Olympic Hwy NSW

Not much of an idea about where to stop ....but maybe a little advice tho.....
Check the road ( Waterfall way ) from Armidale to Coffs ....as it is my understanding that there has been another landslip on Dorrigo mountain during the wet last year...and it could be a tight squeeze with a van .
You could go the Oxley from Tamworth to Wauchope....but the 15 k or so of very tight turns near Long flat may test things out.
Or come in on the Golden Highway and then onto Newcastle expressway and take the turnoff towards Hexham and do the rest of the trip up the Pacific. There is no off ramp from Hunter expressway north at the M1.. so need to turn off somewhere before then off Hunter expressway.
Not sure of road names etc ...but a good map will sort ya.
HTH.

Cheers Keith

Geeza, the Olympic Way as far as I can remember runs from Albury to Cowra, from Cowra you would need to head onto Canowindra, Molong, Wellington, Gulgong, Coolah, turning right near Premer onto just east of Caroona to Werris Ck, through Tamworth to Armidale, turning right 10km past Ebor to Coff's.

I love driving along that route , there's just something about the NSW slopes country I like. The Waterfall Way from Armidale to Bellingen, I think is the most beautiful west-east drives over the Great Divide in NSW.
There are lots of variants as mentioned, such as detouring via Newcastle or other coastal roads, though I would only consider the Sydney option as an alternative

No problem with any of those roads towing a van including the Dorrigo to Bellingen section mentioned above (there are traffic lights at one section reducing traffic to one way). You will climb though from 350m at Tamworth to 1000m up the New England, peaking at 1350m near Ebor and do the reverse from Dorrigo around 800m to 30m at Bellingen. Apart from the 8km hill down from Dorrigo, none of it is tight or twisting, milk tankers do that section every day along with numerous caravans
I can't think of anywhere which would satisfy the twin requirements of swimming and a shower apart from Caravan Parks in towns, perhaps somewhere like Wellington as a mid way point?
It will be a sorter route, but I guess it will add an hour or max two to your journey instead of the boring but flat Hume and Pacific Highways.

Mark