Melbourne
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s cultural capital. A city of hidden laneways, world class food, serious art and one of the great coastal drives on earth just beyond its doorstep.
WHY MELBOURNE
Melbourne and Sydney have argued for decades about which city is better. Having lived in one and spent considerable time in the other, I have views.
But the honest answer is that they are simply different, and both are worth your time.
Sydney dazzles on arrival. Melbourne rewards the curious. It is a city that reveals itself slowly, through a laneway you ducked into on the way somewhere else, through a restaurant with no signage and no reservations that turns out to be the best meal of your trip, through an afternoon in a gallery that you did not plan and did not want to leave.
I have driven the Great Ocean Road end to end, coming back through the inland route past the Grampians. I have skied Mount Buller in a proper Victorian winter. I have spent hours in the National Gallery of Victoria, which holds the finest art collection in the Southern Hemisphere, and more hours than I should have in Melbourne’s rooftop bars watching the light change over the city. Melbourne gets into you in a way that is difficult to explain to someone who has not been. The best thing I can tell you is that almost everyone I send there comes back wanting to go again.
HIGHLIGHTS
Four experiences that together capture what Melbourne is actually about.
The City Itself
Melbourne is one of the world’s great food and coffee cities, and both statements are made with complete seriousness. The laneway culture is real and not a tourist construct.
Degraves Street, Centre Place and Hardware Lane are narrow alleys lined with espresso bars and restaurants that open at odd hours and close when they feel like it. The best ones have no social media presence and no need of one.
The rooftop bar scene is equally serious. Rooftop bars with views over the CBD and the bay have become a Melbourne institution, and the best of them are worth planning an evening around.
Beyond the laneways, the city spreads into distinct neighborhoods that each feel like small cities. Fitzroy for vintage stores and natural wine bars. South Yarra for fashion and the Botanic Gardens. St Kilda for the esplanade, the beach and the Sunday market. Carlton for the Italian quarter on Lygon Street, which has been feeding Melbourne since the 1950s.
The National Gallery of Victoria
The NGV is the oldest and most visited art museum in Australia, and it belongs in the same conversation as any major gallery in the world.
The international collection spans five thousand years and includes significant works from every major tradition.
The Australian collection, housed in a separate building on Federation Square, is one of the finest surveys of Australian art in existence.
I have spent full days here without covering everything I wanted to see. For a city visit of more than three days, a morning at the NGV should be considered essential rather than optional.
The Great Ocean Road
One of the world’s genuinely great coastal drives, and one that I have done properly from one end to the other, returning via the inland route through the Grampians.
The road begins at Torquay, just over an hour from Melbourne, and runs for nearly three hundred kilometers along one of the most dramatic coastlines in Australia. Surf beaches give way to sea cliffs, which give way to the Otway rainforest, which gives way to the Twelve Apostles, limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean that are among the most photographed natural formations in the country.
The drive is best done over two to three days rather than as a rushed day trip. Lorne and Apollo Bay are the natural overnight stops, each with their own character and excellent food.
Coming back inland through the Grampians adds sandstone mountains, wildflowers in season and a landscape that feels nothing like the coast you just left.
Mount Buller and the Victorian High Country
Three hours northeast of Melbourne, Mount Buller is Victoria’s premier ski resort and one of the best ski experiences in the Southern Hemisphere. The village sits at the top of the mountain, which means ski-in ski-out is the standard rather than the exception.
The season runs from late June through September, with the best snow typically arriving in July and August.
Beyond skiing, the Victorian High Country in summer and autumn is excellent wine and food territory. The King Valley produces some of Australia’s finest prosecco and sangiovese, and the cellar doors are as good as anything in better-known wine regions.
The combination of a few days at Buller with time in the High Country is a trip that most international visitors have never considered and almost all of them love.
WHEN TO GO
Melbourne’s weather is famously unpredictable, which is part of what makes it interesting.
The local saying is four seasons in one day, and it is not entirely an exaggeration. A Melbourne summer morning can be thirty degrees by ten, a cool change by three and a jacket by evening. This variability is year-round, though summer and autumn tend to be the most settled.
