What Are Things To Do In Melbourne With Kids?

There are many things you could say about our beloved home city of Melbourne, and one of them is that you are never going to be bored! This is especially true for exploring all the fun places to go in Melbourne for kids.

We love getting out and about and exploring the best things to do in Melbourne with kids and feel like experts now that we have discovered so much of the city with our own three kids.

So please bookmark this page or take notes because we have SO MANY fun things to do in Melbourne for kids in this article that you will want to keep coming back to discover what you should do next!

Things To Do In Melbourne With Kids

While Melbourne is known to have some amazing wineries, bars and nightlife, there’s also plenty to do in Melbourne with kids. Do your kids have varied interests?

That’s not an issue since there’s something to cater to different interests.

From heading on a safari adventure to learning more about native Australian animals and getting the creative juices flowing with lego, this list will cover it all.

Read on to find out more about things you can do in Melbourne with kids.

Melbourne Museum

At the top of our Melbourne things to do with kids, the list is Melbourne Museum – and it’s a great option. The museum itself is an interesting place to walk around with kids of all ages. Permanent exhibits include Dinosaur Walk, with many dinosaur bones, Wild, with many stuffed animals, Marine Life and Bugs Alive, with insects, spiders and snakes.

Other exhibits detail evolution with information on DNA and Charles Darwin; the legendary Phar Lap or the interactive exhibit on the Mind. Sure exhibits will appeal to your kids no matter their age.

However, if you have younger kids, especially preschoolers (although our slightly older kids love it too), they will especially enjoy the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery. This area is perfect for discovery and playing, from climbing up giant nets to looking for dinosaur bones. This one is a huge hit with our kids, and you are sure to have kids fun in Melbourne here.

What is especially awesome is that kids enter free. Adults are currently $15.

Being located in the Carlton Gardens right on the CBD’s edge makes this an easy place to visit as well. There are trams along Nicholson Street to get extra close, or you can walk from Parliament Station or the free city circle tram. There’s a big playground in the gardens as well.

Melbourne Zoo

Besides Australia’s oldest zoo, it also has numerous attractions, from the Butterfly House to the Gorilla Rainforest. You’ll also get to see plenty of native animals such as kangaroos, koalas, wombats and more.

One of the most famous attractions is the Trail of the Elephants, as you take a peek at these magnificent animals. Children will also love the zoo’s new walk-through Lemur Island exhibit as they’ll be close to these charismatic creatures. Those aspiring to work in a zoo will love the Keepers Kids play space along with the Growing Wild interactive exhibit.

Despite lacking Taronga’s view, it could be my favourite zoo in Australia, so no wonder they listed it at the top of my ultimate list of things to do in Melbourne with kids. My earliest memories of Melbourne Zoo revolve around a gorilla named Mzuri. He was born just before we moved to Victoria and made the gorilla’s the most popular exhibit during the 80s. 

Taking my kids to the Royal Melbourne zoo is always a highlight of our Victorian holiday trips.

With over 300 different species worldwide, the Melbourne Zoo keeps the kids busy looking for each different one. The highlights are usually the incredible Butterfly House, which is warmed at 28 degrees and has so many glorious butterflies that often land on you for a rest, and the gorillas. The Keeper Kids is also pretty awesome for little kids.

Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium

SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium is one of Melbourne’s popular places for kids. Here, you can discover life under the water with many great experiences. For example, the penguin playground (my favourite) can watch penguins play or Coral Caves with colourful tropical fish. In addition, there’s a stingray area and crocodiles. 

Many tanks of fish and coral and my kids’ favourite, the touch tanks where you can touch underwater creatures like starfish and sharks’ eggs. We also love the rainforest area, especially in winter, as it’s always humid. There are informative talks, and there is also a 4D cinema. We had lots of fun watching an Ice Age movie when we were there, complete with lots of gusts of air and some unpleasant lights.

The only downside is that ticket prices can be high, and it doesn’t take that long to walk around the aquarium. However, it is one of the fun places for kids in Melbourne, which your kids are sure to love – mine did! SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium is easy to reach in the CBD on the Yarra River. You can walk from Flinders Street station, Southbank or catch any tram along Flinders Street. Buying tickets beforehand is easy and allows you to enter without lining up.

