Magic Quadrant: December 2011

Below is a travelogue I wrote in collaboration with Sohil Bhagat. Strangely, it marks 6 months of working in Australia!

Cricket, beer, tennis, outdoors, rugby, wine, football, food, skiing, art, footy, road trips, running, outback, trekking, music, surfing, coral reefs, scuba diving, beaches, cycling, kangaroos, golf, partying, horse racing – Australia!

Australia is a vast continent with a plethora of experiences to be enjoyed. In this article, we shall specifically focus on Melbourne.

The capital of state Victoria and the second largest city in Australia – Melbourne is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is located on a large natural bay known as Port Phillip and estuary of the Yarra river. It is well-planned and one of the safest cities. It has been rated as the best city to live in.

For the tourist, it has a wide array of things to do. Melbourne has been voted as the sports capital of the world. With great sporting action all around the year – Formula 1, Australian Open Tennis, cricket at the MCG, President’s Cup, Melbourne Cup (horse racing) and Australian Football, it is a mecca for the sports enthusiast. Yet, it offers enough varied experiences to be called the cultural and good food capital of Australia.

How to get there?

For travellers coming from abroad, the Melbourne Tullamarine airport is well connected to all major destinations in the world. For domestic tourists, Melbourne is well connected to Sydney by road and rail; however, air travel is the most economical and easiest way to travel. Budget travellers can choose flights from Jetstar and Virgin Atlantic (avoid Tiger Airways as they tend to be unreliable in their service).

What to do?

Depending on the time of the year and the duration you chose to visit, Melbourne has a wide variety of activities for the traveler. The top activities are listed below:

Attend Sports Events: Book tickets beforehand if there are any major sporting events in the city coinciding with your visit (tickets can be booked online via Ticketmaster). For footy games, tickets (starting $20) are available for most games at the stadium except the Grand Final.
Do the Great Ocean Road Trip: Hire a car or take a bus tour, this is an experience you will never forget! The Great Ocean Road is a long stretch from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean). Along the way are the twelve apostles, a World Heritage site with rock formations in the sea.
Do the Yarra Valley Wine Tour: It has some of the most picturesque vineyards with an option for a limousine pick up and drop! Though for most of the tourists, there are plenty of good bus tours (starting $90-$100) which allow for a good day of fun. The area's relatively cool climate makes it particularly suited to the production of high-quality chardonnay, pinot noir and sparkling wine.
Visit an Art Exhibition: Melbourne is the culture capital of Australia, with multiple cultural centres that any tourist must visit. Some of the best ones are ACMI, NGV (national Gallery of Victoria) and VAC (Victorian Arts Centre)
Go on a Cycling Tour: Sports being a religion, you’d expect the city to be cyclist friendly. It does offer some of the best city cycling touring tracks through the beautiful suburbs and in the close-by Dandenong mountain range.
Walk around the CBD: For those of you who like the experience of walking around a city, the CBD is a great area to let your inner flâneur out. With the numerous pleasing little alleys with cafes and shopping destinations and street performers at Southbank – it has stuff to keep everyone interested. And to add to that, it has a geometrical layout just so that you don’t get lost!
Take the City Circle Tram – The city circle tram song captures it all - “Come take a ride on the City Circle Tram, It’s a great way to help you understand, The layout of our town, It’s a way to get around and it’s FREE! The Melbourne City Circle Tram!”

Where to eat?

Melbourne is a culinary paradise with a wide array of restaurants and cafes offering nearly every kind of cuisine you can think of (it holds the record for the highest number of restaurants per person for any city in the world). Below are some of the best places you should go to

Chinese: Flower Drum, Shanghai Street Dumplings, Bamboo
Thai: Cookie, Chin Chin
Italian: Lucatini’s, Grossi Florentino, Lygon Street restaurants, Hardware Lane restaurants
Indian: Shiraaz, Funky Curry, Jaisalmer
Mediterranean: Stokehouse (St Kilda), MoVida, Maha
Others: Spice Temple, Nandos! :)

Some of the more expensive experiences of Melbourne are the degustation menus at Maze (Gordon Ramsay), Estelle (Ryan Flaherty), Attica and Vue de Monde. Also, don’t forget to have breakfast in the Degraves lane!

Where to party?

Just like a foodie, a party goer will be spoiled for choice with the offerings that Melbourne has. Some of the best places include Spice Market, Lucky Coq, Revolver Upstairs, NightKat and Baraki. The city is very safe at night and plenty of transport options are available through the night.

Where to stay?

There are all sorts of options for travellers to stay in Melbourne. Options range from the backpackers hostels to fancy hotels. Most tourists prefer to stay in the CBD. If your budget permits, then do try the Crown Towers (remember it is not a part of any global loyalty program, and redeeming points wouldn’t work here). If not, other good hotels which are conveniently located include Westin, Marriott, Hyatt and Novotel.

How to travel?

Travelling within Melbourne is easy and convenient given its elaborate tram network (the largest in the world, in fact) For any travel outside the city, the most preferred way would be to rent a car (car rental stations both within the city and at the airport) or take a train

When to visit?

Melbourne has enough to do in each part of the year. However, the best time to visit would be during the summer from December to March. Always remember to pack in a jacket or two though as weather in Melbourne can be very unpredictable. Temperatures can fluctuate from 15 deg C to 35deg C within a week! Autumn and winter are nice times to visit if you like that kind of weather. Temperature drops to a minimum of 2-3 deg C on some days during these seasons and they can be fairly wet.

Overall, Melbourne is an awesome city to visit and live in! Happy travelling!