Hi all,
Looks like I’ll be visiting Melbourne in winter 2024 for a wedding with my family. Any must-see tourist attractions you can suggest?
We’ll definitely be hitting up Melbourne zoo, and maybe Werribee.
Thinking I’ll have to hire a car… though I’d prefer to stay central and use public transport and Uber around when required.
Bit more of a serious answer:
It depends on when you are in Melbourne. Winter is miserable weather-wise by Perth standards. You can literally go a week without seeing the sun. Melbourne has adapted to this by gearing its infrastructure towards the indoors.
From Southbank, wander over the Yarra, check out Flinders St Station in passing, then cross to Degraves St. Have a coffee somewhere or find a nice treat to eat. Make your way up Centre Place, The Baguettes in here are amazing if it’s lunch time. Keep going through to the arcades, you’ll eventually get to Bourke St.
Hop on a tram up Bourke St to Spring Street. Up here, you can check out Princess Theatre, The top of Chinatown, Parliment House (Once you know that building, you’ll recognise those steps in any new story about Melbourne). Go check out Treasury Gardens next door. There’s a memorial to JFK there that even the average Melbourne local doesn’t seem to know about. If you are not walked out, you can keep walking through Fitzroy Gardens, and jsut past that is the MCG.
Even if you don’t go inside the MCG, it’s worth walking around and looking at all the sporting legend statues around the stadium. If you are free for a weekend though, I recommend checking out an AFL game in there. They do tours through the week also.
If Street Art is your thing, you’ve probably seen a lot by now in your wanderings. The center of it in Melbourne is Hosier Lane - on your way from the MCG back toward Flinders St/Southbank.
All that should keep you busy for half a day. Other things worth considering:
The only interesting thing in Docklands is ice-skating. Fun for an afternoon for the kids (if any).
Close to the city is the Melbourne cemetery up near the Uni. There’s an Elvis monument, a Chinese section and it’s close to the zoo and Royal Park. Lots of foxes in the cemetery and great birdlife. Including gang gangs in the winter. And maybe little parrots as well.
Royal Park is great for kids to run free and maybe picnic if the weather is kind. They’ve done a lot recently to re-vitalise the indigenous vegetation of the area, and it’s well signposted. And huge. You can walk through Royal Park from the zoo to the cemetery but it’s a fairish hike for very small kids. There is a tram from the back entrance of the zoo directly into the city. In the reverse direction, that tram goes out to Footscrazy, which has a fascinating main street with a lot of interesting shops and things. I’m not sure if they’ve finished building the new market yet.
I had some of the best fried chicken of my life up Degraves street, been too long so i couldn’tsay the name of the place. Definitely a good area to check out though.
The JFK memorial at Treasury Gardens has now been joined by a memorial to emergency services personnel.
The Birrarung Marr area along the Yarra next to Federation Square is a nice spot too. If you like gardens the Botanic Gardens and the Shrine are also worth a visit.
Cheers Nath. Yeah I’d like to check out an AFL game, but the walking through the CBD with highlights sounds good too. Definitely something improved with personal, local knowledge 🙂