Great Ocean Road Brewhouse Apollo Bay

Located on the main street, minutes from the beach, golf club, and distillery, the hotel provides easy access to amenities. However, guests find it overpriced, especially during peak times. The service is fast and friendly.

We came here previously in 2021 and had a lovely experience but sadly the standards seem to have dropped in that time. We were taken to a table but the waiter forgot to give us a menu as he was distracted by chatting with some locals. A group of blokes were standing next to our table dropping f-bombs every second word. Not once did our waiter make an effort to apologise for the delay. Eventually, a female did which we appreciated. We gave up after 70 minutes of waiting and seeing several other tables who arrived 30-40 minutes after us get served first. Thankfully they agreed to give us a refund and offered to let us eat the meal which eventually came as the transaction was being reversed. Sadly, we’d had enough by this point and we walked down the road to get some chinese takeaway instead. There were others like us who weren’t getting their meals for over an hour and were also getting grumpy but I guess their level of tolerance was greater than ours. Try the beers but avoid the restaurant until things improve.

I stayed here for a total of 3 nights on my GOR adventure. The accommodation is fairly basic but you get what you pay for and I thought it was reasonably good value. The rectangular room was not very large but I had no intention of spending more time than I needed to in the room. The double bed was clean and comfy although it barely fit across the width of the room. I had to squeeze between it and the heater to get to the other side where there was a small side table with drawers and a window over looking the street and the rear of the old post office. There was a small sink with taps, good for brushing teeth, a rack for hanging clothes and low stand to set a suitcase on. Across the hallway there were male and female toilets and separate male and female bathrooms. The bathrooms even had a bath (well, the male bathroom, anyway, I didn't go into the female bathroom but I assume it was the same) as well as a shower. No sink though, hence the teeth brushing in the sink in the bedroom. At the end of the hall, towards the internal stairs, there was a unisex bathroom (and toilet, I think). I only gave it a glance as I used the facilities across the hall from my room. Residential guests accessed the rooms via a steel grate staircase at the back (due to covid protocols). The staff were friendly and kindly filled my thermos with hot water in the mornings before I set off on the day's adventures. On my second night there I was awoken at stupid o'clock by the window rattling. I'd seen the forecast and I thought it was the wind that was shaking the window frame. It's an old pub, once the Ballarat Hotel, probably around 120 years old, or more. It was a bit annoying but I managed to get back to sleep. Approximately 40 minutes later I was awoken by the rattling again. This time I couldn't get back to sleep which was far more annoying as there was very little I could do. It was pre-dawn and I didn't want to wake any of the other guests. And the Apollo Bay Bakery wouldn't be open for quite some time yet so I couldn't even go and get a coffee. A few hours later, as I was setting off for the day's adventuring, I caught a few minutes of radio from Melbourne. Turned out there had been a couple of small earthquakes in the early hours of the morning in the vicinity of Apollo Bay. Despite what people have said, it turns out that, in fact, I could not sleep through an earthquake.