Things to do in Sorrento
Sorrento is one of the few places where you can choose your sea. The bay is for long, still swims and children with buckets; the ocean is for watching, walking and, between the flags, a cold and thrilling dip.
The two beaches sit about 1.5 kilometres apart, either side of the limestone ridge the village is built on. Most visitors end up at both on the same day.
Last updated October 2026
The front beach runs along the foreshore below the village, with shallow, sheltered water, the pier and the beach rotunda. Norfolk pines shade the lawns behind the sand, so it is an easy place to spend a whole day with a picnic and the children.
In summer it is all towels and ice creams; on a still autumn morning you may share it with a couple of swimmers and a heron. The visitor information centre is on the foreshore, and the dolphin boats and the Queenscliff ferry leave from here.
Inside Mornington Peninsula National Park, the back beach is reef, rock and surf. At low tide its rock pools, some large enough to swim in, are the best place on the peninsula to see what lives under the waterline: crabs, anemones, sea stars and small fish trapped until the tide returns.
Sorrento Surf Life Saving Club patrols every day over the summer and Easter holidays and on weekends in between. A short circuit from the club climbs to the old lookout rotunda for the view west along the cliffs, and a 1.2 kilometre loop takes in Sphinx Rock.
Follow Coppins Track east from the back beach for about 2 kilometres and you reach Jubilee Point and Diamond Bay, a small cove carved into the limestone. It is a beach for walking and looking rather than swimming: the water is unpatrolled and the swell can be strong.
Westward, Portsea has its own front beach and pier, a favourite with snorkellers on calm days. Most ocean beaches beyond Sorrento and Portsea are unpatrolled, so treat them as places to walk rather than swim.
The ocean beaches have unpredictable rips and strong currents, and the cliffs and rock platforms can be unstable and slippery. Swim only between the red and yellow flags when the beach is patrolled, keep an eye on the tide when exploring the rock pools, and stay back from cliff edges.
Getting here
Drive from Melbourne in about 90 minutes, cross on the ferry from Queenscliff, or take the train to Frankston and bus route 788 down the peninsula. Once you arrive, the visitor information centre on the foreshore has maps and local advice. Find where to stay, and read more about getting here and around.