Jay Frank
Visiting Melbourne? Here's my list of travel tips to make your visit much more enjoyable and to get the most out of this amazing city.
This applies to most cities these days but there's so much to be done in Melbourne and you'll be getting on and off trams, trains and water taxi's it's best to ditch your luggage early. I've tried a couple of companies but my favourite is Mind My Bag. Their platform connects you with local business owners who will safely store your bag so no matter where you are you're likely to have a bag storage location near you.
New York has bagels, Paris has crepes, Naples has Pizza and Melbourne has... Brunch. That's right! Melbourne has the best breakfast spots in the world hands down and you can hold me to that. If you ate breakfast at a different location across Melbourne every day for a year you wouldn't double up and each one of those breakfasts would rank in the top 10% for any major city across the world. Here are a couple of my favourite spots:
The Grain store - CBD
Black Gold - Richmond
Proud Mary - Collingwood
Melbourne is a really sprawling city and some of the best bits are out of reach of public transport. Rent a car so that you can get out and experience what wider Melbourne has to offer. Here are my day trip recommendations:
The Yarra Valley
This is one of Australia's great wine regions. There's some amazing cellar doors to visit like Stones of the Yarra Valley, Yerring station and Balgownie Estate but there's a lot more to the region. You can also go on a morning hot air balloon ride, visit the chocolate factory or go on a sunset skydive at the Lilydale Airport.
Phillip Island
Two hours out of the city lies one of Melbournes largest tourist attraction the Phillip Island Penguin parade. Watch adorable penguins make their way into the sand dunes. Not into Penguins? Phillip Island also has a chocolate factory and some of Victorias best surf beaches.
Mornington Peninsula
This is an underrated part of Melbourne. This area consists of world class restaurants and wineries like Jackalope, Montalto and Yabby Lake winery but it also has Micro breweries (St Andrews and Mornington Peninsula Brewery), amazing coffee roasters (Little rebel and Common folk), great beaches and if you're visiting in the Summer you might be able to attend the Polo
The Dandenong Ranges
Looming large over Melbourne is our local 'mountain range'. It's not the Pyrenees but with winding roads, stunning views and green forest this area is a must see when visiting Melbourne. Most tourists go to the 1000 steps when visiting the Dandenong's but my local tip hike around where the old golf course was. It's a great way to avoid the crowds and see a more rugged version of what the Dandenong's are. Once you're done you can visit Sky High for an amazing view over wider Melbourne.
Wilsons Prom
I put this at the bottom because it's a reward to anyone who has read this far. Wilsons Prom is one of the gems in Australia's wilderness crown. It's the most southern point of mainland Australia and its stunning to behold. If you get to tidal river make sure to hike around to Oberon Bay and pack some bathers for when you get hot.
If you're in Melbourne between the months of March and September make sure to get tickets to a fame of Australian rules football at the MCG. It's one of the biggest stadiums in the world and it's the mecca for AFL. However, if you're visiting Melbourne outside of the football season you can still visit with a guided MCG tour.
In Melbourne it's not enough to go out to the pub, you have to find it first. Melbourne is famous for its hidden bars. From rooftops to basements to hidden innocuous laneway doors the major rule of Melbourne despite all capitalistic rules to counter this is that the harder to find a bar in Melbourne the better it is. I don't want to spoil the fun for you but here are a few of my favourite spots:
The Berlin Bar - CBD
Naked for Satan - Fitzroy
Madam Brussels - CBD
The Croft Institute - CBD
1806 - CBD
Victoria is one of the few states in Australia with snow fields and although they're not world class slopes they're a lot of fun. Mt Buller is only a 3hr drive from Melbournes CBD and you can rent all the gear on the mountain. If you would like to spend a few days you can also visit Mt Hotham or Falls Creek. The latter fields are approximately 5 hours from Melbourne but both have accomodation and ski rental on the mountain as well.
