Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria , livre ebook

Melbourne & Victoria

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Mebourne & Victoria
Melbourne & Victoria's Top 12
Need to Know
What's New
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
Victoria Outdoors
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

Melbourne
Sights
Activities
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Melbourne
Around Melbourne Highlights
The Dandenongs
Yarra Valley
Healesville & the Lower Yarra Valley
Warburton & the Upper Yarra Valley
Marysville
Lake Mountain
The Spa Country
Daylesford & Hepburn Springs
Macedon Ranges
Trentham
Great Ocean Road & Bellarine Peninsula
Great Ocean Road & Bellarine Peninsula Highlights
Geelong & Bellarine Peninsula
Geelong
Bellarine Peninsula
Great Ocean Road
Torquay
Torquay to Anglesea
Anglesea
Aireys Inlet & Around
Lorne
Wye River
Kennett River
Apollo Bay
Cape Otway
Cape Otway to Port Campbell National Park
Port Campbell National Park
Port Campbell
Port Campbell to Warrnambool
Warrnambool
Tower Hill Reserve
Port Fairy
Portland
Portland to South Australia
Goldfields & the Grampians
Goldfields & the Grampians Highlights
Ballarat
Bendigo
Goldfields Towns
Kyneton
Castlemaine
Harcourt & Around Castlemaine
Maldon
Maryborough
The Grampians
Grampians National Park (Gariwerd)
Halls Gap
Dunkeld & Around
Wartook Valley & the Northern Grampians
Northwest of the Grampians
Horsham
Mt Arapiles State Park
Little Desert National Park & Around
Dimboola
Little Desert National Park
Nhill
Mornington Peninsula & Phillip Island
Mornington Peninsula & Phillip Island Highlights
Mornington Peninsula
Mornington
Mornington to Blairgowrie
Sorrento
Portsea
Point Nepean National Park
Flinders
Red Hill & Around
French Island
Phillip Island
Wilsons Promontory & Gippsland
Gippsland & Wilsons Promontory Highlights
South Gippsland
Inverloch
Koonwarra
Fish Creek
Wilsons Promontory National Park
East of the Prom
Port Albert
West Gippsland
Walhalla
Lakes District
Sale
Maffra
Ninety Mile Beach
Paynesville & Raymond Island
Metung
Lakes Entrance
East Gippsland & the Wilderness Coast
Buchan
Snowy River National Park
Errinundra National Park
Orbost
Cape Conran Coastal Park
Mallacoota
Croajingolong National Park
The High Country
Mt Baw Baw
Lake Eildon & Around
Eildon
Jamieson
Mansfield
Mt Buller
King Valley
Milawa Gourmet Region
Beechworth
Yackandandah
Chiltern
Rutherglen & Around
Mt Buffalo National Park
Bright
Mt Beauty & the Kiewa Valley
Falls Creek
Harrietville
Mt Hotham & Dinner Plain
Omeo
The Murray River & Around
Mildura
Swan Hill & Around
Around Swan Hill
Echuca & Around
Around Echuca
Yarrawonga
Wodonga
The Way North
Up the Hume
Wangaratta
Goulburn Valley

Understand

Understand Melbourne & Victoria
Melbourne & Victoria Today
History
Food & Wine
Fashion & Shopping
The Arts
Sport

Survive

Directory AZ
Accommodation
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Etiquette
GLBTI Travellers
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Money
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Women Travellers
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Mebourne & Victoria

Melbourne is food-obsessed, marvellously multicultural and a showpiece for Australian culture. Beyond the city limits, Victoria offers rich history, stunning wilderness and culinary excellence.


Food & Wine
Melbourne loves its food. A passion for street food and experimental fine dining has been grafted onto a long-standing multicultural culinary scene that has few peers. Regional Victoria is in no way playing second fiddle to this – its epicurean credentials continue to skyrocket in small country towns such as Kyneton, Beechworth, Birregurra and Red Hill. It also comes with loads of respected wine regions, from the Yarra Valley to the King Valley, Mornington Peninsula to the Bellarine Peninsula and Rutherglen. There's also a catalogue of boutique breweries and coffee roasters to round it out.

Great Outdoors
Victorians are spoiled for wilderness. Southwest, the Great Ocean Road snakes along one of the world's most spectacular coastlines, while the further east you go the wilder the coast gets, from wildlife-rich Wilsons Promontory to Gippsland's aptly named Wilderness Coast. Also east, the wild rivers and epic forests of Errinundra and Snowy River yield to the picturesque mountains of the High Country, where year-round activities make it an adventure destination of the highest order. Northwest, almost in the outback, desertlike national parks occupy vast swathes of the state. Opportunities to explore are endless, whether on two legs or skis, two wheels or four.

