Ideas for holiday to Melbourne

[Shaun]

No offense to whoever suggested, but not sure why you would suggest highpoint (or knifepoint as its often known as) Chadstone on the other hand is often known as the fashion capital. It's easily the number 1 shopping centre in Victoria.

Make sure you hit up carribean gardens for some boxes of cards! Healsville sanctuary is pretty nice you can get pretty close to Australian animals and there birds of prey show is entertaining.

 

[BIGDUB]

Thanks for everyone's help guys! Please keep the suggestions coming!
I saw an Ice Bar/Lounge or something too? It's expensive but I'm wondering if anyone has been there as it looks pretty sweet!

Shopping
http://www.harbourtown.com.au/centre-locations/melbourne-centre-location.html
Chadstone - http://www.chadstoneshopping.com.au/home/- there is a free bus from the city
Chapel Street is also very popular - http://www.chapelstreet.com.au/

Food
Lots of great places
Victoria Street for Vietnamese
Lygon Street for Italian
Plenty of alternatives in the city
Southbank has plenty as well, although can be expensive

Night Life
Depends what you are after
Places like Manchester Lane if you want a cool jazz night out
The Corner is good if you want a band
Chapel street and any number of places in the city good if you want a dance
King Street for late night

You guys have a Harbour Town! Sweet! We've got one here but I imagine yours is bigger and better!
That Chapel St website too is really awesome! Given us heaps of ideas.

Will definitely be seeing what Victoria St has to offer!
Would Southbank be the place to go for a really nice meal? We'd like to dine somewhere super fancy one night.

As for the nightlife thanks for that! We're going to as many places as possible. Chapel St looks like the place to be!
Thanks Andrew!

No offense to whoever suggested, but not sure why you would suggest highpoint (or knifepoint as its often known as) Chadstone on the other hand is often known as the fashion capital. It's easily the number 1 shopping centre in Victoria.

Make sure you hit up carribean gardens for some boxes of cards! Healsville sanctuary is pretty nice you can get pretty close to Australian animals and there birds of prey show is entertaining.

Thanks for that! yeah there was some debate before about which one is better.
We'll definitely be going to Chadstone then!
Thanks Shaun

You guys have 3 Zoos? We will probably only go to the one however, which one would make for the best day? Werribee, Healesville or the Melbourne? Don't mind about price etc, just whatever has the most to see and will be the best day out!

As for cards, I've already promised myself I'd go and look at Cardzone. We don't have many storefronts that focus 100% on cards in SA unfortunately, so I'm really keen to just see what it's like!




My map of Melbourne literally has checkpoints marked everywhere.. Thanks for so many suggestions guys! We're planning out a full itinerary now

 

[Shaun]

I think all three bring something different, if your staying in the city the Melbourne zoo or whatever it's called is closest, followed by werribee, then Healsville in the other direction. You will have to decide if you want to see a typical zoo, a safari kind of zoo or a native Australian zoo.

 

[matty83]

Smith street via a tram from the city. Harbour town via the city free tram. Probably an AFL final at the mcg or ethihad stadium. Burke street mall. Very cheap outlet shops on smith street, not bad prices at harbour town

 

[skip20]

If your missus is into food then there are a few impressive 'masterchef' restaurants around....

Gary Mehigan's Fenix - bit w*nkerish to be blunt.... http://www.fenix.com.au/

The Press CLub is real expensive but good place to impress someone if you can get in... http://www.thepressclub.com.au/

...but quite possibly my favourite restaurant in Australia: Hellenic Republic http://www.hellenicrepublic.com.au/ Great service, great food and a great atmosphere, bit out of the way but well worth it imo - easy tram ride! Not pretentious, affordable and fantastic food.

 

[Cobretti]

Ok let me put in some perspective from a person who has only lived in melbourne for 1.5 years.

As lame as the touristy things seem to locals, you gotta do them. Look like you have covered the main ones. I enjoyed the aquarium.

One thing you might want to do is go to Eureka Skydeck. A room hangs out over the road from really high up lol. This place is in Southbank not to far from the crown.

Since you will be at the crown (near queens bridge), tram 55 will take you up to Queen Victoria Market and if you stay on long enough it will also take you to the Melbourne Zoo. Head north on the tram not south haha.


Italian Food:
--------------
- Lygon Street is good for a lot of the traditional italian food. I like Papa Ginos. If you go to Lygon street make sure you eat Gellato. The best one is on the right side of the road (if looking up into lygon from city end, i think there is an indian resturant near there too - same side at least). Pestatio is my favourite haha.

- Risotto. Best place for this is Tutto Bene in Southbank http://www.tuttobene.com.au
- Modern Italian (expenisve smallish dishes) - Scusami in Southbank http://www.scusami.com.au or IL Bacaro in CBD http://www.ilbacaro.com.au

Check out my private food album (i take photos so when I return to resturants I know what to order as menus usually have no images). If direct link doesn't work for you, PM me and i'll unlock it for you.
https://plus.google.com/#photos/114834278939035549392/albums/5655924083974285329


Some eating places in CBD:
- Hardwarte Lane (Various foods)
- China Town (Rainboy Palace - i think its the name, has good YUMCHA if you like that sorta thing)
- Swanston Street (mainly asian food, low end dine in stuff)
- Longsdale Street (near Queen Victoria Building) has Greek food. never had it personally.



Night Life
----------
This one is easy walk into the CBD. wait for a herd of hot girls and follow them. They will lead you to some clubs haha. I did this in my frist week here ended up somwhere in a side alley off Russel street near Penguin Statues. The venue wasn't that great but the girls were good. But yer myself I dont go out much to clubs anymore I feel too old amoungst the younglings haha. I still to the pubs.



