These playgrounds and activities were found to be the most enjoyable after we researched a large number of options available in Melbourne and Geelong. Simply following the link to each playground will provide you with additional information such as a full review, location map, and list of amenities. A link to a slideshow containing photographs of the playground is also provided for each one.
St Kilda Pier
The pier is a well-liked location for a variety of recreational activities, including strolling, cycling, rollerblading, and fishing due to its breathtaking vistas of the Melbourne
Take a ferry to Williamstown, have a snack at the kiosk, or look for penguins and native water rats while you're standing on the breakwater. Regardless of your interests, you will have a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the St. Kilda Pier, which is located in the middle of Melbourne.
The pier is a popular place for strolling, cycling, rollerblading, and fishing due to its panoramic views of the Melbourne Port Phillip Bay.
Take a ferry to Williamstown, have a bite at the kiosk, or attempt to locate penguins and native water rats from the breakwater. St Kilda Pier offers an exceptional experience in the heart of Melbourne, regardless of your preferences.
St Kilda Pier's history stretches back to 1853, when the St Kilda Pier and Pier Company built a wooden jetty to aid early residents in offloading timber, building materials, and firewood to St Kilda. The little jetty was carried away by Port Phillip Bay during a storm shortly after its construction.
The iconic St Kilda Pier Kiosk was constructed in 1904 and has undergone numerous restorations throughout the years.
The historically significant St. Kilda Pier Kiosk was initially constructed in 1904 but has since undergone a number of refurbishments.
Koorie Heritage Trust
Discover Victoria's indigenous peoples at the Koorie Heritage Trust.
Be inspired by the rich and varied history of the civilisation with the longest continuous existence on Earth.
We provide a variety of authentic Victorian Aboriginal experiences, including the Birrarung Wilam (River Camp) walk; one of the largest collections of Koorie art and artefacts on permanent display; an annual exhibition programme showcasing local Aboriginal artists; and the chance to purchase locally crafted handicrafts.
The goal is to create an authentic experience of Aboriginal art and culture from the First Peoples of south-east Australia by displaying this dynamic, alive culture in new ways. Come today for a visit.
Koorie Heritage Trust is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., excluding all Victorian and national public holidays.
Established in 1985, the Koorie Heritage Trust is owned and administered by Aboriginal people.
The Koorie Heritage Trust offers free admission.
Accessibility:
- Actively welcomes people with access needs
- Suitable for guests who have challenges with learning, communication, understanding and behaviour
- Suitable for guests with vision impairment. Attained by providing for guests with partial vision impairment or total loss of useable vision
- Suitable for guests with a hearing impairment, from mild hearing loss to profoundly deaf
- Suitable for guests with sufficient mobility to climb two or three steps, but would benefit from fixtures and fittings to aid balance
Facilities:
- Car park
- Coach parking
- Conference/convention facilities
- Interactive centre
- Interpretive centre
Read more about this topic at https://www.visitvictoria.com/
Chinatown
After passing through the massive red gates that mark the entrance of Chinatown in Melbourne, you will find yourself in a completely other world filled with karaoke, cocktail bars, and trendy stores.
The row of buildings that make up Little Bourke Street, Australia's oldest Chinatown, date back to the nineteenth century and are located between Swanston and Spring streets.
Dumplings and chili kicks
Yum cha is the name given to lunch at the well-known Asian restaurants Shark Fin and Westlake. If you want to try some fine Cantonese food, you should go to Flower Drum instead. HuTong Dumpling Bar, Shandong Mama, and China Red all provide some of the best dumplings in the city, and you should try them all.
Bright lights, big nights
After picking out the ideal restaurant, you may head to the Croft Institute, New Gold Mountain, or Union Electric for some cocktail sorcery by following the lanterns and neon lights down an alley or up a flight of stairs. Karaoke at Heroes is going strong late into the night.
Chinese Australia
Learn about the history of Chinese people in Australia by paying a visit to the Chinese Museum at Cohen Place. Learn more about Melbourne's mysterious past on a guided tour of Little Bourke Street's buildings and alleys.
Celebrate
Join the excitement at yearly Chinatown celebrations. Don't miss the Asian Food Festival in spring and traditional Chinese New Year events.
Melbourne Zoo
How long has it been since your last visit to the Melbourne Zoo?
There's always something new to see at Melbourne Zoo. Australia's oldest zoo is also one of its most dynamic and exciting places to learn about and interact with animals of all shapes and sizes.
A whole day is required for a visit to the Melbourne Zoo. The Wild Sea is the largest exhibit, and it features penguins and seals lounging on dry land before diving into crystal-clear waters to demonstrate their graceful swimming abilities.
At the expansive Orang-utan Sanctuary, visitors may see a family of gorgeous, intelligent orang-utans as they feed, play, and swing from tree to tree. Finally, there is the Trail of the Elephant, a park and Asian town where five Asian elephants live in comfort.
