This place, for me, is a must every year – and I go more than once, if possible. 2020 made that a bit difficult but this year I’ll make up for it and have gotten a season pass so I can go a few more times. The Blue Lotus Water Garden is on Warburton Highway,…
Category: Holiday activities
Holiday Season – Lysterfield Lake Park
One of my favourite places to visit. Literally only 10 mins from where we live but it’s not a long hike from the city of Melbourne either. Lysterfield Lake Park is popular for so many reasons: walkers, runners, mountain bikers, people coming to have a picnic, relax, swim in the warm weather, learn to sail,…
Holiday Season – another garden
I’m actually going to take you away from the Dandenong Ranges (shock! horror!) and encourage you to head south to the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens. My husband I visited there for the first time last March, with my husband’s mate Dave. Dave had told us about these gardens and we thought we’d pay a visit. It…
Holiday Season – more gardens
Cloudehill is another wonderful garden to visit – but it’s more than that. It’s also a nursery and has a cafe where they cook their own produce from their magnificent vegetable garden. A must see all year round really. They also have a couple of books – one very large one with the story of…
Holiday Season – visit some gardens
There’s a lot of gardens to visit in the Dandenong Ranges. You could pick almost any major road and see a sign leading to a garden to visit. Alfred Nicholas gardens is just out of Kallista heading up towards Olinda and is worth visiting. You could come across any number of photographers at one of…
Holiday season – Grant’s Picnic Ground
Grant’s picnic ground is in Kallista, and is part of Sherbrooke Forest. To get to it you need to drive through Belgrave up Monbulk Road, or through Monbulk and down Monbulk Road. It’s just near the roundabout in Kallista. This is a popular tourist spot and every day you’ll see tourist buses there with loads…
Holiday Season – Lilydale Lake Park
Looking further in the Dandenong Ranges and moving towards the Yarra Valley, you’ll find the Lilydale Lake and Park. Lovely place to take your family. Room to play games, to go for walks or runs, to watch the multitude of birdlife there or just enjoy the serenity of the place.
Holiday Season – Gembrook
A bit further up the road from Emerald is Gembrook, where the Puffing Billy stops and then makes its return trip to Belgrave via Emerald. Again, a lovely drive through the Dandenong Ranges region. Gembrook has a monthly market, except for December, being held on the fourth Sunday of the month at Puffing Billy Railway…
Holiday Season – Emerald
As well as catching the Puffing Billy to Emerald, you can drive there. It’s a scenic drive along the Belgrave-Hallam Road in the Dandenong Ranges region. Once there you can visit the model train museum, walk around the lake and park, go on the paddle boats, feed the ducks and have lunch on the lawns…
Things to do in the holiday season – Puffing Billy
Here, in Australia, it’s also school holidays – the summer period. And so I intend highlighting places to visit in my region for readers, should you be looking for somewhere to visit or something to do. First off, I want to showcase the Puffing Billy steam train. My husband I hear the whistle every day…