Great Indoors
In the 19th century, gold-rich Melbourne and small towns in Victoria were stamped with architectural wonders. These days many of those grand buildings survive as luxury hotels, theatres bursting with talent, top-notch restaurants or colourful state-of-the-art galleries. Seek out the cultural goldfields area, in particular, with towns such as Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine, or the preserved sandstone buildings crammed with history in Beechworth. Melbourne in particular is an art lover's smorgasbord (with signature art-strewn laneways so intimate they feel like they're indoors), but regional Victoria holds its own when it comes to reasons to pray for a rainy day.

History's Canvas
Victoria's history is epic, but couldn't be more accessible. The state's Indigenous story serves as a subtext throughout, but it takes centre stage with rock art and creation stories at Gariwerd (the Grampians). Fast forward a few millennia, and Victoria's 19th-century gold rush left behind some of Australia's most atmospheric old towns, among them Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maldon, Kyneton, Walhalla and Beechworth. And the old Murray riverboat culture of Australia's pioneering days lives on in Mildura, Swan Hill and, especially, Echuca.

Coastline views along the Great Ocean Road | VICTORIASKY1 / SHUTTERSTOCK ©


Why I Love Melbourne & Victoria
By Kate Morgan, Writer
A Melburnian and Victorian at heart, I grew up near the Mornington Peninsula, lived in inner-city Melbourne and now call the Bellarine Peninsula area home while I dream about my next move…perhaps to a charming town in the High Country. The calm bay beaches of my childhood, crashing surf pounding the red cliffs as I drive the Great Ocean Road, a kangaroo hopping along a country road at dusk, glasses of wine in the sun overlooking vineyards or pots of beer at a gig in a divey Melbourne pub – nowhere else inspires wanderlust in me quite like Victoria.
Melbourne & Victoria's Top 12

Great Ocean Road
Take it slow driving on a road that curls beside spectacular beaches then whips inland through rainforests. Check out Bells Beach's legendary surf, see kangaroos in Anglesea, swim at Lorne and go koala spotting at Cape Otway. Then stand in awe at the Twelve Apostles, one of Victoria’s most vivid sights. Head inland for gourmet treasures in Timboon and Forrest, watch whales in Warrnambool and discover the maritime treasures of Port Fairy. For the ultimate in slow travel, hike the Great Ocean Walk.

Great Ocean Road | AUSTRALIAN SCENICS / GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
Drinking & Dining Around Melbourne
Head down the many street-art-strewn laneways and hip streets in Melbourne’s CBD and inner-city 'hoods to seek out cool cafes, hidden bars and the hottest restaurants. Have tattooed baristas play mad scientists as they brew you a siphon, pourover or cold-drip single-origin coffee, then take your pick of food-driven cafes or gastropubs for lunch before planning your dinner at the latest degustation darling to top the city’s best-restaurant list. Let the evening steer you upstairs to a rooftop bar serving inventive cocktails and craft beer with city views.

Restaurants & bars along Centre Place | JOON WEI OOI / 500PX ©


Top Experiences
Bellarine to Mornington Peninsula
The Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas may be on opposite sides of the coast, but they are roughly equidistant from Melbourne and both boast a bounty of top wineries, breweries and beaches as well as local-produce-driven eateries tucked away in bush, on farms or attached to scenic vineyards. While Melburnians tend to have a fondness for one coast or the other (based on childhood holiday traditions), visitors can ignore the divide and explore one peninsula before a short sail on the Queenscliff–Sorrento ferry to discover the riches of the other.

Point Lonsdale lighthouse, Bellarine Peninsula | SBOSTOCK / GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
The Grampians
Rising up from otherwise pancake-flat countryside, the landscape of the Grampians is as timeless as it is tempting. The sandstone and granite outcrops here are custom-made for rock climbing, abseiling and bushwalking. Not that adventurous? You can drive to waterfalls, stunning lookouts and bush camps carpeted in wildflowers, sample local wines, and learn stories of how Indigenous Australians lived in a place called Gariwerd. Families or romantic couples will find just as much to do here as adventurers.

The Grampians | BERNDC / GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
Gippsland Lakes
Water, water, everywhere. Aside from the famous Ninety Mile Beach, East Gippsland’s Lakes District is a glistening patchwork of waterways and inlets where boating and fishing are a way of life. Experience the coastal charm of villages such as Paynesville, Metung and gorgeous Mallacoota, cruise the lakes to wineries and waterside pubs, and gorge on the state’s freshest seafood. Throw in some of Victoria’s wildest coastal parks,