We could go on and on about the lions, lemurs, meerkats, butterflies, and other indigenous wildlife you'll see, but instead we'll let you find out for yourself.
While visiting the Melbourne Zoo, you'll pick up tidbits about the zoo's efforts to protect creatures and their ecosystems, as well as promote causes like the labelling of palm oil. The Melbourne Zoo is a great place for kids and grown-ups alike to learn about the world's diverse and sensitive ecosystems and to renew our bonds with the animal companions we've lost touch with.
If you haven't been here in a while, you've been missing out on a lot of fun.
Beneath Driver Lane
Beneath Driver Lane is the basement of your dreams if you enjoy drinks, whisky, blues, fantastic service, and eating Reuben sandwiches at 2 in the morning. This pub, located in a repurposed bank vault in the Central Business District, has a magical, Harry Potter vibe that is unusual in a city with so many unused underground places.
You may recognise the location from the previous iteration, the Nant Whisky Bar, which has since closed.
The brick arched booths, the black and white images on the walls, and the soft light from candles and low-hanging lights all combine to create an atmosphere that is more welcoming and satisfying than anything Nant could have created.
The twelve-bar grind of John Lee Hooker, the sleek decor, and the expert bartending create an atmosphere that is reminiscent of Melbourne, Chicago, and Diagon Alley. The charm is in the details, such as the classic chrome serving trays holding water bottles and the thick leather coasters used for other beverages.
The staff tends bar like a well-oiled machine; everyone working there is kind, well-informed, and dressed to impress in sleek black chef jackets. The acuity of their concoctions is impressive. Make a statement by having your Martini expertly crafted in a fine wine glass filled with liquid nitrogen and served at the perfect temperature. Or, for a tropical twist, try the sweet and complex Storm Master, which is led by guava but finishes with a tangy kick.
Without the right amount of acid or sufficient bitterness, drinks like the cucumber and lavender Old Fashioned may become too sweet and cloying, while drinks made with stirred-down rye sometimes have acid added where it isn't required, ruining the otherwise exquisite flavour.
Minor flaws in an otherwise impressively broad list shouldn't deter you from getting engaged, especially because the Palo Santo wood-smoked glass adds a delightful fragrance of earthy vanilla and licorice. There are more than a hundred bottles of whisky in the enormous, fully stocked back bar, including rare and hard-to-find varieties like Yamazaki 18 and Pappy Van Winkle.
Melbourne's wine bars are known for having some of the city's greatest food, while cocktail and spirits bars usually overlook the importance of the meal. This is not the case. Highlights include the bar's food, many of which are available until 2 a.m. Bar food has never tasted so wholesome as the roasted heirloom beets served over a bed of pureed raisin, capers, and dill and mixed with black lentils. On the other hand, the morcilla sausage rolls are not for the faint of heart. Flaky pastry and thick blood pudding sit over a relish so heavily seasoned with dried chile that it conjures up images of Guadalajara.
By 11 o'clock, the place is packed, and the music picks up the pace to match, but it never gets out of hand. And despite the old-fashioned decor, the bartenders here are more than happy to serve dessert shots.
It's great to have venues like these that promote responsible drinking without passing judgement on those who struggle with the nation's continued reliance on drinking as a social norm despite widespread awareness of the risks involved. In the basement of Driver Lane, grownups may enjoy alcoholic beverages accompanied with just the right amount of fun and fantasy to appease their inner child.
Heide Museum of Modern Art
Beginning on June 30th, Heide will be open from 10am to 5pm, each Tuesday through Sunday. A timed admission ticket must be reserved in advance of your visit.
In 1934, the Melbourne house of John and Sunday Reed became the Heide Museum of Modern Art, or simply Heide, one of Australia's most distinctive venues for modern and contemporary Australian art.
Within twenty minutes of downtown, you may visit Heide, which features fifteen acres of gardens, three exhibition spaces, two historic kitchen gardens, a sculpture park, and the Heide Store.
Café Heide, located in the sculpture plaza just outside the museum's main entrance, provides coffee, breakfast, and lunch including seasonal ingredients from the kitchen garden.
Learn more about the museum's rich past and upcoming exhibits, activities, and events by visiting its website.
Opening hours:
- Tuesday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
- Wednesday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
- Thursday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
- Friday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
- Saturday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
- Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Accessibility:
- Promotes an accessible environment and encourages visitors with disabilities
- Adequate for visitors with low eyesight. By accommodating visitors who have low or no eyesight, we are able to achieve this goal.
- Ideal for visitors with any degree of hearing loss.
- Those who must remain seated in a wheelchair at all times might feel at home here.
