Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - another GOR question

I see that there are lots of posts here about the GOR but I am looking for some advise, of course, I think it is unique to my situation, which may or may not be true. So we are planning on flying from Sydney to Avalon on March 24- late afternoon/early evening and renting a car and then driving at least as far as geelong and spending the night, although i have had a suggestion to drive further, any suggestions on cities or places to spend that first night. We then plan to drive the gor the next day, the 25th and then spend the night somewhere, any suggestions or will it depend on where and how long we stop at various places. The 26th finish up what we did not see, and then drive back to melbourne. Is there an easy way to get from avalon to melbourne if we return the car to avalon as I don't think we will need a car once in melbourne and it would prabably be easier to take some sort of public transport to the airport to catch our flight to cairns. Any suggestions, help would be appreciated.....

will it be ok on both nights to find a place along the way or should I make advanced reservations.

Although Avalon is regarded as the Melbourne airport terminal for Jetstar, it is much closer to Geelong. In fact only 19 kilometres from Geelong. It will depend what time your flight gets into Avalon as top whether you stay in Geelong the night, or go further. If you go further I would suggest you stay in Lorne for the night. It is about an hour from Geelong, and a pleasant seaside town that sets you up well for the latter parts of the GOR.

The next night I would suggest you stay at Port Campbell. There is not much happening there but its right in the middle of the main rock formations, so is well situated if you want to visit any on the 26th as well as the 25th.
An alternative is Warrnambool, but you would be retracing your drive back to the GOR.

Coming back will depend on whether you retrace the GOR, or come on the inland route, which is quicker.

I am not sure whether you can drop off your rental car in Melbourne City or Melbourne Airport (MEL) with no extra cost. It would be worth checking with your chosen car rental company. If you can drive right back to Melbourne it beats dropping the car off in Avalon. From Avalon to Melbourne you can get a taxi or there is a bus service run by Sita coaches. Suggest you check their website, google it up. Avalon is some 50 km from Melbourne.

Places like Lorne and Port Campbell dont have huge amounts of accommodation. I would be prebooking all hotels for the GOR, for any of the places I have mentioned. Hope this helps.