Be Our Guest: A Local’s Guide to Melbourne, Australia

It’s been a long time since I’ve last written a travel post, and FINALLY, today is the day! IT’S TIME TO REVEAL the project I was working on with you all and I’m happy to announce a new post series on the blog- “Be Our Guest”

About the Project: Be Our Guest

As you probably know, I love traveling as well as writing and sharing my travels experiences with you. 
 In the past year, I created a series of travel posts called “Travel Diaries”.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Prague, Berlin, and Rome and created a dedicated, full guide to each of those amazing places (check them out if you haven’t already).

Since I cannot travel everywhere in the world (as much as I want to! haha), I came up with the idea of creating travel guides to places all around the world with the help of… you, residents of the world. I believe that no one can really explain and write about a place better than a local– so those guides will for sure be both informative and unique.

The goal of this project is to make travel much more fun and easy for people all around the world. The guides will include tips & tricks, must-see places, favorite local spots that tourists don’t know about, vegan food places & shopping – all in one place so you won’t need to look for information elsewhere!

The first and very special participant is Janfi Omaña Araujo, a lovely Venezuelan girl living in Melbourne, which must be one of the most beautiful places in Australia. So without further ado, let’s start with Janfi’s Local Travel Diaries!

Melbourne Travel Guide (Vegan-Friendly) 

Hi! I’m Janfi, originally from Venezuela but now living in Australia. I’m super glad to be calling Melbourne home for the last two years and a half. To some, Melbourne is one of the vegan capitals of the world and I think that’s totally right with 66 exclusively vegan restaurants and great public transport. I believe it should be in every vegan’s travel wish list.

Things to Know Before Visiting Melbourne

+The first thing you need to know before visiting is that you don’t have to pay for a taxi or uber if you want to go from the airport to the city. The Skybus will take you there and will give you free WiFi.

+Once in the city if you think you’ll need to use the public transport you will have to buy a Myki card. Public transport here only runs with that.

+The best app to plan your trips inside the city and surrounding areas will be the PTV app that’s the official app of the public transport in Victoria. Although Google can give you the routes, this app will give you the disruptions you may encounter.

Must See Places In Melburne

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A must-see place, without a doubt, will be Brighton beach and the colorful bathing boxes. Besides that, you could have a beautiful picnic and walk at the Royal Botanic Gardens, watch the amazing sunset at St Kilda beach. You should explore the city lanes so you can see the street art and the cafes, and while you’re at it why not get into the arcades so you can see all the architecture and the beauty of everything.

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While walking around and hopping in public transport be mindful, traffic in Australia runs on the left-hand side, the last thing you want is to have an accident while you’re on holiday.

When you get tired of walking you can hop in the free city circle tram, it will give you a loop of Docklands and the Melbourne CBD and will tell you several facts about the city and its places, you will also find some vouchers and coupons inside for several other activities you may find interesting.

Vegan Restaurants In Melbourne, Australia

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Mantra Lounge

I’ve been vegan for a year and a half now, being here made it easy to be a smooth transition and soon after I became vegan I discovered my favorite place- which is called Mantra Lounge: it’s affordable, with excellent food and desserts that are 100% vegan, and it has an amazing staff. A little hidden gem in Carlton with the biggest cookies ever and the tastiest vegan lasagna!

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Herbivore Eatery

My other favorite restaurant that offers amazing burgers is Herbivore Eatery, located in South Yarra, and to me, the home to the best burgers in town, leaving speechless to vegans and nonvegans alike, beautiful little place with friendly staff. I’ve celebrated birthdays there and luckily is on my way home to have the occasional casual dinner.

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Mr. Nice Guys Bake Shop

For the birthdays and special days when it’s required a cake my place of choice will be Mr. Nice Guys Bake Shop in Ascot Vale everything is vegan and they’re really conscious about allergies. They have the fluffiest cakes and cupcakes and an amazing fondant artist. The coffee and the breakfast are amazing from the croissants to the unicorn waffles everything is just perfection.

Vegan Fashion In Melbourne, Australia

Vegan Style

when I’m feeling like I need some vegan fashion or basic vegan staples I’ll head to Fitzroy. This is the place for Vegan Style with a lot of vegan bags and shoes from all over the world.

The Cruelty-Free Shop

The Cruelty-Free Shop is a vegan supermarket: the home of the Vego bars, with their own cafe, vegan cookbooks, vegan fashion and just about everything you may need.

Vegan Events In Melborube, Australia

We can argue that Melbourne has the best vegan events in Australia, with the Big Vegan Market taking place in May each year, a two day market with all the vegan perfection you can imagine and more!

The Vegan Day Out is another great event organized by The Cruelty-Free Shop, involving many vegan and vegan-friendly places around Fitzroy. It takes place two times a year for the whole weekend, with specials and promotions in everything vegan.

When spring hits you can expect the Animal Liberation Victoria Spring Vegan Festival, a small festival compared to other ones but equally amazing, with the stall favorites we could find at any market and with many animal charities.

Lastly, the biggest one of them is the World Vegan Day festival. This one is just massive, filled with the regular Melbourne stalls and some other that come all the way from other states and territories. It is just a feast of food, goodies, live music, cooking demos, fitness zone, fashion show, speakers and even speed dating!

I really hope you enjoyed Janfi’s Melbourne Travel Guide and the Idea of the “Be Our Guest” Project! Let us know your thoghts in the comments below.

You can find Janfi on Instagram (here) and leave any questions you might have in the comments below!

Interested in booking a hotel in Australia or any other place in the world?   I highly recommend you to book your hotel with Booking.com by clicking here

want to learn how to plan the best trip ever? >> click here

For my ultimate packing guide (+packing list) click here

See you soon!

Noa

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*This is not a sponsored post.