Things to Do in Victoria

When winter snows begin falling in June in Victoria's inland mountains, Melbourne residents grab their jackets and make the drive to Lake Mountain. As the closest alpine ski resort to the streets of downtown Melbourne, Lake Mountain Alpine Ski Resort is a convenient, scenic winter escape from the hustle of urban life. With its 23 miles of cross-country trails, the resort exclusively features cross-country skiing as opposed to downhill or snowboarding. Tobogganing is fun for younger visitors, and especially those who live near the beach and rarely encounter snow.

From the nearby town of Marysville, wind your way upwards into the mountains to over 4,000 feet, and immerse yourself in towering timbers where snow hangs off of the boughs. In summer, skiing is replaced by mountain biking, hiking, and riding the flying fox, and the resort is a great place to escape the heat of summer down near the coast. Sip a coffee in the bistro on site while gazing out over the mountains, and take a deep breath of mountain air overlooking the Yarra Valley. While Australia's mountains might not be tall, they still offer alpine escapes, and Lake Mountain Alpine Resort is just the place to find it. 

The Yarra River winds its way through Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD) plus a number of suburbs. In the city, bars, restaurants, and parks thrive along its banks, bringing locals and tourists together. Numerous festivals and sporting events take place on the Yarra, including the famous Moomba Festival and rowing regattas.

The Yarra River boasts a number of activities for visitors to enjoy. There are tours for every type of traveler ranging from sightseeing cruises to cabaret dinner cruises to an adventurous kayak tour along the river. See riverside landmarks such as Crown Casino, Federation Square, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the Ian Potter Centre.

For those who want to stay on land, walking and bike tours explore the banks of the Yarra River at a leisurely pace. Walk or peddle along the Southbank Promenade or the Main Yarra Trail for a closer look at Melbourne’s green spaces, bike paths, and numerous shops and restaurants that grace the banks.

Set in the center of Melbourne, the Yarra can’t be missed. In addition to sightseeing cruises, visitors can navigate the river with hop-on hop-off cruises that offer many stops in between Williamstown and Abbotsford. Some notable stops along the route include Southgate, Federation Square, and the Docklands, so you can see as much of Melbourne as possible.

Visitors can access the best of the Yarra River year-round, but there are a few special occasions that are worth a visit: the Dragon Boat Festival in June, Christmas and New Year’s Events, the Moomba Festival in March, and numerous sporting events throughout the year. 

Melbourne is Australia’s cultural capital and that means the Yarra is full of history. Check out some of the art museums along its banks, learn about Aboriginal culture and heritage on a river walk, discover thousands of plant species at the Royal Botanic Gardens, or stroll by some Australia’s most famous sporting venues.

Melbourne's Colonial Tramcar Restaurant combines sightseeing with high-class dining for an unforgettable city experience. This fleet of burgundy vintage trams has been transformed into a luxurious restaurant-on-wheels, serving up gourmet cuisine while cruising around the city's top neighborhoods.

Book a seat on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant and choose a 4-course lunch, an early 3-course dinner, or a more leisurely 5-course dinner later in the evening. Onboard, meals featuring fresh produce are served alongside fine Australian wines. For an in-depth city experience, combine your meal with a Melbourne city tour to also cruise the Yarra River, visit Brighton Beach, and stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

The tramcars leave from tram stop 125 in Melbourne's Southbank neighborhood, close to Crown Casino and the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and roughly 10 minutes walking distance from downtown Melbourne. The nearest train station is Clarendon Street Junction.

The tramcar dining experience runs year-round. Tickets can sell out during summer, so it's best to book well in advance during this time. The tramcar restaurant also provides special themed menus for holidays including New Year's Eve, Mother's Day, and Christmas.

Don't forget to look out your window as you tuck into the restaurant's seasonal food"”the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant tour follows a scenic route through the city streets and Melbourne suburbs, and the tram's slow speed allows plenty of time to enjoy the views and take photos. A typical route passes through Albert Park, the beachside neighborhood of St. Kilda, and the markets and galleries of South Melbourne.

