Melbourne - Top Tourist Attractions
Magnificent Melbourne: Top Attractions to Include in Your Bucketlist
There is good reason Melbourne usually grabs the top spot in the world’s most liveable cities. Aside from being the second-largest city in Australia, Melbourne is also where culture, cuisine, and competition collide.
From being a melting pot of history and culture to being the home of Australian sport, Melbourne definitely brings new meaning to tourist destinations, especially when you include these four attractions in your bucket list:
Melbourne Cricket Ground and National Sports Museum
Being the sporting capital of Australia, it’s no surprise that Melbourne is home to several stadiums including one of the world’s greatest, the Melbourne Cricket Ground that dates back to 1853 and has a capacity of 100,000 spectators.
This stadium is the birthplace of Test Cricket, the venue for the 1956 Olympic Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games, and the home of Australian Rules Football.
Book a tour of this iconic stadium and learn more about Australia’s history in sports at the National Sports Museum, the Olympic Museum and the Australian Gallery of Sport. You can even watch a game of cricket at the MCG during the summer or football during the winter. Right across the stadium is Melbourne Park where the Australian Open tennis tournament is held.
Royal Botanic Gardens
Located two kilometers from the CBD, the Royal Botanic Gardens is considered one of the best in the world and covers both Melbourne and Cranbourne. Covering over 38 hectares of land, the Melbourne Gardens is home to more than 8,500 plant species including very rare ones.
The Royal Botanic Gardens is also the location of the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Gardens aimed at encouraging children to do gardening and the Aboriginal Heritage Walk that explores the history of indigenous Australians.
Eureka Skydeck 88
Rising 297.3 meters above the ground, the Eureka Tower is Melbourne’s tallest building and the second-highest in the country. It was named after the 1854 Eureka Stockade, the tower on the heart of Southbank has 91 floors and a signature gold-plated windows that make the building sparkle when hit by the sun.
On the 88th floor of the tower is the Eureka Skydeck, which offers the highest and most spectacular views of Melbourne. And if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, there’s “The Edge,” a three-meter glass cube suspended 300 meters above the ground.
Old Melbourne Gaol
If you’re looking for a unique—and maybe, spooky—experience during your trip, you shouldn’t miss visiting the Old Melbourne Gaol, a prison complex that once held some of the most notorious criminals in all of Victoria including Frederick Bailey Deeming and Ned Kelly.
Today, Old Melbourne Gaol is a popular museum that displays several prison memorabilia including Kelly gang weapons and death masks. You can even take a night tour in the complex, which is said to be haunted.
Melbourne is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating cities in the world. It’s a vibrant and lively atmosphere is every traveler’s dream and visiting it will never leave you disappointed.