Top Melbourne Day Trips

The Great Ocean Road tour must be a bucketlist item for everyone who visits Melbourne & Australia. Every inch of the tour from Twelve Apostles to Gibsons steps to Apollo Bay to Lorne to Bell's Beach is a an amazing picture that will remain in your mind forever. I did the tour with Peter who was a treasure trove of information and helpful tips. Thanks Peter, you are the man! Best one yet 🤘🏽

We had a great time on our tour! Our guide from Wine & Hop Tours (I’m drawing a blank on his name - Durk?) was friendly & very informative! He kept us up-to-date on our itinerary throughout the day, as well as shared his knowledge about the nature & wildlife. We started at Puffing Billy, an hour long train ride, which was fun & the scenery was gorgeous! We had time for food (if you wanted) & to explore the nature around Emerald Lake. After, we had a bit of a drive to Phillip Island where we stopped for DELICIOUS fish & chips. We recommend Nat’s!! Next we headed to the Nobbies - absolutely stunning scenery as the sun was getting ready to set on the horizon. On our drive to the Penguin Parade we saw many geese with their chicks, black swans, & wallabies! We got to witness quite a few penguins waddling up the beach, as well as penguins in the sand dunes making their way into their burrows after sunset at the Parade - what a privilege! Overall a long, but incredible day exploring some nature & wildlife in VIC. I definitely recommend!

This was a wonderful tour. Kevin was a great guide, full of information about what we were seeing. He also gave us great tips to get the most out of our penguin parade experience. One thing to be prepared for- the penguin parade is very popular and they sell thousands of tickets per night. I didn’t realize it would be so crowded. But thanks to Kevin, I had good seats and knew where to go on the boardwalks to see them waddling to their burrows. I would definitely recommend this tour.

A lovely day spent in beautiful surroundings with a congenial group of people, tasting a variety of wines at four different wineries - what could be better? There were 14 of us which seemed like a lot, but the group was easily handled at each stop. Our congenial driver gave us some information on each winery to add to the experience. Highly recommended.

Great day out with Gilbert and there certainly was not a dull moment. Everyone was made to feel very welcome and we visited a number of wine vineyards for tasting and also a chocolate experience! Very enjoyable day out of the city and informative about the Yarrow valley wines.

The Puffing Billy train is a unique and thrilling experience! We were picked up by Margaret, our guide, in front of Her Majesty’s Theatre in a 20-passenger bus. We rode about an hour to the east of Melbourne to our first stop which was in the rain forest. After a quick 20-minutes in the forest, we were taken to the train station at Belgrave. Our group was lucky in that we got our own carriage and thus, everyone had the opportunity to sit along the rail, which we highly recommend (FYI: small children and pregnant women are not allowed to sit on the sill). The train rolls along at about 15 mph. The thrilling part comes along when the train crosses the bridge and there is no longer ground directly beneath your feet! We made a short stop at Menzies Creek to allow some passengers off. Then, we continued onwards to Lakeside. The total train ride lasted about an hour. Our group had about an hour at the Lakeside train station which houses a gift shop and small café. Afterwards, the drive back into town was about an hour and Margaret provided several convenient drop-off points.

This was a great full day tour. Mark was knowledgeable and cared alot about the animals we visited. We upgraded our experience at Moonlit Santuary so we could pet and take pictures with a koala, which was special. We were honored to watch the penguin parade and loved the experience. One qualm I had about the tour was when we initially booked it, we were not aware of the upgrades to get closer to the penguin parade. Some people on our tour had it but most didn't and had to upgrade at the penguin center. We did an upgrade but they were sold out of the top upgrade where you get the best vantage point of the penguins coming out of the water. I would have liked to get the upgrade when we bought the tour but was never given the option. But all in all, it was an outstanding day.

Our driver was so friendly and made our trip so great. The reverse route gets you to the oceanside areas before the big tour buses and crowds. The drive was beautiful, the ocean stops were breathtaking and then the drive through the mountains and rain forest was a whole other adventure - we saw Koalas in the trees and a huge mob of kangaroos feeding and hopping around a hillside pasture area, made stops in cute beachside towns and hung out with the wild cockatoos! Highly recommend this trip - a major highlight of our 3 week trip to Australia and NZ and would absolutely do this exact tour again!!!