving from Melbourne CBD
The most straightforward route from the city centre is via the M1 Monash Freeway heading east, then south on the South Gippsland Highway through Cranbourne and the Bass Coast through to San Remo. The bridge crossing takes you onto the island.
Distance: approximately 140km.
Driving time: 90 minutes without stops, longer in holiday traffic.
If you have time, the small detour through Inverloch adds coastal scenery and a good coffee stop before the bridge. We’d encourage building time into the drive rather than treating it as something to get through. The Bass Coast stretch - cliff views, open farmland, sea glimpses - is a quietly beautiful arrival.
Driving from Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine)
The airport sits north of the city, which adds some distance but not as much as most people expect.
The most direct route from the airport takes you via the M1 through the city’s eastern suburbs and then south on the South Gippsland Highway, as above. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours depending on time of day and traffic.
Hiring a car: We recommend it. The island’s best experiences - the wineries, the wilder beaches, the Nobbies, the Penguin Parade - are spread across its length, and a car gives you the freedom the island rewards. Most major hire companies operate from the airport and the CBD.
Do I need a car on the island?
For most visitors, yes.
Verandah Retreat sits in Cowes township, 200 metres from the beach, and everything in town is easily walkable - coffee, dinner, the foreshore, the morning market. For guests who plan to spend most of their time in Cowes itself, it is possible to manage without one.
But Phillip Island is most fully experienced when you can move freely across it. The Penguin Parade is a ten-minute drive from town. The Nobbies and Seal Rocks are at the western tip. The best surf beaches are on the south coast. The wineries are scattered across the island’s interior and eastern reaches.
A car, for most, is the difference between seeing Cowes and seeing the island.
Is there public transport?
There is a bus service from Melbourne’s Dandenong station to Cowes, but it is infrequent and the journey is long. For most visitors arriving from interstate or overseas, it is not a practical option.
Private transfers can be arranged from Melbourne, and some guests find this a comfortable option for an arrival day, hiring a car on the island from a local provider. We are happy to share transfer recommendations at the time of booking.
Adding Phillip Island to a Melbourne itinerary
For interstate and international visitors, Phillip Island works beautifully as an extension of a Melbourne stay. The most common pattern we see:
Two or three nights in Melbourne - the city rewards proper time, not a single rushed day - and then a drive south to the island for two or three nights at Verandah.
It means you arrive relaxed, with the city already done, ready to slow down. The island, in our experience, is best encountered without the feeling that there is something else still to get to.
The return to Melbourne for a flight takes 90 minutes, timed comfortably for most afternoon and evening departures.
The crossing
There is a moment, just before the bridge at San Remo, when the island appears across the water.
It is a small thing. But guests often mention it - the first sight of the island from the mainland, the way the bridge feels like a deliberate threshold, the sense of leaving something behind and arriving somewhere slower.
The island begins before you’ve set the bags down.
Verandah Retreat is located at 3A Gordon Street, Cowes, Phillip Island VIC 3922 — 200 metres from the Cowes foreshore. Questions about getting here?
Check availability for your stay.