Melbourne anytime — a base, not a checklist
Twelve places to drop into from a hotel in the middle of Melbourne, Tuesday evening to Thursday. What's open on which day, how long to allow, what it costs, and how to get there on the free trams.
After a week in Tasmania, the trip ends with three days in Melbourne and no schedule. This page is what we're working from: twelve places within reach of the hotel, which days they're open, how long to allow and what they cost. When there's a gap, pick one. It isn't a list to get through.
The base is Space Hotel, 380 Russell St, at the top of the city centre and inside the Free Tram Zone, so most of this is a walk or a free tram ride away. For the Tasmanian end of the trip, the companion guide is Hobart anytime.
Walking times are from the hotel. Hours and prices were checked on the places' own pages, or the City of Melbourne's listings, on 27 September 2026, unless marked otherwise. Things change, so check before you go.
The map
The big three in gold, the rest in red; the inset is the few blocks around the hotel. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
When
Most places here close at 5 pm, and that shapes each day.
- Tuesday evening — We reach the hotel about 5, when almost everything has shut. Still open: the State Library until 6, Chinatown for dinner, and Lygon Street
- Wednesday — Everything below except Queen Victoria Market, which is closed on Wednesdays. It's the only one of our three days that South Melbourne Market is open, 8:00–16:00: a morning there, then the NGV, by Route 1 back up St Kilda Rd. The museum, the gallery and the gardens are all open by 10. My sister leaves for the airport about 17:30
- Thursday — Check-out is 10:00 and the train home is in the evening. Everything is open except South Melbourne Market, including Queen Victoria Market until 3. Rain was forecast (see Weather), so indoor places are the better bet
Tuesday, as it went
Tuesday, from the café at Hobart Airport to dinner. The places we passed on the way are pictured under their numbers below: Fitzroy Gardens (2), Chinatown (5) and Federation Square (8).
Coffee and a muffin at Hobart Airport, before the flight.
Tasmania from the plane: saltmarsh islands in a tidal inlet, farmland and low hills behind.
Melbourne's suburbs from the window on the way in: a golf course along a creek, sports ovals and a blue athletics track.
The container docks on the Yarra, with freeways and a racecourse behind. The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia.
A pavement artist at work on a busy footpath in the city centre.
Dinner was dumplings and mapo tofu at Shandong Mama, 7/200 Bourke St.
Boiled dumplings.
Pan-fried dumplings, with chilli oil.
And mapo tofu.
The big three
If there's only time for a few things, make it these.
1. Melbourne Museum
Allow 2–3 hours · Open 9:00–17:00 daily · Cost adult price not confirmed (sources say $15–18) · From the hotel 14 min walk · Walking directions
Wondrous Planet; the Gondwana Garden, with Horridus the Triceratops; the living rainforest; Phar Lap; and the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre.
Next door are the Royal Exhibition Building (1880), where the first federal parliament sat in 1901, now World Heritage-listed, and the Carlton Gardens, free.
2. Fitzroy Gardens
Allow 1.5–2 hours · Open Conservatory 9:00–17:00; Cooks' Cottage 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:45; the gardens themselves always (not confirmed) · Cost gardens and Conservatory free; Cooks' Cottage $8.20 · From the hotel 22 min walk · Walking directions
Cooks' Cottage was built in Yorkshire in 1755 by Captain Cook's parents, and shipped here brick by brick in 1934. The Conservatory's spring display is schizanthus. Look out, too, for the Fairies' Tree, a red gum carved by Ola Cohn in the 1930s, the Model Tudor Village and the River God Fountain (1862).
Cooks' Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens after dark on Tuesday, long after it shut. Captain Cook's parents built it at Great Ayton in Yorkshire in 1755; it was taken down brick by brick, shipped to Melbourne and reopened here in October 1934.
3. NGV International
Allow 2–3 hours · Open 10:00–17:00 daily · Cost general entry free; Cartier $43, timed tickets · From the hotel 26 min walk · Walking directions
Australia's oldest public gallery, across the river on St Kilda Rd. Cartier, this winter's big exhibition, ends on 4 October, so this is its last week, and for the final days the NGV has extended its hours: on Thursday 1 October, Cartier is open 9:00–17:00 (checked on the NGV's page on 29 September). Also ticketed: Ragnar Kjartansson, Mercy.
