Visit Melbourne in 5 days

Melbourne is not a city that reveals itself easily. It takes time to explore it, to tame it, to discover the countless aspects that make up its charm. If you’re only visiting for a brief period, you might even find it a bit disappointing… That’s why in this article I’ll give you an itinerary suggestion and some insider tips for stays up to a week, so that you can understand what makes Melbourne such an amazing place. It wasn’t voted world’s most liveable city seven years in a row for no reason!

The best itinerary for 5 days in Melbourne

Summary

Things to know before you go
Day 1 - Central Business District
Day 2 - Royal Botanic Gardens, Fitzroy and Collingwood
Day 3 - South Melbourne, Albert Park and St Kilda
Day 4 - Southbank and Chapel Street
Day 5 - Museums of Melbourne

If you’re staying longer (or shorter!), see also my two other articles:

Things to know before you go

The best period to visit Melbourne is between January and March, during the Australian summer. Be aware though that temperatures can sometimes rise up to 40°C during this period! But it might as well drop to a chilly 20°C on the next day… Melbourne is known as the ‘city with four seasons in one day’ and that saying is often accurate. Always have both sunscreen and an umbrella within easy reach!

The ideal place to stay to visit the city easily is the CBD or Southbank. But as you’ll discover within this article, Melbourne's neighbourhoods each have their own atmosphere. If you’re looking for a relaxed and seaside vibe, head to St Kilda. More alternative and with a lively nightlife, Fitzroy or Prahran. Quiet and peaceful, South Melbourne, Albert Park or North Melbourne. If you’re on a budget, most hostels are located in the CBD or in St Kilda.

Finally, travelling around Melbourne is very easy thanks to the great network of trams, trains and buses. Get yourself a Myki card (you can buy it in any 7-Eleven shop) and don’t forget to touch on and off at every trip (only touch on if you’re travelling by tram).

Day 1 – Central Business District

The Central Business District of Melbourne (or CBD) is delimited by the Yarra River to the south, Victoria Street to the north, Docklands and Spencer Street to the west and the Parliament House and Spring Street to the east. One day will barely be enough to explore it entirely as there is so much to see. You’ll probably walk a lot as well but good news, all tram rides are free within this area! It includes the old-fashioned tourist trams of the City Circle (line 35).

Start your itinerary from Federation Square. I really like this place. For me, it symbolises all the contrasts specific to Melbourne. The magnificent Victorian facade of Flinders Street Station on one side, the ultramodern buildings surrounding the square on the other. The Yarra River flows below, overlooked by the skyscrapers of Southbank in the background. The bustle of the city is just a stone's throw away, but you can peacefully relax on a deckchair. Festivals and cultural events are held here regularly. It is also home to two great museums (see day 5 below): the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

There are two things characteristic of the Melbourne CBD: its street art everywhere, and its countless laneways. The most famous one (although not my favourite) is just across Flinders Street from Federation Square: Hosier Lane. There is not a single square inch of this alley that is not covered with paint, including the bins! Street art is ephemeral and most of the murals here change regularly, but the stunning portrait of an Aboriginal boy painted by Adnate, an incredibly talented Melbourne graffiti artist, overlooks the alley since 2014. Don’t forget to look up to admire it!

A little further on is AC/DC Lane, named after the famous Australian rock band. I personally like it a lot more than Hosier Lane. It’s much less busy, and I find the murals more beautiful here.

See also: the best street art in Melbourne CBD

There are too many other laneways for me to list them all here, but here are three not to be missed.

• Degraves Street (and its extension Centre Place): a narrow alley close to Federation Square, lined with dozens of tiny cafés.

• Hardware Lane: a very popular spot home to a lot of restaurants and terraces!

• Guilford Lane: in the north of the CBD, a peaceful laneway with beautiful old red-brick buildings, plants and creepers.

There are the laneways, and there are the arcades. Here again, you can find a few around the CBD, but in my opinion two of them particularly stand out for their beauty: Block Arcade (between Collins and Elizabeth Street) and Royal Arcade (between Little Collins and Bourke Street). They were both built in the second half of the 19th century (1892 for the Block Arcade, 1870 for the Royal Arcade) at a time where Melbourne was one of the richest cities in the world, thanks to the gold rush in the north of Victoria. Its nickname at the time was even 'Marvellous Melbourne'!

Do you like shopping? You will be spoiled for choice in Melbourne’s CBD, with the Bourke Street Mall, the Emporium, the QV…But even if it’s really not your thing, don’t miss the Melbourne Central complex. Under a giant conical glass dome stands the 50m-high Coop’s Shot Tower, an ancient factory built at the end of the 19th century.

