Great Ocean Road Tours
Almost every day are asked about touring The Great Ocean Road – where you can stop and what you can see? So we thought we might sum up some of our favourite spots from a local’s perspective…
Walk down the bustling Swanston Street in central Melbourne and you are bound to stumble upon a few thousand postcards that showcase the sweeping curves and staggering rock formations of Victoria’s magnificent Great Ocean Road. Just a few short hours from Melbourne, the beginning of The Great Ocean Road is where you’ll start your 243 kilometre journey through small towns and spectacular natural landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world.
Tours from Melbourne typically begin with a visit to Torquay, Australia’s capital of surfing, and a visit to the world renowned Bells Beach. The turbulent waters of the Bass Strait, once a feared final obstacle for merchant sailors heading into Melbourne, are now home to one of the World’s longest running surf competitions.
Yarra Valley Winery Tours
Visitors to Melbourne are forever enthralled as they choose unique and engaging winery tours to the picturesque wine region known as one of Australia’s finest. This is an area of spectacular beauty where boutique and larger wineries sit alongside each other, heaving with vines on sloping hillsides and the grand Great Dividing Range Mountains as their backdrop. With a cool climate and diverse soil, pinot noir and chardonnay dominate the region’s vine plantings, however, creative and innovative winemakers are succeeding in other varietals, with shiraz, sauvignon blanc and pinot gris increasing in popularity. This much loved wine region is truly a wine lover’s paradise.
Christmas in Melbourne
Did someone say party?
I hear clinking glasses, laughter, carols.
I smell fresh berries and anticipate ham and plum pudding.
I see buckets of champagne, prawns and sunshine.
I feel frenzy, anticipation and joy.
Party, tradition, Santa, Sun.
It’s our favourite time of year and here are some magical Melbourne moments we want to share with you:
A Tourist In My Own City
Signing off on another long week and with a long weekend ahead, the usual discussions and phone calls began about what everyonewas doing with their long weekend. Some were getting out of the city for the opening weekend of the snow season, some getting out of Melbourne to find somewhere more tropical and many deciding it was simply too cold to do anything. I on the other hand was open to ideas and after a bit of consideration decided I’m definitely not the type to sit around hiding from conditions. Instead I decided that with my first year as a Melbournian coming to an end it was time for me to rediscover what had drawn me to this city to begin with.
Melburnians have three main passions sport, food and art. They are the driving forces that make the city what it is and the people who they are. Imaginative, fun, cultured and at all times welcoming and ready for a chat. This weekend I had two of my favourite Melburnians by my side. Good mates Graeme and Bernard to explore the city.
Melbourne After Dark – Beating The Jetlag
The toll of travelling to the other side of the world is something that all MPT staff, as avid travellers understand all too well. You spend up to (and sometimes beyond) 24hrs sitting in departure halls, planes, trains and taxis, but for some reason the only thing you can think about is getting to your hotel and crashing out. But inevitably this results in sleepless nights that can seriously affect your travel plans for days while you try to recover. Read more
FIVE UNIQUE VICTORIAN GOURMET EXPERIENCES
Uncover hidden culinary delights of Victoria on a luxury gourmet experience with Melbourne Private Tours. For lovers of all things food and wine, these tours will take you behind the scenes to meet the growers and artisan producers that make each region tick.
MPT LAUNCHES EXPERT-LED TOUR SERIES
Victorian based tour experiences for discerning travellers who have seen and done it all
Take the ultimate step into uncovering and understanding Melbourne on an expert-led experience with Melbourne Private Tours. The newly introduced series delves beyond the ‘behind the scenes’ to spend a day with a Melbourne based specialist who will entertain and educate you about their specific industry.
Live it up in Melbourne, Australia’s city of plenty (cityam.com)
A brilliant cafe culture, exciting food, world-class wineries and outdoor sport has Esther Shaw enthralled
EARLY morning Melbourne, the sun is rising, and we are drifting over this modern metropolis and its spectacular skyline of skyscrapers and spires in a hot air balloon.
Rising high above the city, we gaze down on icons such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the Formula One racetrack, Government House, Melbourne Park, and the meandering Yarra River far below.
Springtime Shenanigans
Even having spent a chunk of our Melbourne winter overseas this year, thus warming my bones and thawing out, I have been counting down the days until spring really arrives here in Melbourne. Read more
Travel destinations: Melbourne, Australia on helium.com
Read the “Travel destinations: Melbourne, Australia” article on helium.com Read more
Matt Skinner’s inside guide to Melbourne
Read Matt Skinner’s inside guide to Melbourne featuring MPT on gourmettraveller.com.au! Read more
My quest to give it up….
It all started after I made the big move to Melbourne.
Hailing from a small town, my idea of a good coffee involved a jar of instant, some boiling water and a good helping of sugar…but all this was about to change when I moved to the coffee capital of Australia… Read more
