Don't be a tourist, be a traveler, world in motion
EnglishUSDNewsletterWimup Videos ↗
Plan a trip
Melbourne, Australia, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
▶ Video · 48 Hours in Melbourne
Video guide · 3:24:45
▶ Watch the guide
Top 10OceaniaAustralia▶ Video guide

Top 10 Things To Do in Melbourne

Country
Australia
Best months
Mar · Apr · Oct · Nov
Population
5.4
Language
English
Budget / day
A$170–320
Quick answer

Give Melbourne four days. One belongs to the central grid: the laneways, NGV International, State Library Victoria and Queen Victoria Market, all inside the free tram zone. One belongs to the inner north, where Fitzroy, Carlton and Collingwood carry the food and the bandrooms. One belongs to the bay, on the 96 tram to St Kilda. The fourth belongs outside the city, on the Great Ocean Road or in the Yarra Valley.

48 Hours in Melbourne

▶ Video guide Open the film page (3:24:45) →

Melbourne keeps its best rooms out of sight. Robert Hoddle laid the city out in 1837 as wide streets with service lanes between them, and nearly two centuries later the lanes hold the coffee, the bars and the murals while the streets hold the institutions. Sydney arranges itself around a harbour. Melbourne arranges itself around what people do indoors.

The 10 best things to do in Melbourne

1

Spend a morning at NGV International

Gallery· 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004

The largest and oldest public art museum in Australia, and the free half of a two-part gallery: the Australian collection sits across the river at Federation Square. Walk through the water wall at the entrance, then look up in the Great Hall, where Leonard French's stained-glass ceiling is best read lying on the carpet. General entry is free.

Time2–3 hrs
CostFree
Best atWeekday morning
TipLie down in the Great Hall
Map↗ Website
Shop Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia
2

Shop Queen Victoria Market

Market· 513 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Seven hectares of sheds at the top of the grid, trading since the 1870s: deli hall first for cheese and smallgoods, then the produce rows, then the doughnut van. Go early on a Saturday, when the crowd is buying rather than browsing. Check the day before you set out, because the market closes on Mondays and Wednesdays outside the summer and winter night-market seasons.

Time2 hrs
CostFree entry
Best atSaturday, early
TipClosed Mon and Wed
Map↗ Website
3

Walk the Royal Botanic Gardens

Park· Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne VIC 3004

Thirty-eight hectares on a bend of the Yarra, laid out in the 1840s and still the best free hour in the city. The Tan running track loops the perimeter, Fern Gully cuts the temperature by several degrees, and the Aboriginal Heritage Walk is the one guided option worth booking. The gates open at 7.30am every day of the year.

Time1–2 hrs
CostFree
Best atEarly morning
TipEnter from the Shrine end
Map↗ Website
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia (Wimup)
4

Get inside the MCG

Stadium· Brunton Avenue, Yarra Park, East Melbourne VIC 3002

A hundred thousand seats, the main stadium of the 1956 Olympics, and the ground where Australian rules football is measured. A ticket to any winter match is the real experience, and the roar of a full house is not reproducible. Out of season, the 75-minute tour runs from Gate 3 and takes in the changing rooms and the MCC Long Room.

Time2 hrs
CostTour ticketed
Best atMatch day
TipWalk in from Jolimont
Map↗ Website
Read the walls of Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Australia
5

Read the walls of Hosier Lane

Street art· Hosier Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000

The bluestone lane opposite Federation Square has been painted continuously since the late 1990s, and nothing on it survives long. That is the point: come twice in a week and the work has changed. Rutledge Lane doglegs off it with fewer people. Go before nine to see it without a tour group, and follow AC/DC Lane east for the version nobody photographs.

Time30–45 min
CostFree
Best atBefore 9am
TipCarry on to AC/DC Lane
Map
Sit in the La Trobe Reading Room, Melbourne, Australia
6

Sit in the La Trobe Reading Room

Library· 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

The octagonal dome of State Library Victoria has been open since 1913 and holds six storeys of galleries above the reading desks. Take the stairs to the top balcony for the view straight down. On the way, the free Ned Kelly display holds the armour he wore at Glenrowan, which is the closest thing this country has to a national relic.

Time45 min
CostFree
Best atWeekday afternoon
TipClimb to the sixth level
Map↗ Website
See Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia
7

See Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building

Museum· 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton VIC 3053

The museum holds the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, a forest gallery under glass and Phar Lap. Its neighbour across the Carlton Gardens matters more: the Royal Exhibition Building held Australia's first federal parliament in 1901 and became the country's first built site on the World Heritage List in 2004. The dome tour leaves from the museum.

