Best Walks in Melbourne: Bay Trails & Ranges

Melbourne's walking landscape is defined by its diversity: the inner-city river and bay trails (the Yarra, the Merri Creek, the Capital City Trail, the Bay Trail) provide outstanding urban walking; the Dandenong Ranges (45 minutes east) provide rainforest and fern gully walking of extraordinary beauty; the Mornington Peninsula National Park provides clifftop coastal walking; and the Otways (2 hours south) provide temperate rainforest of a completely different character. Melbourne is extraordinarily well served for walkers across all fitness levels and interests.

Yarra River Trail — the Yarra River corridor from the Dandenong Ranges to Port Phillip Bay provides over 100km of walking and cycling paths, with the inner-city section from Princes Bridge to Docklands and back via the opposite bank providing a 6km flat, family-friendly river walk through Melbourne's inner city parklands and the Birrarung Marr riverside parkland. The annual Melbourne Marathon follows the Yarra corridor.

Capital City Trail — the 29km Capital City Trail loops around the inner city, connecting the Yarra River, the Royal Park, the Princes Park, and the Merri Creek via a largely traffic-free path. The full loop takes approximately 6-8 hours on foot (or 2-3 hours by bicycle) and provides a complete circuit of Melbourne's inner-city green corridor.

Dandenong Ranges — the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk in the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk in the Dandenong Ranges National Park (1000 Steps, Ferntree Gully), the Lyrebird Walk at Sherbrooke Forest, and the tracks around Olinda and Sassafras provide outstanding fern gully and mountain ash forest walking within 45-60 minutes of Melbourne. The William Ricketts Sanctuary at Mount Dandenong is an extraordinary combination of bush walking and sculpture.

Mornington Peninsula National Park — the Bushrangers Bay Walk (6km return from Cape Schanck, graded moderate) provides spectacular Southern Ocean cliff scenery and is one of Victoria's finest day walks. The Cape Schanck Lighthouse (1859, still operational) provides additional heritage interest. The Flinders to Bushrangers Bay section can be extended for a longer coastal walk.

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