Great drives: Halloween special spooky Melbourne day trip

Having a few day trips in your pocket is key for any parent.

You get time behind the wheel on the open road, and they get a new environment in which to perform Tik Toks. Everyone wins.

With that in mind, and because today is Halloween, we felt it would be a great time to show you a fun 'spooky' tour from Melbourne that takes in a haunted jail, a haunted asylum, and a good old-fashioned haunted ghost-town.

All the elements work separately, but if you are wanting a full day out, the loop takes in about 500km of outer-western Melbourne, so should be able to be completed using about 50L of fuel, which of itself is a pretty scary thing these days.

Situated in the centre of Geelong, about an hour from Melbourne, the Geelong Gaol combines the educational values of a museum with the spooky delights of capital punishment and obligatory hauntings.

Day and nighttime ghost tours are available, and if you want to combine your events, there's even a spooky-themed egg hunt at Easter.

Parking is available out the front.

Naturally, a favourite of mine, the J-Ward Institution for the Criminally Insane is often referred to as the most haunted building in Australia.

Located in Ararat in central-western Victoria, J-Ward is part of the old Ararat Gaol in the middle of town.

The run up from Geelong is a very pretty drive through Skipton, and at 179km should take around two hours.

Alternatively, you can head to Ararat from Melbourne along the Western Highway (M8) in much the same time.

We took a trip there for Halloween a few years ago in an Audi A4 Allroad, and even discovered an abandoned train to keep the run even more interesting, and spooky!

Not quite as spooky or haunted as our other two locations, Steiglitz is an old gold-mining town about 90 minutes west of Melbourne, between Geelong and Ballarat.

At its peak, it had a population of 1500, but now you'll find a fraction of that. It's a beautiful spot for a picnic or rest break though, with plenty of history in the old buildings still standing.

Use the map below to plan your drive, and enjoy a spooky slice of Australian history, no matter what the date!