Time3 hrs
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday
TipBook the dome tour ahead
Map↗ Website
Take the tram to St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia
8

Take the tram to St Kilda

Beach· 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda VIC 3182

The 96 tram runs from the centre to the bay in about half an hour. Luna Park has been swallowing visitors through the same mouth since 1912; Acland Street does the cake shops; the Esplanade does the Sunday market. Stay for dusk, when little penguins come ashore on the breakwater at the end of the pier. The viewing sessions are free but ticketed.

TimeHalf a day
CostPark free · rides ticketed
Best atLate afternoon
TipBook the penguin session
Map↗ Website↗ Penguins
9

Look down from Melbourne Skydeck

Viewpoint· 7 Riverside Quay, Southbank VIC 3006

The 88th floor of Eureka Tower, 285 metres up, with Port Phillip Bay on one side and the Dandenong Ranges on the other. The Edge is the extra: a glass cube that slides three metres out from the building with you inside it. Open daily from midday, which makes this an evening rather than a morning stop, and the hour before sunset is the ticket worth timing.

Time1 hr
CostTicketed
Best atHour before sunset
TipThe Edge is a separate ticket
Map↗ Website
Climb the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia
10

Climb the Shrine of Remembrance

Memorial· Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne VIC 3001

A classical mausoleum on a rise at the top of St Kilda Road, built between the wars and aligned so that a shaft of light crosses the Stone of Remembrance at 11am on 11 November. A service with the same effect runs every half hour. Entry is free, and the balcony gives the cleanest view straight up the boulevard.

Time1 hr
CostFree
Best atLate morning
TipWalk up from the gardens
Map↗ Website

9 of the 10, mapped

Melbourne · 9 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Melbourne travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Melbourne?+
Four. One for the central grid (the laneways, NGV International, the library and the market), one for the inner north around Fitzroy, Carlton and Collingwood, one for the bay at St Kilda and the parks along the Yarra, and one out of the city to the Great Ocean Road, the Yarra Valley or Phillip Island. A fifth day buys a second trip out.
What is the best time of year to visit Melbourne?+
March to April and October to November. The weather is mild, the festival calendar is dense at both ends, and the city is not competing with school holidays. Summer runs hot and dry with days over 40C; winter is cold, grey and the best time for the galleries. The joke about four seasons in one day is close enough to true.
Do you need a car in Melbourne?+
Not in the city. Trams, trains and walking cover everything in this guide, and the central grid is free to ride. Hire a car only for the day trips, and read up on the hook turn first: at several city intersections you turn right from the left lane, so the trams can keep moving.
How do you pay for public transport in Melbourne?+
With a myki card, bought and topped up at stations, 7-Elevens and the PTV hubs, then touched on and off. The exception is the Free Tram Zone, which covers the central grid, Docklands and Queen Victoria Market: inside it, trams are free and you do not touch on at all.
Melbourne or Sydney for a first trip to Australia?+
Sydney if you want the harbour and the beaches, Melbourne if you want to eat, drink and go to things. Sydney is the more photogenic city and Melbourne is the more habitable one. They are an hour and a half apart by plane, so a week can hold both, with a day trip out of each.
The city's first language

Best coffee in Melbourne (2026)

Six roasters and espresso bars, from a standing-room counter in the grid to a warehouse in the South Melbourne back streets.
No seats
CBD

Patricia Coffee Brewers

Espresso bar · Standing room

A counter at the rear of Little Bourke Street with no seats and a menu of three words: black, white, filter. It pours Seven Seeds, Market Lane and Proud Mary.

Map↗ Website
Roaster
Carlton

Seven Seeds

Roastery café · Warehouse

The Berkeley Street warehouse most of the Melbourne specialty scene traces back to. Roasting happens beside the communal table, and public cuppings are open.

Map↗ Website
Brunch
Collingwood

Proud Mary

Roastery café · All-day food

Oxford Street's coffee institution, as serious about the brunch plates as the single origins, and busy enough on weekends that the wait is part of the plan.

Map↗ Website
Market Lane Coffee
Market
Prahran

Market Lane Coffee

Roaster · Market stall

The Prahran Market stall is the best of Market Lane's rooms. Order at the counter, then work through the produce halls either side of it.

Map↗ Website
Tiny
CBD

Brother Baba Budan

Espresso bar · Chairs overhead

A shoebox on Little Bourke Street with wooden chairs bolted to the ceiling and a Seven Seeds grinder underneath. Six seats, so plan on the window ledge.