The most beautiful building in the CBD in my opinion is located just in front of Melbourne Central: the State Library Victoria. Its massive colonnade facade is nothing exceptional, but wait until you see the inside… The octagonal La Trobe Reading Room is an architectural masterpiece, worthy of Harry Potter’s magical universe. Take one of the elevators to admire the view from the balconies!

See also: a virtual tour of the State Library Victoria

Finally, even if I prefer the South Melbourne Market (see day 3), the Queen Victoria Market is worth a visit. Be careful if you want to buy ‘Aboriginal’ souvenirs though, as most products on sale here are made in China. On Wednesdays (seasonally), don’t miss the night markets and its dozens of stalls and food options!

Where to eat, drink and party in Melbourne CBD?

There are obviously hundreds of cool places in the CBD of Melbourne. I can’t pretend knowing them all, but I have some favourites!

• I really like Krimper Café in an ancient warehouse on Guilford Lane. Brick walls, warm atmosphere, and great coffee! If you can't imagine a day without your long black or flat white, you should also try Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke Street - their coffee is really delicious.

• If you love Italian food as much as I do, I highly recommend two restaurants. +39 Pizzeria on Little Bourke Street, and Pepe’s Italian & Liquor on Exhibition Street.

• Italian cuisine again, a huge Italian food hall opened in September 2024 on Collins Street, close to Southern Cross Station. It's called Il Mercato Centrale, and if you want to know more, have a look at the article I wrote about it!

• A taste of Thailand right in Melbourne? Previously located in a parking lot (yes, you read correctly), Soi 38 has moved to a more standard building on Royal Lane in January 2025. I haven't tried this new location yet, but if the food is still as good as it used to be, then it's definitely worth a visit!

• The Garden State Hotel on Flinders Lane is at the same time a bar, a beer garden and a restaurant, but also a club with the Rose Garden at the basement level! One of the most beautiful venues in the CBD.

Krimper Café, a flat white at Brother Baba Budan, Pepe's Italian & Liquor and Il Mercato Centrale

• For wine lovers, Bijou on Little Collins Street is the place to go. Bottles have replaced books on the shelves that cover the walls of this super tiny wine bar.

• On a nice summer day, the terrace of the Arbory between Flinders Street Station and the Yarra River (and its extension Arbory Afloat) is perfect for a refreshing beer.

• There are quite a few rooftops around the CBD. My favourites are the aptly named Rooftop Bar (on top of Curtin House building on Swanston Street) and its neighbour Goldilocks. This one is also a hidden bar, another specialty of Melbourne. You’ll have to pay close attention to spot the elevator that leads there from the street!

• From rooftop to basement! Beneath Driver Lane is, as its name suggests, a below-ground cocktail bar located on Driver Lane. Cosy alcoves (ideal for a date!) and live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

• Finally, the best place to party in the CBD of Melbourne is Section 8 on Tattersalls Lane. I really love the vibe of this outdoor bar/club, which has some of the best DJs in town. Go early though! It closes at 1am on weekends, and there’s usually a queue at the entrance as soon as 9pm.

Bijou, Arbory Afloat, Beneath Driver Lane and Section 8

Day 2 - Royal Botanic Gardens, Fitzroy and Collingwood

Put good shoes on because you will be walking a lot again during the second of this itinerary! Start in the morning with a tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Created in 1846, they cover an area of over 38 hectares on the south bank of the Yarra River. It will easily take you a few hours to visit them, but it’s worth it: they’re absolutely wonderful!

During your stroll, you will see part of the impressive collection of more than 8,500 species of plants from all around the world. If you feel tired, lay down and relax on the lawn, or take a gondola ride on the ornamental lake! You can explore the Royal Botanic Gardens by yourself, or follow a guided tour.

A few steps from the Botanical Gardens, take a detour to the Shrine of Remembrance. This massive war memorial is dedicated to all Australian men and women who served in any conflict, anywhere on the planet. Entrance is free and will give you access to a museum, as well as a balcony with a 360° panoramic view of Melbourne.

See also: Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial like no other

The rest of the program for this second day will take you to two of my favourite neighbourhoods: Fitzroy and Collingwood. These adjacent suburbs in the inner-north of Melbourne are very lively, with an eccentric and alternative vibe. Get ready for second hand shops, vegan restaurants and live music! There’s also a large LGBT+ community in this area. You can either go there by tram (line 11 to Fitzroy or 86 to Collingwood), or walk. From Federation Square, follow Flinders Street for about 700m until the Treasury Gardens, and next to them the Fitzroy Gardens. They’re a lot smaller than the Royal Botanic Gardens, but I still find them really beautiful, especially during Fall.

