Keen for Melbourne Advice?

A couple weekends back I had the most spectacular weekend in Melbourne! It was my first weekend trip that I planned since arriving in Australia, so I absolutely balled out with my research to make the most epic trip plan ever. It’s kinda funny because I really had no clue how hard it was to plan a trip somewhere–it’s a lot of work. I always took for granted the trip itineraries my mom would make for our family vacations growing up...hopefully she ends up reading my blogs and realises how grateful I am now!

Anyways, I would love to share some of my advice for anyone planning a future trip to Melbourne! Can't promise it will be up to par with my Mom's trip itineraries, but I definately have enough ideas to keep you busy for a weekend...

• Walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. It’s your classic gardens, so you know what to expect, but it’s always a relaxing thing to do...and beautiful!
• Ride City Circle Tram, it’s a free tram that does a loop (40 mins) through the city. It’s a good first thing to do in the city so you can start to get a sense of where everything is...there is a nice audio that narrates the ride
• Check out Flinders Street Railway Station. You can’t miss it, it’s right in the center of the city. It’ll only take 5 minutes to walk through, but it’s worth doing
• Walk through Federation Square. It’s right across the street from the railway station and there’s probably some live music or something going on there!
• Graffiti Streets!!!! ACDC Lane, Hosier Lane, Degraves Street...you’ll see them, they’re everywhere. Melbourne staple.
• Queen Victoria Market – literally spent two hours walking through the market, it was amazing. It has anything and everything you need or didn’t realise you needed!
• Walk through Block Arcade and Royal Arcade, two cool buildings to check out and shop
• St. Paul’s Cathedral. Also right across the street from the railway station. Quick walk through is all you need...it’s beautiful inside
• Australian Center for the Moving Image, definitely walk through the free tours inside, and if there is any cool showing going on I definitely recommend buying tickets! I got tickets to the Alice in Wonderland experience, and it was awesome (2 hours long)
• Check out National Gallery of Victoria, I’m not a huge art gallery person but I really liked this one! Nice mix of artwork to see (2 hours)
• Have a late night out! Melbourne is known for its crazy late night life, and I mean crazy late. I kid you not an Aussie we met was telling us his typical night out in Melbourne is from 2am to 7am. When I was here I personally did not have that experience...I recently embodied a grandma and have been going to sleep before 10 every night, but I definately forced myself to stay out a little later in Melbourne to fully embrace the city. There were so many cool places to grab drinks, listen to live music, and meet some cool, nocturnal, Melbourne Aussies.
• Go to Brighton Bathing Boxes, they are about 25 mins car ride outside of the city but they are a MUST. They are 90ish cute colorful boxes lined up along the beach
• Watch the sunset at St.Kilda Pier, I stopped by the pier on my way back from the Bathing Boxes to the city. It was beautiful for the sunset and there are penguins that come out a half hour after it gets dark that you will see! They would climb up onto the pier and walk around, so cute
• Walk through neighborhoods right outside the city, I stayed in an Airbnb in Brunswick (20 mins car ride outside of city) which was a really cute town to shop and walk around through. I also walked through Fitzroy one morning and got brunch which is another trendy town worth seeing
• Check out what events, festivals, or pop up things while you’re there! It happened to be Fashion Week when I went so there were heaps of stuff going on in the streets and free food! Odds are Melbourne has something going on every weekend.

Hopefully there’s something in my list keen for everyone out there reading this...these are just a few of the many things Melbourne has to offer. It’s such a cool and trendy city, unlike any other I’ve ever been to. If I have the time I would love to go back here while I’m still in Australia. I’m a little biased because it’s the “coffee capital of the world” and I love my coffee, but I’m positive that there is something in Melbourne that everyone will love. It was a great first weekend trip, and I'm excited to plan some more!