Map↗ Website
Roaster
South Melbourne

ST. ALi

Roastery café · Back streets

A converted warehouse on Yarra Place, off the main street and roasting since the mid 2000s. Still the reason people walk past three closer cafés.

Map
Where the city eats

Best restaurants in Melbourne (2026)

Eight rooms, from a Ripponlea tasting menu to a Chinatown dining room that has set the standard for Cantonese food in Australia.
Fine dining
Ripponlea

Attica

Tasting menu · Bookings essential

Ben Shewry's restaurant on Glen Eira Road has spent two decades arguing that Australian ingredients deserve a tasting menu. One sitting, booked far ahead.

Map↗ Website
All day
CBD

Cumulus Inc.

All day · Flinders Lane

Andrew McConnell's Flinders Lane room runs from breakfast to late dinner without changing character. The tuna tartare has survived a dozen menu rewrites.

Map↗ Website
Cantonese
Chinatown

Flower Drum

Cantonese · Market Lane

White tablecloths, Peking duck carved at the table, and a Cantonese kitchen that Melbourne has been measuring the rest against for decades. Book well before you fly.

Map↗ Website
Late
CBD

Supernormal

Asian · Late kitchen

The lobster roll gets the attention, but the dumplings and the late kitchen are why the Flinders Lane room stays full on a Tuesday.

Map↗ Website
Pasta
CBD

Tipo 00

Pasta · Counter seating

A narrow pasta bar at the top of Little Bourke Street. Sit at the counter, order two plates between two people, and let the kitchen decide the rest.

Map↗ Website
Cocktails
CBD

Gimlet at Cavendish House

Bar and grill · Russell Street

Arched windows, marble and a martini list that takes itself seriously. If the dining room is gone, the bar takes walk-ins and serves the same menu.

Map↗ Website
Wine
CBD

Embla

Wine bar · Wood fire

Everything comes off the wood fire and the wine list leans natural. Walk-ins are designed into the room, which is rare enough in this city to be worth knowing.

Map↗ Website
Italian
CBD

Grossi Florentino

Italian · Bourke Street

The Mural Room upstairs is the formal Melbourne dinner. The Cellar Bar downstairs is the same kitchen at a third of the ceremony, and takes no bookings.

Map↗ Website
Above the grid

Best rooftop bars in Melbourne (2026)

Five terraces in a city that treats a fire escape as an opportunity, including one with a cinema on it.
Cinema
CBD

Rooftop Bar at Curtin House

Level 7 · Rooftop cinema

Seven flights above Swanston Street, with deckchairs, a bar built from crates and an open-air cinema running through summer. Blankets and heaters when it turns.

Map↗ Website
Late
CBD

Siglo

Terrace · Cocktails

An open terrace above the Melbourne Supper Club, facing Parliament House across Spring Street. Late, low-lit and old-world. Also a cigar bar, which decides where you sit.

Map↗ Website
Views
Fitzroy

Naked in the Sky

Fifth floor · Brunswick Street

The fifth-floor rooftop above Naked for Satan, looking back at the skyline from the northern side. Do the pintxos downstairs first.

Map↗ Website
All weather
CBD

Her Rooftop

Level 5 · Retractable roof

Thai barbecue and natural wine on the top floor of a Lonsdale Street building, under a roof that closes when Melbourne does what Melbourne does.

Map
Riverside
CBD

Transit Rooftop Bar

Level 2 · Federation Square

Above the Transport Hotel at Federation Square, which puts Flinders Street Station, the river and the cathedral in one view.

Map↗ Website
Beyond the water wall

Best galleries in Melbourne (2026)

Six rooms other than NGV International, four of them free, one of them an hour out of town in a farmhouse garden.
Free
Federation Square

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Australian art · Free entry

The NGV's Australian collection, First Nations work included, in the Federation Square building across the river from its international half. Open daily, free.

Map↗ Website
ACMI
Free
Federation Square

ACMI

Screen culture · Free exhibition

The Story of the Moving Image runs the length of a floor and costs nothing: a hands-on history of film, television and games, with the best repertory cinema attached.

Map↗ Website
Free
Southbank

ACCA

Contemporary · Commissions

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art commissions rather than collects, so the rusted-steel building on Sturt Street changes completely between visits. Free.

Map↗ Website
Heide Museum of Modern Art
Half day
Bulleen

Heide Museum of Modern Art

Modern art · Sculpture park

The Reeds' old dairy farm in Bulleen, where Sidney Nolan painted the first Ned Kelly series. Three buildings of modern art in a heritage garden.

