Melbourne is such an exciting city with so much to offer. You’ll find culinary treats, historical sites and various museums and sporting events. Keep reading for a jam-packed 4 day Melbourne itinerary!
WHERE TO STAY
I would recommend staying in the Central Business District. Melbourne is a highly walkable city, so it makes sense to stay in the city center close to all major attractions. Melbourne is a very diverse city, hence naturally there are also accommodations for all types of travel styles.
ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS
Budget: Melbourne Central YHA
Mid-range: Quincy Hotel Melbourne
Luxury: The Ritz Carlton Melbourne
HOW TO GET AROUND
BY FOOT
As mentioned, Melbourne is very walkable. There are many unique buildings, laneways, museums and cafes which are best explored and accessed by foot. Walking gives you the highest degree of flexibility while sightseeing.
BY TRAM
If you do get tired of walking or plan to hit up some sights outside of Melbourne, I’m happy to report that Melbourne has a great tram network! The easiest way to use public transport in my opinion is by consulting Google Maps. Just put in your desired final stop and Google Maps will tell you when the next tram is going and where the stop is.
What’s great about Melbourne is that their inner circle (like the true true city center) network can be used free of charge! That’s right, you can just hop on and hop off the tram as you please! For more details check out the section about free tram travel on here.
If you travel outside of this free tram zone, you’ll need a Myki Card. There are two different fare systems, which both work with the Myki Card. You can get the Myki Card at many places in Melbourne, for example the train station or any 7-Eleven. You can either pay as you go or choose to pay a flat rate for a specific zone for the whole day. I’d recommend studying their website for a bit to figure out what tariff system works best for you.
BY BUS
Within the city of Melbourne, I’d recommend using the trams as outlined above. However, if you travel along the coast (around St. Kilda), you might need to switch to buses as well to get to your desired destination. Here again, just use Google Maps and your Myki card and you’re good to go.
SKYBUS AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION
Lastly, I’d like to mention the SkyBus. The SkyBus is in my opinion the easiest way to get from the Airport to the city center. The bus drops you off at the central train station (not Flinders station), which is then in walking distance of most accommodations in CBD.
Tickets can be bought either online in advance or right at the airport, before leaving the building you’ll find several ticket machines. If you buy a return ticket you get a slight discount.
I had a great experience and would highly recommend this service. The departure times are also quite frequent, which means that you can pretty much show up and a bus will be departing within the next 15 minutes.
how many days should you spend in melbourne
How many days you need to see the city is of course highly subjective. Some people might get a good enough feeling of the city in a day, others would argue you need a week or a month.
Personally, I stayed in Melbourne city for two days and felt as if that was plenty of time to see the main attractions. If you love museums, you might want to plan in some extra time for all the exhibitions. There are also many extremely cool restaurants, if you’re a foody and you really want to experience the culinary variety in Melbourne, you also might want to add another day or two just for that.
However, as you might have noticed, the post is called a 4 day itinerary. That’s because I have included 2 day trips from Melbourne, namely Phillip Island and The Great Ocean Road. Technically, you could also separate those trips and extended them if you desire. But if your time is constrained, I wanted to include these options to let you know what is possible.
To conclude, if you like being a typical tourist, two days is more than enough, and if you spend more time you can / should start exploring the surroundings.
day 1
9 am – arrive in melbourne
Welcome to Melbourne! Ideally, you’d be arriving into Melbourne in the morning so that you can already start exploring in the afternoon!
1 pm – explore the city center
Spend the afternoon wandering around the city center. Unlike some other Australian cities, I do believe that in Melbourne you can just blindly start walking and you’re bound to find some cool streets, laneways and architectural gems.
If you are looking for more specific recs, here is a list of some spots you should hit:
- Melbourne Town Hall: The building is really beautiful, worth visiting for the architecture.
- Bourke Street: This is the main pedestrian only shopping street!
- Chinatown: Part of the city center with Chinese restaurants, as you probably expected!
- Royal Arcade: Narrow, covered shopping arcade with specialty stores.
- Flinders Station: The historic train station, the building is very pretty!
- Federation Square: A gathering area with a modern vibe right next to Flinders station, with a view on the Yarra river.
- St. Paul’s Cathedral: Historic Anglican cathedral near Flinders station.