Summer runs December through February. Long days, temperatures ranging from the mid-seventies to the low nineties, the beach suburbs at their best. The Australian Open tennis takes place in January and the city is at its most electric. Book well ahead if you are coming during the Open.
March through May is my preferred window. Autumn in Melbourne brings the most settled weather of the year, excellent restaurant conditions, and the city running at full pace without the summer crowds. April is particularly good.
Winter runs June through August. Cold by Australian standards, mild by most others. The city’s food and culture scene reaches its peak in winter. This is when Melburnians retreat indoors and the restaurants, bars and galleries shine. If skiing is on the agenda, this is when to come.
Spring, September through November, brings racing season. The Melbourne Cup in November is the race that stops the nation and one of the great Australian sporting and social events.
A TASTE OF THE ADVENTURE
Nine days that cover the city, the coast and the mountains without rushing any of them.
Two nights in Melbourne based at the Ritz-Carlton or 1 Hotel, with a day in the laneways and Fitzroy, an evening at a rooftop bar, and a morning at the NGV.
On day three, drive to Torquay and begin the Great Ocean Road, stopping at Lorne for lunch and Apollo Bay for the night. Day four continues to the Twelve Apostles and Port Fairy, staying at a property along the coast.
Day five, inland through the Grampians to Halls Gap for the night. Day six, back to Melbourne via the Yarra Valley wine region with cellar door stops along the way.
Two final nights in the city for the neighborhoods you missed, dinner somewhere you have been thinking about since you arrived, and time to sit in a laneway with a coffee and let Melbourne do what it does best.
That is the summer and autumn version. The winter version replaces the Great Ocean Road days with Mount Buller and the High Country.
WHERE TO STAY
Melbourne’s hotel scene has transformed significantly in the past few years. These are the properties worth knowing.
The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne sits on the upper floors of an 80-storey tower above the CBD and won Gourmet Traveller’s Hotel of the Year for 2025. The views from the sky lobby and the rooms are extraordinary. The restaurant under executive chef Michael Greenlaw is among the finest in the city. For clients who want the premium Melbourne experience in a single property, this is it.
1 Hotel Melbourne opened in June 2025 on the banks of the Yarra River in Docklands, bringing the global brand’s sustainability-led luxury philosophy to Australia for the first time. The spa, the pool, and the riverside setting make it one of the most distinctive properties in the city.
Hyde Melbourne Place opened in late 2024 as the first Hyde property in Australia and was awarded a Michelin Key in 2025. The design is meticulous, the rooftop restaurant is worth the visit even for non-guests, and the location on Russell Street puts the best of the city within walking distance.
Hannah St Hotel in Southbank opened in late 2025 and offers 188 rooms at the intersection of the CBD, the arts precinct and the Yarra. For clients who want proximity to the NGV and the South Bank cultural quarter, this is the right base.
United Places in South Yarra is the property for clients who specifically do not want a large hotel. Twelve suites opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens, with the hatted Matilda restaurant attached and the kind of service that comes from a property that genuinely knows each guest by name.
GOOD TO KNOW
The things worth knowing before you plan.
American passport holders need an Electronic Travel Authority to enter Australia, which I handle as part of the planning process.
Melbourne is served by direct flights from Los Angeles on Qantas and United. Flying time is approximately sixteen hours. Most travelers connect through Sydney or fly direct into Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.
Melbourne runs on Australian Eastern Time, fifteen hours ahead of Los Angeles in summer.
A hire car is essential if the Great Ocean Road or Mount Buller are on the itinerary. For a city-only stay, Melbourne’s tram network covers the inner suburbs well and a car is more hindrance than help.
Pack layers regardless of season. A light jacket belongs in your bag in every month of the year. Melbourne’s weather will find the gap in your planning if you let it.
Tipping is not expected. A gesture for exceptional service is appreciated and never required.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Melbourne gets into you.
Let me make sure it gets the chance.
If Melbourne is on your list, or if it should be, let’s talk.