We flew to Melbourne from Buenos Aires. And during the flight across the international dateline, a 14 day quarantine was put in place in Australia due to the rising awareness of the coronavirus.

We were not informed about this until we were going through customs. It wasn’t the end of the world, however. We simply had to limit our travel to getting meals and social distancing. This was still very early on in the pandemic.

The purpose of our trip to Melbourne was to visit a friend whom we met in Peru, and then again in Brazil in 2018. We needed to get from South America to Japan, so we figured making a pitstop in Melbourne was a perfect excuse to see Mitch.

Obviously we did not end up seeing Mitch, because of the quarantine; but that didn’t stop us from still getting to experience Melbourne on some level.

Great Open Road Day Trip

We managed to rent a car and take a road trip of the great ocean road. We attempted to rent a Porsche boxster convertible from Unique Rental Cars, but there was only one available, and the limit was 150 km per day plus a charge of $1.50 per kilometer after that. So we would’ve had to pay an extra $500 or so just for the mileage. We rented through Budget instead, and they were great.

Now, for the road trip!

• Bell’s Beach – you’ll come to this first. You could get out and explore, but we just snapped some pics and kept driving.

• Stop at the lighthouse at Aireys Inlet – there were signs and a small parking lot. Then a short walk to the lighthouse and lookout point.
• Eat fish and chips at Apollo’s Bay Fisherman’s Co-Op.

There is also the Mariners Lookout, Ocean walk and another light house that we decided to skip out on + accidentally passed due to our GPS losing our location…

This is where you will start REALLY driving through the rain forest. It is, and feels like the Great Otway National Park.

• 12 Apostles – from here on out everything was clearly marked with signs and big parking areas.
• Loch Ard gorge

The next three are super close together:

• The Arch (not pictured)
• London Bridge
• The Grotto (not pictured)

The most impressive to me were the first stops of the 12 Apostles and the Lock Ard Gorge. Though the each attraction is different from the next, the first two were most attractive in my opinion.

• Bay of Islands – This was like a smaller, less impressive 12 Apostles. But worth seeing nonetheless. There are so many stops along the way. Look up which ones you truly want to see before hand so you know heading into your day trip!

You can turn back and take the same exact way home, but we took the C163 back to Melbourne.

Accommodation: the Docklands, Victoria

Wyndel Apartments. Our accommodation was great. We certainly didn’t mind being quarantined there for seven days. It is a key access apartment building that overlooks the river. There’s also a lap pool and a gym. We were able to use the gym for three days (one person at a time access) until they closed it. That’s just to say it’s a very accommodating location. It was also in the free tram zone. So we could catch the tram anywhere we needed to go from our apartment. We also took daily walks because the apartment was also directly on the boardwalk (almost all shops/restaurants were closed, but the boardwalk was open to walkers, runners and cyclists). Honestly I would love to see this location in a ‘rona free state. Because I imagine it is even better than during our stay. 

Food in Melbourne:

Again, we were limited with food due to some early shut downs because of the pandemic. But I imagine Melbourne has a pretty great food culture just based on the few meals we had in our week time span.

Victoria Free Tram Zone eats:

Breakfast: Higher Ground

Raman: Hakoya Ramen

Thai/Asian fusion: CHINCHIN

Melbourne is an extremely livable city. It’s going to feel like do United States to most people, so if you are looking for your westernized comforts, I’m sure you’d love it. If you are looking for a brand new, non-familiar culture, you might not find that in Melbourne. But I would consider it a bit of a melting pot. We met people from all over the world in our few outings.

I think in the future I would like to see far more of Australia and maybe rent a camper van. We are talking like a two month excursion of Australia. I think it deserves that over seven days in Melbourne. Also, I am sure Melbourne would’ve been a different experience if we were able to have our friend as a guide to the city. 

Is Melbourne on your travel list? Pin this post for later.

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