How to make the most of a Melbourne winter weekend
Late winter is quietly one of the best times to be in the city, if you plan around the cold rather than against it. Here is how to spend a weekend well, indoors and out.
The short answer: build a Melbourne winter weekend around warm rooms, long meals and a couple of brisk walks between them, and the season stops being something to endure. The city is designed for weather like this - it just asks you to plan.
Melbourne in August is cold, grey and prone to rain that arrives without warning. It is also, for the same reasons, at its most characterful: the laneways steam, the small bars fill early, and the big cultural institutions are warm, free and largely uncrowded. In this guide we walk through a weekend you can actually follow, from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, with the changeable details flagged so you can check them before you head out.
What should you do on a Friday night?
Start indoors and start early, because winter evenings in Melbourne belong to the small bars. The city’s basement and first-floor bars - the ones tucked up a staircase off a laneway - are built for this weather, and they tend to fill from about 6pm as people knock off work.
If you would rather be up high than underground, the rooftop scene does not close for winter; several venues run heaters, blankets and a retractable roof. We have pulled the best of them together in our guide to the best rooftop bars in Melbourne’s CBD.
For dinner, winter is dumpling season, and Melbourne does dumplings as well as anywhere in the country. Chinatown sits right in the middle of the city and is a short walk from most of the CBD - our guide to Melbourne’s dumplings and Chinatown covers where to point yourself.
What is the best way to spend a Saturday?
Give the middle of the day to one of the city’s big cultural institutions, because they are warm, free to enter and genuinely worth your time. The National Gallery of Victoria keeps its permanent collection free year round across two sites, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square is free to enter for its general galleries.
A workable Saturday looks like this:
- Morning. Coffee and breakfast in a laneway - Melbourne’s coffee culture is the thing the city is most quietly proud of, and a wet morning is the right time for it. Our laneway coffee guide explains where to start.
- Midday. The NGV on St Kilda Road, or the Ian Potter Centre and ACMI at Federation Square. All three keep you dry for a couple of hours and cost nothing for the permanent collections.
- Afternoon. A wander through Fitzroy or Carlton, both a short tram ride from the centre, for browsing, a warm pub and an early dinner. Our local’s guide to Fitzroy maps it out.
If the weather turns properly foul, lean into it - the city holds up better than most under rain because so much of the good stuff is indoors and close together.
Are there markets and events on in winter?
Yes, though winter programming changes year to year, so this is the part to check before you commit. Melbourne’s markets do not shut for the cold: the Rose Street Artists’ Market in Fitzroy runs every Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine, and the Queen Victoria Market has in recent years run a Winter Night Market on Wednesday evenings through the colder months.
Because these dates and formats shift from season to season, it is worth a quick look at the Queen Victoria Market’s What’s On and the City of Melbourne’s What’s On before you plan around any single event. Late August also sits at the tail of the city’s film-festival stretch and the front edge of football finals season, so there is usually something on somewhere.
What about Sunday?
Keep Sunday slow and local, because that is what the day is for. A long breakfast, the weekend papers, a market wander and an early roast in a corner pub is a very Melbourne way to close a winter weekend, and none of it requires the weather to cooperate.
If you want one gentle outdoor stretch, the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Tan track around them are good in any weather short of a downpour, and they are a short walk from the NGV. For more no-cost ideas, our roundup of free things to do in Melbourne is built for exactly this kind of day.
A weekend at a glance
| When | Indoors option | Outdoors option |
|---|---|---|
| Friday night | Laneway small bars, Chinatown dumplings | Rooftop bar with heaters |
| Saturday midday | NGV or ACMI (free) | Fitzroy or Carlton wander |
| Saturday night | Small-bar dinner | Rooftop nightcap |
| Sunday | Long breakfast, corner pub | Botanic Gardens and the Tan |
The one thing to remember
Check the changeable details before you set out. Opening hours, market nights and event dates move around in winter more than any other season, and a two-minute look at a venue’s own page is the difference between a good weekend and a cold walk to a closed door. Plan around the weather, keep the walks short and the rooms warm, and a Melbourne winter weekend is hard to beat.