Melbourne travel guide

Hip and gritty, with a European vibe, Melbourne rivals Sydney for being Australia’s top city, but plays by its own rules. While it’s the country’s capital for sports events, it’s very much a laid-back left-hander, with an off-the-wall style of its own.
Melbourne offers Australia’s coolest nightlife, crafts, dining, and drinking. Rated by The Economist Intelligence Unit as one of the world’s most liveable cities, it’s less a collection of landmarks to tick off on your to-do list, and more the kind of place in which it’s just a joy to hang out.
Melbourne is the perfect staging post for two of the country’s most iconic road trips. The Great Ocean Road takes you west alongside limestone cliff formations harbouring spectacular beaches. Eastbound, the Sydney to Melbourne coastal drive is long and less crowded, but has tons to offer: nearby Wilson’s Promontory is an open-air menagerie of marsupials, fringed by shorelines of quartz sand that squeaks underfoot, while Phillip Island is home to a large population of the world’s smallest penguin.
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The downtown area — or central business district (CBD) — is where you’ll find many of the city’s top sights. Make like the locals and arrange to meet your travelling companions “under the clocks” at the grand, Edwardian Flinders Street Station, before exploring one of Melbourne’s many art galleries. That said, you don’t need to visit a museum to see the work of the city’s creatives: the CBD is bisected by “laneways” that conceal truly incredible street art. Hosier Lane is most popular, but also check out AC/DC Lane — named in honour of Australia’s most famous band — to find Melbourne’s rock’n’roll graffiti.
Spend a sunny afternoon roaming the celebrated Royal Botanic Gardens. Established in 1846, Melbourne Gardens has 38 hectares to explore, and is home to more than 8,500 plant species from around the world — or you could just stretch out on the grass with a picnic, as locals do.
If you prefer your picnics on the sand, then seaside suburb St Kilda is where visitors and Melburnians alike come to play at the beach, by day but also night, when the area reverberates to the beat of DJs and live music, and the neon lights of the historic Luna Park amusements glow like a beacon for fun-seekers.
Head to the State Library of Victoria to see the homemade armour worn by famed outlaw, Ned Kelly, then move on to the Old Melbourne Gaol for a look at old-fashioned Aussie justice — and Ned’s death mask.
If all that gets you down, ascend the Eureka Tower* for a bird’s-eye view over the city — you’ll peer down from a moving glass cube that extends outwards from the building’s 88th floor.
In summer, spend your Wednesday evenings strolling around Queen Victoria Market where you’ll find a friendly, buzzy atmosphere, delicious street eats, and stalls catering to current food and fashion fads. Open daily, year round, Queen Vic dates back to 1878, and is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere.
Tennis fans will know that Melbourne hosts the Australian Open among a myriad of other sporting events. Tickets are released in waves to stamp out touting, so check out Tennis Australia’s temporary booth at Federation Square, if you’re here in January, when you can nab face-value seats at the final, mere days before the match.
No guide to Melbourne would be complete without mentioning that devotees of classic TV soap Neighbours can visit Pin Oak Court, a cul-de-sac in the Vermont South suburb, that doubles for the on-screen Ramsay Street.
There’s somewhere for all budgets and tastes in Melbourne, from luxury suites and trendy, boutique hideaways through to beachfront boltholes and budget lodgings amid artistic enclaves.
The South Bank* area is where high-rollers come to stay in luxury high-rise suites. It’s dominated by the Crown Casino & Entertainment complex, where both roulette wheels and DJ decks spin 24/7. You’ll find rooms overlooking the Yarra River, and the riverfront below humming with activity and spectacle. South Yarra and nearby Prahran are the neighbourhoods for any shopaholics. Here, between designer clothes stores, restaurants, and swanky bars, you’ll find swish upmarket hotels.
Late-night revellers should stay in the CBD*, where you’ll find everything from budget beds through to mid-range lodgings and major chain hotels. Around the suburbs there are scores of friendly guest houses, mid-range hotels, and furnished apartments. Opt to stay in Carlton* if you want to wake up to great pastries and excellent espresso; stay in St Kilda* for its chipped charm, beachside budget hotels, and backpacker vibes; or you’ll find surprisingly swanky hostels and artsy B&Bs in hip Fitzroy.
Melburnians are serious about good food and fine wine. Get chatting to a local and you’re sure to hear their hot pick for a local tipple or get a top tip for a table in the city — whether you asked for it or not.
With a kaleidoscope of fruit, vegetables and grapes being grown in the surrounding countryside of Victoria, homegrown wines grace the city’s top tables, and modern Australian menus are less about flavour-masking sauces and all about “putting produce centre stage”, a mantra repeated by chefs across the city.
A prime example is Attica restaurant, a short stroll from St Kilda. Its signature dish is potato cooked in the same earth in which it was grown, and many of the restaurant’s indigenous ingredients are foraged around the Great Ocean Road region.
Set amid the central business district, Chinatown adds spice to the city, and the CBD’s labyrinthine laneways are dotted with eclectic hole-in-the-wall eateries. Notable among them are Chin Chin, and Tonka, delighting diners with vibrant Thai and modern Indian cuisine respectively.
Victoria Street in Richmond is the heart of Little Saigon, packed cheek by jowl with genuine Vietnamese and Asian diners, while Lygon Street in Carlton is where you’ll find pavement cafés peddling utterly authentic Italian food.
The bohemian Fitzroy neighbourhood pulses with some of the best offbeat bars on the planet, many curating huge, clinking collections of obscure spirits. Crumbling colonial facades give way to shabby-chic interiors that house the city’s near-fetishistic coffee and gourmet gelato scenes.
Providing the hipster neighbourhood’s obligatory caffeine fix, Industry Beans independently sources, roasts and brews an extensive array of coffees across a wide variety of brewing methods, all under one roof, while Messina churns its gourmet gelato in-store each day.
Plant-based travellers and vegan sceptics alike should try dining on Brunswick Street. We recommend Smith & Daughters, which serves Mexican and Spanish-inspired plates, such as the surprisingly vegan “tuna” and green-pea croquetas, and their super-secret (and again, plant-based) “prawn and scallop” paella recipe, paired with a local Yarra Valley chardonnay. Fitzroy institution Vegie Bar does a dizzying array of international vegetarian and raw food dishes, and Madame K’s is famed for its delicious vegetarian takes on Thai.
While tourists crowd around the downtown laneways to admire the works of international graffiti artists, lesser-visited Fitzroy is, for me, the best place in all of Australia to marvel at street art that is truly world class.
While Melbourne is a relatively big city, getting around is quick and easy thanks to its excellent public transportation network. The centre of town is a “free tram zone” and for longer trips you simply buy a Myki card (just like an Oyster) and touch on and off trams, trains, and buses. The weather is notably changeable in Melbourne and any local will tell you the city often experiences four seasons in one day, so bring a light jacket even when it’s warm. Australia’s currency is the Australian Dollar; around £60 will buy you three courses with drinks in a moderately priced restaurant, and a pint of beer costs around £4.50.
Inspired to visit Melbourne but yet to book your trip? Here are the best hotels from Expedia* and Booking.com*.
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