Melbourne - Four Seasons in One Day - IgoUgo Melbourne Journal

Melbourne - Four Seasons in One Day

Overview

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Perhaps it’s because I began my trip in Sydney, Melbourne’s flashy cousin up the coast, but I never really got “in” to Melbourne. Weather can sometimes influence someone’s opinion of a place, and it wasn’t sunny very much during the three days we were there. (There was a t-shirt in the airport that said “Melbourne, four seasons in one day.” They weren’t kidding.) It was a little chilly, with the Antarctic winds blowing in (I was expecting the same summer temps I’d had in Sydney.)That said, I found Melbourne to be a good “jumping off” point for seeing other things in Victoria. Those serve as my Melbourne highlights, though they weren’t really in Melbourne proper. Our side trip to see the ...Read More

Perhaps it’s because I began my trip in Sydney, Melbourne’s flashy cousin up the coast, but I never really got “in” to Melbourne. Weather can sometimes influence someone’s opinion of a place, and it wasn’t sunny very much during the three days we were there. (There was a t-shirt in the airport that said “Melbourne, four seasons in one day.” They weren’t kidding.) It was a little chilly, with the Antarctic winds blowing in (I was expecting the same summer temps I’d had in Sydney.)

That said, I found Melbourne to be a good “jumping off” point for seeing other things in Victoria. Those serve as my Melbourne highlights, though they weren’t really in Melbourne proper. Our side trip to see the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island was a real treat. Those one-foot tall buggers were just a ball to watch. While the actual trip down the Great Ocean Road was a little hairy, the final destination, the Twelve Apostles was not only a big moment while staying in Melbourne, it was a big moment on the entire journey.

I feel kind of sorry for Melbourne, actually. The cafes along the Yarra river are good eateries, and remind me a bit of Paris. It’s the home of the 2006 Australian Open and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but it can’t seem to get out of Sydney’s shadow. I even had a Bridge Climb guide in Sydney that was from Melbourne, and said that Sydney was the greatest harbor in the world, and it pained him to say it. Honestly, given the choice, I would have likely skipped Melbourne and spent more time in Cairns or Sydney. That said, my hotel stay, the food, everything about Melbourne was “nice.” However, for my trip Down Under, I was expecting WOW, and Melbourne has a quieter character than that.

Quick Tips:

Take a rain coat, a jacket, and jeans. You never know what the weather will be.

Make sure to use sunscreen, even if it's cloudy.

Drive the Great Ocean Road on your own rather than take a bus trip. You can stop where you want to stop and stay however long you want.

Read other reviews from my Australia trip:

Sydney (Where I spent New Years Eve!) | Alice Springs | Uluru | Cairns

Best Way To Get Around:

Melbourne is commuter-friendly. They actually have penalties for driving into the city, so they have a good public transit system. They also have cable cars, for the tourist in you. Otherwise, on foot or by cab is ok, too. Read Less

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Sofitel Melbourne

Hotel | "Sofitel Melbourne – Don't Feel Blue"

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Pulling up the driveway to the Sofitel Melbourne, the first thing that caught my eye is the tree trunks that were lit up in blue light. The room keys were blue, the décor was blue – when this hotel picks a theme, it runs with it!This five-star establishment sits in the heart of downtown Melbourne (and was recently renovated extensively), and though walking to the city sights is possible, I’d say taking a cab would be more reasonable. The rooms were very nice, thought the double rooms were two twin beds instead of two double beds, but they weren’t too bad. I enjoyed playing with the lights, which were computerized with a touch screen control pad on the n...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on January 19, 2006

Sofitel Melbourne
25 Collins Street.
Melbourne, Australia 3000
+61 (3) 9653 0000

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Phillip Island Nature Parks and Penguin Parade

Attraction | "Penguin Parade – Tuxedos Required (for the Birds) "

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Melbourne is a good jumping off place to see other things on the southern part of the country. One of those “other things to see” is the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island. For $95, we were driven the two hours to Phillips Island from our hotel, given seats on the “preferred platform” and also driven around the island itself a bit. To enter, you need to walk through the visitor’s center, which is one big money pit. There are restaurants (because you’ll be gone for a total of 6 or 7 hours, so you need to buy expensive food for dinner) and of course a gift shop. Because no photography is allowed at all (the flashes temporarily blind the penguins, and of cou...Read More

Melbourne is a good jumping off place to see other things on the southern part of the country. One of those “other things to see” is the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island. For $95, we were driven the two hours to Phillips Island from our hotel, given seats on the “preferred platform” and also driven around the island itself a bit.

