Weekend Guide To Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne was our last stop on our month long Australia adventure! Melbourne is such an international city filled with so much culture — it was easy to forget that we were in Australia. Instead of hearing the “Aussie” accent everywhere, it was very normal to hear 10 different languages on one block alone. We met people from Ethiopia, China, Argentina, South Korea, Japan, Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia, Italy… to name a few!
Cozy cafes everywhere, SO many parks (one of the best botanical gardens I’ve ever been to!), beautiful architecture, ever changing weather patterns, incredible restaurants, street art, laneways, + even a little bit of beach in St. Kilda! Melbourne very much feels like a European city — with eating + drinking seemingly dominating the scene. Melbourne actually won the title of the most liveable city in Australia… (I personally prefer Sydney! 👀).
Something I noticed: Everyone in Melbourne talked about how the “weather was so bad.” Coming from Chicago, I thought this was funny. It can’t be THAT BAD, right? Well! It was pretty much gloomy the entire 4 days were were in Melbourne, with a few moments of sunshine. We also experienced quite a bit of rain! Apparently the weather is just very unpredictable + you can experience all the seasons in one day!
Coffee + Cafes
The coffee scene is incredible in Australia + Melbourne is the “coffee capital of the world.” Almost every cafe has a La Marzocco espresso machine! I truly don’t think we had a bad coffee during our entire trip in Australia.
Fun fact: Iced coffee in Australia typically means coffee with a scoop of ice cream. I recommend 🥰, Also “toasties” are super popular at all the cafes.
- Lune Croissanterie CBD — Longest line for croissants I’ve ever seen!
- Duke’s Coffee Roasters
- Patricia Coffee Brewers
- Otherside Coffee
- Seven Seeds
- Traveller Coffee
- ONA Coffee
- Terror Twilight
- Addict Food + Coffee
- Faraday’s Cage
- Archie’s All Day
- Aunty Peg’s
- Little Rogue
- CIBI
- Jour Cafe + Store
- Convoy Moonee Ponds
- Tulip Coffee
- Seedling Cafe
- Small Batch Roasting Co.
- Veneziano Coffee
- Touchwood
- Niccolo Coffee
- Burnside
Restaurants
Something interesting that we noticed — A LOT of restaurants had set menu options, as well as a la carte. Most of the restaurants listed are quite expensive. Melbourne definitely has an extensive fine dining scene. I noted the more casual restaurants.
- Sezar — Armenian **Fav restaurant in Melbourne! Loved the chef’s menu. It was also relatively affordable!
- Farmer’s Daughters — Farm to table
- Supernormal — Austrialian + Asian fusion
- NOMAD — Australian
- Chin Chin — Asian
- Etta — Seasonal menu
- Kantan — Malaysian
- Three Elephants + Co — Sri Lankan
- Makan — Indonesian
- Maha — Middle Eastern
- Thirty Eight Chairs — Italian
- Cucinetta Melb Est. 2013 — Italian
- Sunda Dining — Australian + Southeast Asian fusion
- Longrain Melbourne — Thai
- Miznon — Casual Israeli
- Moroccan Soup Bar — Casual Moroccan
- Shujinko — Casual ramen
- A25 Pizzeria — Casual pizza + pasta
- Vegie Bar — Casual vegetarian
- Hope St Radio — Wine bar + restaurant
- Dom’s Social Club — Popular rooftop bar
Planning Your Weekend: Must Stops To Explore
First up: my recommendation is to put all the cafes + restaurants into a Google List — that way you’ll see where everything is located. We loved having meals in different parts of town, so that we could walk around + explore the area afterwards! 2–3 days is PLENTY in Melbourne… even though the food was outstanding, we got sick of eating out!
#1] Stay: CBD. We stayed at Next Hotel Melbourne + loved the location. It was so centrally located + easy to access everything!
#2] Morning walks through the Royal Botanical Gardens: Do this every day you’re in Melbourne. It’s so magical! We would stop at a cafe before + bring our coffees to walk through the park. Make sure to check out the Fern Gully + the Oak Lawn.. those were our fav parts of the park.
- We also enjoyed walking the Yarra River path!
- Federation Square + Flinders Street Station is a must, too — just to see it — it’s right on the way to the Royal Botanical Gardens if you are staying in the CBD.
#3] Browse the Queen Victoria Market: All the blogs say this is a “must do.” I was a bit underwhelmed (maybe because we visited an hour before it closed?), but I still think it’s worth going — I always love checking out markets. My favorite sections was the olives + treats! If you’re into mussels, “The Mussel Pot” inside the market had a massive line + looked amazing! FYI: The market closes at 3pm.
- Another market to check out: The Rose St. Artist Market — in Fitzroy if you are visiting on a Saturday! Fitzroy is definitely the hippest part of Melbourne, + had my favorite cafes. Also one of my fav Australian brands “Ottway The Label” is in Fitzroy… + the quiet street it’s on had a lot of cute places to check out (cafes, breweries, etc).
#4] Visit the beach “just to say you did” at St. Kilda. This is also where Australia’s oldest theme park is — Luna Park. If you visit at dusk/sunset, make sure to check out the pier to see the wild penguins! Unfortunately, they were renovating the pier when we were visiting, so we weren’t able to stop by.
#5] See Melbourne from a view at one of the best rooftop bars in Melbourne.
#6] Drive The Great Ocean Road! Read my blog post on Torquay + The Great Ocean Road here.
… did I mention coffee shop hop + eat incredible meals? Truly, you won’t go wrong with anything on the list. Let me know if you find any favorite not on the list!
Where’s The Wellness? As you know, I typically always have a little wellness section on every travel blog! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take a single workout class in Melbourne! Our hotel had a gym, so we used that + then did many, many steps while walking all over Melbourne. Radiant Sol Yoga is on my list if I ever visit Melbourne again, though! Barry’s Bootcamp is in South Yarra, too 😉. We also did a 30 minute reflexology at Acacia Thai Massage, too — it was so nice to rest our feet from all the walking!
Even though we saw quite a few people running in the parks, Melbourne didn’t really seem like a wellness focused city. It was more about coffee + culture. I think this is another reason I preferred Sydney more — Sydney is SO active! There were so many outdoor lap swimming pools, people doing all kids of sports on the water, lots of yoga studios, + runners/bikers everywhere. Again… maybe it’s because the weather was gloomy in Melbourne when we were visiting? I’m not sure!
Pro Tips
- How long? 2 days
- Best time to visit: Definitely SUMMER (December-February). We were there early April + the weather was pretty gloomy/brisk.
- This was a fun article: 43 Fun Facts About Melbourne
- If needed, the public transportation is amazing in Melbourne — the tram + bus network is super extensive! We mostly took ubers though.
- Looking for more things to do in Melbourne? Check out this site!
Love,
Elisabeth