Map↗ Website
Free
Southbank

Buxton Contemporary

Contemporary · University collection

Michael Buxton's collection of Australian contemporary art, given to the University of Melbourne and shown in a concrete box behind the arts campus. Free.

Map↗ Website
Free
Preston

Gertrude Contemporary

Artist studios · Preston South

The studio-and-gallery model that launched a generation of Melbourne artists, now on High Street in Preston South. Exhibitions are free and the studios open periodically.

Map↗ Website
Any night of the week

Best live music in Melbourne (2026)

Five rooms, from a 1929 picture palace to a Collingwood pub that a street protest once kept open.
Corner Hotel
Bands
Richmond

Corner Hotel

Bandroom · Rooftop

Swan Street's bandroom has hosted most of the acts that later needed a stadium, and the rooftop is where the crowd goes between sets.

Map↗ Website
The Tote
Rock
Collingwood

The Tote

Pub · Two rooms

Johnston Street's sticky-carpet institution. Its 2010 closure put thousands on the street in protest and forced a change to state licensing rules.

Map↗ Website
Forum Melbourne
Landmark
CBD

Forum Melbourne

1929 picture palace · Flinders Street

A 1929 picture palace on the corner of Flinders and Russell, with statues around the walls and a painted night sky overhead. Worth a ticket for the room alone.

Map↗ Website
Melbourne Recital Centre
Classical
Southbank

Melbourne Recital Centre

Concert hall · Southbank

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall was built for sound rather than spectacle, and the chamber programme in it is among the best value in the city.

Map↗ Website
Bands
Northcote

Northcote Theatre

Bandroom · High Street

A restored High Street theatre reopened as a mid-size bandroom, and the anchor of the strip that runs either side of it.

Map↗ Website
Where to spend a day

Best neighbourhoods in Melbourne (2026)

Six areas within half an hour of Flinders Street, each with its own reason to get off the tram.
Fitzroy
Nightlife
Inner north

Fitzroy

Brunswick Street · Bars and vintage

Brunswick Street and Gertrude Street carry the bars, the vintage shops and the galleries. The first suburb of Melbourne, and still the one that sets the tone.

Map
Food
Inner north

Carlton

Lygon Street · Italian Melbourne

Lygon Street is Italian Melbourne, the university sits at one end and the Carlton Gardens at the other, which makes this the easiest half day on foot from the grid.

Map
Collingwood
Beer
Inner north

Collingwood

Smith Street · Breweries

Smith Street runs breweries, record shops and small kitchens, and the warehouses behind it hold most of the city's independent design studios.

Map
St Kilda
Beach
Bayside

St Kilda

Acland Street · Bayside

The bayside end of the 96 tram: Acland Street cake shops, the Esplanade market on Sundays, and penguins on the breakwater at dusk.

Map
Brunswick
Music
Inner north

Brunswick

Sydney Road · Live music

Sydney Road runs Lebanese and Turkish kitchens, bridal shops and bandrooms in the same block. The bike path down the middle of it is how locals arrive.

Map
Footscray
Value
Inner west

Footscray

Market · Vietnamese and East African

Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Somali kitchens around the market, ten minutes from Southern Cross by train and the best value eating in the city.

Map
Out of the city

Best day trips from Melbourne (2026)

Six trips inside a single day, though the first of them will take all of it.
Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles
Long day
South west

Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles

Coast road · Full day

The limestone stacks are the far end of the drive and the road is the reason to go. Leave at first light and take the inland route home through Colac.

Map↗ Website
Yarra Valley
Wine
East

Yarra Valley

Wine · Under an hour

Victoria's best-known cool-climate wine country sits under an hour east. Healesville Sanctuary keeps native animals in bushland rather than enclosures.

Map
Mornington Peninsula
Beaches
South

Mornington Peninsula

Beaches and hot springs · An hour south

Bay beaches on one side, ocean surf on the other, wineries along the ridge between them, and hot springs at the Fingal end for the last hour of the day.

Map↗ Website
Phillip Island
Wildlife
South east

Phillip Island

Penguin Parade · 90 minutes

Little penguins come ashore at dusk in front of a ticketed viewing stand, about 90 minutes southeast. Book the session before you set out.

Map↗ Website
Family
East

Puffing Billy and the Dandenongs

Steam railway · Fern gullies

A narrow-gauge steam line that has run out of Belgrave since 1900, through mountain ash forest and fern gullies, with village tea rooms at either end.