Queen Victoria Market

Visiting Melbourne is never complete without a trip to the iconic Queen Victoria Market. It is my favourite place to shop when in Melbourne with kids, and never go past a tub of pickled octopus! When It was a local, they would buy all my veggies here as they were fresh and dirt cheap.

Retaining its original marble counters, the Deli Hall is a must stop for its extensive range of local and imported cheeses and preserved meats. If you’re polite and smile a lot, you may even get to sample a treat or two. Depending on the day, you will spot livestock, fashion finds, and the amazing F Shed Laneway.

During summer, right through until early March, you can enjoy the Summer Night Market, where you and the kids can enjoy delicious street food stalls, great shopping and enjoy free live entertainment.

Healesville Sanctuary

If your kids want to interact and see native Australian animals up close, Healesville Sanctuary is the place to be. Here, the habitat also mirrors the animal’s natural habitat, so you’re getting a completely authentic experience. Spend the day with your kids wandering around while meeting koalas, wombats, wallabies and more. 

You’ll even get to see some of Australia’s most dangerous reptiles and unique native birds. So if your kids want to interact and see native Australian animals up close, Healesville Sanctuary is the place to be.

Here, the habitat also mirrors the animal’s natural habitat, so you’re getting a completely authentic experience. Spend the day with your kids wandering around while meeting koalas, wombats, wallabies and more. You’ll even get to see some of Australia’s most dangerous reptiles and unique native birds.

Puffing Billy

If you’re looking for what’s on in Melbourne this weekend for families, we suggest looking at Puffing Billy. This steam train service is over 100 years old and makes for an amazing day out among things to do for kids Melbourne offers.

Puffing Billy is one of Melbourne’s extremely popular kids attractions for both locals and tourists and ordinarily operates daily. The track was built in the early 1900s to connect remote regions and has since become a tourist attraction. Puffing Billy is not the name of one train but the various models used on the track.

Your trip starts in the eastern town of Belgrave, just 36km from the CBD. This town has some nice shops and cafes to explore before making your way to Puffing Billy.

You can take several different routes from Belgrave, including the track to Gembrook return, which is the longest, with 1 hour and 50 minutes between stops and 6 hours in total. Belgrave to Lakeside return only takes 1 hour between stops and three and a half hours in total, with time to explore Emerald Lake Park. There’s also Belgrave to Menzies Creek, which is just a 2-hour journey in total, 25 minutes between stops. The timetable depends on which journey you take.

Carriages are open-sided, which adds to the experience. You can also add a lunch pack to your visit or stop at a cafe on select routes. All trips from Belgrave pass through Sherbrooke Forest and Trestle Bridge which are excellent photo opportunities. This is an easy-going journey with stunning scenery and one of the good activities for toddlers Melbourne offers.

Scienceworks

Some great museums in Melbourne appeal to kids, but this one is definitely at the top of fun activities for kids in Melbourne. Scienceworks is a science museum, and the whole museum will appeal to kids. There are some great exhibits, and everything is hands-on and educational. We have been to many science museums worldwide, and this is one of the best.

We particularly enjoy the Sportsworks area where we can race each other, try a wheelchair race, see how high we can jump and much more. So it’s not just doing but also learning the science behind movement. Think Ahead is another fun (and thought-provoking exhibit) about how the world might change and how we might live in the future, from what we eat to what our cities look like. There is a planetarium as well with regularly changing shows.

There is also a new preschooler area called “Ground Up: Building Big Ideas Together”, which is fabulous. Your young ones can design and fly planes and play with the new “car wash”. There’s even an area just for babies. With two-year-olds, this is a favourite of the toddler activities Melbourne offers.

Scienceworks is part of Museums Victoria and, like Melbourne Museum, kids enter free. Adults are currently $15. If you are a Melbourne resident, they highly recommend a Museums Victoria membership. It’s currently only $59 for an adult or $99 for a household, and then you can go to these two museums and the Immigration Museum as much as you want for twelve months.

Scienceworks is in Spotswood. It can be reached on a train to Spotswood or plenty of parking around the museum. 