From the north end of the gardens, you are only a few hundred meters away from the start of Brunswick Street, the main artery of Fitzroy. It’s on this street that you can best appreciate the very special atmosphere of this suburb. Founded in 1839, it is the oldest of Melbourne. There are still some beautiful Victorian facades along Brunswick Street, such as the stunning Beswick Building at the corner with Greeves Street.

See also: a tour of Fitzroy, Melbourne's oldest suburb

On the north part of Fitzroy, don’t miss the Rose Street Market, open every Saturday and Sunday. It’s a small local designer market, ideal for buying handcrafted souvenirs!

For me, the best activity in Fitzroy and Collingwood is to get lost in the countless tiny lanes and backyard alleys. You’ll see many pretty houses with ‘gingerbread trims’ on their facades, but also a lot of stunning murals. These suburbs are probably the best of Melbourne for street art! I will only mention my favourites here, but I encourage you to be curious to find others. Have also a look at my much more detailed article dedicated to street art in Fitzroy and Collingwood!

Among my other favourites, there’s this funny praying mantis by Buzzard (Victoria Street), a gorgeous woman’s face by Cam Scale (Hertford Street) or these dancing figures by the American Keith Haring (on Johnston Street in Collingwood), one of the pioneers of the New York underground scene. This last one is a real collector’s piece: it has been painted in 1984! Keith Haring also has his own portrait painted on a huge wall on Easey Street in Collingwood, along with his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, by artists Heesco, Conrad Bizjak and Chehehe.

Finally, Cecil Street in the northern end of Fitzroy is like an open-air gallery. There you can admire no less than 7 giant portraits, including work from Adnate (again), Rone or Sofles.

Adnate has painted a few murals in the area: a woman with gorgeous blue eyes (corner of Johnson and Brunswick Street), the face of an Aboriginal boy (corner of Johnson and Fitzroy Street) and a portrait of the Dalai Lama (on Argyle Street). But his most impressive work is this extraordinary 50m-high mural on a building of Vere Street in Collingwood. It represents the faces of four local residents, and was for a period of time the tallest mural in the Southern Hemisphere! A record he broke himself in 2019 when he painted the facade of a hotel named after him (The Adnate) in Perth.

Where to eat, drink and party in Fitzroy and Collingwood?

• If there was only one bar to visit in Fitzroy, it would be Naked for Satan on Brunswick Street. This is probably my favourite bar in Melbourne! The view over the city from the rooftop deck is absolutely stunning. The food is also delicious, and if you happen to be in the neighbourhood between Monday and Thursday, you can benefit from an incredible deal: an entire pizza for $4 with any drink purchased! Only available in the downstairs area though.
  See also: six reasons why you need to go to Naked for Satan

• There are many cafes in the area, but one of my favourites is called Terror Twilight on Johnson Street in Collingwood. As the sign above the entrance says: 'Nice people, great coffee, food & cocktails'!

• Hidden gem in Collingwood: located on Wellington Street, a little away from the hustle and bustle of Smith Street, Molly Rose Brewery is an absolute must. You'll go there for the beer, but you'll come back for the food! Their asian fusion dishes are really outstanding - I highly recommend the turmeric brisket curry.

• Fitzroy is probably the best part of Melbourne to eat vegetarian or vegan. If you keen to try a plant-based menu, I highly recommend Transformer on Rose Street. Bookings are essential!

• There’s live music pretty much everywhere on weekends in Fitzroy and Collingwood. If you want to enjoy a proper gig, head to the iconic Night Cat on Johnson Street. Great line-up of local and international artists all year long!

Transformer and the Night Cat

Day 3 - South Melbourne, Albert Park and St Kilda

A few stops further on line 96 is Albert Park. Melbourne is a very sporty city, and this huge park is a training ground for many athletes. Rowers practice on the lake, swimmers do lengths at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, and runners time themselves on the 5km track that circles the lake. My record: 20’42”! Can you beat me? It’s also in Albert Park that the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix takes place every year, at the end of March. The circuit is accessible all the rest of the year, but speed is limited to 40 km/h only!

