Private Grand Pacific Drive Tour From Sydney

Australian Owner-Operated

I’m a proud Australian, and showing people this coastline is something I genuinely love doing. When you book a Grand Pacific Drive tour with Escape Scenes, you’re supporting a local, independent operator — not a large coach company. Every tour is guided by someone who knows this stretch of NSW intimately, from the clifftops above the Royal National Park all the way through to the rolling hills of the Southern Highlands.

Exclusive Private Tour

On your private Grand Pacific Drive tour, the day belongs entirely to your group. There are no other passengers, no rigid schedule, and no rushing back to a bus. I can adapt the itinerary as we go — lingering longer at a lookout, finding a quieter spot away from the crowds, or adjusting the pace to suit how your day unfolds.

I’ve been guiding private tours from Sydney since 2009, and this route remains one of my favourites. We travel in a 2023 Mercedes-Benz V-Class — comfortable, spacious, and well-suited to a full day on the road for couples or groups of up to seven passengers.

Spectacular Vistas: Coast to Country

This Grand Pacific Drive tour covers one of the most varied and visually rewarding loops accessible from Sydney in a single day. The journey south runs through the Royal National Park, one of the oldest national parks in the world, before opening out to the clifftop drama of Bald Hill Lookout — the elevated vantage point that gives you your first proper view of the Illawarra coastline stretching out below.

From there, the route drops down to the Sea Cliff Bridge, the suspended coastal road that curves out over the ocean along Lawrence Hargrave Drive. It’s the kind of structure that stops people mid-sentence. We follow the coast south through to Kiama, where the blowhole channels the raw energy of the Southern Ocean into something genuinely dramatic — timing and swell-dependent, but always worth the stop.

After the coast, we head inland to the village of Berry for lunch — a relaxed town with a strong food culture and a main street worth a proper wander. The afternoon takes us deeper into the hinterland through Kangaroo Valley, a pastoral river valley that most visitors to Sydney never find. The drive down through the escarpment and across the valley floor is one of the quieter highlights of the day.

We continue to Fitzroy Falls, where an 82-metre waterfall drops into the Morton National Park gorge below — the lookout platform puts you at eye level with the canopy on the far side, which is a perspective that takes a moment to process. The afternoon concludes in Bowral, the Southern Highlands’ most refined town, with boutique streets and excellent coffee. If time allows, the short drive up Mount Gibraltar delivers a panoramic finish over the Highlands before we head back to Sydney.

The Journey

Departing from your Sydney hotel or agreed meeting point, we head south along the Illawarra Coast on one of Australia’s most spectacular Grand Pacific Drive tours. The route then turns inland through spectacular mountain passes and river valleys before ascending into the Southern Highlands for the afternoon, returning to Sydney in the early evening.