To enter, you need to walk through the visitor’s center, which is one big money pit. There are restaurants (because you’ll be gone for a total of 6 or 7 hours, so you need to buy expensive food for dinner) and of course a gift shop. Because no photography is allowed at all (the flashes temporarily blind the penguins, and of course, there have been people in the past that ruined it for us all) there is a Little Penguin Photo Experience, which essentially takes your photo against a green screen and superimposes the little buggers in the photo with you. I admit, I shucked over the $16 for my 5x7, but I was disappointed not to have a digital copy.

There really are no bad seats on the platform. The regular viewing area is about a football field away on the shore, and the people are sitting on bleachers. The platform is right smack dab in the middle of their path back to their dens, so you are guaranteed penguin action. They wait in the water until sundown, and then they venture out timidly – often running back into the water. There is a certain point on the shoreline where they’re committed to go forward, and they do, by the hundreds. They’ve been out eating all day, so they’re nice and fat, and they need to take breaks. I loved watching them waddle. And loud! They call out to their partners and have territory fights, etc. They’re so close you could touch them if you were allowed.

The babies in the dunes must know their parents are approaching, because as the adults started to come out of the water, baby penguin heads started popping out of dens all over. The rangers at the platform gave us insight into their lives and helped keep us all from jumping over the railing to hug and cuddle them.

These birds used to be called Fairy Penguins, but the Australians recently adopted political correctness out the yin yang, so now they’re called Little Penguins. And they are little, only about a foot high.

It was totally worth the two-hour drive there and back to see these adorable creatures (and maybe even a wild wallaby if you’re lucky – we were.)

PS: Your platform ticket gets you a free drink at the concession, which they conveniently forget to tell you.

www.penguins.org.au
03-8951-2800
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 19, 2006

Phillip Island Nature Parks and Penguin Parade
2115 Phillip Island Road
Cowes, Australia 3922
+61 (0)3 5952 2038

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Fitzroy Gardens and Captain Cook's Cottage

Attraction | "Captain Cook’s (not Hook’s) Cottage"

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Astronomers in the 1700s believed there had to be a “great southern land” to balance out the land mass in the north; however, no one could prove its existence.Enter Captain James Cook, who sailed around the Pacific and kind of bumped into Australia (but said the great southern land didn’t exist.) He metaphorically put a stake in the ground and claimed the land for England. He made notes about how hospitable the land was, and how it would be suitable for habitation. His one journey there and his notes were all that England went on when they started sending convicts (or “people with too much initiative”) to Australia. The military commanders were astonished that...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on January 19, 2006

Fitzroy Gardens and Captain Cook's Cottage
Wellington Parade
Melbourne, Australia 3002
+61 (3) 9419 4677

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Royal Botanic Gardens & National Herbarium

Attraction | "Botanical Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance"

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With more than 50,000 plants, the Royal Botanical Gardens of Melbourne puts on quite a show for the visitor. Mosey along pathways with your map in hand to take in the different areas of the garden – the rose garden, the water conservation garden, the children’s garden, etc. (The rose garden had no blooming roses, poo.)I tend to be a browser of gardens, not an intense studier, so I just followed where the colors and smells of blooming flowers took me. The led me to a palm tree with three white cockatoos making a ruckus – my first Australian wildlife spotting!Once you’re finished walking, you can take a bathroom break in the visitor’s center, and nos...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 19, 2006

Royal Botanic Gardens & National Herbarium
South Bank of the Yarra River
Melbourne, Victoria 3141
+61 (0)3 9252 2300

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Great Ocean Road

Attraction | "The Great Ocean Road Debacle"

Quote:

The Great Ocean Road is a stretch of road that begins in a town called Geelong (about a half hour from Melbourne) down the coastline of Victoria. By far the highlight of this journey is the Twelve Apostles, approximately a three-hour drive down the road. (There used to be twelve, I believe there are only 8 now, some having given in to millions of years of bashing from the ocean waves.) Other highlights are London Bridge, which did, indeed, fall down, stranding two tourists (who were scandalously married to other people) on the still-standing part, and the other massive rock formations that line the coast. Also included are sights of Bells Beach (Point Break with Keanau Reeves was filmed here I think) ...Read More

The Great Ocean Road is a stretch of road that begins in a town called Geelong (about a half hour from Melbourne) down the coastline of Victoria. By far the highlight of this journey is the Twelve Apostles, approximately a three-hour drive down the road. (There used to be twelve, I believe there are only 8 now, some having given in to millions of years of bashing from the ocean waves.) Other highlights are London Bridge, which did, indeed, fall down, stranding two tourists (who were scandalously married to other people) on the still-standing part, and the other massive rock formations that line the coast. Also included are sights of Bells Beach (Point Break with Keanau Reeves was filmed here I think) and many other beaches along the way.

