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Travel on one of Australia’s oldest roads, the Great North Road (Tourist Drive 33), and enjoy a variety of interesting and historic stopping points. We feel that this is one of the best scenic drives for campers and travellers, due to the multitude of fun activities it offers and stunning county vistas! We have listed some of the activities and points of interest to get you started.
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, check sites before you visit, and for more information see the NSW Government website.
The journey itself is just as interesting as your end destination. As you travel on the Great North Road (also known as the Convict Trail) you’ll notice along the roadside historic viewing points, including timber, stone and sandstone built bridges and culverts. These stopping points also provide information boards about the sites. The Great North Road was one of Australia’s greatest engineering feats of the 19th century, the road was built by convicts in conjunction with the building of culverts and bridges, between 1826 and 1836.
With a variety of towns, events and festivals to see along Tourist Drive 33, from postcard-perfect grassy paddocks to lush vineyards, Australia’s renowned wine region – the Hunter Valley, is the perfect end destination.
Best Stopping Points and Places to Visit
Each town is quaint and unique, some include wine boutiques, markets and galleries. If you like a little bit of history don’t miss the first historic stopping point – on the corner of George Downs Drive and The Great Northern Road, which is called The Bucketty Precinct, see map for further details. Here is a list of towns and their main attraction, in order and correlation with the Tourist Drive 33 map. However, with so many sites to see you might like to select just a couple of favourites.
Interesting Towns and Main Attractions on Tourist Drive 33, for a Camping Trip Holiday:
Calga, Peats Ridge, Moutain Mountain and the town of Cessnock – with their main attractions are further away from the drive. The highlighted towns below, and the historic road sites, are the most popular attractions along Tourist Drive 33.
- Calga – Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park
- Peats Ridge – has a variety of outdoors activities, from abseiling, kayaking, horseriding to quad biking, see Glenworth Valley Outdoor Adventures website and for camping options too
- Mangrove Mountain – yearly Country Fair
- Kulnura – Gerry’s Cafe; this is a popular stopping point for motorcyclists
- Laguna – The Great Northern Trading Post; the GNTP is another quaint and quirky, yet historic cafe, includes a mini-store, gallery and music venue
- Wollombi – Mulla Villa Farm, accommodation (includes campsite) stay here or organise an event (such as a tour or wedding), it’s worth it – just to view this historic homestead. Offers a walking track and historic sites to see, such as convict holding cells and a convict-built bridge. When you arrive at Wollombi, this will be the first Wollombi stopping point before you approach the village.
- Wollombi village – there are two main markets (and festivals, listed below), for more detail see our article: A Guide to Wollombi Village and its Markets. Popular places; Grays Inn, includes – accommodation, restaurant and Noyce Brothers Cellar Door, Harp of Erin Gallery and Cafe, a general store, art gallery, Wollombi Endeavour Museum, which is included in the Historic Wollombi Walk – stroll the streets and learn about the town’s history. Or hire bikes from the Myrtle and Stone cafe and explore a little more. Wollombi Tavern will be the first destination you will spot when you arrive in this historic town (often there are rows of shiny motorcycles parked out the front). A three-minute drive from the village is Wollombi Wines; vineyard and wine tasting room.
- Cessnock – with numerous suburbs surrounding Cessnock, this is the Hunter Valley Wine region, explore the many boutique wineries and vineyards surrounding this region (just 2 minutes off the drive is a popular holiday park, see camping section below).
Festivals
- Hunter Valley Wine Festival (Lovedale) – held in June. Camp at Big 4/Igenia Holiday Park
- Wollombi Music Festival (Wollombi) – held in September. Camp onsite
- Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival (Wollombi village) – held October – November. Camp at Wollombi Tavern
- A Day on the Green; Bimbadgen (Pokolbin) – various acts perform throughout the year. Camp at Dashville, campground only open during particular festival events, check the website
Walking Trails
For some great walks in the area see our guide Walking Trails off Tourist Drive 33.
