Lorne is one of the Great Ocean Road's classic stops, a beach town squeezed between Louttit Bay and the green folds of the Otways. It can be busy and expensive in summer, but the setting earns the attention: surf, a long beach, forested hills, waterfalls, and the coast road curling away in both directions.
The town is easy to enjoy without a plan. Walk the beach, climb or drive to Teddy's Lookout, then head inland to Erskine Falls when the sun gets hard on the sand.
Lorne is polished now, but it still works as a road-trip pause. Stay long enough to leave the main street, because the best of it is the way rainforest, river, beach, and cliffs crowd into a very small area.