Blogs from CBD, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Having spoken to Mark and Jenni yesterday, we rose early to talk to Neil before he went to bed. We still can't get our heads around speaking to the family who are in the evening of the previous day. We decided to start the day's sightseeing with a visit to the Victoria National Gallery only to find that it is closed on a Tuesday, so we will have to do that one later in the week. Instead we caught the City Circle tram and went to Docklands for a walk around Melbourne Marina. The area looked really good in the sunshine with new flats and expensive boats moored nearby. After a spot of lunch we went on to the City Library to join a walking tour. This tour took us around the historic buildings including the ... read more

As is often the case between two major cities, there's been ongoing rivalry between Sydney about which city is the best place to live. At the release of every international survey: the best city to live in; the friendliest city to visit; the world's best restaurants; which are Australia's most popular tourist destinations .... whatever the topic may be, either Sydney or Melbourne leaps to proudly proclaim its superiority if it was the best represented, or bemoan the biases and injustices of the verdict if not. I confess that Melbourne wasn't a city that I immediately warmed to. I fell for Sydney's flashy charms almost immediately, however when I first visited Melbourne in 2001, it didn't have the same instant hook. Call me shallow, but Sydney's in your face beauty had me at "harbour". Melbourne's been ... read more

This will be a long blog starting at 12AM on April 18 and not ending until 11PM of the same day. The blog starts with me going to Canberra greyhound bus station. I thought Canberra seemed like a boring city but on my way to the bus station the streets were filled with college age kids running around and partying in the streets. A lot of people were shouting at me on my way to the bus station. Taking a bus in Cambodia can be dangerous and taking a bus in Canada and USA is not comfortable. I was not looking forward to the Australian bus but it was comfortable and it had charging ports at each seat which helped a lot. I was able to sleep through most of the ride so I woke up ... read more

Today we start the final phase (last several days) of our vacation. We are in Melbourne Australia and we have several more excursions planned, thanks to the tremendous help of Kelly Hoban, Travel Consultant from Qantas Vacations in California. Back in early February, Kelly was instrumental in finding and scheduling tours that addressed everything we wanted to see in the Melbourne area. THANK YOU very much. url=https://host3.squeaksoft.com:2096/cpsess6575052632/3rdparty/squirrelmail/src/compose.php?send_to=khoban%40qantasvacations.comkhoban@qantasvacations.com The day began with a 7:10 pickup from the lobby, so David had go... read more

So I have just started a course in tourism, and one of my first assignments was designing a 1 day itinerary of a popular tourist city in Australia. The city I chose was Melbourne because it is my home city, and I felt this assessment was a great excuse to research the main tourist attractions on my very front doorstep. After I had finished the project, I was surprised to realise how diverse and interesting of a city Melbourne actually is, and how much I take living so close to this beautiful place for granted. Also, after reading back over my itinerary, I felt that I would actually like to follow it one day (I will be sure to share my experience with you here when I do). So here is it... I present to you ... read more