Melbourne, Australia
I visited Melbourne once for the Great Ocean Road and once for the Australian Open! The first weekend, my awesome lawyer friend whom I met in Croatia guided me around the city, and the second weekend was a crazy search for good food in the burning ashes followed by pouring rain.
Melbourne and Sydney are the two large cities of Australia. Someone told me that they couldn’t decide between the two to pick as the capital so they made Canberra and put it right between the two cities. Melbourne is known to have better nightlife, more culture, and better dressed people.
From my Melbourne friends, I’ve gathered there are three great places to stay/explore. First, CBD is the center of the city, so convenience is 10/10. Many popular restaurants and hotels will be here — CBD is decently large but still easily walkable.
The second place is Fitzroy, located a walking ish distance from the CBD. It’s a boho vibe area with eclectic bars and restaurants, street arts, outdoor cozy seating, and small galleries. Naked in the Sky is one of the bars I visited, but there are so many bars that look amazing, seem fun, and serve interesting drinks and high quality food! The third area is Prahan known for southeast Asian eateries and late night clubs. I walked around here around dinner time and got some food at Hawker Hall, visited an art gallery, grabbed some dessert, and walked around people watching!
Regardless of what area you stay in, there is a seemingly endless list of great eateries to visit in Melbourne. Brunch is huge — we visited Higher Ground and Hardware Societe and both were so on point, but the list of recommendations I got from just two people were packed with all 5/5 star restaurants so there’s no shortage of options.
The coffee in Melbourne is supposed to be legendary! I was treated like a heathen for not liking coffee and I even have a coworker from Melbourne who would rather wean himself off coffee before traveling internationally so that he doesn’t have to drink inferior coffee. Brother Baba Buda was one of the many highly esteemed places that I decided to visit! It was alright! but I still don’t like coffee!
Drenched in rain and carrying our backpacks, we read about a vegemite roti served at this one restaurant so we wanted to stop by before our flight. We thought, ok roti, so we expected a very low key kind of place and walked into Sunda, obviously without a reservation. The staff was very curious at why we had walked in dressed so poorly and generally looking poor, but it was too awkward for either side to back out. We quickly ordered a few appetizers including the roti (I was not a fan of the roti but everything else was delicious) and gtfo of this high end restaurant. I would love to come visit again when I am more presentable and mentally prepared!
One place that did disappoint me was a vegan bakery called Weirdoughs. I’d stopped eating dairy a few years ago and was excited to try this super bougie bakery but the croissant was flat, not flaky, chewy and almost cold, and overloaded with a bunch of sugary stuff that was not pleasant.
Some other notable destinations in Melbourne that tripadvisor would advise:
Brighton Beach Houses: This is a bit out of the way from the city. I had a car this weekend so I easily drove over, but I am not sure how I would have gotten here otherwise (probably bus?). The beach was not a super pretty I-want-to-dive-in kind of a beach (the weather didn’t help) but the houses are indeed the instagram hot spot. There isn’t much to do besides admire the cute little colorful houses and take photos. So if you’re not into that, why.
National Gallery of Victoria: The only type of museum I enjoy is art, but I don’t always love it because I don’t get modern/contemporary art often. But Kaws — the pop culture art savant — had an exhibit and we thought it would be cool to visit! And indeed it was. Kaws is like the hypebeast of artists. They really made the whole gallery and exhibit to be interactive, instagrammy, and hypebeasty so it was fun lel.
There are at least two large markets in Melbourne to visit: Queen Victoria Market and South Melbourne Market. The former, being located closer to the city, is more popular and frequented. It’s a collection of stores and vendors around a fruit market and a food truck alley. It most certainly does feel a lot more touristy but still good fun to walk around.
I visited the South Melbourne Market when I had a car, so it was no problemo. For foodies, I would recommend the South Melbourne Market over the other, if you have to choose one! I personally loved it more because it felt less touristy and had more real food options. HUGE tasmanian osyters for a really good price, cheese sale that seemed too good to be true but turned out to be that good, amazing donuts of all flavours that reminded me that my diet starts next year, and SO MUCH MORE. I think we had three meals the whole day. There are also shops that sell non food items! I bought a cute linen romper here and did plenty of eye shopping. Also free parking for two hours!
Melbourne isn’t blessed with sunbathing beaches like Sydney is, but it is blessed with a coast just as beautiful for hikes and drives! The famous Great Ocean Road starts about an hour from the city. I made a vlog about it too!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgR-3PDisY) But tldr, don’t speed because Victoria (the state Melbourne is in) is strict and you can drive along a gorgeous coastal road while seeing koalas. Lots of people recommend spending more than one day here, and I think if you have the time, great! But if not, one day seems to be a decent length of time to cover the basics of the GOR. Another day/weekend trip recommendation that I got is the Wilsons Promontory National Park. It’s a bit further out from the city (~2–3 hours) but is an amazing place for hiking and camping! I didn’t make it out there but maybe next time (:
