Most students from Sydney choose Melbourne as one of their destination for a short (well not that short) getaway. So, as a Sydneysiders, I (and my friends) did choose Melbourne as our trip after around 5 months of painful studying. We bought both airplane ticket and accommodation in extremely advance, probably 4 months before, and well it was quite cheap, we got JetStar two-way ticket for only AUD109, and our airbnb for only AUD 1,490 for 3 nights and 10 people. To be honest, it was a really amazing apartment, I will put the link if you want to peek my apartment, soon!

My first impression about Melbourne, well it was similar to Sydney, it’s just probably more quite, and I don’t know is it just me or anyone else think so, I was quite confuse about the tram and the public transportation, but thankfully I survived! And last but not least for the introduction, I was not planning to write a post about this trip, but apparently I managed to write one, so apology if there are some incomplete information.

First of all, we began our journey by flying from Sydney Kingford Smith Airport to Melbourne Avalon Airport (fyi, there are two airports in Melbourne, and Avalon is kinda the one which most of cheaper flights fly to). Our apartment was in CBD, so we took an Airport Shuttle, which called SITA, it costs AUD22, and it brought us from the Avalon to Southern Cross Station, you can book this shuttle online prior your arrival. It was a very warm welcome from the host of apartment, we got bottles of water and sweets as a welcome drink. We begin our journey on our first day to the famous brunch spot, “Hardware Societe”.

I guess it originated from French, in my opinion, for a brunch lovers (since I’m not one) this will be a good spot for you, the queue was suuuuper looong. But the food was awesome, they serve some menus that are unique, and not easily found in other brunch spot.

After going to the Hardware Societe, we managed to visit the Shrine of Remembrance, as this spot is a free tourism spot, so why not we visit? From the top of the building we can get a view of a bit of the city of Melbourne. Basically Shrine of Remembrance was built as a tribute to the extensive loss of lives of the Victorians in the first world war. For those who loves history, this place might be a good spot to visit.

After visiting Shrine of Remembrance, we go to the National Gallery of Victoria. Basically there are two NGV, one is the International, and the other one is the Australian. We move around the CBD by tram, as there is a Free Tran Zone around the CBD. For those who ever went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, this one is similar to it. I didn’t spend so much time in this International NGV, as I had just visited Museum of Contemporary Art couple weeks ago, but for those whose art is their cup of tea should give a go for this, since there are many free exhibitions.

Last stop before we finally tired and had a dinner was the Webb Bridge. At the first thought, it was an awesome bridge when we saw it in the Google, however it wasn’t that awesome (lol).

We managed to did a dab though, well actually this is not a dab, we were trying to get rid of the flies (lol), it was summer, and flies was so annoying in Australia, especially Melbourne (in my experience). And finally our last stop was Menya, I don’t know is Menya that famous? But most of my friends said so, however… everything was just ordinary, even their (most favorite) GyuTan Don. To be honest, I don’t really recommend ordering GyuTan Don though, but there is nothing wrong to try, you can just order one and share with your friends.

 And Menya finished our first day of tour in Melbourne.

Believe it or not, we begin our second day with one of the best part in Melbourne, “LUNE” Croissanterie!

Lune is rated for 4.5/5 in zomato, well it deserves probably more than 4.5. There are many flavors of Croissant offered, and it is important to be noted that, Lune closes on Tue and Wed, and I recommend you to go here as early as you can, as people queue for these Croissants. There is also coffee served here, well I enjoyed most of the flavors, but probably it isn’t wrong to try the Ham and Cheese for those who got enough of sweets.

After had Lune as our breakfast, we managed to go to the must-visit spot of Melbourne, The Bathing Boxes at the Brighton Beach.

The most interesting spot are the colorful Bathing Boxes, you can reach the Brighton Beach by train, and continue to reach the beach by walking about 1 km. No particular restaurant was recommended by zomato (lol) around the beach, so we went back to the CBD and had Chin Chin as our lunch.

Chin Chin is a Asian Fusion restaurant, most of the food are either Chinese, or Thai, but believe it or not, this worth a try. I didn’t take many snaps of the food, as I didn’t plan to make a post (apology should be accepted, lol). Chin chin has been running for about 6 years, although the price is kinda high, you can just share with your friends, probably the cheapest cost would be around AUD 20-25. After had Chin chin as lunch, we visited another must-visit spot (for most visitor, but not for me), Hosier Lane! Well, in this trip I think there were quite many photo-spots rather than historical, or artsy spots, because most of us enjoying taking photos so much, (another apology for this, lol).

