Melbourne

Getting There

Melbourne is found on the Southeast coast of Australia, and one of the main cities in Australia. Australia has 6 states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania) and 2 territories (Northern Territory and Australian Capital territory). Melbourne is part of Victoria and the city has a population of about 5 million people. The city sits right on the coast.

There’s flights from all over the world into Melbourne, with long haul flights arriving from places like the US and Asia, as well as many local flights from other parts of Australia. The Melbourne airport is large and convenient for traveling both internationally and locally within Australia.

Depending on where in the world you are traveling from to Australia, it is likely to be a long flight. From the west coast of the United States, flights are approximately 15 hours. If traveling from Europe, you’ll need to connect somewhere along the way with common stopovers being in Singapore, Dubai, Qatar, among others. Expect a long travel day. From Europe, it’ll be 24+ hours of travel and you’ll arrive in Australia quite a bit later due to the time change, but don’t worry, you gain the time back on your way back west.

Within Australia, flights are often still required as it’s quite a large continent. From Melbourne to Sydney is approx 1.5 hours, from Melbourne to Adelaide is just over 1 hour, from Melbourne to Brisbane is approx 2 hours, and from Melbourne to Perth is 4.5 hours.

Getting Around

The city of Melbourne is sizable and while parts of it are walkable, its definitely not a fully walkable city. There are trams which connect different parts of the city together. You’ll need to purchase a Myki card (from retail outlets) which you will use to tap in and out of the tram. Within the city center, often referred to as CBD (Central Business District), the tram is free for all so if you’re staying within this zone then it will not cost you anything. In addition to trams, there’s ride sharing services to travel further or quick distances. For those who enjoy driving or plan to be in Melbourne longer, you may consider renting a car to give you access to more, but only for longer term visitors.

The city is compiled of a bunch of different neighborhoods so here I’ll breakdown some of the key spots. As mentioned above, CBD is the city center where many of the offices are based. This area has lots of offices, lunch and early evening dinner or drink spots, and cafes. As it’s focused around the weekday worker, it’s an area much bigger during the work week.

North of CBD are neighborhoods of Carlton, Fitzroy, and Collingwood. These areas are known having lots of cafes, restaurants, bars, and shopping. They have an edgier vibe to them, especially in Fitzroy and Collingwood. Further north is Brunswick which is more of a residential vibe.

To the East of CBD are neighborhoods including South Yarra and Richmond, generally more residential. South of these one will find St. Kilda which is the area right on the beach.

Heading back to CBD, there’s other neighborhoods like Southbank and Docklands in the city which can be explored.

Accommodations

Picking where to stay in Melbourne depends on what your plans will be while visiting. For those visiting for business, you’re likely to stay in or around CBD. For those visiting for pleasure and looking for a concentrated foodie scene (restaurants, cafes, wine bars, etc.) consider Carlton, Fitzroy or Collingwood. For those who want to be closer to the beach, look around St. Kilda.

Duration

Three to four nights a perfect amount of time to spend in Melbourne when visiting for the first time. This provides ample time to spend a day exploring CBD and the neighborhoods around the central city, a day out at St. Kilda and Brighton beach areas, and a day trip outside the city to see the Great Ocean road or visit Yarra Valley. Melbourne is generally a very livable city, with great cafe culture and restaurants to enjoy. For this reason, it’s a nice place to spend more time getting to know the city from a local’s perspective if given the opportunity. From a tourist’s perspective, there’s not tons of specific sites you need to see and more a city to find the local spots

Weather

Melbourne is known for having changing weather due to its location on the coast. The city is known for having more rain in the winter and shoulder season months. On the contrary, it can get quite warm in the summertime so it’s very much a place with seasons.

Time of year

As Australia is in the Southern hemisphere, the seasons are flipped for us northern hemisphere folks meaning summer is December to February, fall is March to May, winter is June to August, and spring is September to November.