Headed to OZ

Are you just staying in Melbourne, or will your travel around Victoria? Reply to this

Thankfully for you, Melbourne is very central to the rest of the state, so it is easy to take day or overnight trips. My three recommendations are:
1) Great Ocean Road and Port Campbell National Park
2) Phillip Island the the Penguin Parade
3) Sovereign Hill in Ballarat
Your friends may already be organising this.

Within Melbourne, there are some nice areas to hang around
1) Chapel Street in Prahan- it is the "funky" part of the city
2) Lygon Street for its Italian food
3) St Kilda - long promenade with beach, cafes, and bars
4) National Gallery of Victoria - has a strong Australian art section
5) Sport - Melbourne is the sport capital of Australia - Boxing Day starts the famous cricket Boxing Day test against England, and if you are there until the end of January you can catch the tennis with the Australian Open, one of the "major" tournaments ranked alongside the French Open, US Open and Wimbledon Reply to this

Just wanted to update this after my trip. I did get to go along the Great Ocean Road... wish I had been on motorcycle, but it was hard enough for me to sit in the passenger seat w/o wanting to correct the vehicle to the other side of the road, so it would not have been a good idea.

We were in a sports hotel that was less then a 5 minute walk from the main complex. But because it was the holidays there was nothing going on. We were surprised how different the sports were over there, none of our staples.

Went on a couple of really great tours. One was a wine tour in the Yarra Valley which was fun. But my favorite was the Echidna Walkabout. They took us into the Savannah and the You Yangs where most are not allowed to go. The explanations we got of the wildlife and vegetation was great. Cannot say enough good about this tour company! Reply to this