RAAF Museum

The RAAF Museum is housed on the first airbase in the country and covers the history and development of our nation’s air force. If your kids (or you) love planes, then this is a great place to visit.

Many things to do in Melbourne with family are around the city centre or the eastern suburbs. The RAAF Museum is a great option for those west of Melbourne. Being not that far from the Princes Highway, it’s easy to get to from the centre of Melbourne as well.

The exhibits are split between a converted hanger and aircraft parked outside. Inside the hangar is a range of displays and exhibits, including two very old bi-planes. Outside is a whole range of old aircraft, some of which you can even sit in! say this often (especially on this page), but historical bits and pieces and their captions can be boring to kids who can’t or can’t be bothered to check them out. 

Luckily, most kids love things that move they don’t get to see every day. Especially when they get to imagine them controlling it. And fighters and jets generate some of the highest levels of excitement.

The RAAF Museum is open 10 am to 3 pm Tuesday to Friday, and 10 am to 5 pm on weekends and public holidays and is located in Point Cook, approximately 30km from the centre of Melbourne. Entry is free!

Pegasus Apart’Hotel

For a cool, family-focused apartment in a hotel with a range of facilities, including an indoor pool and restaurant, Pegasus Apart’Hotel is where we head. The fully self-contained apartments make life easy, and we love splashing in the heated pool. 

Some two-bedroom apartments have a kids room with a theme and games console. They are a big hit with our kids! This hotel is located near the big Flagstaff Gardens, which has a playground and is just a short walk into the city.

Sovereign Hill

Sovereign Hill is a wonderful place to visit when searching for what to do with kids in Melbourne. This was a gold mining town, and it looks the same as it did during the gold rush period. It takes about an hour to reach Sovereign Hill from Melbourne. Entering the town is like stepping back in time, and there are loads of things to do here. 

The beautiful architecture includes a mix of shops, authentic hotels and other structures that look as they did in the past, and you’ll see plenty of people dressed in 1850’s attire.

Walk the town and watch the magic of gold pouring, see blacksmiths at work, take a horse and carriage ride, watch a candle making demonstration, get some traditional sweets like boiled lollies from the sweets shop, see a performance in the Victoria theatre and so much more! A must-do on our things to make Melbourne kids list is seeing the musket firing demo to get a sense of being back in the past.

One of the best parts of Sovereign Hill and a major attraction on our things for kids to make Melbourne list is panning for gold. Kids can grab a pan, search for their gold, and keep whatever they find! It’s usually just a few specs but still lots of fun.

There are also a bunch of tours and demonstrations. Most of these are included in the ticket price, but some cost extra. For example, they recommend an underground mine tour, either of the Red Hill Mine (included) or the longer Quartz Mine Tour (an additional cost). 

There are also plenty of places to eat and to stop and relax. If you want a full day out in a unique historic town, a visit to Sovereign Hill is one of the highly recommended things to do in Melbourne. Kids will love it!

MCG – Melbourne Cricket Ground

While sports lovers will enjoy visiting the Melbourne Cricket Ground, there’s also plenty to see.

Not only is this Melbourne landmark one of the seven wonders of the sporting world, but cricket is also a huge sport within the city.

On non-event days, you can take a backstage tour onto the turf and look at the changing rooms in the stadium.

There are plenty of tours that will take you to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

The knowledgeable tour guides will give you an in-depth understanding of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, and children are sure to enjoy the behind-the-scenes tour.

National Sports Museum

Located inside Melbourne’s home of sport, the MCG is the newly redeveloped National Sports Museum. A visit to the MCG on it is arguably one of the most iconic Melbourne things to do with family; visiting the museum means you can visit the great temple of Melbourne without needing to wait for some event.

Even if your kids aren’t much into sport, this museum is designed to be highly interactive and engaging for everyone – especially kids. With a whole stack of multimedia and interactive displays for various sports, it’s a fun place to get the kids moving. These exhibits are great for kids of (almost) all ages because they are a lot of fun.

For kids who are into sport, there’s a lot of iconic exhibits to see. Even though my kids weren’t alive when most of these things became icons, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in going through it all and trying to explain it (the videos and interactive stuff can help a lot but explaining why Dennis Lillee’s aluminium bat is a big deal was still hard).