David Shrigley's Really Good (2016), the seven-metre bronze thumbs-up on the NGV International forecourt, photographed on Wednesday.
The moat along the NGV's wall, fountains playing.
Also
Numbered as on the map.
4. State Library Victoria
Allow 45 min · Open 10:00–18:00 daily · Cost free · From the hotel 5 min walk · Walking directions
The domed La Trobe Reading Room. Open until 6, so it's the one big sight still open on Tuesday evening. The dome's levels 5 and 6 are closed for now.
5. Chinatown and the Chinese Museum
Allow 1 hour · Open museum 10:00–16:00 · Cost Chinatown free; museum $17 · From the hotel 7–8 min walk · Walking directions
Little Bourke St, one block south of the hotel. The museum tells the story of Chinese Australians since the gold rush.
Little Bourke Street in Chinatown at dusk on Tuesday, red lanterns strung across the street. Chinatown dates from the 1850s gold rush; Wikipedia calls it the longest continuous ethnic Chinese settlement in the Western world.
Parliament House, at the top of Bourke Street on Spring Street, lit blue after dark: a block from the Spring Street end of Chinatown.
6. Queen Victoria Market
Allow 1–1.5 hours · Open Tuesday and Thursday 6:00–15:00; closed Wednesday · Cost free · From the hotel 12 min walk · Walking directions
It has shut by the time we arrive on Tuesday, so Thursday morning is the one chance. The winter night market has finished.
7. Old Melbourne Gaol
Allow 1.5 hours · Open 10:00–17:00, arrive by 15:30 · Cost $38 ($30 for under-30s) · From the hotel 3 min walk · Walking directions
Across the road from the hotel. The audio guide comes in English and Mandarin.
8. Federation Square: ACMI and NGV Australia
Allow 1–1.5 hours · Open both 10:00–17:00 · Cost both free · From the hotel 18 min walk · Walking directions
ACMI's Story of the Moving Image, and NGV Australia's free shows (the Margaret Preston retrospective is $35). Walk down Russell St: the Swanston/Flinders corner is blocked by works.
Flinders Street Station lit blue on Tuesday night, across the corner from Federation Square. The first station on the site opened in 1854; the present building was essentially finished by mid-1909.
9. Laneways and arcades
Allow 1 hour · Open always · Cost free · From the hotel 14–18 min walk · Walking directions (to Degraves St)
Hosier Lane for street art, Degraves St and Centre Place for cafés, and the Block Arcade and Royal Arcade.
10. Royal Botanic Gardens and the Shrine
Allow 2 hours · Open gardens 7:30–17:30; Shrine 10:00–17:00 · Cost free · From the hotel 40 min walk, or a tram · Public transport directions
A free guided garden walk runs at 10:30, Tuesday to Sunday; booking essential. Tours of the Shrine of Remembrance run on the hour.
11. Lygon Street, Carlton
Allow 1–2 hours · Open evenings · From the hotel 20 min walk · Walking directions
Carlton's Italian cafés and restaurants, and one of the few answers to Tuesday evening.
12. South Melbourne Market
Allow 1–1.5 hours · Open Wednesday 8:00–16:00; closed Tuesday and Thursday · Cost free to wander · From the hotel about 35 min by tram · Public transport directions
Running since 1867: fresh produce, deli, meat and seafood, cafés. Wednesday is the only day it's open while we're here. Route 96 from Bourke St; the details are under Getting around. Checked 29 September.
A tram at Stop 127, South Melbourne Market,, photographed on Wednesday.
Pastries at a stall inside the market: ham and cheese puff $8, mushroom puff $7, baby chocolate cake $5, chocolate crumble cake $12.
Teacher discounts
Only one real deal, and it's for me only, not my sister.
Museums Victoria "Museum Teachers" card. Free general entry to Melbourne Museum and the Immigration Museum for Victorian teachers. Sign up online first (it's free); the digital card comes by email. At the desk, show the card, photo ID and your VIT registration card. It doesn't cover touring exhibitions or Royal Exhibition Building tours, and it doesn't cover a companion. Not confirmed on Museums Victoria's own pages, which block automated checks: confirm when you sign up.
NGV. No teacher price for Cartier ($43). An NGV teacher membership is $95 a year: not worth it for one visit.
