Melbourne is such a vibrant city. Not only is there lots to see and do, but plenty of it's free. Did you know, for instance, that you can take a little tour around our picturesque city on the
Tourist Shuttle Bus or City Circle Tram for free? Tourists do it all the time. Here's to spending a day seeing the city through new eyes, and doing as the tourists do.
The
shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes between 9.30am and 4.30pm. If you do the tour non-stop - complete with on-board commentary during which I'm sure we'd all learn something new - it takes 90 minutes.
However, it's much more fun to hop on and off as you please and explore some of the 13 destinations the bus stops at.
Check out Chinatown, shop your socks off at Harbour Town Shopping Centre or the Queen Victoria Market, investigate the Immigration Museum, or maybe soak up a spot of winter sun at Southbank if you're lucky. For all the stops, and the route, click
here.
The
City Circle Tram tours the CBD and also takes in some of the city's main attractions. There's automated audio commentary running through points of interest. It runs every twelve minutes each way seven days a week, with the clockwise service taking in Flinders Street, Harbour Esplanade, Docklands Drive, La Trobe Street (I'd get off here for the Greek pastries), Victoria Street, Nicholson Street, Spring Street and back to Flinders Street. The anti-clockwise service, obviously, does the same route the other way round.
The City Circle Tram service, which uses Melbourne's historical
W-class trams, has become an institution, carrying millions of passengers each year.
By the way, any idea how many nuts and bolts it take to hold one of these babies together? 880 nuts and 1,250 bolts, to be precise. Well, there's your bit of trivia for the day.