The museum runs tours of the MCG throughout the day. Usually, you can even walk on the ground itself. During the footy season, you can walk all over the ground. In cricket season, access is more restricted.

The museum is closed during events, although it is still open before the event for most events. The museum is open before football games, for example, and entry is usually discounted on those days.

If you’re off to watch a match with your kids, then a visit to the National Sports Museum makes for one of the most classic family events Melbourne does best – sport with a side of the sport.

Ovolo Laneways

This is the favourite hotel for a family stay in Melbourne, and we have had many stays here.

This boutique hotel has a range of apartment-style accommodation perfect for families at the top end of Little Bourke Street, close to Parliament Station and the city circle tram. It’s surrounded by restaurants and near the theatres.

The rooms themselves are functional and fun. However, where this hotel stands out is all the included extras – there is a free minibar and snack bar on arrival, free breakfast, free happy hour and (what we found very handy) a free lolly bar. We let the kids grab a couple of lollies on our sightseeing return if they behaved, and it works beautifully.

Lake Mountain Alpine Park

There are two options for day trip family outings from Melbourne to see some snow: Mount Donna Buang and Lake Mountain. While Mount Donna Buang is closer to Melbourne and is free to enter, Lake Mountain is the place if you want a snow guarantee.

Lake Mountain has two snowmakers in operation on its toboggan runs, so you’ll always get some snow during the snow season. Mount Donna Buang’s snow is completely natural and can come and go quickly.

Lake Mountain possesses two fun toboggan runs and cross country skiing runs. While they can get busy, it is still a huge amount of fun in the way only sliding down a snowy slope can be. The cost of entry to Lake Mountain is easily worth it, given that there is always some snow, but there are excellent facilities there. There’s food available as well as a place to rent all the snow equipment, from sleds to ski boots, you need. It makes Lake Mountain an easy day trip for the snow.

We had a great visit to the snow at Lake Mountain, and it’s a great option for where to take kids in Melbourne (or around Melbourne) during winter.

Werribee Park

If you’re in Werribee, don’t forget to soak up the richness of Werribee Park and the heritage-listed Werribee Mansion. Pack a delicious picnic and enjoy it in the gardens or the endless green fields surrounding the mansion. Here, you’ll get to see a colourful array of 5,000 unusual historic roses from around the world at the State Rose Garden. Children will also enjoy wandering around the cave and taking a peek at the ornamental lake.

Much restoration has also been done to the fruit orchard originally planted by the Chimside family in the late 1800s. This is truly a great place to visit to unwind, relax, and learn a bit more about the history in the area.

Altona Miniature Railway

The Altona Miniature Railway is another simple transport-related attraction that’s another of the fun family things to do in Melbourne. A private club runs the miniature Railway with 1.5km loops of 5 inches and 7.5-inch tracks to run their engines. The club opens its gates to the public once a month (currently the 3rd Sunday of every month).

On its open days, it’s possible to get rides on the many small trains that run around the multi-looped track—the miniature engines all tow miniature carriages, which are like big padded benches on wheels. The trains don’t go too fast, so even little kids can sit and ride safely. Rides go for 10 to 15 minutes, and you can buy tickets for a ride or a multi-ride pass.

Although it’s not the most exciting ride, it is very fun. Maybe for some older kids, it’ll be a bit boring, but for many kids (and adults), it’s a fun day out. There are a few other minute railways around Melbourne, the Diamond Valley Railways being one of the best ones – but in my experience, the Altona Miniature Railway is one of the largest and is closest to the city, which makes it one of the best options for kids rides in Melbourne.

The Altona Miniature Railway is located in Altona North and is approximately 15km from the city centre and 2km south of the West Gate/Princess Freeway, which is the quickest way to get there by car. The Railway is also 2km from Newport Station and can be reached by foot in 25 to 30 minutes (at an average walking speed). Newport Station is on the Werribee and Williamstown lines whose trains depart Flinders Street and go through Southern Cross and West Melbourne stations.

Conclusion

Melbourne is a vibrant city, known for its friendly disposition and that you can experience four seasons in one day. What you may not know is that it has a plethora of attractions to see and do, ensuring that you never exhaust your list of things to do in Melbourne with kids today.