Fern's Hidden Winter Garden at Hotel Indigo Extends Into Spring
By popular demand, Melbourne's most talked-about winter dining escape isn't going anywhere just yet. Fern's Hidden Winter Garden, the botanical conservatory experience at Fern Bar & Dining inside Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins, has been extended through to Sunday 4 October - with a fresh spring makeover to match the change of season.
Best Family Activities in Melbourne | Full 2026 Guide
Melbourne is "family friendly" and is one of those rare cities that genuinely delivers for families, whether you're visiting for a weekend or you've lived here for years and are always hunting for the next outing that will impress a six-year-old and a teenager in the same afternoon. From hands-on science museums to a zoo that's been delighting kids for over 160 years, the city and its surrounds pack an enormous amount of family-friendly fun into a compact, walkable footprint. Best of all, a lot of it is either free or very affordable, and almost everything is connected by Melbourne's iconic tram network.
Here's our definitive guide to the best family activities in Melbourne, covering everything from full-day adventures to short, sweet strolls you can slot in between meals.
Melbourne's Most Instagrammable Restaurants (2026 Guide)
There's a particular kind of Melbourne dinner where the phone comes out before the fork does. I don't say that as a criticism — some rooms genuinely earn it. After 15-plus years reviewing this city's restaurants in person, the venues that photograph best are almost always the ones that were designed with real intent, not just a feature wall bolted on for the socials. We have eaten our way through most of the CBD's grand dining rooms and the inner suburbs' moodier corners chasing exactly this list, and what follows are the Melbourne restaurants that consistently deliver the shot and the meal.
From a 300-metre-high dining room over the MCG to a century-old mural-lined institution on Bourke Street, here are Melbourne's most Instagrammable restaurants worth booking a table — and charging your phone — for.
Australia's Best Spirits Revealed: 2026 Australian International Spirits Awards Winners
Melbourne just crowned the best spirits in the country, and the winners' list reads like a who's who of Australian distilling - with a couple of genuine celebrity surprises thrown in. The 2026 Australian International Spirits Awards (AISA), presented by Melbourne Royal, brought together more than a thousand entries from Australia and, for the first time in the competition's history, international producers, all vying for the title of the nation's benchmark spirits event. And we were invited along to enjoy a stellar evening of celebrating "the best of spirits".
With a new immersive, roaming format at the Victoria Pavilion, Melbourne Showgrounds, the night ditched the traditional sit-down ceremony in favour of guests wandering between tasting stations, sampling Gold and Trophy-winning spirits, and meeting the makers behind them. I went along to see who took home the silverware - and the results are a genuinely great snapshot of where Australian gin, whisky, rum and tequila are heading in 2026.
Elará Melbourne: The Rooftop Venue Redefining Events Above the CBD
Perched above the Melbourne CBD, Elará Melbourne is the city's newest rooftop destination for luxury celebrations, elevated guest experiences and events that were never meant to be ordinary. Architectural, immersive and effortlessly refined, the space pairs sweeping skyline views with a striking glass atrium centrepiece, creating a setting that feels iconic from every angle. We attended the spectacular launch and felt this venue has a unique and desirable vibe and location in the city, and is more than ready to deliver for your next function.
Purpose-built for premium weddings, luxury social events, brand launches and sophisticated corporate experiences, Elará Melbourne strikes a rare balance of indoor and outdoor atmosphere without sacrificing comfort, flexibility or flow. From intimate gatherings to large-scale productions, the venue accommodates up to 180 guests seated or 300 cocktail-style, with the option to connect seamlessly into Evoqé Events below for immersive, multi-level events on an even grander scale.
Best Restaurants Port Melbourne: The Gilroy Sets the New Standard
Looking for a standout bar and restaurant in Port Melbourne? There's a particular kind of restaurant that Melbourne does better than almost anywhere else in the world, and it's not the degustation temple or the hatted fine-diner chasing a third chef's hat. It's the neighbourhood room that shines so that locals want to keep coming back - a bar you'd happily prop up alone with a negroni, and a restaurant serious enough to warrant a special occasion booking six weeks out. The Gilroy, tucked into Bay Street in Port Melbourne, is exactly that rare, difficult-to-pull-off thing. And having spent an evening working my way through its menu, I can say with some confidence that Port Melbourne has just landed one of the best openings anywhere in Melbourne this year. It's a bold claim in a city that produces new contenders for that title every month, but The Gilroy backs it up with a level of consistency, from front door to final course, that's genuinely hard to fault.
Best Doughnuts in Melbourne (2026 Guide)
Melbourne loves its doughnuts and we are somewhat of a "doughnut capital" of Australia. We queue for them at 7am in the cold outside a vintage van, we drive across town for a "bronut" stuffed with brioche and Biscoff, and we still argue about whether a hot jam doughnut from a market van beats an artisan number with a name longer than the ingredient list. We enjoy institutions like American Doughnut Kitchen, the Queen Victoria Market icon behind Melbourne's most famous Hot Jam Doughnut, who marked 75 years in business in recent times.
Every venue below is one we celebrate - from the third-generation family van that's been frying dough since 1950, through to the newer wave of Melbourne doughnut specialists doing genuinely inventive things with brioche, brûlée and everything in between. Whether you want nostalgia, novelty or something dangerously close to dessert, here's where to go.
Truffle Dinner Experience at Lord Lygon Dining + Bar
Truffle lover? Then let me tell you about the night four of us sat down at Lord Lygon Dining + Bar at Zagame House for their Truffle Dinner Experience - and walked out convinced it's one of the ultimate truffle events of the Melbourne winter.
Running 1 July to 22 August, the Truffle Dinner Experience at Lord Lygon pairs a four-course, truffle-driven menu at $85 with a flawless matched wine list for an extra $45 - and after working through all four courses I can tell you every dollar of it is worth it.
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