Camp and Set Up
There are two main areas for camping along or close to Tourist Drive 33 (it is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from North Sydney to Wollombi and from Wollombi to Cessnock a thirty-minute drive), to book and organise your campground click on the underlined company link:
Wollombi village – Wollombi Tavern (is on The Great North Road) in the heart of historic Wollombi and provides free camping on the pub’s grounds, a convenient location (with cafes and shops opposite to the premises), camping couldn’t be any easier here, the Tavern provides popular drink choices and substantial meals – a popular spot for motorcyclist’s. And if all else fails during camping, they also offer cosy log cabins for hire too! Amenities for camping include toilets, no showers. Bookings are made via phone.
Cessnock – Big 4/Ingenia Holiday Park, (is on Mount View Road, a two-minute drive from Wollombi Road) this one is popular with families, and includes a pool and spa, onsite BYO Thai Restaurant, Kids’ Club, and Jumping Cushions. The supermarket is a short drive away, as with most places here, such as wine boutiques, and other restaurants and cafes – you’ll need a car to get around town, or you can hire bicycles.
Tourist Drive 33, offers a myriad of stopping points and great sites to see, it’s the perfect scenic, fun road trip holiday! (For more information on what’s on and activities in the Hunter Valley see the Hunter Valley Visitors Centre website.)
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Shelley has published a variety of online articles. With a master’s in special education, this has allowed her to write in the area of education, through platforms such as The Huffington Post. Being an outdoor enthusiast, she has written for The Weekender Travel and currently writes for Kombi Lifestyle. She is keen to share her knowledge and enjoys writing informative articles that help the discerning traveller prepare for road trip holidays in Australia. Shelley is the founder of Kombi Lifestyle.
Hello Shelly,
Liked reading your article and Wollombi Village reminded me of the Crocodile Dundee movies from the 80’s. Is that in the same area of Australia? Just curious about that and I have never met someone from Australia personally to be able to talk about it.
I have always wanted to go to Australia and see the country, it is a big place and it would take several tips to be able to really get a sense of the culture.
Thanks for sharing this information, it is good to use the links you placed on your post to see the places you describe in your article it helps to see the pictures.
Hi Chad,
Your comment made me laugh about my article reminding you of the Crocodile Dundee movie. You can talk to me about Australia anytime! Wollombi is not the outback of Australia which is what the Crocodile Dundee movie represented. However, the town of Wollombi is one of the few towns that captures the history of Australia well (in a small country style village), which is great you’ve been able to recognise this characteristic. With well maintained roads on Tourist Drive 33, there are many roads off this drive including at Wollombi, that does make you feel you are ‘outback’. There are dirt roads that initially seem to be going nowhere, and all you see are either wallabies or kangaroos jumping across these roads into fields where horses and cows graze. It’s something, for me, I don’t see everyday.
If you want to get a sense of the Australian culture here, Wollombi is a perfect trip for this!
Glad you utilised the links on the article! An Australian friend 🙂
Hi Shelley,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article! This looks like such a fabulous trip to take. I am definitely bookmarking this article so that I can arrange for this road trip next time I’m out that way! It looks like such a lovely place to visit, I love the quaint little town there. It looks very nostalgic! How long of a road trip would you say this is in terms of time?
Hi Kris,
So glad to know that you’re bookmarking this page! It will make your holiday planning easy, just about everything is on this site (or every link you might need for this trip)! Depending on where you stop (and stopping time) in general this trip can be a weekend away to Wollombi or a 1 week holiday including both Wollombi and Cessnock (which could include exploration of both the Lower and Upper Hunter Valley). However, if you love history; three sites I recommend on this road trip would be The Great Northern Cafe, Mulla Villa, and Wollombi village.
The drive from North Sydney to Wollombi is a two and a half hour drive, and from Wollombi to Cessnock it is a 30-minute drive.
If you use this site for your travel adventures, I would love to know how it all goes, and anything you feel I should include or change to make better for us travellers, would be appreciated!
