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| Flinders Station: Bustling/ photo: Jaya Jiwatram |
MELBOURNE has changed. Suddenly it is overflowing with pizzazz, its former dowdy, early-to-bed image seeming hopelessly out of date. Australia’s number-two city began to shake off its lack-lustre reputation 20 years ago and has since arguably become the country’s liveliest metropolis, though rivalry with the brasher harbour-side Sydney remains intense. Melbourne shopping is not to be sniffed at and Melbourne business hotels rival the best anywhere.
Home to almost three-and-a-half of Australia’s 20 million people, Victoria’s state capital has become increasingly cosmopolitan. At the last count it boasted 140 nationalities speaking 151 languages (besides English, the official tongue). The result: a distinctive, cosmopolitan mood. What’s more, Melbourne vigorously pushes its self-appointed role as the nation’s arts capital, as well as its headquarters for food-and-wine appreciation. It also justly considers itself – tipping its fedora respectfully toward Italian influences – the most fashionable and best-dressed place in Australia. The creative types drifting away from Melbourne over past years have started to frantically back paddle.
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The city languished stubbornly in the economic doldrums until the mid-1980s. In desperation, local officialdom decided to reinvent their home town’s image, and out went fuddy-duddy licensing laws that stifled innovation in the food and beverage industry. Alfresco restaurants mushroomed, despite chilly southern hemisphere winters. Run-down lanes with abandoned warehouses – a reminder of a collapsed garment industry – were morphed into geographic highlights. Successful campaigns wooed upwardly mobile residents to the city. New towers sat cheek by jowl with sensitively renovated loft-style apartment buildings, and service industries catering to this new market moved in, too.
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| Yarra River lights/ photo: Jaya Jiwatram |
Increasingly, Melbourne became event-driven. Crowd-pleasers as diverse as motor-racing’s Australian Grand Prix (tel: [61-3] 9258-7100, www.grandprix.com.au) and April’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival (tel: 9417-7711, www.comedyfestival.com.au) with its irreverent menu of stand-up comedy, short films, musicals and cabaret (the latter category including Alzheimer’s The Musical), became fixtures on the calendar. They ensured a strong inflow of visitors, as did the upgrading of theatres, roads and just about every other component of its infrastructure. Important international conventions now head here, a place they formerly shunned. Hotels in all price categories have become numerous – so much so that if you don’t like your room you can easily move, except during super-peak times such as the Melbourne Cup horse racing event (tel: 8378-0747, www.vrc.net.au), which is held each November and merits a city-wide public holiday here. On with our Melbourne fun guide and, of course, those glitzy Melbourne hotels.
Getting around Melbourne
Melbourne Airport (tel: [61-3] 9297-1600, www.melair.com.au) is uncluttered, recently refurbished and easily negotiated. International and domestic services are handily housed within the same building. Twenty airlines connecting Melbourne to foreign ports occupy the mid-section, with domestic carriers like bookends. The latter are Qantas (tel: 131-313, www.qantas.com), Jetstar (tel: 131-538, www.jetstar.com), Virgin Blue (tel: 136-789, www.virginblue.com.au) and regional Rex (tel: 131-713, www.rex.com.au).
The route from terminal to taxi rank is flanked by the kiosks of multi-national and local car rental companies. Melbourne taxis (tel: 131-008) are uniformly yellow and metered. About A$45 should get you to your hotel in around 30 minutes. The route is mostly along a freeway, providing a good opportunity to make telephone calls (foreign mobiles roam efficiently into Australian networks). An alternative to taxis, also outside the terminal, is the Skybus (tel: 9335-2811, www.skybus.com.au) at A$15 with hotel drop-offs and pick-ups.
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| Shop around the Causeway Inn/ photo: hotel |
Around the city, cabs can be telephoned, hailed on the street or found at abundant taxi ranks. Most trips cost between A$10 and $20. However, Melbourne’s famed trams, or streetcars (tel: 131-638, www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au) trundle efficiently across the downtown area and into suburbia, with fares that start from A$3.20.
