 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I'm heading down to Melbourne on Monday to visit a mate who now lives there. We have a rough itinerary of Great Ocean Road, a day in the vineyards and other bits and pieces around Melbourne itself.
We'll also be going to Sydney for a few days and stopping off in Tasmania on the way back to Melbourne.
It seems that everyone I work with has spent time down there and I have been given a tonne of recommendations, but I wondered if there was anyone on here who could suggest some must do or see activities.
If there are any locals that could recommend some potential riding and places to hire bikes that would be great as well. Mountain biking would be brilliant, but we'd also be happy just to hire bikes to see the city.
Thanks!
Some of the best riding near-ish to Melbourne is at forrest, near Lorne on the Great Ocean Road. You can hire bikes from the coffee shop there.
Other great places near/in Melbourne include You Yangs (near Geelong), Woodend (about 1 hour north), Lysterfield, Smiths Gully, Yarra trails (all in or very near Melbourne). If you are going to the wineries in the Yarra Valley, Smiths Gully is on the way out there (kind of).
The Yarra Valley wineries are good. If zoo type places float your boat, then Healseville sanctuary is great. There are also some good galleries around. I live here now in Warrandyte. Drop me an email if you want, my address is in my profile.
You yangs and forest for riding. Tas is more my specialty though
You yangs and forest for riding. Tas is more my specialty though
I'd be interested in activities to do too, going down on Anzac Day for 3 nights.
Where are the best spots, I've read about a street of graffiti?
What are you into? Melbourne has something for everyone. Are you in oz or traveling?
Trailmix cafe bike shop at lysterfield park hires out decent mtbs and the trails are good and easy to navigate if your not local, they are a good crew.
You yangs have lots of variety but no bike shops
Forests has some of the best single track in the state.
Forests has some of the best single track in the state.
Must have got better, it was good but just back from the high country and Buller, Bright, Beauty & Beechworth were great
rest to follow from the week (Kilngsporn at Buller is awesome)
Tarquin, there's graffiti in every neighbourhood. You're probably thinking of Hosier lane, opposite Fed Sq. It's got a good tapas place on the corner. A lot of the laneways in the centre are worth exploring. Fitzroy and North Carlton have the highest concentration of bars, restaurants etc. Just have a look at Broadsheet.com.au or the TheThousands site. Great city for nightlife.
Mush, I'd go along with everyone else - Forrest (about 2.5hrs west of Melbourne) is a great place to spend a day or two - brewery, friendly guesthouse, superb trails. There was a recent thread on Melbourne where I suggested driving the GOR to Apollo Bay (best of the beach towns imo), seeing the 12 Apostles, then heading inland to Forrest and back to Melbourne on the freeway. It's a decent loop and you can extend it by taking in some of the goldfields towns. There are lots of vineyards around the city - Yarra Valley is the obvious choice but you could head down to Mornington Peninsula too, which has nice beaches at the far end.
Mikewsmith, i'm going up to Bright & Beechworth for the weekend - where do you suggest riding? Will only have a few hours at a time, unfortunately.
Beechworth is easy as it's actually mapped [url= http://www.beechworthchaingang.com/ ]Link Here[/url], the trails in the vid is about 9km so 2 laps is great. Bright is a bit harder to navigate without a local but still loads of great trail (map from local shops), same as Beauty (we got a chance guide roud by Paul van de Pleoug's dad just before the national round). Also consider Buller if your on that route.
http://app.strava.com/activities/44453384 - Beauty
http://app.strava.com/activities/44344716 - Bright
http://app.strava.com/activities/43191425 - Beechworth
Plenty of good trails up there 🙂
Thanks Mike - they look ideal. Saw Paul van der Ploeg at the Otway Odyssey - for a big lad he's very quick!
Thanks for all the responses, pretty excited about this now.
Corroded, we were thinking about staying in Lorne and may well check out Forrest as well as looping back via the mining towns towards Ararat
Stevego, thanks for the offer. I'll drop you a line
Mikewsmith, Tasmania is where we have the least suggestions. What would you recommend? We have two nights and will be flying to Hobart.
Thanks again
OK Tassie in 2 days from Hobart...
[url= http://www.mona.net.au/ ]MONA[/url] Must see/do you can get a boat from the city up there or drive. It is a private museum/gallery Museum of New and Old. Incredible place, very thought provoking (not as good for kids) I heard that they had Tilda Swinton in a glass box there recently. We spent about 3/4 day in there last time and would head back whenever we are passing (it happens to be free for locals)
After that there is Hobart, up round Elizabeth St is good for some food etc. and Salamanca markets on a weekend but a local may help more.
Port Arthur, Maria Island and Frecycenet/Wine Glass bay are the classics up the east coast. With 2 nights you wont get to some of the of the other stuff but that should keep you going. If you still want bikes the North South is probably the Hobart thing to do.
it's 2 way and very hard to find an uplift 🙂
Was in Melb years back. Great place. Remember Kelly being a pleasant ride....oh, you don't mean that.... 😳
When are you coming to Hobart? I may be free to hook you up for a ride.