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When driving from Melbourne to Albury or Wagga Wagga, there are three ways you can travel. The direct way, straight up the Hume Highway, or you can drive to see the scenery and the attractions of the many towns to the east of the Hume Highway.

Hume Highway

The Hume Highway is the most direct, and bypasses all the towns along the way from Craigieburn to Albury. The Hume Highway is a two lane highway, with a speed limit of 110 kilometre per hour the whole way. From the Fawkner Cemetery to the NSW Border at Albury should take a little less than 3 hours. It is 300 km from Melbourne to Albury.

There are two fuel stops on the highway, one at Seymour and the other at Glenrowan.

The Melba and the Inland Highway

The Melba Highway from Lilydale to Yea and on to Benalla is a pleasant drive taking you through some excellent scenery, especially at the Kinglake Forests. The two way road is excellent, and is not normally very busy. The drive is very relaxing as you are always on country roads with farm, bush and hill scenery, with enough small towns to break your concentration.

There are fuel stops at every town, and ample cafes for coffee and lunch.

The Inland Highway joins the Hume Highway at Benalla.

The Maroondah Hwy., Whitfield Road, and the King Valley Highway.

For driving enthusiasts, people who love the thrill of country roads, fantastic, breathtaking scenery, then the Maroondah Highway and the Black Spur is the way to drive north.

From Lilydale, head to Healesville, and then experience the thrill of driving through a rain forest and over a mountain range as you wind through the Black Spur to Narbethong. A detour to the right will get you to Marysville, where you can see some unique tourist attractions, such as the tallest tree in the southern hemisphere, ( Look on this site under Marysville ).

The drive to Alexandra has beautiful scenery, and it changes from rain forest to open paddocks, as the magnificent tourist view over the Goulbourn River Valley just before Alexandra confirms.

( For the driving enthusiast, the most spectacular scenery in Victoria ( apart from the Great Ocean Road ), is on the Scenic Road from Alexandra to Eildon. This is only about 20km. The road is on the top of a "mountain" and gives 360 degree views over the valleys, weir and forests below. Ask at the Eildon or Alexandra Information Centres ).

From Alexandra the highway rejoins the Melba Highway at Yark, and heads to Benalla.

But for the enthusiasts, drive to Mansfield, and the take a small section of dirt road over the Mountains to Whitfield. There is again magnificent scenery, and Victoria's best lookout, Powers Lookout. It is worth the drive to stand on this lookout, which is only 200 metres from the car park.

The road now joins the King Valley Highway, and heads towards Milawa and Oxley and Wangaratta. There are many wineries in this area now. At Oxley you may turn right to Beechworth and on to Wodonga, or head straight to Wangaratta and join the Hume Highway.

The table below shows the towns that you will pass, (or bypass ) as you use each of the highways. Towns that are underlined are linked to the tourist information on these towns, such as the accommodation facilities, tourist attractions and restaurants.

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