Anglesea Beach: Surf, Swimming, and What to Know Before You Go

Anglesea Beach is the first major swimming beach on Victoria's Great Ocean Road after you leave Torquay. It's 106 km from Melbourne's CBD, makes a reasonable day trip, and rates 4.6 stars across 1,750 reviews on BeachCheck. This guide covers the main beach, what the conditions are actually like for different swimmers, and four nearby beaches that round out a day in the area.

Anglesea Beach

Anglesea Beach is patrolled during summer by Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club, one of the more active clubs on the Surf Coast. The patrolled zone is clearly marked with flags and the beach receives consistent lifeguard coverage from late October through late April on weekends, and daily during school holidays.

The beach faces south-west, which means it catches the swell that wraps around Point Addis. On most days, this produces 0.5 to 1 metre waves, manageable for beginners and consistent enough for intermediate surfers. When the swell is bigger, the break gets more powerful and less forgiving, so check the forecast before bringing kids who are learning to surf.

Swimming outside the surf is good here. The section between the flags is generally safe even on moderate swell days, as Anglesea has a fairly even sandy bottom without the heavy rips that affect some other Surf Coast beaches.

Getting there: Take the Princes Highway to Anglesea Road and follow signs to the main beach. Parking is available in the foreshore car park directly behind the beach, plus additional street parking in the town. Anglesea township sits right behind the beach, so food and toilets are close. There is no direct public transport from Melbourne, but the Surf Coast highway is well-signed from Geelong.

Best for: Families wanting patrolled surf swimming, beginning surfers, day trips from Melbourne or Geelong.

Torquay Beach

Torquay Beach is 20 km east of Anglesea and rates 4.7 stars across 1,922 reviews, making it the more reviewed of the two main Surf Coast town beaches. It's patrolled and has a significantly larger town behind it, which means better cafe and restaurant options.

Torquay is where the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach competition route traditionally starts for visitors driving from Melbourne, and the town has a strong surf retail presence. The beach conditions are similar to Anglesea on most days but the foreshore is wider and more developed, with a better-equipped car park.

If you're looking for surf lessons, Torquay has multiple operators running beginner programs year-round.

View Torquay Beach on BeachCheck

Bells Beach Lookout

Bells Beach Lookout rates 4.7 stars across 569 reviews. Bells Beach is not a swimming beach and is not patrolled. The reef break there produces powerful left-handers that are genuinely dangerous in big swells and are best left to experienced surfers.

The lookout is worth the short drive from Torquay (14 km) for the view of the break and the cliffs, especially when there's swell running. The car park is large and the walk to the lookout takes about 5 minutes. There is no beach access directly from the lookout car park.

View Bells Beach Lookout on BeachCheck

Point Addis Beach

Point Addis Beach sits inside the Anglesea Heath conservation area, about 8 km from Anglesea town. It rates 4.8 stars across 536 reviews, the highest of the four beaches in this guide. It's not patrolled and is not suitable for families wanting safe swimming, but the beach itself is one of the more scenic spots on this section of coast.

The cliffs at Point Addis are striking and the beach is wide and sandy. Getting down requires a walk from the car park (about 10-15 minutes). The beach is clothing-optional at the northern end, which is worth knowing before you arrive with kids.

Access is off Point Addis Road from the Great Ocean Road. There is no entry fee for the beach, but the car park has limited spaces.

View Point Addis Beach on BeachCheck

Lorne Beach

Lorne Beach is 45 km south-west of Anglesea along the Great Ocean Road, and rates 4.6 stars across 3,881 reviews, the most-reviewed beach in this group. Lorne is a larger town than Anglesea and the beach is correspondingly busier in peak season, particularly the Christmas-January period.

The beach is patrolled and has a strong swimming culture. The Lorne Pier to Pub swim, held every January, is one of Australia's largest ocean swims and draws participants to the beach in significant numbers. Outside of that period, Lorne is a quieter alternative to Anglesea if you're continuing along the Great Ocean Road.

View Lorne Beach on BeachCheck

Planning Your Visit

The Anglesea-to-Lorne corridor is best from November through April. Water temperatures in the Southern Ocean are noticeably cold outside of summer, sitting in the 13-16°C range in winter. Most people swimming at Anglesea outside of summer are using wetsuits.

For surf lessons, Anglesea has operators on the beach in summer. Torquay has more options year-round given its larger surf industry presence. Book in advance for December through January as demand is high.

Driving from Melbourne, allow 90 minutes to Anglesea on a weekday and closer to 2 hours on a busy summer weekend morning when traffic backs up through Geelong. Taking the Princes Freeway to Geelong and then the Surfcoast Highway is the standard route.