Anyway, I fail to take pic for Hosier Lane, because at the time, suddenly a tipsy guy came around us, so we managed to leave the Lane as soon as possible. BUT, Hosier Lane is just a lane full of graffiti, for Sydneysiders, it is probably similar with the graffiti tunnel in the Univ of Sydney. Long story short, we moved to another popular street art where there are the Kardashians, Snider Street. But before we reached the the street, we stopped by a quite popular Chinese Bun shop, Nam Loong Restaurant.

For me, this is a very Chinese restaurant, lol. I don’t really recommend this restaurant, but if you miss some bun, you can try their Salted Egg, which is quite good as well as the Roasted Pork. But what shocked me was I found a fly on my roasted pork bun, and the Auntie, almost refuse to give me the new one, and her nephew, showed a poster said ” No Exchange or Refund for take away”, fortunately, she give a new one.  After having bun as our ‘in-between fuel’ (lol) we go to the Snider Street, where the Kardashians took a nude selfie, which later I found it was painted by the street artist, @lushsux, check him out in instagram.Well, the bins and Domino’s bike quite annoying, lol. After took a few shots in this street, we ended our day by having Domino’s as dinner lol, and chilling in our apartment. We played Resistance, the Avalon version, for 3 nights in a row. Anyway, there is a quite complete Board Game store in the CBD, it called Mind Games, for board games lovers, I recommend you to go there.

On the third day, we had booked a Great Ocean Road one day tour with Outback Billy, I strongly recommend, if you want to go to the Great Ocean Road, go with Outback Billy! They had 5 out of 5 rating in trip advisor, and ask Jen (the contact person) for a discount if you go with many people, ( I did, lol and she gave very good deal!) I don’t want to talk much about the Great Ocean Road, let the photos below explains, but you can just visit their site if you want to know the itinerary, outbackbilly.com.au. Things to be highlighted are, the price included a lunch, as well as a warm tea-time in the cloudy day.

Since the tour run from early in the morning, 7 am until 9 pm (almost 10) we had quite good time. Actually, in the great ocean road, there is not much variation though about the attractions, most of them are about apostles, beaches, but if you had nothing to do or no idea about what to do, it’s worth to try to go to the great ocean road. We finished our tour and played resistance (despite we were tired at the time). And the next day was our last day in Melbourne, we didn’t do many things, we had lunch in Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant.

I didn’t take the photo of the food (another apology), BUT this is the best Pho I had so far, they offer a small and medium size, but you can buy the medium and share with your friend, JUST IF you don’t eat that much (lol). This restaurant worth a try, the queue was also suuuuuper loooooong, at the lunch time. After having lunch at Mekong, I went to quite popular gelateria, Pidapipo.

The ice cream was very smooth, you should buy 3 scoops and share, rather than one scoop for your own (PENNYWISETIP, lol).But ice cream will always be an ice cream, since the location was quite far, you can had similar taste in Sydney, this quite similar with Messina, but not Anita, I guess, since Anita is more likely to offer some unique flavors, Pidapipo offer some ordinary flavors, but those taste nice, you should try coffee and pistachio!

Finally, it was our last day, and Pidapipo was my last stop in Melbourne! We headed to Southern Cross station, take another shuttle to Avalon Airport to catch our flight on 6pm, what was amazing, when we arrived at Avalon which was on 4.05, we just received email from Jet Star on 4 pm, that our flight was cancelled (thanks JetStar), due to unfavorable weather, but thankfully, JetStar did transfer our flight to the 8 pm flight, BUT from the Tulamarine Airport, so we had to go to Tulamarine from Avalon on our own cost, fortunately we succeeded to get an Uber, as well as we caught a Taxi in front of the Airport. Since Avalon Airport was in a native and rural (lol not that rural though) area it’s quite hard to catch Taxi from this airport, the most recommended transport is Airport Shuttle. And finally, it was the end of my Melbourne trip, hope this can be an inspiring tour, well my total spending for the whole 4 days 3 nights, it was about AUD 500-550, so hopefully this can be useful for your future trip.
All photos taken by me. Feel free to ask if you need any help in your tour in the contact menu. Cheers!