gubbin

Need some help please!

Just planning our visa validation trip for which we intend to spend a few days (only 4 days) in and around Melbourne to get a feel of the place and with a view to settling in the area.

Any ideas - must see, avoid and so on?

Cheers,
Gail

BKate

Goodness four days isn't long, I lived in Melbourne for a year a few years back and visited again last Christmas.
There is lots to do and see.
St Kilda is lovely with the beach, restaurants and bars. The botanical gardens are lovely to visit, maybe a cricket match at the MCG. A day visiting some of the towns out of Melbourne, bit of a drive but sorrento is gorgeous and the great ocean road is an incredible drive even if you only manage some of it.
There is great markets on the St Kilda esplanade on a sunday, Chapel street is great for shopping and the Italian district has some great restaurants. Lunch or dinner outside the casino looking over the Yarra is good too.
Thats for starters I'm sure people will suggest lots of other things too that I've forgotten.

Jamesy

We are also visiting Melbourne for about the same length of time for our validation trip in Feb, so any more ideas would be gratefully received!!

ButtonMoon

Have lived in melbourne for four years now, would be glad to assist with local knowledge as reqiured .Feel free to PM Me

Steve

helinuk

Gail, Go to the Observation Deck(Rialto ) you get a great view of the city! Use all the public transport- trams , trains, buses-so easy and cheap. Federation Sq, A rver trip, The Museum is fantastic-in Carlton Gardens.
Look at properties they have open house days.
Meet up with the folk from this site...make friends... they were helpful to me when I went in November. ;-))
Helen

migrantoz

4 days just isnt enough, we spent 5 days there at the end of March last year on our validation trip. I came away knowing we hadn't even scratched the surface.
We did the Rialto Towers and mooched around the shopping centre. Spent a few hours in Albert Park. We stayed in St Kilda which has an interesting atomosphere, some may call sleazy. Theres a good craft market at St Kilda on Sundays. We took a day to go down to Philip Island to see the Koala reserve and the Fairy Penguins.
Wished we had gone to the old Melbourne Gaol and would have liked to have gone for a meal on the restaurant tram car. We lost a day sight seeing because we visited distant family I didn't know I even had until about 6 months before going to Melbourne.
Obviously not an expert on the place but just sharing some of what we crammed in in such a short time.

evorobin

My advice would be to spend half a day just riding the tram and feeling you have seen enough of the place. St Kilda is great, we rented an apartment for four days on Accland street and it's not far into the city.

BJKLiffey

Hi we have been in Melbourne since August and have been living in Ivanhoe since September.

For ideas of where to go check out www.visitvictoria.com

Karen

NJFOZ

Try and see a game of football - Aussie Rules. You have not sampled Melbourne until you see a game and eat a meat pie covered in red sauce>>>>>

Hire a car and have a good drive around to see the different areas close to the CBD and further out. Visit a couple of display homes and some established ones as well. Advertised in THe Age on saturdays.

ozbound2004

Hi

I'm planning to move there later this year and have already spent a couple of weeks around the city.

1st stop in the city... jump on the circle tram. Its FREE and gives a commentary while doing a circuit of the CBD.

Hire a car and use the map provided. I used Avis and their map was excellent for all surrounding areas! But make sure you know about 'hook turns' if driving in the city centre (and other rules concerning the trams!)

Show homes (and houses for sale) are usually open on the weekends so you can drive round looking for signs and usually just drop in.

Get down the coastal road to Mornington Peninsula if you can (best allow 1 day) as there are some nice towns out this way, worth a look if you don;t intend working in the city or don't mind a long commute.

hope this helps

Mart

Alan Collett

Depends on whether you want to spend time holidaying or deciding where to live.

If the former:

- Eat in Lygon Street and/or the Southbank
- Spend time in the new Federation Square
- Footie at the MCG or Telstra Dome
- If you have children, Puffing Billy in the Dandenongs and/or Melbourne Zoo and/or Healesville Sanctuary in the Yarra Valley
- Geelong, Torquay, and the start of the Great Ocean Road (you could probably get to Lorne and back in a day)

The City Circle tram is also a good idea to get your bearings in the CBD.

Best regards.

Neil S

The BBC holiday team did a 'You Call the Shots' programme on Melbourne recently and this website features a comprehensive guide to what was covered.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/holiday/programmes/ycts/series3/melbourne_attractions_architecture_monuments.shtml

gubbin

Thank you everyone. Some brilliant ideas. Working on them as we speak. Yes our time is very limited, we have had to spread ourselves very thinly to visit as many potential "homes" as possible. Difficult as we do want a holiday too. We have children so didn't want to drag them around estate and job agents everyday!


Gail

Ruthyman

Hi Gail
we took our 2 year old and stayed with my brother in North Melbourne last August to validate my husbands visa. North Melb is close enough to walk to town (with stroller). Found trams a bit tricky with the stroller-narrow doors and very steep high steps. However we always got offered a seat, and they are clean and cheap and regular. Car hire was reasonable and a must for longer trips. We'd get up (early) and walk down to local cafe for the hugest cheapest nicest fry up- perfectly poached eggs, thick bacon (no water!) warm toast with butter half melted and other bits like spinach etc. All the cafes we visited loved kids.
Then we'd wander down to Elizabeth Markets-they have a great food hall for those days when the kids are screaming and the sun isnt shining, and then 10 mins walk later we'd be in the main centre of Melb.
Botanic gardens are a must when you cant go too far but have restless kids. There are numerous parks round the city.
We took our 2 yr old and went looking at potential rents and buys - word of caution- they cant take babys/toddlers without a car seat-if you need to take kids proabaly best to hire a car for the day. Also a lot of houses we saw were shocking....Those cute inner city victorian houses have totally impractical layouts and can ofetn have no real kitchen or bathroom. Not good if you have kids.
If I had to do it again Id be more careful about the holiday part-its easy to get carried away with research but you need to enjoy the place too. We stayed 2 weeks and it wasnt long enough. Id really advise you hire the same baby sitter for all the 4 nights and possibly a few hours during the day when you are looking at houses or visiting the busier streets in town, thinking about it-we could have timed things better around our 2yr olds sleep times.
Phillip Island was amazing but very long for the wee one-you dont get back till after dark its such a long trip.
Enjoy the trip and pm me if you have any questions left after this massive email!

slec

I would forget about the tourist bit with only 4 days and have a look at areas to live.
You can see lots of houses on the net to rent and jobs to email we spent 2 weeks looking around and most places we went to we said yes we could live here.
We then went across the bay to Queensclife and stoped 2 nights in Geelong that was 20 months ago we have now been living in Geelong for 16 weeks.We are all a bit home sick but just love the place its about 1 hour from Mel and we can get to the airport in 1h 10 mins come and have a look.
good luck.