Grid-pattern Melbourne is foot-friendly. It is sometimes termed a “city of villages” because of its multitudinous and very different neighbourhoods. In the city itself, explore Flinders Lane and other nearby lanes with their numerous restaurants, bars, coffee houses, art galleries, fashion boutiques, stylish apartment buildings and eccentric special-interest shops. A few blocks away lie the main retail and office strips: Bourke Street (partly pedestrianised as Bourke Street Mall), Collins Street and Lonsdale Street. David Jones (310 Bourke Street, tel: 9643-2222) and Myer (295 Lonsdale Street, tel: 9661-1111) are the main department stores.
Chinatown runs the breadth of the downtown area, along narrow Little Bourke Street and down its side streets. It’s a convenient locale for dozens of quality restaurants, mostly, but by no means all, Chinese.
At the edge of downtown Melbourne is the newish and architecturally adventurous Federation Square, which residents either love or hate. Its buildings are strikingly modern and angular, housing galleries, shops, offices and popular dining and drinking establishments. From Federation Square, cross the street and walk for 10 minutes along the bank of Melbourne’s Yarra River – where tour boats ply a now-pristine waterway –until you reach the vast Crown Entertainment Complex (tel: 9292-8888, www.crowncasino.com.au). This houses Australia’s largest casino, with standard table games and an enormous expanse of slot machines (called poker machines or pokies in Australian parlance). The complex includes two upscale hotels and dozens of restaurants, including some of Melbourne’s best. Indeed, the presence of so many non-gambling diversions makes Crown pleasingly different from casino developments elsewhere. Just a short walk away, Docklands is an alternative after-hours area with a large sports stadium, new apartment high-rises and an up-and-coming restaurant strip – all built where former railway workshops once rusted.
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| Gleaming Grand Hyatt/ photo: hotel |
Most of Melbourne’s renowned precincts are in the inner-city suburbs, only a few minutes by cab (slightly longer by tram) from downtown. Locals and visitors alike adore the restaurant rows. Among the most outstanding are the multi-national Acland Street in St Kilda (a popular beachside suburb), Italianate Lygon Street in Carlton, Vietnamese and Greek-themed Victoria Street in Richmond, multi-cultural and “alternative” Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, Spanish Johnston Street (also in Fitzroy), upmarket Toorak Road in Toorak and oh-so-fashionable Chapel Street in South Yarra. And there’s more, encouraging deeper exploration into pockets of Melbourne, brimful with Arabic, Turkish, Russian and other more recent immigrant influences.
Melbourne dining - and wine of course
Melbourne dining can be problematic. Too much choice. Often, the best option is to head for a promising precinct and then graze or imbibe on impulse. Still, there’s a substantial string of names worth noting. Deep breath...
Local power brokers head to Langton’s (61 Flinders Lane, tel: 9663-0222), which highlights exclusivity, and has a menu chock full of steaks and the freshest of fish. Grossi Florentino (80 Bourke Street, tel: 9662-1811) showcases chef Guy Grossi’s splendid Florentine fare in classic Italian surrounds. Bhoj (54 New Quay Promenade, Docklands, tel: 9600-0184) is tops among a growing range of sophisticated Indian options while Nyala (131 Brunswick Street, tel: 9419-9128) is a memorable oddity serving Ethiopian and other African cuisines. Flower Drum (17 Market Lane, tel: 9662-3655) is in the heart of Chinatown and has an impressive array of awards, consistently hoisting it among the best of Melbourne’s top-end Chinese restaurants. Once no more than a canteen for off-duty waiters, Waiters Restaurant (20 Meyers Place, tel: 9650-1508) has garnered a loyal following as a no-frills venue for succulent steak, catch of the day or heaped pasta.
Drinks-wise, Pellegrini’s (66 Bourke Street, tel: 9662-1885) serves the best espresso in town, Starbucks or no Starbucks. Jimmy Watson’s (333 Lygon Street, Carlton, tel: 9347-3985) has a secluded bamboo-shrouded garden out the back – a classy spot for sampling some of Australia’s best wines. With both its imported and home-grown musical acts, Bennetts Lane (25 Bennetts Lane, tel: 9663-2586) remains the best of the city’s jazz clubs while the Melbourne Supper Club (161 Spring Street, tel: 9663-2856) has comfy couches and upscale surrounds for post-theatre drinks. Nearby, Spleen Central (41 Bourke Street; tel: 9650-2400) is more boisterous but has a similarly enjoyable backdrop of recorded jazz and blues. Young and Jackson (at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, tel: 9650-3884) is Melbourne’s most famous pub with an outstanding steak-and-seafood eatery upstairs. Keep an eye out for the nude painting – Chloe – that has been on show since 1909 and scandalised the city in more restrictive times.
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| Yarra Valley wine land/ photo: Jaya Jiwatram |
Melbourne’s leading wine bar is arguably Punch Lane (43 Little Bourke Street, tel: 9639-4944), thanks to its extensive collection of wines and cheeses from different Australian production zones. Finally, tucked down a short alley you’ll find Gin Palace (10 Russell Place, tel: 9654-0533), a marvellously dark little joint (perhaps to mask an ill-matching collection of deep couches) with a wide choice of gins and other spirits. An appealing setting for romantic conversation or even shop talk.
Melbourne guide to art and nature
Melbourne’s cultural scene is anchored by the Arts Centre (100 St Kilda Road, tel: 9281-8000], which mounts classical music, drama, ballet and other performances. Look for the landmark building with its tall, distinctive spire at the edge of the Yarra. Its near-neighbour is the National Gallery of Victoria (180 St Kilda Road, tel: 8620-2222) with collections from old masters and contemporary greats in recently refurbished galleries. The National Gallery’s Australian collection – which includes Aboriginal, colonial-era and modern items – fills the purpose-built Ian Potter Centre on Federation Square, three minutes walk away on foot. The modernist buildings of the Melbourne Museum (11 Nicholson Street, tel: 8341-7777) contain a broad overview of the city’s history, people and lifestyles during different periods, along with clever interactive displays. However, a more specialist insight into Melbourne’s multicultural make-up is available at the Immigration Museum (400 Flinders Street, tel: 9927-2700). This is housed amid the grandeur of the 19th-century Old Customs House and offering the chance to clamber aboard a replica of a colonial-era sailing ship that carried immigrants to Australia in appalling conditions.
Melbourne has many grand old theatres, most clustered together in a corner of the downtown plot informally dubbed “theatreland”. Most of these have been impressively restored. Crowd-pulling musicals (of the Cats ilk) are frequently staged. The most ornate of these theatres are the Princess (163 Spring Street, tel: 9299-9800) and Her Majesty’s (219 Exhibition Street, tel: 8643-3333).
Inevitably, many visitors to Melbourne seek out diversions in other parts of compact Victoria – either as self-drive options or on widely-sold organised tours (ask at your hotel). Among the most popular out-of-town detours are the state’s ski resorts (in mid-year winter months), the Yarra Valley vineyard trail (stopping at cellar doors), the ocean-hugging Great Ocean Road (through rural arts-and-crafts towns and regularly included among the world’s great drives) and Phillip Island Nature Park (tel: 5951-2800) with its resident penguin colonies.
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| The Windsor takes a regal stand/ photo: hotel |
Phillip Island is linked to the mainland by a bridge. This is mass-tourism bus trip territory, so here’s a tip: splurge on the Ultimate Penguin Experience package at A$65 a head for a group excursion of no more than 10. Then find yourself whisked away to a beach with supplied night-vision glasses, watching the cute little critters make their nightly scramble ashore after a day’s fishing. They often waddle obliviously across the outstretched legs of visitors. Trips to see seal colonies and koalas can also be added. While day trips to Phillip Island are a popular choice, another possibility is checking in at one of Phillip Island’s many B&Bs, motels or hotels. A 20-minute ferry trip from Phillip Island is Victoria’s largest isle, French Island. It’s rural, has only a few guesthouses and offers tours to see some of the many koalas that call the island home (or at least would do, if they could talk). Surprisingly, considering its location under two hours’ travel from central Melbourne and the fact that celebrities such as entertainer Kylie Minogue have bought island homes, French Island manages to give the impression that it is far more remote than it actually is. As yet it’s visited by relatively few Melbourne residents.
