6 of the 7 Continents For The Budget Traveler: Kayaking, "Candy", Wine, & Jumping Off Buildings In Melbourne

My first trip to Australia I extensively explored Sydney in 2009, 10 years later for 2019 I decided to give Melbourne a shot. In the month long trip there Melbourne was dedicated 7 full days. In retrospect I could have definitely shortened that to 4 or 5, and would have preferred more time in Cairns. Did I hate Melbourne, hell no! I just loved Cairns so much! But okay, you didn't click here to read about Cairns, here's my go to advice and experiences I had in Melbourne:

Airbnb was totally the way to go, it's huge down there and I saved a ton verses the hotels which were jammed packed for the Australian Open, I had no idea about this, and my host must not have either! I paid $70 a night for a modern high rise apartment with full kitchen, gym, pool, etc verses friends I met that were paying closer to $400.
Stay by the river, preferably close to Federation Square. All the cool places you can visit are close to there except...
St. Kilda. I took the metro to St. Kilda and Uber back for a reasonable price. St. Kilda is a great beach side suburb of Sydney. For me personally it was also an important place as my favorite book of all time "Candy" by Luke Davies, later a film with Heath Ledger took place a lot there. It was mesmerizing to pass buildings or locations that I knew historically existed in the book, and retrace the footsteps of my favorite novel ever, and that aside, like I said, it's a cool beach to visit!

By day make your way to Federation Square. the square itself is not overly impressing, but it's a good launching place to see historical Melbourne, the graffiti alleys, some museums, and also walking distance to the Eureka Sky Deck, the highest view of the city.
By night Crown Melbourne Casino is a great launching spot for night life, there are certainly plenty of restaurants, bars, and clubs all over the city, but to start I would at least walk here because from there you can either stay in the casino, or walk along the river for some great little river side or dock places, none of which I can recall the names of now! Enjoy the flame show at the casino as well! Be warned, the city is pretty dead Sunday through Wednesday for crowded bar nights.

My favorite restaurants were not found in either of those places though, the pedestrian only streets had the best food! From local Australian to world cuisines, and a budget for all budgets. As in every city in Australia, the meat pies were my favorite food!

If you want to do something a little different rather than a normal city tour I opted to Kayak Melbourne (https://www.kayakmelbourne.com.au/). They offered all sorts of tours. I did the city sights, but there were also sunset tours and tours with some tasty fish and chips. Since I'm not big on sea food, city tour was good for me! It was a real cool and different way to learn the city.

Now once the hustle and bustle of the city is getting to you and you want a day away, go for a Yarra Valley wine tour! These range from $90 for a group tour (my choice) to over $1,000 for a private tour with options of riding an air balloon above.

Now I'm not a huge wine buff, though I'm slowly becoming one through life and travel events... but I can tell you Yarra Valley you can't go wrong. The climate produces years and years of great wine. So unless you are a fan of a certain distribuor or vineyard you won't go wrong with the tour you choose.

I also love cheese and chocolate so I chose a wine, cheese, and chocolate tour for about $90. It included pick up and return from down town Melbourne. The wine was flowing so I don't remember exactly where the unicorn below came from!

Helen & Joey Estates Yarra Valley

Now saving the best for last, as much as I said at the start of the post I wish I spent more time in Cairns I will say right now Rap Jumping Melbourne is worth a stop to Melbourne if you were coming for this alone! I have been skydiving a few times, I've done bungee jumping once, & cliff jumping into water countless times. I've repelled before for both work and mountain climbing, but that was going backwards nice and slow, to do this going face forward at almost a free fall was one of the most intense and extreme things I've done on a trip before. You will not be disappointed! Enjoy my Rap Jumping Video below!

So overall weighing in between the big 2. I think I will go with the majority and say that Sydney was better for me than Melbourne. But I had a great time there and if you have time definitely see both. It's a little sister to the big sister Sydney but as the same time had it's own unique charm and flavor. As with all trips, I'm grateful for everything Melbourne gave me. It ended an epic month in Australia I will never forget.