Now, usually, you would also see waterfalls, historic towns – heck, we even saw wild koalas hanging out of the trees like monkeys, just begging to have their pictures taken. We, however, paid $130 for a tourbus ride with the Nazi bus driver from hell. This heartless man wouldn’t even let us off the bus for a koala sighting. We’re tourists! We’ve never been to Australia, and we want to see wildlife dammit! Any time there was a photo stop, we were given five minutes – no more – to get off and take our photo and get back on the bus. It took us five minutes to get these people OFF the bus. There was no time to enjoy, no time to gander, we had a schedule to keep. (We left at 8 a.m., had to return by 8 p.m.)

In addition, the Great Ocean Road should be called the Great Winding Ocean Road, because if it’s straight at all, it was the first five minutes of the drive. This driver took them like he was an Indy 500 driver. It was so bad, I ended up in the bus’s icky bathroom motion sick. When I emerged, he took another sharp turn (on purpose I think) and sent me flying across the bus onto a poor Asian man. When I stood up to apologize to him, the bus took a turn and I went flying in the opposite direction. At our lunch stop – where we were supposed to have time to swim on the beach but only stopped 45 minutes at Apollo Bay, long enough for lunch – I made a quick stop for some Dramamine, which helped.

I will say that seeing the Twelve Apostles was worth all the bad bus drivers in the world, and I guess I’ll now have an entertaining story to tell. However, I would recommend renting a car and doing this road at your own pace. Stop where you want, stay however long you want, take whatever photos of whatever koalas you see.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 19, 2006

Great Ocean Road

Victoria, Australia 3230
61 (3) 5275 5797

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AAT Kings Tour

Story/Tip

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I found a great travel agent (through IgoUgo, actually) who was an Oz specialist, and she recommended AAT Kings for my trip to Australia. The trip would start in Melbourne on Jan 1 (though I would be on my own in Sydney for New Year’s Eve). We spent three nights, in Melbourne, then flew to Alice Springs, where we would stay for one night. We’d take a five-hour bus ride from there to Uluru, where we’d park our behinds for two nights. From there, we’d fly to Cairns for three nights, and then fly to Sydney for our final three nights. It was a 13-day trip that would cover the highlights of Australia.All in all, I’d say that AAT Kings did what they promised. We wer...Read More

I found a great travel agent (through IgoUgo, actually) who was an Oz specialist, and she recommended AAT Kings for my trip to Australia. The trip would start in Melbourne on Jan 1 (though I would be on my own in Sydney for New Year’s Eve). We spent three nights, in Melbourne, then flew to Alice Springs, where we would stay for one night. We’d take a five-hour bus ride from there to Uluru, where we’d park our behinds for two nights. From there, we’d fly to Cairns for three nights, and then fly to Sydney for our final three nights. It was a 13-day trip that would cover the highlights of Australia.

All in all, I’d say that AAT Kings did what they promised. We were escorted around in an air-conditioned coach (and since it is summer there in January, we were always grateful for that a/c.) The bus drivers were all well-informed and friendly – and the ones that were with us for a few days usually became one of the gang. Our tour director, Mick, was also well-informed and full of tidbits for us.

As a 30-something, I was a bit worried about being stuck on a bus with a bunch of AARP folks and having to wait on them all the time. That wasn’t the case at all. There was a diverse range of ages on the tour, with three of us single (so naturally we gravitated to each other and became friends), another dad/hubby traveling on his own (a present from his wife), a family with their college-aged daughter, an aunt with her college-age niece and goddaughter (a graduation present), two slightly older couples from NY who all went to high-school together, a farmer and his wife from Kansas, etc.

My one complaint about the tour is that I never felt like I had enough time anywhere. I also thought that there was a lot of wasted time. I think the tour company gets kickbacks, or maybe is just trying to support the locals, but we stopped in places that I didn’t think were necessarily highlights. Plus, on days we flew from town to town, the flights were late in the morning or afternoon. Let’s just fly in the a.m. and get it over with. Every other day started early, so why not give us more time at our destination?

That said, I certainly don’t think I could’ve done the trip on my own and stayed in the same quality of accommodations for the same price. Plus, the center of the country is harsh – I’m not sure I would’ve relished driving (on the left, no less) by myself through the Outback.

The tour cost me about $2300, and that was land-only. The travel agent got me the airfare from LAX to Sydney, all the stops within the country, and then home again. My bank account will be feeling the pain for months to come, but I’m glad I got to visit my dream destination.
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Melbourne Journals

Melbourne - Four Seasons in One Day