Melbourne is one of those cities that gives you a little bit of everything without you having to travel far for any of it. In a single day you can be out on the bay watching seals glide through the water, wandering laneways covered in street art, eating your way through a market that has been feeding the city for over a century, and finishing the evening suspended 300 metres above it all.
We are going to start on the outskirts and work our way in, beginning on the water at Port Phillip Bay and ending right in the heart of the city. If you are mapping out things to do in Melbourne, here’s exactly how to do it right.
Cruise Across Port Phillip Bay
Port Phillip Bay sits alongside the Mornington Peninsula on the western side, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne CBD. You can also get there on public transport if you’d rather skip the drive entirely.
Now here’s why it’s worth the trip. The bay is home to Burrunan dolphins, Australian Fur Seals and gannets, and you can actually get in the water with them. One of the highlights is Chinaman’s Hat, a man-made structure built specifically as a habitat for the fur seals, where you can swim right alongside them. If you’re hoping to catch the dolphins, plan your visit between October and May when they’re most active in the bay.
Port Phillip Bay Cruises give you the option to go sightseeing around the bay, snorkel out to Chinaman’s Hat to swim with Australian Fur Seals or get in the water with bottlenose dolphins. There is something here for everyone!
Watch the Sun Melt into the Horizon at St Kilda Beach
St Kilda Beach is Melbourne’s most famous urban beach, sitting just 6km south of the CBD and it earns that title every single day. The 700-metre stretch of sand has something going on at every hour, whether that’s swimmers in the morning, cyclists along the foreshore in the afternoon or people settling in for one of the most iconic sunsets in the city.
Getting there is easy. Get on a tram from Bourke Street and you’ll be there in about 20 minutes. Walk the St Kilda Pier as the sun starts to drop because at the end of the pier a wild colony of little penguins calls it home. It’s completely free to watch and one of those things most tourists miss entirely. Make sure not to touch them and leave your phone torch in your pocket as it disorients them.
Get Lost in the Laneways Around Federation Square
Melbourne’s laneways are what set this city apart from every other capital in Australia. While Sydney has its harbour and Brisbane has its beaches, Melbourne has a maze of narrow alleys packed with world-class street art, hidden espresso bars and a culture that you genuinely cannot find anywhere else in the country.
Start at Federation Square right next to Flinders Street Station, and you cannot miss it. Walk across the road and head into Hosier Lane first, Melbourne’s most famous street art laneway where the walls change almost weekly. Then double back and find Degraves Street, a narrow laneway packed with tiny espresso bars. Order a flat white at Degraves Espresso Bar and sit outside because this is exactly how Melbourne does coffee.
From there, wander into Centre Place and AC/DC Lane. Give yourself at least two hours here and don’t try to rush yourself.
Eat Your Way Through Queen Victoria Market
Queen Victoria Market is one of the largest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere and has been a Melbourne institution since 1878. If you want to see how locals actually shop, eat and spend a morning, this is the place to be.
It sits on the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets. And the best part is that all tram stops surrounding the market fall within the Free Tram Zone, so getting here from the city costs you nothing. Go Tuesday to Friday morning if you can because weekends get extremely packed.
Stand Above it All at Eureka Skydeck
If you want to understand just how vast Melbourne really is, you need to see it from above. The Melbourne Skydeck sits on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower in Southbank, the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere and the views stretch all the way from the CBD out to Port Phillip Bay and the Dandenong Ranges.
Your ticket grants entry to the Voyager Theatre, a 6D virtual reality experience showcasing Melbourne’s iconic landmarks, and access to Bar 88, the highest bar in the hemisphere for cocktails with stunning views. Save on admission by booking online in advance and consider going at dusk to see the city transition from daylight to vibrant nighttime lights. For the brave, there’s The Edge, a glass cube suspended 300 meters above the street. Remember, personal cameras aren’t allowed, so you’ll need to purchase their photos for memories.
Final Thoughts
That is Melbourne for you, a city that takes you from the water’s edge all the way up to the skyline without ever feeling like too much. Every stop on this list feeds into the next and before you know it, you have seen seals in the wild, watched the sun sink into Port Phillip Bay, gotten lost in laneways that change by the week, eaten through a market older than most Australian cities and stood above it all with the entire city stretched out beneath you. One trip is never going to be enough.
