3 Days in Melbourne
Love this city. It is a global city with the positives and negatives that come with that. For us as tourists it means there is a ton to do, and it is expensive. Our stay of 3 days and 4 nights was fun, busy, and expensive.
We went big on the hotel and it paid off. The Crown Metropol is super modern and located in the Crown Casino mega complex that sits on the banks of the Yarra River in downtown Melbourne. We only took our car out once (to see friends) which was great. For everything else we could walk or catch trams so that was awesome.
As mentioned in the New Year’s Eve post our city view hotel room was fantastic to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks. Per Whitney they were superb, I enjoyed her pictures of it having slept through it peacefully.
After two travel days from Adelaide to Naracoorte to Melbourne the “meltdown tracker” on the homepage got a good number of contributions for the first couple of days here! But we kept moving forward and had a lot of fun and laughs before and after the meltdowns. Our activities included:
ArtVo. This was Whitney and my #1 activity for our time in Melbourne. It was really unique, was a lot of fun and got everyone playing and imagining! There were ~80 incredible paintings that you literally get into and take photos. The photos give a sense of it, our imaginations were running wild, it was a lot of fun.
Melbourne Star (aka massive ferris wheel). At about forty stories high this is big. Our pod had us plus 4 other people who hung out with us for the thirty minutes it takes to complete the full turn. It was surprisingly relaxing as our whole team kept it together throughout. The panoramic views and commentary were really impressive.
Both ArtVo and the Melbourne Star are in the Docklands neighborhood in downtown Melbourne so we did them back to back on our last day. It was a super finish!
SeaLife (Melbourne aquarium). Was great too. We have done this a couple of times before so not the buzz of a new experience for Whitney and me but Scarlett and Nora really enjoyed it. It was really busy and it was the first day after our travel days so it was a bit of a behavior cluster but we had more fun than misery plus got some good photos to emphasize and remember the positive moments!
Cafe, Playground and Chadstone Mall. We caught up with family friends one morning and they wisely helped us walk to a playground on the Yarra River. That way the girls could run wild in the playground and Whitney and I could catch up with our friends while tagging in and out watching/helping the girls. Cafes are a way of life in Melbourne so we got our fill of that with brunch, it was awesome and then we made a trek to a massive mall called Chadstone. Thankfully all three girls fell asleep on the twenty minute drive to the mall so Whitney had about thirty minutes of heavenly solo walking around the mall. I, just as happily, savored the quiet car while parked in the parking lot trying not to make any noise that would end the peacefulness. Ultimately we all did a lap around the Chadstone mall and then headed back to our hotel.
Hotel Pool and Breakfast. I realize that the special times on this trip are frequently the simplest. The most magnificent part of these fun days in Melbourne was our morning swim and breakfast. The hotel’s infinity pool on the 27th floor is heavenly. It opens at 6am and we were (of course) among the handful of guests who are there from the opening, Whitney or I would take the first one or two kids up to the pool and the other would join within the hour as the final one or two awoke. We ordered room service breakfast to the pool and sat looking over the city. We would be at the pool from 6am-ish until around 9am when we would return to the room. From there the day’s activities would unfold but this play time every morning of our stay was so very special.
Scarlett enjoying our morning swim!
So we leave Melbourne having seen 2020 in with a fun few days and some great memories together. So grateful to be doing this experience with Whitney and our three daughters. Video and pictures below.
