Anyone going to the Melbourne leg? I'll be there for a week, quite excited! Which bands are you itching to see?

Also it'll be my first time in Melbourne - any tips on what to see and do? I know St. Kilda, Luna Park, Brighton Beach are on the agenda, as well as coffee (looove) and great food. Staying in Lygon St... any suggestions on good eats and music venues? I'm borrowing my friend's bike as well. Does anyone know of good hikes in the area?

Welcome to BootsnAll, Jade!

For some basics on Melbourne, don't forget to check out our Melbourne Travel Guide for some articles of what to do and see in the area. You might also ask Heather on the Australia Blog for her insights as well. Have fun!

There's bicycle paths/ways about Melbourne City Jade that can take you along the yarra and also the bay/beach front from Port Melbourne, maybe as far as Brighton Beach amongst other places.
Luna Park is a bit ancient and don't know whether there has been much in the way of renovations in recent years, but greta weekend market adjacent on beach side, and as beaches go, Brighton Beach does not rate too highly.

As for biking/hiking, the Yarra bikeway will probably take you out through the Yarra river corridor that links a number of larger green zones, Yarra Bend Park being first of those on fringe of the city.

You'll also find that the eastern side of the CBD has its own green zone centred about the Yarra river and Sports Centres precinct, and you can have a days nice walk without really leaving the city far behind you.
From Lygon street head a couple of blocks east to Exhibition Gardens, Melbourne and Indigenous museums there along with the old Royal Exhibition Buildings built along lines of a famous London hall from memory, wander through the gardens and own spring street a couple of blocks past Princess Theatre, Windsor Hotel and Parliament with the Melbourne Museum now occupying what might have been the old treasury building next door.

You are then at NW corner of the Treasury Gardens and head on the diagonal path and across the road is the Fitzroy Gardens that contains Captain Cooks Cottage and also a Conservatory (a little garden nursery actually) that are in the SW corner of FG.
Fitzroy Gardens are quite large in comparison to Treasury Gardens, but even more awaits - the Conservatory btw is well worth entering as they have some interesting phamplets on outdoor locations that can be of hiking interest amongst other good stuff not always available at all touristy info centres.
Back to the walk, and from the SE corner of FG it is but a short leap across Wellington Parade and a walk into the Melbourne Cricket Ground (world famous in itself, and has been home to some huge tours, Paul McCartney being one) reserve/gardens that doubles as a huge carpark when cricket and football games are on.
The MCG has a sporting museum if of interest, and an overhead walkway will take you across what remains of rail yards to the Tennis precinct, the main Rod Laver arena also being home to shows, Sher atop a battleship gun barrel being spectacular, and even things as diverse as motocross and big fukka wheeled trucks etc.

From there it's across the Yarra and you are at the Royal Botanical Gardens, arguably one of the best in the world.
On leaving the botanical gardens, there's the Kings Domain, Queen Victoria and Alexandra gardens that you can wander through getting back to the Yarra.

Head west (down stream) and you will find an abundance of bars/restaurants/food mall at Southbank for any hunger and thirst that has developed, the Casino if you wish to try your luck, another food mall, more bars and night clubs etc.

There's a footbridge back across the Yarra into the CBD.
There's a free city circle tram that does a city circuit and you could catch that in Latrobe St, just keeping walking into the city down Lygon street a few blocks and you'll come to Latrobe.
Lygon Street itself is a good location, it being referred to as Little Italy for Melbourne, there being plenty of restaurants and cafes for Coffee and delightful Pastries.
Further east from the exhibition gardens I mentioned earlier you find the area of Fitzroy, Smith, Johnston and Brunswick being main street names and that area has a lot of cafes, theatre restaurants and bars with live gigs.

To get some serious hiking in, Wilsons Promontary is a great location and www.bunyiptours.com can get you there; you can also access via this site

If you're after something less expensive and closer to home, I remember reading somewhere that you could take a train to Lilydale (with your bike) and you can then get transported to Healesville where train used to go to, to then ride back to Lilydale - takes you through some of the picturesque Yarra Valley which is a big wine growing area these days.

Alternately, other than for ideas you might pick up from the Conservatory, I would suggest that if you caught a train out to Ferntree Gully (without bike) you will find some pleasant trails through the Dandenong Ranges NP.
Go about three stations further on and you will find Sherbrooke Forest a treat and maybe even enjoy a Puffing Billy outing; no not the name of a band or at least not one that I know of but can't help you there.

Another bootie from your neck of the woods, nina9702 is also currently in Melbourne, so maybe she'll know.

Have fun, and yes Melbourtne may not have a grand harbour but is still a great easy living city.

hi gonorth! thank you for the great (and numerous) tips. i have to read the post again and write some stuff down but what struck me the most is the train to lilydale and yarra valley. i used to work for a wine company but have never been to an actual vineyard... i'll definitely make time to see this. how long does it take from where i'm staying to lilydale/healesville? do i have to allot a whole day for this?

Lilydale is the end of the suburban train network in that direction Jade, about an hour train ride from Flinders St., the main CBD railway station.

Wineries are out a bit further east and northeast from there and if its winery visits you're after you might want to look at what tours are available, probably a few starting from Melbourne and most will be for a whole day.

