Hi, everyone! Welcome to my very first blog! My first travel blog to Melbourne i might add :). (**am excited!:D)
This is my first self-planned trip since the past 26 years! (**sounds old heh?) And Melbourne turned out to be my country of choice. Previously, I had followed trips to other countries offered by different travel agencies with my family. It has been my dream to be able to travel independently.
Today, I'm proud to say that my dream came true. And I have to say that Melbourne is definitely a good choice to start off, especially for a beginner like me! Just in case you are clueless about how to arrange your trip in Melbourne, this is my itinerary which you can refer to:
[ Transportation ]
Melbourne is a beautiful city where tourists can explore conveniently. Trams, trains and buses are available in most places in Melbourne city. If there are 3 to 4 of you, yo itu can choose to rent a car as it is an affordable and convenient option. By having a car, you can plan your road trip to places that are further from the city. Since there were only two of us most of the time during the trip, we relied a lot on the public transportation as it is a cheaper option to travel. All you have to do is to purchase a Myki card and you are ready to go!
We purchased our Myki cards at the airport as soon as we landed in Melbourne. (Note that we did the payment using credit cards. Cash was not acceptable at the counter in Melbourne airport.) Or you can also buy your Myki cards at convenient stores like 7-eleven. Free tram services are provided if you are in the free tram zone. While for places that are out of reach by means of public transportation, we booked our day tours through Klook and KKday before the trip itself. You can also book your day tours from the travel agencies in Chinatown if you didn't plan ahead of your trip.
[ Accommodation ]
We booked our accommodation through Airbnb. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to stay in Kensington, which was outside Melbourne CBD. As there were only two of us, it was relatively more expensive for us to rent a room in the CBD. You might be able to rent a spacious and affordable room in the city if you're travelling in a group of 3 or more . After much hesitation, we chose to stay further from CBD, yet somewhere near the public transportation. It ended up to be a wise choice as Kensington was a quiet and lovely town.
Moreover, the expenses we spent on transportation was lower than that of staying in the CBD. The only con of this location was we might need to have our timing well planned as the frequency of the train available at night and during the weekend were lesser. There were times where we had our day tours ending late at night(roughly 11.15pm) and we needed to wait for a longer time for the train to get us back to Kensington. However, most of the day tours do offer drop-off service to the hotels in the CBD after a tiring day. So, it is definitely one of the perks of staying in the city, not to mention easier access to restaurants and public transportation.
[ Budget ]
We bought our tickets to Melbourne through AirAsia Free Seats Promotion. The tickets were purchased within RM1100 per person inclusive of luggage, seat selection and in-flight meal. The budget for this Melbourne trip was expected to be RM5000 per person but it ended up to be lower than that.
I do understand that there are a lot of things to worry about in your preparation for the trip, I know I have. If you would like to know more about how to travel worry-free in Melbourne, do
CLICK HERE as I had compiled all the important tips based on my personal experience.
Without further ado, let's start to recap on my amazing journey in Melbourne! (**Yay :D)