- Cook’s Cottage: Cook’s cottage is where Captain Cook’s parents lived. The cottage was originally built in Great Britain, then disassembled and shipped to Australia. An entry fee is required, but I personally thought it’s a really interesting story and therefore worth it!
- Hosier Lane: Not everyone’s cup of tea, but a popular laneway full of graffiti!
7 pm – dinner
We decided to stop for dinner on our way back from Cook’s Cottage. We opted for the Mexican restaurant Mejico, which was a great experience. Not only is the interior super unique, everything is pink and black, but the food is also really different and not your usual Mexican food. Definitely check out their website!
day 2
9 am – breakfast
Since we were staying at the Quincy Hotel Melbourne, we usually ended up having breakfast at their restaurant saltedegg. Let me tell you, their breakfast is FIRE. If you’re looking for a cool brunch spot, definitely check this place out.
10 am – st. kilda
Once you’re fuelled for the day, hop on a tram to St. Kilda. This small town is just 30 minutes away from the city of Melbourne and gives instant beach vibes. St. Kilda is famous for its beach, the historic Luna Park and Fitzroy/Acland Street with all the little boutiques, restaurants and cafes.
Spend a couple of hours walking along the beach, soaking up the sun, perhaps going on some rides in the Luna Park and visiting the local boutiques.
12 pm – brighton beach
Next, hop on a bus to Brighton Beach. From there it’s only a short walk to the famous beachside huts. I only found out about this spot when I arrived in Melbourne and I’m so glad I did. You’ll find a bunch of cute lil beach huts painted in all kinds of colours. It’s a great backdrop for pictures 😉
1:30 pm – snack in st. kilda
Time to go back to St. Kilda for a snaaaaack!!! If you were walking along Acland Street before you will likely have noticed all the yummy cake shops. We stopped at Monarch Cakes for a cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake. Both were DIVINE.
3 pm – rose street artists market
Time to head back to Melbourne! Hop on back on the tram and ride directly to the Rose Street Artists Market. The name already suggests what you can expect there – plenty of stands with unique goodies from small businesses! You’re sure to find something if you have space in your suitcase 🙂
4 pm – fitzroy / Collingwood nighbourhoods
The Market closes at 4pm. After that, continue walking towards the hip and upcoming neighbourhoods of Fitzroy and Collingwood. These are two neighbourhoods with completely different vibes from the CBD, and a lot more alternative and hippie. You’ll find many vintage and second hand shops, and some cool breweries / bars. This is a very hit or miss experience, you either like the vibe or you don’t.
7 pm – dinner at lygon street
I hope you’re hungry, because it’s time to walk over to Lygon Street for dinner! Lygon Street is located in the Italian Precinct of Carlton. The area is full of Italian restaurants, ice-cream shops and bars. If you’re there on a weekend you might want to book in advance, because we saw some long queues during prime dinner time! We chose Cafe Corretto and the pizza and pasta were both soooo good!
Day 3
9 am – breakfast at Queen Victoria Market
Today you’ll enjoy a special breakfast. Get up early and walk directly to the Queen Victoria Market. As the name suggests, this is a market with all kinds of specialty foods (and so much more)! Wander around for a bit and then decide what you want to try. You can eat your delicacies right there, or take them with you to some of the parks nearby for a picnic 🙂
1:45 pm – Start of Phillip Island Tour
Whatever you do the rest of the morning, make sure to be ready for your Phillip Island Tour at 1:45 pm. I highly recommend to buy some snacks, since the whole tour will take approx. 10 hours. There will be a lunch / dinner stop, but this will depend on how the tour is going and when and where you’ll have time to stop.
4 pm – Phillip Island Koala Conservation Reserve
After an initial 2-2,5 hour drive you will arrive at the Phillip Island Koala Conservation Reserve. As the name suggests, this is a safe space where Koalas are held in conditions that resemble their natural habitat as closely as possible. Your guide will walk through the park with you and help to spot as many specimen as possible. Really exciting!
5 pm – Dinner in Cowes
Shortly after the tour, you’ll stop for dinner somewhere on Philipp Island. I believe that this may vary from tour to tour, but personally we stopped in a small little town called Cowes. Coincidentally, we were there right when the Philipp Island Moto Grand Prix was happening, so the town was FULL of bikers and people having a good time after the race.
