As you may know, Melbourne is one of the most popular cities to visit in Australia. It is also one of the most populated. This is probably because Melbourne is home to several businesses and is considered a central business district (CBD) where tall buildings surround you. In addition, it has a good share of tourist attractions that people go to each year. The movement of the city simply doesn’t have a pause button. And that is exactly why I was looking for places to relax in that was just in Melbourne.
I’m not a big fan of going out on weekend getaways just for two days’ worth of relaxation. To me, it causes more stress and anxiety than actually calming my senses after a full week of work. I also didn’t want to feel that I was running out of time in a place and dread having to go to work on Monday. Somehow, I found that weekend getaways do that to you. You get all excited for this trip that you can’t wait for Friday and during the actual trip, you’d immerse yourself fully while at the back of your mind wishing the vacation never ended.
I wanted to avoid finding myself in that situation so I decided on looking for day trips in Melbourne that would allow me to relax. At first, I was looking at spas, but then again, I can always go to a spa even during weeknights. I was looking for an activity that I couldn’t do during the weekdays because of work. That’s when I came across my physiotherapist’s post.
My physio posted a blog entry just a few weeks ago talking about a short cruise she had in Melbourne. It turns out that it was a day trip that she took on a Saturday and it made her appreciate her surroundings even more. After looking at my physio’s blog post about a cruise in Footscray, I was inspired to do the same thing.
I never actually experienced going on a cruise, much less going on a day cruise going around the city I was very accustomed to. It never entered my mind that it would bring out something extraordinary because, to me, I experience and see it every day. But as you will read later on, I was very wrong to assume this.
Since I was inspired to take a short cruise around Melbourne, I went through some cruise companies that toured the river Yarra. The Yarra River is found in Victoria, Australia, but its lower parts extend to Melbourne. I was eyeing that cruise so I looked up several trips online.
In one of the river cruises I came across, they were offering two options – Cruise A or Cruise B. Both were just an hour each and they were pretty affordable considering that I would go to more than four places in an hour. And because I wanted to explore Melbourne more, I bought both cruise options.
Cruise A was more of a downstream trip. It was headed towards the port of Melbourne which is actually very important to Australia’s economy. It has one of the busiest ports in the country. While approaching the port, we passed by Southgate and Crown Casino. Crown Casino is the largest hotel and casino and Australia. We also passed by the World Trade Center, Polly Woodside, and the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. These structures were all big and impressive, but nothing impressed me more than the Bolte and Westgate Bridges. It was just a sight to see passing underneath and not just looking at it from a distance.
Next up was Cruise B. While Cruise A was downstream Cruise B went in the opposite direction. If you’re looking for a scenic trip with nature, then Cruise B is for you because you’d be passing the Yarra River that’s lined with trees and bushes. You would also get a glimpse of the Royal Botanic Gardens where beautiful landscapes and a wide variety of plants and flowers are planted. We also passed several sports centres like the Melbourne Sports & Entertainment Centre, Olympic Park, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
In both cruises, I thought that it was merely for sightseeing. I was wrong again because we had a tour guide that explained to us the history and background of some of Melbourne’s tourist destinations. Coming from someone who lived in Footscray, I didn’t think there was a lot I didn’t know.
Overall, my short cruise trips were very relaxing. They made me feel like a tourist in my own home and that I could still find relaxation even in a busy city such as Melbourne. The tour guide was funny (laughs make you relax too), the trip was nicely paced, and the company was great. It’s something I would definitely recommend to people who just want to take things a little slower during the weekends. I certainly will be back for this cruise in the future when I have guests visiting from overseas.
