Melbourne — Visitor Guide
Melbourne 3-Day Itinerary
Three days in Melbourne is enough to get a genuine sense of the city — if you're deliberate about it. This itinerary skips Federation Square as a destination (it's a public square, not an attraction) and gets you into the parts of Melbourne that locals are actually proud of. One day of the city proper, one day out, one day slower.
Day 1 — The soul of Melbourne
Start in the CBD laneways. Walk north. End the evening in Fitzroy.
Hosier Lane for the street art, Degraves Street for coffee at a laneway café. Walk north through the CBD to Fitzroy. Lunch on Smith Street in Collingwood. Afternoon: the NGV permanent collection on St Kilda Road (free, 30 minutes walk south, or tram). Evening: dinner in Fitzroy — Cutler and Co if you've booked ahead, or the eastern end of Brunswick Street if you haven't.
Day 2 — Out of the city
Yarra Valley if you want wine country. Mornington Peninsula if you want coast. Both are an hour from the city.
Yarra Valley: Healesville Sanctuary in the morning (book ahead), lunch at Hargreaves Hill Brewing, one cellar door in the afternoon. Mornington Peninsula: Peninsula Hot Springs in the morning (book ahead), lunch at Pt Leo Estate (book ahead), Sorrento beach in the afternoon. Both require or strongly benefit from a car — book a hire car or a guided day tour from the CBD.
Day 3 — The slower Melbourne
A slower day. Markets, Vietnamese lunch, the Yarra walk, the penguins at dusk.
Prahran Market on Commercial Road in the morning (better than QVM, open Saturday and Sunday). Walk or tram to Richmond — Vietnamese lunch on Victoria Street (Pho Hung Vuong, pho with extra brisket). Afternoon walk along the Yarra back toward the city. St Kilda in the evening — Stokehouse for dinner, or a walk to the pier at dusk for the little penguins (free, no booking).
“The penguins at St Kilda Pier are free, take 30 minutes, and most Melbourne residents have never done it.”
plansorted
Get a plan built around you
Tell plansorted what you actually feel like — occasion, budget, who you're going with, where you are. One specific answer, not another list.
Personalise this itinerary→