Home to the granite You Yangs ridges that rise to the west of Melbourne, Victoria’s You Yangs Regional Park offers travelers a way to escape to “the Bush” and be back in Melbourne by dinner. Best known for its 30 miles of accessible mountain bike trails, the hiking, rock climbing and horseback riding are also some of the best you’ll find within an hour of Melbourne.

On a climb to the top of Flinders Peak—which tops out near 1,200 feet—hikers are met with panoramic views from Melbourne south toward Geelong. Keep an eye out for bouncing kangaroos or koalas up in the trees, and there’s even the chance of seeing a wallaby scurrying along the trail. There are multiple picnic sites inside of the park should you want to pack your own meal, or the small town of Lara has restaurants approximately four miles away. Even if you don’t feel you’re up for a hike, but still want to get back to nature, the park has an eight-mile, gravel road loop where it’s possible to enjoy the mountain scenery without even leaving the car. 

Tumbling 122 meters from the steep cliffs of the Steavenson River valley, the Steavenson Falls make an impressive sight, with the river cascading over 5 tiers. Despite being among the areas damaged in Victoria's 2009 bushfires, the area remains one of the region's most scenic natural reserves, surrounded by the looming peaks of the Yarra Ranges, ancient woodlands and lush pockets of rainforest. 

Most visitors to the falls follow the short trail to the viewing platform beneath the falls, but there are also ample options for hiking and bird watching in the surrounding countryside. The most atmospheric time to visit is in the evening hours before midnight, when the falls are dramatically floodlit.

It looks like something from a movie script; a large, stone, skull shaped rock rising halfway up from a deeply blue sea off an isolated stretch of coast. This isn't some villain's lair, however, but a famous rock off Wilson's Promontory on Victoria's southern coast. This rugged peninsula is the southernmost point on the entire Australian mainland, and when surfing, hiking, or camping on "the Prom," Cleft Island silently looms like a haunting skull offshore. To add to the rock's mysterious allure, it's believed that only a handful of people have ever set foot on the rock. The cliffs on all sides are dozens of feet high, and an enormous cave the size of a building consumes the center of the rock. For as foreboding as it appears on the surface, however, Skull Rock is a diver's paradise on the granite walls below. As part of the Anser and Glennie Island groups, Cleft Island is in the middle of Wilson's Promontory Marine National Park"”where colorful sponge gardens, groupers, and seadragons all thrive in the chilly depths. Unless you're a dedicated diver, however, chances are that Cleft Island will be something you view from afar"”whether it's lounging on sandy Norman Beach and playing in the crashing surf, or enjoying the backcountry bushwalking trails of Victoria's southern coast. 

Situated right at the end of Victoria's Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles are a set of eight rock formations"”there used to be twelve"”jutting out of the Southern Ocean. These limestone pillars were once connected to the nearby cliffs but have been eroded away into caves, pillars, and arches from the harsh conditions of the ocean.

A majority of the tours to the Twelve Apostles are full-day tours leaving from Melbourne in the early morning. There are many stops and photo opportunities along the way as you drive down the Great Ocean Road, such as Loch Ard Gorge, Apollo Bay, and Port Campbell. Discover the native wildlife, such as koalas and kangaroos, and learn about the local indigenous culture. For those who want a bird's-eye view, take a helicopter tour over the Victorian coast.

For those who would like to road trip on their own, drive along the coastal B100 highway to reach the Twelve Apostles. Visitors can also rent a bike or book a cycling tour to explore the Great Ocean Road at their own pace. For the truly adventurous, the 65-mile (104-kilometer) Great Ocean Walk from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles may be of interest.

The Twelve Apostles is one of Australia's most popular attractions. Avoid the large crowds from tourist buses by getting to the rock formations in the early morning or late afternoon. Alternately, if you drive inland to get to the sight, and then take the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne, it's generally a less crowded route.

The Bass Strait was once a very busy shipping route, bringing supplies and immigrants to Melbourne from all over the world. But the waters were quite treacherous during bad weather. This resulted in upwards of 700 ships meeting a bitter end along this coastline, some of which can still be seen today between Port Fairy and Cape Otway.