Facilities:
- Café
- Car park
- Picnic area
- Public toilet
ACMI
ACMI is the nation's museum dedicated to cinema and media. Every day in the middle of Melbourne's central business district, you can explore the worlds of cinema, television, art, and video games.
ACMI is the world's most popular art museum, and it's open every day of the year (for a total of 364 days a year!).
After being closed for two years for renovations, ACMI is now open and ready to serve visitors of all ages with a memorable and enjoyable experience.
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Fed Square has exhibitions, movies, an outstanding gift store, and a new destination eating experience, Hero, headed up by Karen Martini.
The greatest and most well-attended film festivals in Melbourne are held here, together with the best in contemporary art and screen culture, as well as a full schedule of seminars and workshops throughout the year.
Accessibility:
- Promotes an accessible environment and encourages visitors with disabilities
- Suitable for visitors with cognitive, language, and behavioural impairments
- Ideal for visitors with any degree of hearing loss.
- Guests who are mobile enough to climb three stairs will enjoy their stay, but those with limited mobility may find that balance-enhancing features are helpful.
- Those who must remain seated in a wheelchair at all times might feel at home here.
Facilities:
- Bar
- Café
- Car park
- Games/recreation room
- Interactive center
Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre
Wominjeka! Bunjilaka is a permanent display at the Melbourne Museum that aims to depict the life of Koorie people. The Indigenous people of south-east Australia gave the show its name in honour of the Bunjil, a species of wedge-tailed eagle considered sacred.
Bunjilaka's three primary areas are the Birrarung Gallery, the Millar Garden, and the Kalaya performance space, all of which were co-curated by members of Australia's First Nations. Millari Garden cultivates flora significant to Victoria's earliest peoples and has daily eel feedings at 1.45pm; Birrarung Gallery features three exhibitions by modern Koorie artists each year.
Bunjilaka is where visitors may learn about the history and contemporary culture of Victoria's first nation peoples via visual and performing arts. Permanent exhibits include First Peoples (a look at the Indigenous people of Victoria's history, culture, achievements, and survival) and Wurreka (a zinc wall etching by artist Judy Watson reflecting Indigenous heritage and the landscapes of Victoria).
Bunjilaka is available all year round with the exception of Easter and Christmas Day. The cost of admittance to the Melbourne Museum includes this attraction.
HuTong
Award chosen by the general public. Citizens of Time Out have spoken in the 2015 Food Awards, and they have chosen this bustling dumpling shop as their best place to chow on. We believe HuTong is up to the challenge.
They don't exactly ask us to adore them, for starters. The service is very uncaring and even cold at times. Its storefront, a three-story building on Market Lane that brazenly faces the historic Flower Drum, is a bit of a mishmash.
It doesn't matter, though. The information you need is immediately accessible when entering the establishment. Look at the cooks behind the glass, who are furiously preparing a dumpling performance art piece.
Let's begin with the xiao long bao, or xiao long bao as the HuTong menu insists on phonetically spelling them. The Shanghainese soup dumplings with their pork and soup filling are as good as they are famous for being. To eat them, you saddle your spoon with threads of ginger and a slosh of black vinegar, nip a hole in the dumpling, and slurp away, trying not to spill on your white shirt (a helpful tip for dining at HuTong).
In terms of quality, the XLB come out on top, while the wontons with chilli sauce are just on their heels. It has to do with the signature Szechuan heat and the nutty sprinkle of sesame seeds that picks up the rich slick of sesame oil. Simply said, they're the bomb.
And the dumpling craziness continues. Either indulge in vego (vibrant green boiling spinach dumplings) or the dumpling equivalent of a high-end spring roll filled with crab, shrimp, maize, bamboo shoot, spinach, and carrot. Dumplings made of pork and encased in a delicate pastry crust are pan-fried. Put them out of their misery by drowning them with vinegar and hot sauce.
It continues in a manner that is somewhat drawn out. There is so much more; the menu is helpfully stamped here and there with the house speciality symbol; however, you should avoid any dish that carries the three chilli legend because it has the potential to blow your head right off. The scallop and eggplant clay pot in Sichuan chilli sauce is all soft-textured richness; the ma po tofu is a fine example of the classic; and there is so much more.
Costs are reasonable (and you can BYO, too). Quick turnover is a hallmark of the business. In such case, this is what you must do. Purchase as if there were no tomorrow. Just chow down like nobody's looking.
FAQs About Places You Should Visit in Melbourne
Melbourne is famous for its culture, and the National Gallery of Victoria is the jewel in the crown. It's not only the oldest public art gallery in Australia, it's also the most visited. Here, you can admire more than 70,000 works of European, Asian, Oceanic, and American art in two city locations.
Melbourne is known for being one of the most liveable cities on earth. Often referred to as 'the Sporting Capital of the World', besides this it is also famous for its graffitied laneways, excellent coffee, cultural diversity and bayside location. This eclectic Australian city has something for everyone.