Shopping:
-----------
Chadstone hands down. INTERESTING FACT I LEARNED FROM A LOCAL: If you looked at satellite images of chadston from about 2008, it looked more like a penis. So they modified the car park to blend it in. but if you look you can kind of still see it.



Finally check out those internet event pages to see if there is any events on during the week you are here.

 

[BIGDUB]

If your missus is into food then there are a few impressive 'masterchef' restaurants around....

Gary Mehigan's Fenix - bit w*nkerish to be blunt.... http://www.fenix.com.au/

The Press CLub is real expensive but good place to impress someone if you can get in... http://www.thepressclub.com.au/

...but quite possibly my favourite restaurant in Australia: Hellenic Republic http://www.hellenicrepublic.com.au/ Great service, great food and a great atmosphere, bit out of the way but well worth it imo - easy tram ride! Not pretentious, affordable and fantastic food.

Yeah thanks for the suggestions! We've been looking for something like this. We've never been to a 'masterchef' restaurant, so hopefully it will be nice. Have heard good things about The Press Club from family, so we'll try get in there!
As for the Hellenic, we will go there 100% as we'll be down Lygon St a fair bit anyway and we're gonna have Italian there too.
Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[BIGDUB]

Ok let me put in some perspective from a person who has only lived in melbourne for 1.5 years.

As lame as the touristy things seem to locals, you gotta do them. Look like you have covered the main ones. I enjoyed the aquarium.

One thing you might want to do is go to Eureka Skydeck. A room hangs out over the road from really high up lol. This place is in Southbank not to far from the crown.

Since you will be at the crown (near queens bridge), tram 55 will take you up to Queen Victoria Market and if you stay on long enough it will also take you to the Melbourne Zoo. Head north on the tram not south haha.


Italian Food:
--------------
- Lygon Street is good for a lot of the traditional italian food. I like Papa Ginos. If you go to Lygon street make sure you eat Gellato. The best one is on the right side of the road (if looking up into lygon from city end, i think there is an indian resturant near there too - same side at least). Pestatio is my favourite haha.

- Risotto. Best place for this is Tutto Bene in Southbank http://www.tuttobene.com.au
- Modern Italian (expenisve smallish dishes) - Scusami in Southbank http://www.scusami.com.au or IL Bacaro in CBD http://www.ilbacaro.com.au

Check out my private food album (i take photos so when I return to resturants I know what to order as menus usually have no images). If direct link doesn't work for you, PM me and i'll unlock it for you.
https://plus.google.com/#photos/114834278939035549392/albums/5655924083974285329


Some eating places in CBD:
- Hardwarte Lane (Various foods)
- China Town (Rainboy Palace - i think its the name, has good YUMCHA if you like that sorta thing)
- Swanston Street (mainly asian food, low end dine in stuff)
- Longsdale Street (near Queen Victoria Building) has Greek food. never had it personally.



Night Life
----------
This one is easy walk into the CBD. wait for a herd of hot girls and follow them. They will lead you to some clubs haha. I did this in my frist week here ended up somwhere in a side alley off Russel street near Penguin Statues. The venue wasn't that great but the girls were good. But yer myself I dont go out much to clubs anymore I feel too old amoungst the younglings haha. I still to the pubs.



Shopping:
-----------
Chadstone hands down. INTERESTING FACT I LEARNED FROM A LOCAL: If you looked at satellite images of chadston from about 2008, it looked more like a penis. So they modified the car park to blend it in. but if you look you can kind of still see it.



Finally check out those internet event pages to see if there is any events on during the week you are here.

Thanks mate! Very informative post!
All the suggestions are really helpful.
We just headed out to the RAA store and purchased some Skydeck tickets! Only $12 too!
Looks awesome, so thanks for that!

 

[skip20]

Yeah thanks for the suggestions! We've been looking for something like this. We've never been to a 'masterchef' restaurant, so hopefully it will be nice. Have heard good things about The Press Club from family, so we'll try get in there!
As for the Hellenic, we will go there 100% as we'll be down Lygon St a fair bit anyway and we're gonna have Italian there too.
Thanks for the suggestions!

Trap for new players - Lygon Street but at the Brunswick end!

Check the map - fair way out of town but like I said just hop on the tram and it'll basically drop you off a few metres away.... Last time I was there I mentioned I was from out of town and they laid on a special platter of what I wanted to try - just for me! Made me feel like a VIP and the only place I've felt happy to leave a sizable tip.

 

[WhiteyTheCelticsFan]

Eureka Skydeck, maybe?

http://www.eurekaskydeck.com.au/

 

[kingjack]

There are literally thousands of places you can visit. It really depends what your interested in because whatever it is Melbourne has it. I've always been fond of the old Melbourne goal (jail) great tour and visiting experience. Skydeck is pretty sick, you step out into a glass box like 100 stories high. MCG tour is a must. You have to go to flinders street station and just admire the structure. The thing is beautiful then you have fed square directly opposite etc.

Food wise. I've been to Lygon street a lot of times we even go there for school excursions because I do Italian. Brunetti's is my favourite restaurant hands down https://www.brunettioro.com.au/

Melbourne Zoo is the best. Werribee is an open range Zoo it's good but nothing on Melbourne.

Steer clear of Cardzone. Don't waste your time (And money for that matter).

Chadstone is way better but I go to Highpoint more often it's only 20 minutes away from me.

I can't thing of anything else off the top of my head but if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.