Map↗ Website
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
History
West

Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

Gold rush town · 90 minutes west

An open-air museum of the 1850s goldfields on the edge of Ballarat, 90 minutes west by car or by train from Southern Cross.

Map↗ Website
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Melbourne (2026)

Melbourne runs an event calendar most cities would call a year. Time the trip around one.
12 Jan – 1 Feb

Australian Open

Three weeks of tennis at Melbourne Park, with ground passes that buy a whole day of outside courts.

5–9 Mar

Moomba Festival

A free carnival on both banks of the Yarra over the Labour Day long weekend, with the birdman rally and nightly fireworks.

6–8 Mar

Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix

Albert Park closes its road circuit for the weekend, and the whole south side of the city hears it.

25 Mar – 19 Apr

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

One of the largest comedy festivals in the world, run out of the Town Hall and dozens of small rooms around it.

27 May – 8 Jun

RISING

The winter arts festival: night markets, installations and late programmes across the centre of the city.

6–23 Aug

Melbourne International Film Festival

Eighteen days and several hundred films, with ACMI and the city's picture houses as the main venues.

26 Sep

AFL Grand Final

The MCG fills for the last game of the season and the rest of Melbourne watches from a pub, a park or a living room.

3 Nov

Melbourne Cup

Flemington's race day is a public holiday across metropolitan Melbourne, and the carnival runs through the week around it.

Getting around

Melbourne transport & airports

How to arrive, and why you will not need a car.
MEL

Melbourne Airport

Tullamarine sits about 20 km northwest of the centre and has no train line. SkyBus runs an express to Southern Cross in roughly 22 minutes; taxis use the same freeway.

Map↗ Website↗ SkyBus
TRAM

Trams

Melbourne runs the largest tram network in the world, around 250 km of track. Everything inside the Free Tram Zone costs nothing and needs no card. Beyond it, touch on with a myki.

↗ Official website
RAIL

Trains & regional rail

Metro lines run through the City Loop under the grid and out across the suburbs, all on myki. V/Line takes the regional services from Southern Cross to Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

↗ V/Line↗ PTV
AVV

Avalon Airport

The second airport sits southwest toward Geelong and is worth checking when a domestic fare is much cheaper. The SkyBus coach in takes a little over an hour.

Map↗ Website
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Melbourne, Australia

What a century of migration put on the city's menu.
Dim sim, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Dim sim

Invented here in the 1940s, when William Chen Wing Young scaled up siu mai.

Souvlaki, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Souvlaki

Melbourne's Greek community built the Lonsdale Street precinct, and its souvlaki is the most portable export.

Banh mi, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Banh mi

Footscray and Richmond's Victoria Street bakeries turn out the best, both built by Vietnamese arrivals.

Yum cha, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Yum cha

Little Bourke Street is the longest continuous Chinese settlement in the West. Take the Sunday trolleys.

Hot jam doughnuts, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Hot jam doughnuts

The doughnut van at Queen Victoria Market has sold the same thing for generations: fried dough and hot jam.

Flat white, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Flat white

Postwar Italian and Greek migration built the city's espresso culture, and Melbourne stayed strict about it.

Lamington, Melbourne (Wimup travel guide)

Lamington

Sponge, chocolate and desiccated coconut. Named after a Queensland governor and in every bakery window.

Chicken parma

A crumbed schnitzel under tomato and cheese, the default order in a Victorian pub and a standing argument.

Melbourne fact sheet

Melbourne at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Australia
Region
Victoria
Population
5.4M Greater Melbourne
Founded
1835 · Kulin Nation land long before
Nickname
Marvellous Melbourne
Language
English
Currency
Australian dollar (A$)
Time zone
AEST · UTC+10
Calling code
+61 3
Airports
MEL · AVV
Power
230V · Type I
Emergency
000
Ideal length
4 days
Getting around
Trams, trains & walking
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Melbourne was the seat of Australia's federal government from 1901 to 1927. The first parliament opened in the Royal Exhibition Building.
  • The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens went onto the World Heritage List in 2004, Australia's first built site to be inscribed.
  • The central grid is Robert Hoddle's 1837 survey, which is why wide streets alternate with narrow ones.
  • The dim sim was invented here in the 1940s, when restaurateur William Chen Wing Young adapted Cantonese siu mai for bulk production.
  • Melbourne's tram network is the largest in the world at roughly 250 km of track, and the section inside the central grid is free to ride.

Headed to Melbourne?

Get our one-page Melbourne cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.

Photo credits (16)