Melbourne
WHO
Our family of four traveled to Melbourne for the last two days of our two week road trip in Australia. Averhy was 15 and Eden was 12 when we took this trip.
WHAT
Here is our packing list for our entire 12-day trip to Australia. The clothing items are all per person. Our trip included both summer and fall temperatures, and we decided to bring our own snorkels for the Great Barrier Reef. I used the Ziploc bag method to pack for this trip, as well as the clothing folder. We used one carry-on suitcase and four backpacks (Sky’s magic backpack, the Helena Camelbak, my CaseLogic camera backpack, and Eden’s UnderArmour school backpack.) If we did this entire trip again, I would not bring the snorkels, and would have packed half the number of tshirts because we were able to do laundry twice during the 12 days. Because we were only in Melbourne for two days, two Ziploc bags contained all of our shirts/socks/undies for those days and our jeans/sweatshirts were in the clothing folder.
passport
camera/lens/cards
chargers (phone, car, camera)
SJCam/memory cards
power adapter
headphones
Trtl pillows
2 shorts
8 tshirts
1 hiking pants
2 tshirts for hiking
3 jeans
snorkel
sunglasses
basic toiletries
2 long sleeve shirts
2 nicer shirts
1 dress
10 underwear
3 bras
10 socks
1 swimsuit
Kindle
1 puffy coat
2 sweatshirts
1 tennis shoes
1 flip flops
1 nicer shoes
1 water shoes
1 baseball cap
WHEN
We were in Australia the first two weeks of August 2019. We decided to go at that time because it worked well with our summer vacation schedule. August is technically winter in Australia, and the temperatures in Melbourne felt like late fall in Illinois (about 50*F) and we were comfortable in jeans, sweatshirts and puffy coats. August was a great time to visit Australia because it was not the busy tourist season.
WHERE
We are big fans of AirBnB, and stayed at this awesome apartment while we were in Melbourne. It was a great location with a gorgeous view of the city.
During our time in Melbourne, we visited the spots marked by yellow stars on the map. Most of them were within walking distance of our AirBnB, or within the free tram zone downtown, but we did have to take a taxi to St. Kilda Pier on our second day in the city.
WHY
We initially decided to go to Australia because NextVacay.com alerted us to a cheap round-trip flight to Sydney. After booking the initial flights, I decided that we should also visit the Great Ocean Road, so Melbourne was added to our itinerary for that leg of the trip. We enjoyed the laid-back feel of this city and thought it was a good way to finish our time in Australia.
HOW
Day 1: State Library Victoria, Melbourne Museum, Graffiti, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Queen Victoria Market
We arrived in Melbourne on a Tuesday evening, so our first full day in the city began on Wednesday morning with a visit to the State Library Victoria. It was lovely inside, with a large reading room in the center and various art, history, and literature exhibits on the surrounding floors.
Next we walked to the Melbourne Museum to see a special exhibit on rock & roll. There were also displays of dinosaurs, animals around the world, and the human body. We spent a few hours here.
After lunch, we tried to find all the graffiti throughout the downtown area. We started at Hosier Lane, which was pretty crowded with tourists, and then wandered the streets of downtown to find other alleys filled with artistic graffiti.
AC/DC Lane was a fun find, and Duckboard Place graffiti alley was right around the corner. You can pretty much walk down any street and find some artwork on the walls!
Next we stopped in St. Paul’s Cathedral (no photos allowed inside) and then tried to take the free downtown trolley - but it was crowded and slow-moving. We ended up walking to Flinders Street Station, another iconic Melbourne spot.
In the evening, we had dinner at the Queen Victoria Market, which was having a special “winter nights” event with food and vendors.
It was crowded, the food was only okay, the vendors were not especially unique, and I probably would not go to this event again… However, the experience might be better during a regular day, instead of a special night event.
Day 2: Old Melbourne Gaol, Federation Square, National Gallery of Victoria, St. Kilda Pier Penguins
After breakfast at our AirBnB, we went to the Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced “jail”) for an interactive tour. It was really interesting and entertaining, and I would definitely recommend it.
We ate lunch outside in Federation Square (which is just a large gathering space outdoors, surrounded by interesting architecture) and then walked to the National Gallery of Victoria.
The National Gallery was actually one of our highlights of the entire trip, because there was an orchestra practicing in the main hall for a concert to be held that evening. It was beautiful!
There were a lot of famous works of art by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and others (can you spot the first bronze casting of “The Thinker” in this photo?)
We ended the day with a sunset visit to St. Kilda Pier, where penguins live among the rocks! During the day, the parents are out in the ocean, and at sunset they swim back to their nesting ground among the rocks to feed the baby penguins.
There were a lot of tourists here, but everyone respected the signs reminding us to stay quiet and not disturb the penguins. This was a great way to end our time in Australia!
Final Tips
Driving on the left side of the road takes a little bit of getting used to… we liked to say “sliiiide to the left” anytime we were starting to feel nervous about the traffic on the right side of the car!
While in Melbourne, we parked our rental car at a public lot and mostly walked or used the downtown tram system to get around.
If you’re traveling from the USA to Australia, be prepared for a LONG flight… but depending on when you leave, you might be traveling in darkness the entire flight, so it’s easier to sleep. We used Trtl travel pillows, and they were okay. Not quite as comfortable as the ads make them look, but they did the job. Do you have a travel pillow you love? Let me know in the comments below!
