Layover in Melbourne, can we get out?

Hey guys, I really appreciate your inputs even though some of that could be repeated, but since I am not familiar with the city and with the names etc, I have to go through all of the posts once we are close to fly and prepare notes for myself. I think I should look for an off-line app so that I can use there an not get lost.

It was a good point that it could rain and I should be thinking about that too. I know that 5-6 hour max is nothing to visit a couple of things in a metropolitan like Melbourne, but this is just a layover and we had to take this flight so I look at this as an opportunity and I have realized having long layovers is actually good. What we want to get out of this is just to see the city, see people and walk around a bit and see the atmosphere, see how people treat us and how the whole system looks like this. It is our first time in Oceania so we are visiting a different continent for the first time so whatever we get is a bless. So if we can simply check CBD out, I think we can see some vibes there and that should be pretty much enough. The whole thing is to understand whether we should go back there sooner or later and spend a lot more time. Believe me, I have been to countries for a couple of days and I have been like that was waste of time, so people matter and it is not just buildings and views.

Again, I appreciate all of the input and in terms of food I have a very strict diet, I don't eat meat except ground beef if well done, or chicken breast, no pasta, no sea food, no Asian food and the list is long enough to make you feel this is weird. That is why I usually go with vegetarian options or anything that is safe to eat. So I am not the person to get excited to try local food unless I make sure it is something I can eat. I heard there are variety of restaurants so I hope we will be good. We want to grab something quick if we rush or sit down and enjoy a 30 min while taking rest if we were tired. It all depends on how we feel so food will not be our concern in a 5-6 hour visit.

Hi again ejeddi,

In brief for you and by points.
You will really find Melbourne easy to get around.
. Buy a ticket and get the red bus outside airport terminal or get a taxi there ( not sure if Uber does the airport )
. Red bus drops you in the bowells of Southern Cross Station and walk outside and you are on Spencer Street.
. You can get a city map and info at the Red Bus Kiosk.
. Melbourne with its CBD square set up is hard to get lost in - just remember the Sun is in the north.
. Yes, no end of dining possibilities about the CBD.
. Flinders Street is the southern side of the CBD and there are a few bridges where you can cross over the Yarra River which is just the other side of main Railway Lines and Urban/regional station which are adjacent to Flinders Street, main station being called Flinders Street.
. On Southbank of the Yarra is Southbank, a huge commercial development with a couple of food mall areas and many restaurants.
.Some of the best parts of Melbourne are outside of the CBD so you will not be getting a full flavoured taste.
. As for people, Australia and our Capital cities are becoming more and more a licorice all sorts, Australia it is often said being a land of many immigrants and it could even be said that the very first arrivals, our indigenous people trekked across from the Asian mainland so many thousands of years ago, they being followed not even 250 years ago by English/Irish of the first fleet which was mainly convicts and over the years, especially since WW2 we have been getting immigrants from somewhere like 200 nations.
. As one who was raised and has also lived for many years at various times in different areas of Victoria including Melbourne, I notice a very significant difference these days when I visit, especially around the CBD, quite a lot of different languages being spoken other tan English to go with many immigrants from countries where English is not so common.
. Some people say you need to get out of cities to see the real Australia whilst others will say our cities are the real Australia as it is becoming, there certainly becoming more and more an Asian/Indian/Middle Eastern look about our two largest cities.
. Personally, in my own travels, be it Australia, Asia or Europe, I do find that cities and outside of them are different, people in less population dense locations usually more inclined to have a chat.
In summary, I would say do not judge Australia by how you are received or perceptions you get of just Melbourne CBD.

And if you get thirsty for an ale or whatever, there's two good pubs along Flinders Street I would recommend, first being the Iconic Young and Jacksons right opposite Flinders Street Railway Station and then a block or two east along Flinders is the Duke of Wellington hotel, so named after the Duke of Wellington who was in fact an Irish chap and so a distant relative of some of us including yours truly.
Anyway, such pubs do serve reasonable food and are the type of pace where background noise permitting you might be able to engage in some meaningful conversation if that is possible in Melbourne but Footy season has finished,Cricket has not quite started and so there may be a possibility!

I would just like to add, don't be too ambitious in wanting to see it all.
The wait for the Skybus can be quite long, though they now have double deckers, and no longer too many of those long buses, (be prepared to climb stairs), sometimes you might have to wait for a 2nd bus to do a pickup.
Also at Southern Cross, the arrival bus from the airport will drop you off at Southern Cross near the ticket booth, but for the pick up, go down the opposite ramp, opposite to the one you arrive at Southern Cross Skybus stop.
Skybus is fast, but is quite pricey, taxi can be faster, but can cost quite a lot.

aussieguarddog43,
After I checked the SkyBus prices I got what you said, this is nuts! Why public transport is so expensive?! I have never seen any airport service this expensive in my life. Even in Canada with all high expenses to keep a good public transport, good roads (extreme cold is very destructive, snow removing from roads costs millions only inside the city let alone the highways etc) and long way to airport it is 10 CAD per day and you can use the same ticket if your round trip is within 24 hours. Same for Europe that we got round trip tickets for 16-21 Euros depending on the city. I know Europe is more developed in terms of the public transport, but still the ride can be 45 mins or so with an Express train.

