Things to do in Sorrento
You do not need boots for most of Sorrento’s walking. You need a free morning, a jacket for the wind, and the patience to stop every few hundred metres because the view has changed again.
The village sits between the calm bay and the open ocean, and its best walks follow one or the other: gentle bayside strolls past old boathouses, and clifftop tracks above Bass Strait in the national park.
Last updated October 2026
The village’s best-loved stroll runs about 1.6 kilometres along the bay from the end of Lentell Avenue to Point King Road, past old boathouses, private jetties and the gardens of some of the peninsula’s grandest holiday houses. Four sites of the Sorrento Portsea Artists Trail sit along the way, with reproductions of works by Arthur Streeton and Arthur Boyd placed where they were painted.
At the Point King end, a monument marks where Acting Lieutenant John Murray of the Lady Nelson claimed the bay for Britain in 1802. Start from the front beach rotunda to make a morning of it. Parking at either end is limited.
From the back beach car park, Coppins Track heads east for about 2 kilometres along the clifftops to Jubilee Point and Diamond Bay, with Bass Strait on one side and coastal moonah woodland on the other. A shorter 1.2 kilometre loop takes in Sphinx Rock, the limestone stack that looks exactly like its name, and a short circuit climbs to the old lookout rotunda. Go late in the day, when the light comes in low off the water.
Fourteen sites between Sorrento and Portsea show reproductions of paintings at the very spots their artists set up their easels, from Heidelberg School painters at the turn of the last century to later artists who summered here. It is a walk, a history lesson and a gallery in one, and you can do as much or as little of it as you like.
At the end of the peninsula, a shared walking and cycling track runs 2.3 kilometres from the entrance car park to the Quarantine Station. From there, the Bay Beach Walk leads to Observatory Point and its old cattle jetty, and the Walter Pisterman Heritage Walk starts at Gunners Cottage. See our Point Nepean guide.
For a full day, the Coastal Walk follows the ocean cliffs of Mornington Peninsula National Park for around 30 kilometres from near Portsea to the lighthouse at Cape Schanck, past rock platforms, blowholes and empty beaches. It can be walked in sections from the car parks along the way.
The 26 kilometre Two Bays Walking Trail links Dromana on the bay to Cape Schanck on the ocean. It climbs steeply through Arthurs Seat State Park, then levels out through the eucalypt forest of Greens Bush to the coastal cliffs. Look for the blue wren markers, and for koalas, wallabies and eagles along the way; in spring the coastal section is full of wildflowers. Fit walkers do it in a day, most take two.
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.