a nice lil’ walking tour

I had 12 hours to spare in Melbourne and as a foodie, I was really excited to try its good food and coffee. Here’s a short walking tour you guys can try if you have time to kill in Melb:

Logistics:

- Luggage can be stored at T2’s Baggage Storage by Smartecarte. It’s relatively affordable and easy to dump/ grab n go.

- Heading to CBD is really convenient - the Skybus is right outside the terminal where Baggage Storage is. It comes every 10-15 mins and takes you straight to Southern Cross station in half an hour.

- This itinerary assumes you’re reaching Melb around brunch/ lunch time.

1️⃣ Hardware Societe for brunch/ lunch

- gather your bearings at Southern Cross Station before walking 5 mins to Hardware Societe, a great place for brunch. The environment is warm and comforting, the food is really good (comparable to great brunches in sg) and they even accept Kris+ so you can rack up miles! This was a pleasant surprise to us lol

2️⃣ Patricia Coffee Brewers

- take a stroll over to Patricia Coffee Brewers, where they serve amazing coffee along a quaint, mural covered wall.

- My friend told me afterwards that it’s unofficially known as the “lawyers’ coffee place” because it’s near the Melbourne courts, which you’ll pass by on the way to the shop. It’s beautiful to look at as well, and you might catch some barristers on the way to work in their robes.

3️⃣ Queen Victoria Market

- Continue along to the market, which has both a Pasar Malam-like area selling random goods and also an actual vegetable and food market further inside.

- You can grab more snacks here (we didn’t because we were too full), check out the random things on display (ranging from leather goods to toys and bags you’d see back home in sg), and marvel at the large, fresh produce being sold.

4️⃣ State Library Victoria

- Once done, head over to the State Library of Victoria. There’s two giant chess boards out on the front if you fancy a match with strangers, or you can head right in and queue up for the lift that’ll take you to the top floor. You’ll get great views of the main study hall below as well as a great photo spot area. We saw a couple taking wedding photos there while we visited!

- You can walk down from the top floor to the ground floor using the stairwell, which will take you through a mini museum.

5️⃣ Melbourne Central

- Head straight opposite the library to Melbourne Central, a huge mall with over 300 shops to take a break, (window) shop or grab more food (haha).

- The Shot Tower is located within the mall and makes for great photos too - it was completed in 1889 and is 50m high. Its old facade stands in stark contrast to the modern mall it’s surrounded by.

6️⃣ Flinder’s Street Station

- Take a nice stroll through Melbourne’s Chinatown and head over to Flinder’s Street Station

- There’s black and white photo booth alongside one of its walls, where you can snap some shots within and take home a really cool souvenir. Take note that it only takes $2 coins and the nearby shops won’t help you break notes tho!

7️⃣ Degraves Street

- If you haven’t eaten your fill from the other places above, head over to Degraves street just opposite Flinders Street Station. There’s many restaurants and cafes here that are well reviewed on Google, and some ice cream/ gelato shops too.

- We had burgers at Metro Burgers, a quaint little shop tucked along the street. They sell meats that we’re familiar with (like beef) and more exotic ones (like emu). Their burgers are delicious and relatively large so you might want to share, and the service is great.

8️⃣ Head back!

- You can take a train from Flinders Street Station back to Southern Cross (1 stop) or walk over and enjoy the city along the way.

- Hop back on the Skybus to the airport!

And that’s it!

Let me know if you found this itinerary useful or if you have any Melb recs! I’d love to head back some day and want to know where to go 🥰

If you’re interested, you can check out the shots I took around Melbourne here: where I went for nice photos in Melbourne

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