Best Parks in Melbourne: Royal Botanic Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens and Bay Trails

Melbourne is one of the world's most green metropolitan cities, with an extraordinary network of urban parks, bay foreshore, and accessible national parks within an hour of the CBD. The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria on Birdwood Avenue in South Yarra is a 38-hectare heritage garden directly south of the CBD on the Yarra River bend, with over 10,000 plant species in a landscape that is among the best urban botanic gardens in the world. Fitzroy Gardens in East Melbourne, a 10-minute walk from the CBD, has a 19th-century formal garden layout, Captain Cook's Cottage from Great Ayton in Yorkshire and the Conservatory on Wellington Parade. The Port Phillip Bay foreshore from St Kilda to Brighton and beyond provides 30+ kilometres of walking and cycling paths alongside beaches. Dandenong Ranges National Park in the Dandenong Ranges, 40 minutes east, has mountain ash forests, the Puffing Billy railway and the William Ricketts Sanctuary. The Yarra River corridor from the CBD to Warrandyte provides an off-road cycling and walking corridor that reaches suburban bushland. Mornington Peninsula National Park, 90 minutes south, protects the surf coastline and features Cape Schanck lighthouse walking tracks.