Melbourne business hotels
A bed for the night in Melbourne? Melbourne business hotels, boutique options and budget digs offer a vast array of choice. My long-time favourite, along Spring Street and across from Victoria’s State Parliament and other imposing stone edifices, is a grand colonial-style pile called the Windsor. Nothing creaks internally these days, thanks to a multi-million dollar facelift bankrolled by its former owner-operators, Oberoi. The India-based chain has pulled out but standards haven’t slipped, and the now-independent Windsor is a claimant to being Melbourne’s top hostelry. The ambience is of an exclusive club; don’t miss afternoon tea at 111 Spring Street, an off-the-lobby restaurant. The 180 rooms are mid-sized with all expected business features, even if these are often cunningly concealed (so as not to defile the authenticity of a property that welcomed its first guests in 1883). The Windsor is good value, given that general manager David Perry – a maverick among Melbourne hoteliers – believes in reducing telephone and mini-bar surcharges, stating that guests are already paying “handsomely” for their rooms and that he wants them to “feel good’ and return.
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| Serene shades at the Sofitel/ photo: hotel |
Around the corner, at the fashionable “Paris end” of Collins Street is an altogether different but exceedingly stylish alternative, and one of the best Melbourne business hotels. The 363-room Sofitel – occupying the upper levels of a looming steel-and-glass high-rise – plays to the apogee of the market. Mind you, it’s a great place to take a leak. An insider tip is to ride the lift to the 35th floor where, close to a bar called the Atrium, ladies’ and gents’ toilets offer memorable views of Melbourne and its environs. Back down to earth and the lobby-level Sofi’s is a pleasant piano bar, popular in the evenings with both locals and visitors. Rooms here are large with extensive Melbourne vistas and business needs are efficiently met. My laptop and cameras fitted easily into the in-room safe.
Down the street, the Grand Hyatt is a full-service 548-roomer with a distinct “big hotel” feel. The Bar Deco regularly features jazz, and is a fine example of the lobby level’s opulent art deco style. The hotel is renowned for having one of the city’s best health clubs. Rooms are large and immaculate, with customary business amenities. A more intimate mood is apparent at the smaller, 240-room Park Hyatt, an art-filled option set in parkland close to the State Parliament. It has garnered a slew of “best hotel” awards, and checks in a mix of corporate travellers and well-heeled vacationers. Its rooms are spacious, with rich browns dominant. The sleekly contemporary Radii Restaurant and Bar sprawls across five levels, and is one of the city’s best-regarded spots for business entertaining. I spied a former Victorian State Premier on my last visit.
An easy seven-minute amble from Spring Street across Fitzroy Gardens parkland will find you at the 400-room Hilton on the Park, looking decidedly spiffy after a recent makeover. As one of Melbourne’s older five-star hotels, it has also remained one of the most popular. The cricket fraternity are avid fans thanks to its location – across Wellington Parade from the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Indeed, upper-level rooms with a view of the action sell out fast when major cricket matches are on. Rooms are compact but come with Wi-Fi capabilities and Sony PlayStations. The pool is a stunner, and overlooks the cricket grounds, and the Park Lounge is a hard-to-rival spot for thirst-slaking at the end of a busy day.
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| Crown Towers, room with a view/ photo: hotel |
Downtown’s Marriott (166 rooms) is another good Melbourne business hotel, supremely central at the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets. Because several of the city’s live theatres are close by, the hotel – formerly Rockman’s Regency – is often the thespians’ choice. The lively Lounge Bar bubbles with theatrical talk after each final curtain and Essence, with an emphasis on mod-Oz cuisine, is popular for pre-theatre dinners. Rooms are business-like if a tad plain-vanilla, but have expected inclusions, and service throughout is cheerily competent.
Across the Yarra and a few minutes’ stroll from downtown, is the 387-room Langham (a former Sheraton), which dominates Southbank’s Southgate entertainment and shopping complex and anchors a riverbank promenade of bars and restaurants. A showpiece staircase leads grandly to the lobby level. Aria, with subdued lighting, is one of the city’s more refined hotel lounges. Rooms are large, contemporarily furnished and come with usual business amenities. Request a river view.