I’d recommend to walk down to the waterfront and have dinner somewhere there. If your schedule looks like ours, you’ll be able to enjoy the sunset from here 🙂
6:30 pm – The Nobbies
Next up, the Nobbies. The Nobbies are a rock formation right off the coast where the largest fur seal colony of Australia resides. However, I do need to dampen your expectations here a little. Since you will likely be visiting around sunset, the sun will most likely be hindering your sight of the seals, which are in the direction of the sun. But even if you don’t see the seals, keep your eye out for some penguins hiding in the grass along the walkway.
7:30 pm – Penguin time!!!
On your drive from the Nobbies to the penguin parade viewing area, keep your eyes out for wallabies hopping along the road!
Once you reach your final destination, make sure to head directly to the viewing platform to get the best seats. I’d recommend to sit on either edge of the platform (not in the middle), since that’s where the penguins will be passing by!
And then you basically wait until the penguins feel like it’s time to get out of the water. The whole experience seems so surreal, you just sit there and watch how those little fellas get out of the water in small groups and waddle inland for the night. It’s really adorable!!
Very important though, you are NOT allowed to use your phones while they are getting out of the water. The reason for this is precautionary, because in case a flash goes off (accidentally), the penguins might get so scared that the puke out all the food they had gathered throughout the day. And we don’t want that, so please respect this rule!
9 pm – Drive Home
Time to start the 2-3 hour drive back home and then head directly to bed, because tomorrow is another big day!
Day 4
7 am – Start of the Great Ocean Road Day Trip
Today you’ll have a really early start to the day! Your tour guide will pic you up around 7 close to your hotel. Just as the day before, since the Great Ocean Road Tour will roughly take 13 hours, I recommend to bring snacks and a breakfast. There will be options to buy food and some coffee and cake is complementary in the tour, you still might want to be well prepared just in case.
8:30 am – Torquay Surf Beach
Your first stop of the day is going to be at Torquay Surf Beach. In our tour, this is where the tour guide served some coffee and banana bread by the beach. The town is a well known surf spot, popular vacation spot and it is also where the Quiksilver headquarters are located.
9 am – photo at the Great Ocean Road sign
Shortly after your first stop you will reach the Great Ocean Road sign. This is where you will feel like such a tourist, but the bus will stop and wait until everyone is happy with their pictures of them and the sign in the background. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?
10:30 am – see koalas and parrots in their natural habitat
Now it’s time to see some more Koalas, this time completely in the wild! Your guide will take you on a brief walk, and help you to spot some Koalas in the trees. However, if you’ve already seen Koalas on your Australia trip so far, you might be more fascinated by the parrots there! These birds are not shy at all and will land on your shoulder and head out of nowhere, so watch out haha!
11:30 am – Lunch at Apollo Bay
Lunchtime is approaching fast, which is why the next stop is also the lunch break. Your guide will give you some free time in Apollo Bay to have lunch and spend some time either browsing the shops or chilling by the beach. You can use this free time as you please.
1 pm – Forest walk
After lunch, to walk off the calories, you’ll go on a short forest walk. This was actually a really cool part of the tour, as I learned so much. You’ll see some of the tallest trees in the world, and you’ll learn that some trees are in fact plants, and why some of the tree trunks hollow out and eventually fall over.
2:30 pm – the 12 Apostles!!
FINALLY you’ll arrive at the main attraction you’ve been waiting for all day, the 12 Apostles! Funny enough, our guide told us that there were never in fact 12 rock formations, and that this name was given for PR reasons. And since then, there are also several apostles that have fallen due to erosion. Nevertheless, the sight is really breathtaking! There are some walkways along the coast, but we personally got a coffee to go at the entrance café and then spent the whole time just enjoying the view from the main platform. The view is stunning and so worth the long drive!!
3:30 pm – Loch Ard Gorge
After the 12 Apostles you’ll have a final stop at Loch Ard Gorge. Here you’ll be able to descend down to the actual beach. Your guide will tell you stories and myths about the beach (I don’t want to spoil them here, the guides tell them much more compellingly!).
This is your final stop, after which you’ll get back on the bus and drive home.
That’s it, this is how you get the most out of 4 days in Melbourne! If you have some extra time, or don’t vibe with some of the activities in this itinerary, you could also add a visit to Yarra Valley to your list. Yarra Valley is one of the top wine regions in the country, and there are also many tours that can take you there!
If you’re looking for more travel itineraries and resources for Australia, check out my posts here!
Let me know if you’ve been to Melbourne before or when you are planning on going, I’d love to chat <3