Old Melbourne Gaol. No teacher rate, but under-30s pay $30 instead of $38.
Cooks' Cottage, the Chinese Museum, the zoo. No teacher rate for a personal visit. The zoo's free teacher visit needs a school excursion booking.
Royal Exhibition Building dome tour. $29, tours at 10:00 and 14:00, booking essential on 13 11 02. Not confirmed on the museum's own page.
Getting around
Free Tram Zone. The hotel is inside it. Trams within the city centre are free: don't touch on or off.
City Circle tram, route 35. Free heritage trams round the city centre, clockwise, about every 12 minutes, 9:30–17:00.
Outside the free zone, fares are half price until 1 January 2027, capped at $5.70 a day. That includes V/Line, so it covers Thursday's train home too. Melbourne Museum's tram stop on Nicholson St is outside the free zone.
To South Melbourne Market, also outside the free zone: Route 96 from Bourke St/Russell St (Stop 7, about 700 m from the hotel) to South Melbourne Market (Stop 127) takes about 19 minutes, and the stop is about 90 m from the market door. About 35 minutes door to door.
Between the market and the NGV: Route 1 runs along St Kilda Rd between Arts Precinct/St Kilda Rd (Stop 14), by the NGV, and Park St/Cecil St (Stop 25), 8–12 minutes, then a five-minute walk along Cecil St to the market. Towards the market, take it in the direction of South Melbourne Beach. Walking, it's about 2 km, 27 minutes. Yarra Trams listed no disruptions to routes 1 or 96 for Wednesday 30 September (checked 29 September).
Tap and go. A bank card, phone or watch now works on trains and trams (full fare only; ABC News, June 2026). myki still works.
To the airport. SkyBus from Southern Cross, $25.90 one way, every 10–15 minutes: just turn up. Southern Cross is about 30 minutes' walk or a free tram ride from the hotel. A taxi or rideshare takes about 30 minutes (fare not published).
Weather
Much warmer than Hobart. The Bureau of Meteorology's forecast issued at 4:27 pm on Sunday 27 September had Tuesday partly cloudy, 11–24 °C; Wednesday cloudy and windy, 17–23 °C with a possible afternoon shower; and Thursday wet, 17–24 °C, with showers, a possible thunderstorm and 8–20 mm of rain. Forecasts change, so check the current one on the morning: BoM, Melbourne.
Good to know
Victorian school holidays run to 4 October, so the museums will be busy. Go early.
Daylight saving starts on Sunday 4 October, after the trip, so there's no clock change while we're here.
The short version
- Tuesday evening — The State Library, open until 6, then dinner in Chinatown or on Lygon Street
- Wednesday — South Melbourne Market in the morning (Route 96), then Route 1 back up St Kilda Rd to the NGV. Queen Victoria Market is closed
- Thursday — Queen Victoria Market, open until 3. If it rains: the NGV (Cartier 9:00–17:00, its last week), Melbourne Museum or the Old Melbourne Gaol
- By 5 pm — Almost everything has shut. The State Library stays open until 6
- Across the road — The Old Melbourne Gaol, 3 min walk
- Getting about — Trams in the city centre are free. Outside it, fares are half price, capped at $5.70 a day
Sources, checked 27 September 2026 unless marked: City of Melbourne What's On (Fitzroy Gardens, Cooks' Cottage, the Conservatory, Melbourne Museum); NGV (plan your visit, exhibitions, Cartier, tickets, membership; extended Cartier hours checked 29 September); State Library Victoria; Chinese Museum; Queen Victoria Market; South Melbourne Market (hours, getting here, history; 29 September); Old Melbourne Gaol; ACMI; Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria; Shrine of Remembrance; Museums Victoria (Museum Teachers, via search listings of its pages); Melbourne Zoo; Yarra Trams (Free Tram Zone, City Circle; routes 1 and 96 checked 29 September); vic.gov.au (half-price fares); ABC News (tap and go); SkyBus; Melbourne Airport; Bureau of Meteorology. Walking times from OpenStreetMap routing. Photo captions, added 30 September: Wikipedia (Chinatown, Melbourne; Cooks' Cottage; Flinders Street railway station; Parliament House, Melbourne; Port of Melbourne); NGV (David Shrigley, Really Good).