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Melbourne

Eating & Drinking

Melbourne is possibly the best Australian city for eating out with a good selection of restaurants – many of them falling within a backpackers' budget.

Much of Melbourne's culinary scene can be attributed to the city's rich ethnic heritage with different immigrants introducing their cuisine. Melbourne's Italian restaurant strip is on Lygon Street in Carlton, while Greek restaurants are clustered along Lonsdale Street in the city centre and Chinese restaurants are a couple of blocks south on Little Bourke Street. Victoria Street in Richmond is the best spot for Vietnamese food and definitely worth the trip. Bring your own bottle of wine for a cheap night on the town.

If you're preparing your own food, then head to the Queen Victoria Market near the corner of Elizabeth Street and Victoria Parade. This is one of the world's largest markets and is particularly good value for meat as well as fruit and vegetables.

The most centrally located supermarket is the Safeway in the QV Centre on Swanston Street. If you're staying at one of the hostels in St Kilda, then you'll find both a Coles and a Safeway supermarket on Acland Street. If you're staying at one of the hostels in the Windsor/Prahran/South Yarra area, there are two 24-hour supermarkets (a Coles and a Safeway) near the corner of Chapel Street and Commercial Road in Prahran.

Melbourne has great nightlife with some good inner city pubs and clubs. A few of the big nightclubs have regular backpacker nights that are excellent value. Tuesday is the main backpacker night with the Hard Rock Café (1 Bourke Street, Melbourne) serving cheap drinks 7.30pm-11.30pm and Inflation (60 King Street, Melbourne; website www.inflation.com.au) giving away free beer for two hours.