This one @$95 for city pickup and includes lunch and four wineries looks about best value, but if you google Yarra Valley Wine Tours, you'll see there's more.
If you have the $$, you could add in a hot air balloon ride, great way to see the landscape.

If it's not long before you are in Melbourne, also pay to check on bush fires smoke situation out that way as there's some huge fires been burning in wilderness out east and also back burning to create fire breaks going on.

Drop a message to Doppelganger. He just moved there, and probably knows all the cool spots already. He tells me that he really loves the city.

Hi Jade!

I've been here in Melbourne for 3 weeks, but I haven't really had time to explore the city.

There's lots of events happening this summer, and some are even free!

When are you flying to Melbourne? The St. Kilda Festival. (http://www.stkildafestival.com.au/) is on this February. There are also free concerts at the Federation Square and at the Fitzroy Gardens every weekend.

Aside from the free City Cirle tram, there's also the Tourist shuttle bus going to nearly all the tourist attractions in the city.

And oh! Most of the shops here are still on sale

hi nina! you filipino as well? i'm going to melbourne next week, friday (26th) and leaving on the 4th of feb. i am bummed i'm missing australia day as i actually arrive on the 27th. i'll check out the st kilda website but i have i feeling i might be back home by then. free concerts? fantastic! my friends from oz are also giving me some tips in terms of the "underground" bars, those seem cool! what are you doing there?

st kilda, queen vic market, go see a cricket match at the MCG, go see the australian open, walk up and down lygon and bargain for the best deal outside the restaurant...depending on the night you could get some free house win or an appetizer.

quote:

Originally posted by Jade Maravillas:
hi nina! you filipino as well? i'm going to melbourne next week, friday (26th) and leaving on the 4th of feb. i am bummed i'm missing australia day as i actually arrive on the 27th. i'll check out the st kilda website but i have i feeling i might be back home by then. free concerts? fantastic! my friends from oz are also giving me some tips in terms of the "underground" bars, those seem cool! what are you doing there?

Yup, 100% Pinoy! I'm here on a pretty long holiday and babysitting for my sister, and will be here until the 3rd week of March.

Some good music venues are
- hi-fi bar
- Corner hotel
- Espie (Esplanade hotel) for some free localish bands.
- The Prince of Wales

If you are into straight rock sort of music the check out the Melbourne grown band Dallas Crane if the dates suit. They are opening for the vandals (punk with comical lyrics) in the coming week.

Ahh Melbourne, by far the best city in Australia

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but definitely head to Fitzroy for some fantastic food and nightlife.

quote:

Originally posted by spazza:
Some good music venues are
- hi-fi bar
- Corner hotel
- Espie (Esplanade hotel) for some free localish bands.
- The Prince of Wales

If you are into straight rock sort of music the check out the Melbourne grown band Dallas Crane if the dates suit. They are opening for the vandals (punk with comical lyrics) in the coming week.

Thanks spazza! My friends are taking me to the Espie for sure. A friend also told me about the "secret" underground bars in Melbourne, any good ones to recommend?

Hmmm... Secret underground bars. Not really sure what you mean there. There are a lot of relatively expensive bars in Melbourne that reside down little back streets. Things like Arthur's, honkey tonks, Alley Bar and the likes.

Most are them are on back streets off Flinder's lane. ACDC lane, duckboard place etc.

There is also the Ding Dong lounge to check out which is pretty cool. Also if you are into jazz there are some awesome jazz bars around Brunswick which may be considered underground. Maybe the Cherry bar aswell. For a dingey rock n' roll place there is the Tote in Collingwood.

For a literally underground bar which is pretty funky there is E55's, 55 Elisabeth St but they don't have live music. Just an old school hip hop sort of feel.

If you have anything more specific let me know and I will try to help you out.

Spazza

Live here in the Melbourne area and today it was really nice. Recent rains have helped keep the smoke down so hopefully when you get here the bushfires won't start up again because it is miserable out when the bushfire smoke is severe. Dittos to a lot of what Gonorth said. In my opinion as an unbiased foreigner, I think Melbourne is a better city than Sydney.

You mentioned you like wine. Yarra Valley is great and another popular wine area is the Goulburn River area an hour North of Melbourne where well known wineries Michelton's, Tahbilk, and Plunkett's wineries are located at. If you do go to the Yarra Valley make sure to make time to see the Heallsville Animal Sanctuary. A really great place to see native Australian wildlife in their native environment.

Also another great day trip is to Phillip Island which is about two hours south of Melbourne. Nice beaches, hikes, and it's most famous attraction the Penguin Parade where you can watch thousands of penguins come in from the ocean to their burrows when the sun goes down.

Also take the train up to Bendigo and spend a day checking out one of my favorite towns in Australia. Bendigo is an old gold mining town that is filled with beautiful buildings, botanical gardens, and most obviously gold. There are still I believe 16 gold mines operating underneath the town. There is a gold mine in the middle of the city near the tram station where they will give you mining gear and take you down 90 meters down into the mine and show you the gold reef. It is an awesome tour. Also riding the tram around town is a great way to see the city. Finally if you go to Bendigo it has a large Chinese population which is evident by a large Chinese heritage museum and a number of Chinese gardens that are worth checking out.

Also if you are really into hiking there is some great hiking about 35 minutes north of Melbourne on the same route to Bendigo at Mt. Macedon. Beautiful place.

I hope this helps, have a great time in Melbourne.