From Albert Park, tram 96 will bring you to St Kilda in just a few minutes. The atmosphere here is radically different from Fitzroy. With the beach nearby and the numerous palm trees, this suburb has a very enjoyable seaside spirit all year long. The terminus of tram 96 is on Acland Street, a good starting point to explore the neighbourhood. This pedestrian street is lined with many bars, cafés, and very appetising pastry shops!

Looking for a place to take great pictures of Melbourne? Albert Park is perfect for that! Day or night, with the lake in the foreground and the skyline of the city in the background, the panorama is truly magnificent.

South Melbourne is a relatively quiet suburb, crossed from north to south by Clarendon Street, its main artery. Its most notable attraction is the South Melbourne Market, my personal favourite in the city. It is open every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 8am to 4 or 5pm. I like to wander through its narrow alleys, and I find the building itself really beautiful with its red brick walls. Four of them inside the market have been painted by the graffiti artist Cam Scale. You can find everything here: fruits and vegetables, meat, cakes, bread, but also clothing, decoration, antiques, and a whole bunch of unclassifiable items!

You will find a lot of street art in South Melbourne, as in many other neighbourhoods. The artist Peter Seaton in particular painted numerous murals in the area. One of them is on a wall right in front of the market. It depicts a chef cooking, with flames rising from his frying pan. I encourage you to meander through the streets and cobbled lanes of South Melbourne to find the others.

See also: a summer feel all year round in St Kilda

Next to Acland Street is the symbol of St Kilda, one of the icons of Melbourne: Luna Park. The slightly disturbing face of Mr Moon whose mouth serves as entrance gate is one of the most photographed places in the city. Inaugurated in 1912, this theme park is the oldest in Australia (Sydney’s Luna Park was only open in 1935). Its wooden roller coaster the Great Scenic Railway is even the world’s oldest still in operation! If you’re visiting Melbourne with children, Luna Park is an absolute must. There are various entrance fees but the cheapest tickets start at $20, which includes one complementary ride.

After Luna Park, you can either head to the beach or follow the Esplanade, the wide avenue overlooking the foreshore area. A very popular crafts market takes place here every Sunday.

Did you know? A colony of penguins live in St Kilda! At nightfall, head to the very end of the St Kilda pier. The sight of these cute animals coming back to nest for the night and clumsily climbing the rocks to find a shelter is both endearing and moving. Bad news though: even if a brand-new pier has been inaugurated in December 2024, the viewing platform (which at least offers a much better protection to the penguins than the old one) at the end will remain closed after 6pm until further notice.

There is also quite a lot of street art in St Kilda. The Peruvian born and Melbourne based artist Bronik in particular painted a large number of colourful and poetic portraits on the walls of the neighbourhood. I really like the one below, located on Jackson Street next to Fitzroy Street. To find the others, have a look at my guide about street art in St Kilda!

Where to eat, drink and party in South Melbourne and St Kilda?

• There are a few restaurants on the east side of the South Melbourne Market. Try the paella from Simply Spanish: it was awarded ‘best paella outside of Spain’ at an international competition in 2018, and again in 2024!

• I can’t not mention the Esplanade Hotel or ‘Espy’, a place inseparable from St Kilda. Located next to the Catani Gardens, this huge venue was built in 1878. With its numerous bars, dining rooms and live stages, it is now a very popular place for drinks, dinners or late-night parties.

• If you’re craving for middle-Eastern food, I highly recommend Buba Local Shuk on Fitzroy Street. Their shakshuka is absolutely delicious!

• Cheese lover? Head to Milk the Cow, also on Fitzroy Street. Raclette, fondue or fried camembert, the hardest part will be deciding what to order!

• If you’re visiting Melbourne in mid-February, don’t miss the St Kilda Festival. Get ready for a weekend of live music with numerous stages, food trucks, and a lot of fun. And the best in all of this? It’s entirely free!

Simply Spanish, the Esplanade Hotel, Buba Local Shuk and the St Kilda Festival 2024

Day 4 – Southbank and Chapel Street

The second half of this day will take you to Chapel Street and the suburbs of Windsor and Prahran. From Southbank, you can either take tram 58 towards Toorak, which crosses Chapel Street next to South Yarra station. Second option, head to St Kilda Road and catch tram 72 (towards Campberwell) or 6 (towards Glen Iris). I have a particular attachment to this area of Melbourne. This is where I lived when I moved here for the first time in 2016, in a share house of 12 people! Times have changed since, but I still really love Chapel Street and its countless bars, clubs and restaurants. And I'm not the only thinking that way: Windsor was ranked 10th in the list of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world established by Time Out magazine in September 2024!

