We spent a week in Melbourne, with a 7night stay at park Hyatt, upgraded to a suite from DDF transaction. Nice room. The hotel is nothing crazy compared to Sydney and I wouldn’t try hard to stay there again if I got a good rate somewhere else but I think that I actually got it significantly cheaper than it usually is as they are just getting back into tourism and it was winter. Plus it was even more discounted for being a long stay.
Rented a Mercedes gls200 from Sixt, ended up costing more than I thought, but base rates was 50usd. Seems in Australia you have to pay for insurance but I could be wrong, something about how the insurance works, there is no such thing as liability it’s all included in the same price of insurance. Don’t know how it works with credit card but didn’t have time to find out and we only rented for a few days so I didn’t mind so much.
The place to eat is SPOT ON in ripponlea. Amazing food and it’s dairy in the morning and then meat in the evening. We went to both and it’s incredible food. And great prices compared to America. Other places that were good is Nogga sushi which was way cheaper than America. Kosher kingdom is the kosher store and they also have sushi in the fridge for cheap. Bakeries included Zelda (only open a couple days a week I think) and glicks. Both good.
Tons of shuls. Adas is more chassidish but have minyanim frequently and Mikva in the shul. There is shaarei and heichal just to name a few. I Davened in heichal with the family I stayed by for shabbos and the Rav and everyone there is very nice and very happy to have a visitor.
Things to do: Phillip island is currently I think only place to see penguins. In Melbourne itself there is st Kilda pier however the part of the pier where the penguins go is currently closed until 2024 so if you’re lucky you can see from somewhere else on the pier but since they come out when its basically dark you’re not in much luck. So you have to go to Phillip island. It’s beautiful there. The coast has water that looks like its from Antarctica and it’s a stunning coast line with rocks and cliffs and little islands just off the shore. There is a really fun drive along the coast at the end of the island where you’ll see tons of kangaroos as well. We actually did not end up staying for the penguins because of the following breakdown of how it works.
For 20 dollars you can sit in the bleachers out far from where the penguins come up. For 75 dollars I think it was you can sit up close on top of the “highway” that they come through and you’ll get a good view of hundreds of penguins, for 85 dollars you sit directly underneath the 75 dollar chevra in a room that is half underground so you se eye view of the penguins, and for 110 dollars I think it was you can get a private guide to bring you out to the actual highway and you can sit on the sand right where the penguins come and they may even come up to you. Here is the catch. There is absolutely no pictures allowed to be taken. Because Australia decided that they own the penguins so they can make a rule that no pictures can be taken, and there are many workers that patrol the area to make sure no pictures can be taken. So if you want to pay a ton of money just to see penguins that you can see in the zoo and take pictures of in the zoo, it’s probably really cool. There are hundreds of them. But my guess is the only options worth it is the private guide because at least that is an experience that you won’t get in the zoo, just remembering that it’s a crime to take pictures of the penguins. Also, you can’t take kids with you to the private guide and it seems they strongly discourage kids at all because sudden outbursts can alarm the penguins. So since we had our baby we picked the baby over the penguins (and we are even allowed to take pictures of our baby).
All that said Phillip island is definitely worth the trip as it’s unforgettable views and really close up drives near kangaroos. (You can take pictures of kangaroos).
Great ocean road is the other big road trip that everyone does. It’s Also really quite stunning. We caught some really blue skies and some really heavy rains. But it was fun and incredible the whole way and there are tons of places you can stop and either go for walks or take amazing pictures. Some of the various sceneries along the way are beaches, cliffs, forests, valleys, mountains, bridges, paths along the mountains, animals, rainforests, cool birds, unique little towns, (all of which you can take pictures of for anyone keeping tabs). We did it in one day, and we got up to the 12 (7) apostles area. There are only 7 left though I’m not sure I even saw that many. You’re allowed to take pictures of the apostles that are remaining but you can’t take pictures of the ones that disappeared. Right after the apostles just a few minutes drive is small area with a few more stunning views. One of which is called thunder cave. It’s really something amazing to see. That is what we were able to do before dark and then we took the shorter drive through the country and mountains back (it’s dark so you won’t see much but it certainly doesn’t make sense to drive back on great ocean road in the dark since it’s longer. But the views were amazing and definitely worth doing.
We also spent a day going through the business district. There is free trams through that area and it’s right next to park Hyatt. We ended up walking around without using the tram. High end stores and fun places to walk around. It’s a nice clean city mostly. Good places to buy uggs for those interested in that kind of thing. Also went to the aquarium. It’s small and you could do the whole thing in 20 minutes. It’s called sealife and there are various locations across the country including Sydney. It seems that they really took advantage of the fact that finding Nemo took place in Sydney because all the posters and wallpapers advertising the aquarium have all the animals from finding Nemo on them. Seems they really enjoy being able to claim they are the country that finding Nemo took place in. Really cheeky gimmik because no one’s coming to an aquarium to see a clown fish. But still enjoyable and they have a cool walkthrough tank with really big fish, and a cool penguin exhibit (and you can take pictures of these penguins!)
Even though we had the hotel for 7 nights, we stayed by a friend’s family for shabbos, which was night 5. It made sense mathematically to book for a week, and we were able to leave right before shabbos and come back right after without having to check in, and we only brought what we needed for shabbos. I would strongly recommend staying in the community for shabbos, it’s a very nice crowd and warm Shuls. Many families that would love to host. (But you can’t take pictures on shabbos
)
All in all, a week may be a little long, I would have been good with 5 days including shabbos. However, because of traveling with baby and needing to move a little slower pace we had some cushion days to not make the trip so dense. It was enjoyable to be away and it wasn’t boring being there for 7 days, But some people may do more than one day on great ocean road and also the Grampians. Also Tasmania is a short flight away and there is also an overnight ferry to get there as well from Melbourne. Many people recommended going to Queensland, it seems that is the big getaway spot for Melbourne folk. But it’s hot year round so it’s personal preference. Also even though it was winter we had a great time and weather never got in the way of doing anything. Even on great ocean road we caught clear skies the whole morning and when it rained it was about 5 to 10 min and then there were even some more points of sunlight. The road looks amazing on a cloudy day too.
10/10 would definitely recommend doing Australia! It’s amazing.
