Hidden Bars of Melbourne

Recommended by 97% of travelers

Melbourne, Australia

3 hours 45 minutes (approx.)
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Explore our promoted experiences

Likely to Sell Out

Melbourne, Victoria

Private Yarra Valley Winery & Healesville Sanctuary Tours

from $680

Per group

Likely to Sell Out

Around the Bay Food and Wine Taste Trail

Melbourne, Victoria

4.8

(27)

Around the Bay Food and Wine Taste Trail

from $153

Helicopter Winery Lunch to Hubert Estate in Yarra Valley

Melbourne, Victoria

4.9

(9)

Helicopter Winery Lunch to Hubert Estate in Yarra Valley

from $906

Price varies by group size

Viator earns higher commissions on experiences featured here

Overview

Get the inside scoop on the best bars in Melbourne on a walking tour that features often overlooked spots that have great drinks and atmosphere. Expect to visit between 10 to 15 bars during your tour, stopping to enjoy two complimentary cocktails along the way. Your guide can customize the bars visited to the interests of the group, and fill you in on other great spots to check out for food or entertainment. Keep track of your favorites to visit again on your own.

Walking tour of Melbourne’s hidden bars
Discover great bars around Melbourne with the insight of an informative local guide
Sip two complimentary cocktails during the tour
Visit up to 15 different hidden bars
Learn about the people behind some of the city’s favorite cocktail establishments

What's Included

Local guide
Alcoholic Beverages

Beverages (two cocktails)

Food and additional drinks (options are available for additional quick drink stops with light snacks if the whole group agrees)
Hotel pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

179 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3004, Australia
In front of Standbags store, corner of Bourke Street and Swanston Street, Melbourne

End point

15 Heffernan Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Please note that the tour's finishing point can vary on various evenings. Some of our tours may finish in the Chinatown area.

Operating hours
.7:00 pm

Itinerary

Your walking tour of Melbourne’s hidden bars starts at Bourke Street Mall, where you’ll meet your guide. Many of the best bars in the city are easily overlooked—a plain doorway could lead to a venue with a great vibe and wonderful drinks—but with an insider, you’ll be introduced to venues that most visitors walk right past.

During your discovery of Melbourne’s bar culture, you'll visit venues in the city center; two cocktails are included. Your guide typically selects 10 to 15 bars during the tour that suit the style and interests of the group, making this a great activity whether you're traveling with friends, family, or colleagues. The ideal group size is a maximum of nine people to be able to access the best city center bars.

MELTours

4 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Minimum age is 18 years
Please note: Excessive alcohol consumption is discouraged, and the local tour operator reserves the right to terminate the activity for those who become intoxicated on the tour
Not wheelchair accessible
A moderate amount of walking is involved; suitable-heeled shoes are recommended

Due to uneven surfaces (flights of stairs), this tour is not recommended for those with walking disabilities or using a wheelchair
Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 8 travelers

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Featured review

Glenn_W

Our guide, Sam was fantastic, very friendly and knowledgeable with little snippets of additional laneway information and history as we walked around. the bars we visited were ones that we hadn't previously heard about and were little hidden gems. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour and is great value for money.

Reviews

4.7

based on 38 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Great time highly recommend

Paul_C, Sep 2023

Very enjoyable tour of many of Melbournes hidden bars and historical cocktail bars - personalized tour that was adapted to our asks and educational and fun. A good night out for all.

Response from Host, Sep 2023

Hi Paul, We are so pleased you enjoyed the Hidden Bar Tour discovering some of Melbourne's fabulous bars. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this great review - we really appreciate it. Best wishes, The Team at MELTours

Fun and informative night

karen_e, May 2022

Sam was brilliant. Very helpful, friendly, and made sure everyone got out of the experience what they were after.

Response from Host, May 2022

Hi karen_e, Many thanks for your great review - we are really thrilled that you enjoyed the tour. Best wishes, The MELTours Team

Awesome evening

Linus_R, Mar 2022

It was an fantastic tour and San was the perfect host. Such a great group of bars that were all different that we would never have known about without the tour…

Response from Host, Mar 2022

Hi Linus_R, We are so pleased that you enjoyed your Bar Tour with San. Discovering Melbourne's Hidden Bars is a great way to spend an evening! Thank you for taking the time to write this review. Kind regards, The MELTours Team

Amazing Melbourne Hidden Bar Tour with San

Nicole_E, Mar 2022

WOW, where does one start. Started meeting with San who was welcoming, warm & friendly. Personalised call to confirm we were attending and let us know where to meet n greet. We joined another couple and off we went, small and intimate tour numbers which was great. Our guide San was awesome and we started with an amazing bar, where we also enjoyed one of the two included cocktails. San our guide had some great stories of his treks & travels. He showed us so many hidden bars we would never had known was around inMelbourne. Loved this tour, so worth it. Thank you San great evening where we carried on after the tour. I have included some photo's without the names, coz if you want to know where we went, you should do the tour with San and see for yourself.

Response from Host, Mar 2022

Hi Nicole_E, We are thrilled that you really enjoyed this tour. Melbourne has some fabulous bars with some so hidden that you need a great guide to find them! Many thanks for this wonderful review. Kind regards, The MELTours Team

The mushroom bar at Storytime is a must see!

Glenn_W, Mar 2020

Response from Host, Mar 2020

Hi Glenn_W Aren't there some great bars in Melbourne! We are so pleased you enjoyed discovering Melbourne's bar scene plus the bonus of San's extensive knowledge of this city. Thank you for taking the time to write this review - we really appreciate it. Kind regards, The MELTours Team

Bar Tour

pandrboyle, Jan 2020

Great tour to find some lovely hidden away bars , have tagged quite a few that we were shown to return to on our next visit to Melbourne

Nice night out with some really...

Kelly S, Feb 2018

Nice night out with some really interesting small bars. Adaptable depending on your audience and capabilities.

Wow! This was outstanding. Exactly...

Gary_Y, Oct 2016

Wow! This was outstanding. Exactly what I was looking for. The guide took us to a variety of hard to find bars mostly in back alleys and small streets. If not for this tour, I would have never ventured there on my own and I would have missed out tremendously. The only bummer was we were limited on the number of times we could buy drinks to 3 out of the 12 or so bars we entered. Highly...highly recommend this one for tourists of Melbourne and locals alike. About half of our group were native Melbourne citizens who enjoyed the tour as much as me.

This tour was honestly fantastic. We...

Allison_C, Jul 2016

This tour was honestly fantastic. We were lucky enough to be the only group booked for the night so it was the best night we could have hoped for. The bars were all amazing and completely different and the host was incredible. I would reccomend to anyone and would hands down do this tour again!

Very enjoyable evening, good company...

Steve C, May 2016

Very enjoyable evening, good company and informative. We would not have found all these bars by ourselves. We used the information to plan our weekend dining and imbibing experiences. Rosie was a terrific tour guide.