Right now I am concerned since I will not have phone roaming there so I cannot call, or use internet unless I find some free wifi somewhere to avoid disasters, I know it is rare to happen, but I am just right now trying to figure out what is my best plan to not lose time in finding directions and at the same type keeping my costs down.

Is Uber an options at all better than SkyBus?

I don't think the SkyBus is especially expensive ... the train in from Rome Airport is $21.00, the shuttle in from Heathrow more than that.

And to be honest, stressing over the cost of a shuttle bus would seem a sub-optimal way to start your Australasian holiday. And there will be plenty of free WiFi available ... even on the SkyBus.

I just found this website, which looks interesting, but I have no idea whether it remarks true attractions, or tries to guide people to the marketed destinations?

http://www.seerinteractive.com/labs/destination-layover/mel

Being a former Melbournite ejeddi I do not usually resort to using sites like you have linked but there are many differnt sites which will have a lot of info about various things and there is always a possibility of being overwhelmed.

I listed for you by dot point just how easy Melbourne is to have a look at and with such a short time that is all you will be doing and so if you use the Skybus and I have never waited anymore than 10 minutes for one so it is not likely that you will wait a long time and I am not absolutely sure but I do not think too many planes arrive around the 9 am mark and your arrival, leaving to the CBD and returning will be outside of peak travel times.

I'd just be having a look at Melbourne CBD online, maybe even print yourself off one and make a few notes of places that may interest you and their location and then on arrival, if using the skybus, there will be a What's On Booklet available, a map usually in the centrefold of that and if you do study the very square arrangement of Melbourne Streets, you will see how easy a place it is to navigate and if for some reason you are running ate, taxis are quite numerous.

As for costs: " and long way to airport it is 10 CAD per day and you can use the same ticket if your round trip is within 24 hours. Same for Europe that we got round trip tickets for 16-21 Euros depending on the city. " Whilst I am not so familiar with costs of Canada or all of Europe, there are a few reasons for the Skybus costing:
1. Though it is transport for the public, it is not a government entity nor subsidised.
2. It is a 24 hour service and in Melbourne not being a 24 hour city, patronage that patronage erably and as such there are times that patronage fares would not cover operating costs so gaining income has to take that into account.
16 -21 Euros is getting somewhere near A$35

But all that said, I know how you feel and many other people arriving to Melbourne will often have in their mind, heck, my airfare from Sydney was only $50 if they got a good deal and here I am paying a third of that to travel the last 20 km.!
That's life and I suppose highlights how cheap/km. flying is.

But the bottom line OP is that we really need a heavy rail, light rail, tram, or monorail service, from the Airport into the City ... it is so blindingly obvious that that must be the reason it isn't built.

From your website OP, they are a very general middle-of-the-road list for each city. For the Melbourne offerings, the ones in bold I would endorse in your short stay (plus the others I mentioned up-thread, such as the free city tram, Southbank, and the coffee shops off Collins Street).

If you're after sophisticated retail (or just like upscale window-shopping), Melbourne Central > Emporium > David Jones > Myer ... is excellent.

Eureka Tower
Royal Botanical Gardens
Queen Victoria Market
The Great Ocean Road
The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant
Chin Chin Restaurant
The Final Step
Northland Shopping Centre
Black Pearl

So they're a mix of public versus strictly commercial (and those ones I assume pay to be listed - Northland Shopping Centre (!) wouldn't make most people's Top 20 list, I expect).

We will not shop for sure since there is no time and we are not looking to add to our luggage.

Now I realized that I read the prices in USD while it is AUD and there is some relief there, but public transport is the responsibility of the government and it cannot be in the hand of some folks that one day can control the prices and call for whatever they feel it is fine to charge people. If Australian government or city of Melbourne is not taking care of this, then they have to at least supervise it and try to facilitate this to the private sector so I agree with railway solutions 100%. You don't have the freezing temperature problems so it should not be a hassle. It is a proven model and one cannot oppose to it.

I checked google maps and I liked the board walk of Yarra river. What we would need is some nice area so that we can walk and stretch, then swing by in a restaurant and have a meal and take some rest and then move on again.

We will be with comfortable clothes and we will be too dressed for fancy shops etc

A lovely walk is from Crown Casino - a walk or a short tram ride from Southern Cross Station - over the Yarra, turn left and walk Southbank, pass the St Kilda Road Bridge onto the walkway along the Yarra to the next bridge near the Tennis Centre and MCG (one of the world's most renowned cricket | football stadiums) and then back through the parklands into the city, and possibly Chinatown.

We do it regularly. Here is the Google Map.

If you want a quick bight, there re a number of good food-courts around - Crown Casino, Southgate and Melbourne Central are among the biggest. Crown Casino also has a couple of acres of slot machines, if that appeals!

Australia has a complicated (and not bad) mix of public and private transport, with a lot of services (trains, buses, trams, ferries, shuttles, airports, etc) privatised ... they are commercial, but their fares and performance are subject to a lot of government oversight.