Melbourne and around

The most obvious areas with a concentration of accommodation are the CBD, the adjoining suburbs of North Melbourne, Carlton, Fitzroy, East Melbourne and Richmond, and down by the bay around St Kilda. Some of the cheap accommodation areas on the fringes of the city centre are fairly dead at night, though they’re within easy reach of all the action. St Kilda is very lively, if a bit rough around the edges, with a few hostels and quite a few motels and apartments. South of the CBD, South Melbourne, Albert Park, South Yarra and Windsor are handy for both the city centre and the beach, and with lots of good eating options.

The most exclusive hotels are in the CBD, particularly around Collins Street and the leisure precincts of Southgate and the Crown Casino, while there’s a collection of revamped hotels around Southern Cross station. Melbourne has plenty of backpacker accommodation, ranging from fairly basic, scruffy places to smart, custom-built hostels with all mod cons. Most hostels have separate dorms for females on request. Standard facilities include a kitchen, TV room, laundry, luggage storage and internet access. If you’re staying a while and are interested in flat-sharing, check the Saturday edition of The Age, as well as the notice boards of hostels, the Galleon Café at 9 Carlisle St in St Kilda, Readings Books and Music, 309 Lygon St in Carlton, and the Traveller’s Aid Centre.

If you plan on staying during the big sporting events be aware that virtually all accommodation tends to be booked out months in advance. This applies particularly during the Australian Open Tennis in January and the Grand Prix (first or second weekend in March); other events and times to avoid or pre-book far in advance are the Melbourne Cup (first Tues in Nov and the preceding weekend) and the AFL Grand Final (last Sat in Sept).

Melbourne is Australia’s premier city for eating out. Sydney may be more style-conscious and Adelaide cheaper, but Melbourne has the best food and the widest choice of cuisines. In the city centre, Greek cafés line Lonsdale Street between Swanston and Russell streets, while Little Bourke Street is the home of Chinatown. Lygon Street, in inner-city Carlton, is just one of many places across the city with a concentration of Italian restaurants. Nearby, Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and Smith Street in neighbouring Collingwood both have a huge variety of international cuisines as well as trendy bars and cafés. Indeed, Fitzroy and St Kilda, another gastronomically mixed bag, are the centres of bar and café society; St Kilda also has great restaurants, bakeries and delis, as does Jewish Balaclava (aka East St Kilda). In Richmond Vietnamese places dominate Victoria Street, but you’ll also find cheap Middle Eastern and Burmese fare. Every year in March, the city celebrates all this culinary diversity with a sixteen-day Food and Wine Festival, with food-themed street parties and events around the city and its environs.

Some licensed restaurants still allow you to bring your own (BYO) drink, though check first. Most places only allow you to bring in wine, which usually incurs a corkage fee.

Melbourne’s fondness for a drink or three is reflected in its abundance of excellent bars and pubs – from places so obscure and cutting-edge you’ll only know they exist by word of mouth, to large establishments catering to broader and louder tastes. The clubbing hot spots are Chapel Street in South Yarra and the CBD, but clubs take root anywhere they can, from big commercial nights in the suburbs to obscure experimental sessions in inner-city laneways. International DJs visit frequently, and local talent keeps the scene thriving. The bigger the night, the more the cover charge, though it rarely tops $15 unless there’s an international guest.

In general, bars stay open to around 1am during the week and 3am at weekends, while some clubs are open until 5am or 7am at the weekend. Some of the more upmarket places have dress codes. You’ll find reviews of the city’s drinking spots at www.barfinder.com.au.

Melbourne has a thriving band scene, and just about every pub puts on some sort of music – often free – at some time during the week. Grungy Richmond has a big concentration of music pubs, as does Fitzroy, while St Kilda is also a worthy area to head to for a range of live music. Most clubs have a cover charge of around $10. Some backpacker hostels give vouchers for reduced or free admission to a rapidly changing array of venues. Free listings magazines such as Beat and Inpress are good sources of information about the local music scene, while local FM stations Triple R (102.7) and PBS (106.7) air alternative music and tell you what’s on and where.

Melbourne is the comedy capital of Australia, home of the madcap Doug Anthony All Stars, Wogs Out of Work and comedians from TV shows such as The Big Gig and The Comedy Company. The highlight of the comedy year is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (www.comedyfestival.com.au) in April, based at the Town Hall in Swanston Street, with performances at over fifty venues around town. For one-off performances and other venues, check out the “EG” supplement to The Age on Fridays.

The Crown Casino, Melbourne Central and the Jam Factory in South Yarra have a number of cinemas showing blockbuster movies (cheap tickets available on Tuesdays). In summer, watching a film under the stars at the Moonlight Cinema in the Botanic Gardens can be a real treat (www.moonlight.com.au). The city’s vibrant independent cinemas screen less obviously commercial US films and foreign-language films; these cinemas tend to offer discounts on Monday. The Melbourne International Film Festival in July (www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au) has been going for over fifty years, based at a number of cinemas around the city. The much younger Melbourne Underground Film Festival (www.muff.com.au), held in October, continues to grow in popularity at an enormous rate.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival (www.melbournefestival.com.au) in October presents a selection of visual and performing arts, and opera, and features individual performers from Australia and overseas, as well as a host of free events at Federation Square and other places around the city. The more innovative and cutting-edge Melbourne Fringe Festival (www.melbournefringe.com.au) starts in late September and overlaps a few days with the Melbourne Festival, while the Melbourne Writers’ Festival (www.mwf.com.au) takes place in late August. The heavily promoted Moomba Festival (www.melbournemoombafestival.com.au), held in March, has a more commercial approach, featuring events such as firework displays and dragon-boat races on the banks of the Yarra River in Alexandra Gardens, and Docklands. Three popular outdoor music festivals take place in summer: Summadayze on January 1 featuring international bands and DJs; the Big Day Out on January 26; and Good Vibrations in early February. Other events include the Brunswick Music Festival in the third week of March, concentrating on folk and world music, and the St Kilda Festival, which runs for one week early February featuring music, comedy and street performances. The biennial Next Wave Festival, held over two weeks in the second half of May (the next one is in 2014), celebrates Victoria’s young artists, writers and musicians.

Melbourne’s gay and lesbian scene may not be as in-your-face as Sydney’s, but it’s almost as big, and is also less ghettoized. Fitzroy, Collingwood and Carlton, north of the river, and St Kilda, South Yarra and Prahran, to the south, boast a strong gay presence; Fitzroy, Northcote and Clifton Hill are the city’s recognized stomping grounds for lesbians. MCV (Melbourne Community Voice, gaynewsnetwork.com.au), a free gay and lesbian paper published weekly, is available at gay and lesbian venues.

Big events are mostly organized by the ALSO (Alternative LifeStyle Organisation) Foundation. The scene’s annual highlight, however, is the fabulous Midsumma Festival (mid-Jan to early Feb; www.midsumma.org.au). Held annually since 1988, Midsumma provides an umbrella for a wide range of sporting, artistic and theatrical events, and includes Pride March.