Southbank is the suburb with the tallest skyscrapers of Melbourne. The record is currently held by the Australia 108 tower at 316,7 meters, but it should be beaten by 2028 with the erection of a 366m-high building, the tallest in the country. There’s an observatory at the 88th floor of the current second tallest tower, the Eureka Skydeck. Breathtaking panorama of Melbourne guaranteed!

I really like to walk along the Yarra River in Southbank. It’s a very pleasant stroll of about 2 km from Princes bridge opposite Flinders Street Station, following the stream of the river. Several beautiful views of the city await you on the way. The DFO (for Direct Factory Outlet) at the end of the promenade is a vast shopping centre with many major brand stores. Very attractive prices on discontinued items! Do you feel like gambling? The Crown Casino is also located along the Yarra Promenade. This gigantic complex is the largest casino in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the largest in the entire world. Even if you don't intend to play roulette or poker, I recommend to take a look at this temple of luxury. The sight of these uninterrupted rows of slot machines (or ‘pokies’ in Australia) is fascinating!

Finally, history buffs can visit the Polly Woodside, a three-masted barque launched in 1885 and now moored in Southbank. I never visited it myself so I can’t say more about this museum!

See also: Windsor, one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world

I find the mix of architectural styles along Chapel Street fascinating. On the Windsor side, it is lined with one-storey houses, with colourful facades and sometimes beautifully decorated pediments. Arriving on Prahran, the buildings rise in a disparate assortment of genres: the massive colonnades of Revolver, the Victorian architecture of the Town Hall or the gorgeous Prahran Arcade, my favourite building on Chapel Street.

Finally, beyond its bars and restaurants, Chapel Street also has a real working-class atmosphere. It’s a melting pot of people, with several second hand or antique shops, and a lot of graffiti and street art in the surrounding laneways. One of them is even called ‘Artists Lane’! My favourite murals in the area can be found on the walls of the huge building of Melbourne Polytechnic, by the artists Guido Van Helten, Sofles and Reka ONE. I also really like the gigantic robot overlooking Chapel Street near the intersection with Commercial Road, painted by the British artist Phlegm. Next to Windsor station, the portrait of the Australian basketball player Ben Simmons by Lynch has sadly been slightly defaced, but I still find it beautiful. Have a look at my street art guide for more details about where to find the most beautiful murals around Chapel Street.

The Prahran Market is just a stone’s throw away from Chapel Street on Commercial Road. I also quite like it, even if it is smaller than the South Melbourne Market. It is open every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Where to eat, drink and party in the Chapel Street precinct?

• Babble Café: excellent place for a delicious brunch with very good service, in front of Prahran Square.

• Yellow Bird: the place to satisfy everyone. Brunch is really good, so are beers, and the reduced-price tacos on ‘Tijuana Tuesday’ every week are a real treat!

• Lasagnalab: on High Street, a hundred metres away from Chapel Street, a restaurant of lasagnes, as the name suggests. Generous platefuls, ideal to share!

• Leonards House of Love: a really cool bar with a punk atmosphere, hidden on Wilson Street in South Yarra a little bit further north. I love the offbeat look of the staff!

• Jungle Boy: behind the innocent-looking facade of a sandwich shop, push the door of what seems to be the cold room and enter the tropical atmosphere of this secret bar! Cocktails are not cheap but really tasty, especially the famous Zombie.

• Lucky Coq: at the corner between Chapel and High Street, it is still my favourite club! Entrance is free, and the atmosphere is always great.

• Revolver: I’m not a big fan of this club, famous for its excesses of all kinds, but it’s one of the icons of Melbourne’s night life. This is where you need to go if you’re after a huge night out: Rev’s is open non-stop from Saturday night to Monday morning!

Babble Café and brunch at the Yellow Bird

Jungle Boy and Lucky Coq

Day 5 – Museums of Melbourne

Melbourne is known as the culture capital of Australia. Its many museums definitely have something to do with it… I haven’t visited them all (yet!), but I have a few favourites that I will introduce here. An ideal program for a rainy day! Be aware though that it takes a few hours to visit each of them so you’ll have to make choices.

