Australia's culture capital — laneway coffee and street art, the MCG, and the Great Ocean Road three hours down the coast
✈ International🛂 Visa — Visitor (Subclass 600)💱 A$
A$4,540
Est. total budget
6
Days
10
Attractions
16
Meals planned
💡 Recommended trip length for Melbourne: 6 days — the laneways and Queen Victoria Market, the MCG, a Great Ocean Road day, Phillip Island's penguins and Puffing Billy.
🗓 Prices & visa rules verified: August 2026
1
Arrival Day
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2
Day 2 — a free sample of your itinerary
Your unlocked preview day
☕
08:00
☕Breakfast
Eggs and a flat white in a laneway café.
A$11.90 /person (est.)
🎨
09:10
🎨Federation Square, Flinders Street & the Laneways· CBD
🕒 Open all day · Free, and all of it inside the Free Tram Zone. Hosier Lane is repainted constantly — what you photograph today will be gone in a month. Degraves Street for the coffee that Melbourne is actually famous for.
Free⏱ 2.5 hoursculture
Federation Square, Flinders Street → MCG Tour
🚋~10 min by tram · Flinders Street → Richmond / Jolimont
🏏
11:55
🏏MCG Tour & Australian Sports Museum· East Melbourne
🕒 10:00–15:00 · Last entry 14:00 · Tours run roughly hourly, A$38 alone or about A$45 with the Sports Museum. They do NOT run on event days — check the fixture list before you plan the day, because on a match day the ground is shut to tours entirely.
A$45.00⏱ 2.5 hoursculture
🥖
14:25
🥖Lunch
A banh mi, souvlaki or a plate from the Queen Vic food court.
A$25.28 /person (est.)
MCG Tour → Royal Botanic Gardens
🚋~10 min by tram · Richmond / Jolimont → Anzac Station / tram 8
🌳
15:35
🌳Royal Botanic Gardens & Shrine of Remembrance· South Yarra
🕒 07:30–19:30 · Last entry 17:00 · Both free. At 11:00 and 14:00 a shaft of light crosses the Stone of Remembrance inside the Shrine — a mechanical trick worth timing. The Tan running track around the gardens is where the whole city seems to jog.
Free⏱ 2 hoursnature
🍜
19:00
🍜Dinner
Chinatown, a Lygon Street trattoria, or Vietnamese in Richmond.
A$43.13 /person (est.)
3
Day 3
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4
Day 4
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5
Day 5
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6
Departure Day
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🔒 You're viewing 1 of 6 days. Unlock to open the other 5 fully-planned days.
✈️FlightsA$1,933
Per person · return from IndiaA$966.69
Total · 2 adultsA$1,933
🏨AccommodationA$520.52
3-Star hotel · per night (per room)A$104.10
5 nights × 1 roomA$520.52
🎭Attractions & ActivitiesA$700.00
Great Ocean Road & Twelve ApostlesA$298.00
Phillip Island & Penguin ParadeA$64.00
MCG Tour & Australian Sports MuseumA$90.00
Melbourne SkydeckA$76.00
Puffing Billy RailwayA$172.00
Total (all pax)A$700.00
🍽️Food & DiningA$853.66
🌅 Breakfast × 5d × 2 paxA$118.98
☀ Lunch × 6d × 2 paxA$303.39
🌙 Dinner × 5d × 2 paxA$431.29
Total food & diningA$853.66
🚇Local TransportA$132.00
Per person · per day (public transit)A$11.00
6 days × 2 paxA$132.00
🛂Visa — Visitor (Subclass 600)A$400.00
Entry typeVisitor visa (Subclass 600) — Tourist stream
FeeAUD 200 base charge (offshore application)
ProcessApply online via ImmiAccount; eVisitor/ETA not for Indians
ProcessingVaries — apply several weeks ahead
StayUsually up to 3 months per visit
TipShow funds, itinerary and ties to India; the visa is electronically linked to your passport.
Estimated Grand Total
Melbourne · 6 days · 2 adults
A$4,540
Estimate · 2 adults, 3-star. Your dates, group & final plan set inside the full itinerary.
In your Itinerary
10 attractions
✓ All 10 attractions with descriptions, opening hours & ticket prices. Your personalised day-by-day plan unlocks with the full itinerary.
✓ Day 2
01 / 10
🎨 Federation Square, Flinders Street & the Laneways
CBD
culture
2.5 hours
Melbourne's centre on foot — the yellow Edwardian bulk of Flinders Street Station, Fed Square opposite, then Hosier Lane's street art and the 19th-century arcades of Block and Royal off Collins Street.
✓ Day 2
02 / 10
🏏 MCG Tour & Australian Sports Museum
East Melbourne
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 10:00–15:00
Onto the turf of a 100,000-seat ground that has hosted Test cricket since 1877 — the players' race, the changing rooms, the Long Room, then a museum holding Bradman's blazer and the 1956 Olympic torch.
✓ Day 2
03 / 10
🌳 Royal Botanic Gardens & Shrine of Remembrance
South Yarra
nature
2 hours
🕒 07:30–19:30
38 hectares of lawns, lakes and rare trees along the Yarra, with the Aboriginal Heritage Walk through plants the Kulin nations used, and the stepped granite Shrine on the hill above it.
04 / 10
🌊 Great Ocean Road & Twelve Apostles
Port Campbell
nature
5 hours
One of the world's great coastal drives — surf beaches, the Memorial Arch, rainforest at Kennett River where koalas sit in the gums, then the Twelve Apostles standing offshore in the Southern Ocean at golden hour.
