By Marcella Gallace
With the 2024 Phillip Island MotoGP just two weeks away, here’s how to make your last-minute trip a reality.
This quick guide is for anyone planning to attend the full Australian MotoGP weekend, from Friday, 18 October to Sunday, 20 October 2024.
This is the order to organise your trip (if you live outside of Melbourne)
Book your flights to Melbourne
Book your accommodation
Book your MotoGP tickets – heaps still available
Book your coach tickets or organise car hire
I’ve written a full guide to attending Phillip Island MotoGP in the past here, but this article will focus on how to make it happen last minute.
Book Flights Now!
For anyone traveling from Sydney to Melbourne (such as myself), plane tickets are still reasonably priced at the time of writing.
You can grab a 6am flight for $149 one-way with Virgin Australia, prices rise to $200–$500 for later flights. However, granted the time it takes to then commute from Melbourne to Phillip Island (2-hours via car, 2 hours 40-minutes via coach), you should really be on a 6am to 6:30am flight just to arrive at Phillip Island by 11am!
If you wait until the week of to book your flight, based on this week's forecast, a one-way ticket from Sydney to Melbourne could cost you around $600. This is because cheaper tiers, ‘Lite’ and ‘Choice’ tend to get booked out. I’ve referenced other domestic airlines and Virgin seem to be offering the best price.
I maintain the advice that you should not aim to catch a flight home on Sunday night, unless you can book a 9pm flight or later. This is because Phillip Island becomes havoc to exit on Sunday afternoon once the race is completed. The reason being is there is a one lane road off the Island and 80,000 people trying to leave at the same time, so getting out of the car park (which is a dirt field) and then off the actual Island can take anywhere from 1-hour or longer alone. This means arriving back to Melbourne can take a solid three hours (granted there are no issues on the highway to slow down traffic). Note, you won’t be sitting in your car to leave the Island before 3:15pm on race day.
Quick advice:
Book a 6am flight to Melbourne for Friday, 18 Oct
Book a return flight for Monday, 21 Oct
Book Accommodation – Phillip Island or Melbourne
I’ve had a quick look and there are still accommodation options available on Phillip Island through Airbnb. In the past, this usually is not the case as Phillip Island would often be completely booked out at this point or accommodation nearing the $5000 mark.
Two-nights (Fri and Saturday) will cost anywhere from $1,450 or more. Granted these are houses with multiple beds, so this isn’t too bad if you are traveling with a few friends. You will need to hire a car for this option in order to easily travel to Phillip Island and then to and from the track daily.
Option 2
If you are a solo traveller (like me!) and don’t want to hire a car, your only real option is to stay in Melbourne and commute via the Catch-a-Coach service daily. This is a dedicated coach service organised by MotoGP.
You will need to book a hotel right next to Southern Cross Station in Melbourne as this is where the Catch-a-Coach pickup and drop off location is. And you want the convenience of being able to walk to a hotel that is only three to five-minutes away.
Here are some hotels near Southern Cross Station:
Movenpick Hotel Melbourne
Ritz Carlton
Atlantis Hotel
The Savoy
Dorsett Melbourne
Alto Hotel on Bourke
I’ve had a quick look, and three-nights (Fri to Mon) across most of these hotels will cost you approximately $900 in total. Not bad!
Book MotoGP Tickets
There are still excellent grandstand tickets available – all tickets can be purchased here.
Phillip Island is also one of the best tracks to enjoy with a General Admission ticket. Unlike most MotoGP circuits in the world, Phillip Island does not have high fencing to obstruct your view. So, you can quite literally stand anywhere trackside and see perfectly with GA which is $110 for Sunday (only) or $200 for Friday to Sunday!
Coach to Phillip Island
The MotoGP have a dedicated coach service called ‘Catch-a-Coach’. The commute is 2-hours and 40-minutes one way.
The pickup location in Melbourne is Southern Cross Station, the coach then commutes to Phillip Island and will drop you off at Gate 3 at the Phillip Island Circuit. This gate is an approximate 20-minute walk to the track straight, Gardner Straight.
Gate 3 is also the pickup location to return to Melbourne where you will be dropped off at Southern Cross Station from the same bay you caught the bus.
The buses work on a rotation roster, so your ticket is valid for any bus in the specific period you have purchased for.
Catch-a-Coach ticket prices & travel times:
Coaches depart from Southern Cross Coach Terminal for Phillip Island between:
Friday: 6:30am-9:30am ($30)
Saturday: 6:00am-10:30am ($35)
Sunday: 5:30am-8:30am ($40)
Coaches depart from Gate 3 back to Melbourne between:
Friday ($30) & Saturday ($35): 3:30pm-5:30pm
Sunday: 1:00pm-5:00pm ($40)
Catch-a-Coach Tickets can be purchased here.
More information on Catch-a-Coach can be seen here.
The Australian MotoGP is Friday, 18 October to Sunday, 20 October 2024. Hope to see you at the Island!
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