I love traveling! ! As soon as I have an opportunity I would like to visit Australia and will contact you as my best guide, lol. Your pictures are great, I like the construction of the places you show in the last picture. Thank you for let us know such beautiful place 🙂
Hi Maria,
Sure, I’d love to help as your guide :-). If you’re thinking of travelling out – you’ll be well equipped to have the best time, as you’ll know where to go and what to see. Reach out if you have any questions, I always find it makes a difference when travelling to another country – having any questions answered. It then just leaves you to thoroughly enjoy your holiday! I’m glad you like this article 🙂
My aunt lives in AUSTRALIA. She has actually told me about this specific tourist location but I didn’t really know much details about this place . This article was really helpful for me to understand the location and what it has to offer people around.
Thank you so much for sharing this information with us.
You’re most welcome Sujandar, I’m glad you have a better picture of these destinations. You can now chat to your aunt – with a better understanding of this lovely place 🙂
This is a great article. Something very cool is that my wife and I love dragging our RV around and exploring things. However we are from Canada and thats where we do most of our exploring.
We may be interested in planning a trip to Australia to see how camping works there.. It looks like route 33 would be a great start,
Could you recommend other great places to camp and I love inland fishing?
Dale
Thank you Dale! I love Canada, I really enjoyed doing the Grouse Grind at Grouse Mountain. Maybe one day I can hire an RV around canada, I will get in touch :-)! That’s one of the reasons why I put this website together, you get so comfortable and knowledgeable with areas you visit in your own country, and when you visit another country, with a camper or RV it’s usually a bit of guess work. We hired an RV in New Zealand it was great fun, I would have loved a comprehensive resource like this beforehand, but I have noticed there are a few resources around now (thanks to likeminded travellers)!
My husband suggests for fishing: Patonga, I too agree with him. See our article link below. There is a wharf, popular by fishermen about a 15-minute walk from the campground. However, the campsite in the summer months is usually popular by people fishing along the creek and bay. We haven’t seen what people have caught on the campsite’s grounds, but we’ve see many people catch blackfish on the wharf (that was last year, I assume, the fish would still be there, my husband caught flathead in that area then too)
https://kombilifestyle.com/pat…
If you visit, love to know how you go! Hope this information helps!
Thanks for the great trip description. I’m thinking of finally visiting Australia the first time next year.
We’ll definitely rent a van to get around. This tourist drive 33 is one of our targets in that holiday, as we plan to start our trip in Sydney.
I’m all excited to try the famous wines around Wollombi, right where they grow and are produced. Maybe w’ll even make it to the festival in June, I hope so 🙂
Hi Stefan,
My post has reached you in good time, considering this is a place you are planning on going to. When we first discovered this route and the associated destinations, there were many places we missed as we didn’t know about them. However, you won’t be able to do absolutely everything that is listed, but it’s nice to know what you can do and select those things you like from there. I’d be so excited if you booked a camper from our website!!! And if you go, let us know – we’d like to try and get to the festivals too (we are hoping too), 🙂 we might see you there! Thanks so much for your comment!
Very interesting article! I love the first photo above with the flowers which I think are beautiful. I like the fact that there are supermarkets and restaurant in the area nearby as you gain quick access to stock for camping. Tourist Drive 33 seem like the place for all campers to go. I would recommend this to anyone of my friends who wants to travel there.
I’m so glad you’ll recommend this site, thank you! I think it helps knowing that there are some shops in the area, it’s a long stretch of road, and you are not near any major shopping centres on this journey – until the end. On our first trip on this road, we missed a couple of places, including that picture you described in the article, it is Mulla Villa, a historic homestead with a cafe, walking track and historic sites to see, definitely recommend your friends drop into this place 🙂
Hey i really enjoyed this article, it was very informative. I really wish i could just pack up and travel and see places like this all the time. I have only been on one trip but it wasnt a road trip. It is always better to drive to where you are going so you can do some sight seeing on the way, really good article!
Glad you liked the article Justin. Well I bet if you took a road trip out here, with this website to gain knowledge from and as a resource to help with your travels, you’ll have a great time. And also if you hire a camper or RV on this site from a highly reputable company and use these guides too, you can’t go wrong. I think you should try it again, but a road tip this time! 🙂