05 / 10
🐧 Phillip Island & Penguin Parade
Phillip Island
nature
6.5 hours
🕒 10:00–22:00
A full day on the island — the Koala Conservation Reserve, the boardwalks at the Nobbies above the seal rocks — building to dusk, when the world's smallest penguins come out of the surf in their hundreds and waddle up the beach past stands of people who have all gone completely quiet.
06 / 10
🧀 Queen Victoria Market
CBD
shopping
2 hours
🕒 06:00–15:00
Seven hectares of open sheds trading since 1878 — deli hall of cheese and smallgoods, a meat and fish hall, produce rows, and a food court that is a fair map of who has migrated to this city.
07 / 10
🌆 Melbourne Skydeck
Southbank
leisure
1.5 hours
🕒 12:00–22:00
The 88th floor of the Eureka Tower, 285 metres up — the whole grid, the bay and, on a clear evening, the Dandenongs and the You Yangs. The Edge is a glass cube that slides out over the drop.
08 / 10
🚂 Puffing Billy Railway
Belgrave
leisure
4 hours
🕒 09:30–17:00
An 1900 narrow-gauge steam train through the mountain ash and tree ferns of the Dandenongs, over a curved wooden trestle bridge, with everyone's legs hanging out of the open sides.
09 / 10
🏖 St Kilda Beach & Pier
St Kilda
leisure
2 hours
A long bay beach at the end of the tram line, with Luna Park's grinning mouth behind it, cake shops along Acland Street, and a colony of little penguins that comes ashore on the pier breakwater after dark.
10 / 10
🖼 NGV International
Southbank
culture
2 hours
🕒 10:00–17:00
Australia's oldest and busiest gallery, behind a wall of water you can put your hand through — European old masters, Asian and Oceanic collections, and a stained-glass ceiling by Leonard French you lie on the floor to look at.
✓ All 3 stops on your Day 2 route. Unlock to see all 10 attractions mapped across your full itinerary.
✓ All 10 tips — visa, airport transfer & ways to spend less.
🛬
Airport → your hotel
Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL) is about 23 km northwest of the city. There is no train to the airport — the SkyBus is the standard way in, running to Southern Cross Station every 10 minutes around the clock (~A$23 one way, 30-45 min depending on traffic), with free onward minibuses to CBD hotels. A taxi or Uber to the centre is roughly A$60-75 plus a toll. Allow extra time 07:00-09:00 and 16:00-18:00 on the Tullamarine Freeway. Verified Aug 2026.
💰
Ways to spend less
The Free Tram Zone covers the whole CBD, Docklands and the Sports Precinct — you can reach Fed Square, the market, the NGV and the MCG without ever touching your Myki.
NGV International, the Botanic Gardens, the Shrine, Fed Square, the laneways and St Kilda are all free. A Melbourne trip can be very cheap if you let the paid sights be the exception.
Book the Skydeck and Puffing Billy online — both are cheaper than the gate, and Skydeck's off-peak weekday slots are cheaper again.
A Great Ocean Road coach tour starts at about A$95 against A$149 for the premium operators; for four people a hire car for the day is cheaper than any of them.
Myki fares are capped daily (about A$11) and again on weekends — after two or three trips the rest of the day rides free.
🆘
Emergencies
000 — police, fire and ambulance (112 works from a mobile). Free, 24/7. Ambulance callouts are expensive without cover, so take travel insurance seriously here.
📱
SIM & data
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone sell prepaid SIMs at the airport and any supermarket; Telstra has the best coverage once you leave the city, which matters on the Great Ocean Road. eSIMs work fine.
🌤
Best time to visit
March to May and September to November are the sweet spots. Summer (December-February) is warm and the beaches work, but it is also peak price. Winter is cold, grey and wet — good for galleries and the footy, less good for the coast. Melbourne genuinely does get four seasons in a day; carry a layer whatever the forecast says.
🚋
Getting around
Buy a Myki card (A$6) and top it up — it covers trams, trains and buses, and fares are capped at about A$11 a day. The CBD, Docklands and the Sports Precinct are a Free Tram Zone where you do not tap at all. Trams stop in the middle of the road and cars must stop behind them; some intersections need a 'hook turn', which is as strange as it sounds if you are driving.
🛂
Visa for Indians
Indian passport holders need a Visitor visa (Subclass 600), applied for online through ImmiAccount — there is no ETA or eVisitor route for India. The base charge is about A$200 per person and it is non-refundable if refused. Apply several weeks ahead with bank statements, an itinerary and evidence of ties to India.
🍽
Food to try
This is arguably the best eating city in the southern hemisphere: Vietnamese in Richmond and Footscray, Greek on Lonsdale, Italian on Lygon, Chinatown off Little Bourke. Vegetarians and Jains are unusually well served — dedicated Indian vegetarian restaurants cluster in Clayton and along Sydney Road.
🏏
Check the sporting calendar first
The MCG shuts to tours on event days, and during the AFL season (March-September), the Boxing Day Test or a Big Bash night the whole city reorganises around it. That can be the highlight of your trip or the thing that ruins your hotel budget — either way, look it up before you book dates.
🐧
The penguin parade is timed by the sun
Phillip Island's penguins come ashore at sunset, which swings from about 17:30 in June to 20:30 in January. In midsummer that means you are back in Melbourne close to midnight. Coach tours build the whole day around it; if you self-drive, do not plan anything for the next morning.