What is the Melbourne self-guided walking tour?
The Melbourne self-guided walking tour is a walk through the city centre that you time yourself, with audio narration on your phone in the place a guide would normally take. Allow about 3 hours: 64 minutes of that is walking, the route covers 5 km, and at 10 stops you stand still and listen. Nothing begins at a set hour and nobody moves you along.
The narration opens under the spires of St Paul's Cathedral, consecrated in 1891, then crosses to Melbourne Town Hall, where the Beatles waved from the balcony in 1964. Later you hear how Ned Kelly's armour reached State Library Victoria and how he was hanged in the bluestone Old Melbourne Gaol in 1880, why the City Baths were built to keep the town out of the polluted Yarra, and whose graves lie beneath Queen Victoria Market.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 64 min · 5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, Greek, Italian, Chinese
What you do on the walking tour
Listen
At every stop the audio gives you the history of the place, the stories attached to it and the details you would otherwise walk past. The same text sits on screen if you would rather read.
Stroll
The grid of straight streets keeps the links short, and Google Maps shows the way: 64 minutes on foot in total, 5 km from the first stop to the last.
Break off
Stop for a flat white or an hour in a museum, then pick the walk up again, the same day or another one.
Eat and browse
Tips for food and shops near the route come with the walk. The opening stop and the order of the stops are yours to change in the app.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who the walking tour is for
A first visit
One walk puts the churches, arcades, markets and parks of the centre in order and explains what you are standing in front of.
Walkers who dislike groups
No umbrella to follow and no meeting point: you stay where something holds you and move on when you feel like it.
A half day to spare
3 hours covers the old centre, which leaves the rest of the day for the Yarra, a gallery or the tram out to the bay.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The walk stop by stop: St Paul's Cathedral, State Library Victoria, Queen Victoria Market, the Yarra
10 stops · about 64 min walking · start: St Paul's Cathedral · finish: SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium
The walk opens at St Paul's Cathedral, across the road from Flinders Street Station, and follows Swanston Street north by way of Melbourne Town Hall and St Francis' Church to State Library Victoria. A couple of blocks on come the Old Melbourne Gaol and the Melbourne City Baths, after which the route turns west for Queen Victoria Market and the lawns of Flagstaff Gardens. William Street then brings you back down to the river, past the Hellenic Museum in the old Royal Mint, and the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium on the Yarra closes the walk. You can open at another stop or reorder them in the app, and no stop asks for an entry ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1St Paul's CathedralStart
Melbourne's Anglican cathedral stands on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, opposite Flinders Street Station. It was designed in Gothic Revival style by the English architect William Butterfield and consecrated in 1891, while its tall spires were only added in the 1920s and 1930s. Outside stands a statue of the navigator Matthew Flinders.
2Melbourne Town Hall
The Town Hall on the corner of Swanston and Collins Streets was built between 1867 and 1870 to a design by the architect Joseph Reed. Its clock tower is named after Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who laid the foundation stone in 1867. In 1964 the Beatles waved to huge crowds from its balcony.
3St Francis' Church
St Francis' Church on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, begun in 1841. Before St Patrick's Cathedral was built, it served as Melbourne's first Catholic cathedral. Behind its simple Gothic Revival front it is still one of the busiest churches in the city.
4State Library Victoria
Founded in 1854, State Library Victoria is one of the oldest free public libraries in the world. Its domed La Trobe Reading Room opened in 1913, and the collection includes the armour of the bushranger Ned Kelly. On the front lawn, look for the statues of St George and the dragon and of Joan of Arc.
5Old Melbourne Gaol
This prison on Russell Street was begun in the 1840s in dark bluestone, a volcanic rock used for many early Melbourne buildings, and closed in 1924. The bushranger Ned Kelly was hanged here in 1880. Today it is a museum about crime and punishment in colonial Victoria.
6Melbourne City Baths
The City Baths on Swanston Street opened in their present form in 1904, with striking bands of red brick and cream render and small domes on the roofline. Public baths stood here from 1860, built so that locals would stop bathing in the polluted Yarra River. The building is still a public swimming pool.
7Queen Victoria Market
Queen Victoria Market opened in 1878 and is one of the largest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere, with long sheds full of fruit, vegetable, meat and deli stalls. Part of it stands on the site of Melbourne's first cemetery, and many graves still lie beneath the market grounds.
8Flagstaff Gardens
These gardens take their name from the signal station set up on the hill around 1840, where flags told the town below that a ship had arrived. Even earlier, some of the first settlers were buried here, and a monument recalls them. The hill was laid out as a public park in the 1860s.
9Hellenic Museum
The Hellenic Museum on William Street presents Greek art and history in a city with one of the largest Greek communities outside Greece. It occupies the former Royal Mint, a classical building from the 1870s where gold sovereigns were once struck from Victorian gold.
10SEA LIFE Melbourne AquariumFinish
The aquarium sits on the north bank of the Yarra River at the corner of King and Flinders Streets. Inside live sharks, rays and a colony of king and gentoo penguins, while outside the riverside promenade leads back towards the city centre.
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Poland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
It was a great fun. The guide was super funny . Great trip outside of city crowds. We also saw kangaroos when passing by kangaroo ground.