Only 90 minutes from the teeming streets of modern, fast-paced Melbourne, Phillip Island is known for its wildlife and scenic, rural shores. The fact that the island has remained so wild is in large part due to the Phillip Island Nature Parks that preserve, protect"”and importantly, promote"”the island's wildlife wealth. Though the parks are commercial enterprises that charge admission fees to visit, all of the money goes directly back into wildlife conservation. 

The Phillip Island Nature Parks cover 4,460 acres and include the Koala Conservation Center, The Nobbies Center, Churchill Island Heritage Farm and the famous Penguin Parade. The organization also manages conservation areas such as Pyramid Walk and Cape Woolamai, where the rugged nature of the island's coastline impresses with every turn. The parks are by far the most popular activities when visiting Phillip Island, and over the course of a single day you can watch as seals stretch out on the rocks, hang with furry koalas in the treetops, enjoy craggy rock formations and white sand beaches, and watch as thousands of Little Penguins come scurrying ashore at sunset.

Launched in Belfast in 1885 at a time when sailing for commercial shipping was starting to come to an end, the three-masted Polly Woodside would go on to sail nearly a million miles across all corners of the globe. She rounded Cape Horn 16 different times, and carried everything from nitrate to wheat across the seven seas. During World War II, she served in New Guinea as a supply ship before returning back to Australia, with her owners eventually choosing to scuttle the ship in the early 1960s. Thankfully, a group of local maritime enthusiasts saw the historic and educational value in preserving the crumbling ship, and worked out a deal where it was sold to the National Trust for only a single cent. When visiting the Polly Woodside today, which has been masterfully and expertly restored, visitors will walk the wooden decks and go below in the holds"”experiencing life as it would have been while sailing out on the seas. Hear the rations allotted to sailors while harnessing wind between ports, and try your hand at maritime skills like sewing or cutting cloth. It's amazing to think that early Australians arrived on ships just like these, and it's a classic dose of Australian history in the heart of Melbourne's downtown.

Need a break from non­stop wine tasting in Victoria’s Yarra Valley? Decadent desserts, creamy fondue and rich ice cream are waiting for you at Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery. The scent of fresh chocolate alone is a treat, and here visitors can watch master European chocolatiers create edible masterpieces.

This shop is sure to satisfy the whole family with more than 250 chocolate products and free tastings. Devour sweet snacks or order from the café menu for breakfast or a light lunch. Once you’ve finishing indulging, work off those treats with a wander through the nearby gardens and wetlands conservation area.

Completed in 1997, the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center (MSAC) is one of the largest athletic centers in the southern hemisphere. Home of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2007 FINA World Swimming Championships, the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center has a wide range of facilities for both serious swimmers and recreational users. Aquatic facilities include a number of indoor pools such as a 50-meter competition pool and 25-meter lap pool, a multi-purpose pool, outdoor 50m pool, wave pool including toddlers' play area, spa, sauna and steam room, water slide, dive boards, and hydrotherapy pool. 

The MSAC also boasts one of three FlowRider machines in Australia. The FlowRider creates a static wave of water that gives riders a similar experience to wakeboarding or surfing.

Other facilities include a 10-court squash facility with international standard glass show court, 12 court badminton stadium, 27 table tennis tables, a 10 court basketball facility with a 1800 seat show court, and three volleyball courts. These facilities can be rented by the hour, or visitors can come and watch some of the many amateur and professional sporting events taking place here.

With its 30,000 square meters of open space and a bold approach to modern architecture fused with green design, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibit Center is an engineering marvel. Nearly everyone who visits these enormous buildings is here for a large convention, as the exhibition center is the largest of its kind in the entire southern hemisphere. At the center's famous Plenary hall, public shows such as ballets and theater are also open to the public. The room can accommodate up to 5,500 people, or can also be divided into three different rooms of approximately 1,500 people. Aside from the shows and conventions themselves, the buildings are lauded for their innovative advances in modern green design, and it's the world's only venue to ever receive a 6 star Green Star environmental rating.