A hop and a skip from here along the Yarra are two large, linked properties: Crown Towers and Crown Promenade, each with close to 500 rooms. Internally linked to Crown Casino and numerous restaurants, the two share reservations systems and other infrastructure. Crown Towers rooms are super-large, many with views of the Yarra and skyline. However, I confess to preferring the newer, less gaudy Crown Promenade with its clean-lined minimalist décor. Both hotels draw a mix of business and leisure customers, have large safes (for the big winners out there) and supply a full range of business amenities. Downstairs, restaurants and bars range from Melbourne’s most expensive to its cheap-and-cheerful options (around 40 at the last count), but a stand-out is Silks, Crown Towers’ own Cantonese eatery presided over by esteemed chef Yan Yeung.
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| The Langham's Chuan Spa/ photo: hotel |
Tucked along one of Melbourne’s signature lanes is the Adelphi, a slick 34-room hideaway with a mixed bag of holidaymakers and business trippers. It’s understandably favoured by architects and interior designers – its own architects are prominently noted in the hotel’s promotional literature and its jet-black leather landscape looks freshly torn from the pages of an architectural glossy. The hotel’s most dramatic feature, however, is its rooftop swimming pool, which boasts a see-through Perspex floor jutting out above Flinders Lane. It makes for a queasy, exhilarating splash around, and I never fail to enjoy standing at the deep end and staring through the floor at the procession of worker bees below. Bathrooms are as designer-driven as the rest of the property, complete with Bulgari toiletries. Business services are on tap and Ezard, one of Melbourne’s most raved-about modern-Australian restaurants, is just downstairs from the lobby. (“Modern Australian”, by the way, is a hard-to-define cuisine. It uses fresh local produce, tends to be light rather than heavy and is much like Californian except that there are stronger Asian influences and less fear of spice.)
For a fine Melbourne boutique hotel choice, try the 59-room Lindrum, in a former pool hall which later served as the editorial office of a daily newspaper. Rich wood panelling and deliberately under-stated lighting are features of this singularly hip outpost. In-room DVD and CD players are served by a good in-house library. Small, intimate and appropriately named to honour billiard-table surfaces, Felt, the hotel’s 36-seater restaurant, is dominated by chocolate-coloured wood grains and burnt-orange curtains. It is where chef Simon Murphy’s modern-Australian creations bring out the best in Victorian beef, lamb and seafood. Regulars include creative folk from the advertising, fashion, media and music industries.
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| Old-time glitz at the Lindrum/ photo: hotel |
However, pre-eminent among Melbourne boutique hotels is the 40-suite Lyall. Showbiz and sports celebrities are a dime a dozen in this all-suite hotel. The location is discreet – a quiet, leafy residential spot just off South Yarra’s buzzing Chapel Street. The Lyall is as well known for the extensive treatments at its health spa as for its stylish lodgings. Suites have space to stretch aplenty, capacious safes and customary business amenities. The Library is where guests go to surf the Web, read or relax quietly over drinks – and, yes, there is a large collection of books to borrow. Owners Rowina and Peter Thomas provide hands-on management at this independent five-star, and pride themselves on name-calling. The right names of course.
A friend who runs a one-woman business on a shoestring swears by the Causeway. It’s cheap but definitely not nasty. In fact, its 82 rooms are pleasant and superbly maintained, if small and non-memorable. You’ll have everything you need – just don’t swing too fat a cat. It’s the place ideal for anyone who doesn’t need all-encompassing business services and is happy with a TV set and mini-bar. Another friend also stays here regularly on his frequent leisure trips to Melbourne. “Step outside and you’re smack in the heart of Melbourne’s shopping and business district,” he notes. “At the price, it’s remarkable.”
Suppose you’re at the airport with an early flight the next day. The 276-room Hilton International Melbourne Airport – linked by covered walkway to the terminal – comes from the latest-generation of gleaming-white Hiltons. Rooms are large, uncluttered and business friendly. Its outlets, conveniently grouped together, are the fine-dining Airo Restaurant, the casual Café Airo and the imaginatively named, cocktail-proficient Bar Airo. If you’re not staying, Hilton outlets make a tranquil change from in-terminal options – and well-positioned monitors all but ensure you won’t miss your flight.
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