Driving across the Nullarbor Plain

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
6
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
1
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
5
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
10
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
7
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
9
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
75 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
101st/454
Top 30%
continent
Oceania
country
Australia
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$80 ($100-$200 in 2025 prices)
Time of year visited
December
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Desert Driving Isolation
All Tags
Camping
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐⭐

Summary

The Nullabor Plain is a giant, flat and practically treeless plain – nullabor in Latin means “without trees” – on the Great Australian Bight coast between Western Australia and Southern Australia.

Whilst there are some stunning cliffs and a hill range in the distance, the region is known for, well, basically having nothing there . . . no trees . . . no small towns . . . not even the bright red sand you associate with the outback.  All you find is some scrub and the one road that connects the 1250km / 777miles between Norseman and Ceduna . . . part of which has longest stretch of road without a turn at  146km / 91miles.

Now that may sound dull . . . and it is . . . but there is something cool and unique about staring ahead at the straight road of nothingness around you and knowing, for the next 12 hours or so, all you’ve got are road trains and lunatic cyclists to occasionally keep you company.

If can, don’t fly from Perth to Adelaide – driving across the Nullabor Plain is way more of an experience and about the closest you’ll come to feeling like you’re in the Mad Max post-apocalyptic world.  I swear I saw Tina Turner singing on the side of the road at some point.

 

 

90 mile straight sign - Australia's longest straight road

 

Couple of tips:

#1 Gas / petrol – fill up with as much gas as you can beforehand.  Less so from a safety point of view – whilst it is super remote, you do have fellow strange people driving by who can help.  It is more just from a cost point of view – the petrol stops along the way are very expensive.

#2 Camping – you can camp in a couple of places along the way that provide basic facilities.  Don’t camp just off the road – when you see just how much the roadtrains swing when they’re hurtling along at 150km / 90 miles per hour, you’ll realise why.

 

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The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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