The most interesting museum of Melbourne in my opinion. It is located in the old Customs House on Flinders Street in the CBD. The ground floor allows you to discover with a lot of details how two and a half centuries of immigration have shaped nowadays Australia, to the detriment of the Aboriginal populations who lived here for thousands of years. You will also learn about the politics of ‘White Australia’, which basically consisted in excluding all non-Europeans migrants. Have you ever heard of the Dictation Test? Until 1958, immigrants could be required to pass a language test in any European language. If they failed, they were refused entry, even if their English was perfect…

Immigration Museum

The second floor is also very interesting. It questions identity, prejudice, racism, with personal stories and testimonies. Finally, the museum also regularly hosts events or temporary exhibitions. The current one is called JOY, and it will last until August 29 2025 – check the museum website to know what’s on.

Located at Federation Square, it’s my favourite museum in Melbourne. If you’re visiting with children, they will definitely love it… but so did I despite being in my 30s, and so did my parents! It tells the story of the moving image since its origin, from the rise of cinema to video games, with hundreds of fascinating items and objects. The scenography of this museum is fantastic. There are a lot of interactive devices that make you want to linger in each room. I particularly loved the section dealing with storyboarding, with an extract of the movie Shrek as an example.

But back to the Melbourne Museum. It is divided in 5 different sections, including a children’s gallery. The four others are the Melbourne Gallery (about the history of Melbourne), the Forest Gallery (a recreated Victorian forest, with eucalyptus, ferns and wildlife), the Science and Life Gallery, and the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre. This last one is my personal favourite. It allows you to learn a lot about the way of life of the Aboriginal populations, and how they have been persecuted since the beginning of Australia’s colonisation. Once again, the scenography is really excellent.

Kids will love the Science and Life Gallery, the natural history section of the museum. It displays several fossils and dinosaurs’ skeletons, including the very impressive and most complete known specimen of Triceratops. The section dedicated to bugs is also fascinating. Did you know there are over 150 million insects for every human on Earth?

Finally, there are also temporary exhibitions in the basement level. Check the museum website for more information.

Entrance fees: $15 for adults, free for children under 16. Additional charges apply for some temporary exhibitions and special events.

This huge museum is located in the Carlton Gardens, in the inner-north of the city. Next to it is the stunning Royal Exhibition Building. Built for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, it hosted the formal opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901. Events are now held there regularly.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image – ACMI

Melbourne Museum

National Gallery of Victoria – NGV International

If the three first museums were quite unique each in their own way, this art gallery is a lot more traditional. Which doesn’t make it less interesting, especially if you’re into fine arts! Located in Southbank on St Kilda Road, this large and quite massive building houses the international collections of the National Gallery of Victoria. You’ll find stunning artworks from various Asian countries, and paintings from renowned artists such as Rembrandt, Monet or Picasso. It also hosts temporary exhibitions, such as the extraordinary "Pharaoh" in 2024.

The Ian Potter Centre – NGV Australia

Located next to the atrium at Federation Square, this extension of the National Gallery of Victoria is dedicated to Australian art only. So if you’re visiting Melbourne from overseas, this is probably the one I would recommend first! It’s also the smallest museum of this list. It will take you about one hour to visit it entirely. It mixes Aboriginal artworks, paintings from the colonial era, and contemporary art.

Entrance fees: free!

At the entrance, you’ll be given a ‘lens’, a device that lets you ‘collect’ artworks during your visit. You can then use it at home to login to the ACMI website and learn more about these artworks. Another great and unique concept!

Entrance fees: the permanent exhibition is free, but not the temporary ones. Go to the ACMI website to know more.

The LUME

The LUME Melbourne is no ordinary museum. In this immense 3,000 square meter art gallery of a new kind, you are invited to step inside the artwork, and immerse yourself in colours, sounds, and sensations. The concept is simple yet revolutionary: combine art, creativity and technology with the exceptional dimensions of the place to create a unique 360° visiting experience. With no less than 141 projectors, the floor, walls and ceiling become giant screens that transport the visitor into an immersive and constantly moving playground! But the LUME also incorporates some 'traditional' elements into its exhibitions. The last one (it ended in December 2024) was dedicated to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and it featured details about his work, reproductions of the prototypes of his machines, or a few of his essays and sketches.

It has sadly recently been announced that the LUME would close permanently in 2026. The current exhibition is dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh.

Entrance fees: $15 for adults, free for children under 16.

The architecture of the building itself is also very interesting. Pay attention to the stunning stained-glass ceiling of the Great Hall. It’s the world’s largest of its kind, and it projects beautiful coloured spots of light on the ground.

Entrance fees: entry to the NGV is free, however fees apply to special exhibitions. Have a look at the museum’s website for more details.

There is obviously a lot more to see, visit and experience in Melbourne, but I hope that you enjoyed that first glimpse of this amazing city!