melbourne city tour- Discover Melbourne.

"Simon from "The Private Tour Guide" knows a lot about Melbourne and shares it all with you as he takes you to the best known places to see. It's a private tour for only the people who booked it whether that be 1 or 6 people, driving in his Mercedes people mover....Simon, having been born in Melbourne and grown up here, happily drove and walked us through the Queen Victoria Markets (very clean floors for a food market, by the way - dare I say better than ours!), If I lived there, I'd do my weekly grocery shopping there. Then he took us to Little Italy and to a famous italian pastry/cafe Brunetti's where I had a pastry with a coffee. Simon gave us the history of places as we went to see them so we could get a feel for how they came to be. Then we walked about 15% of the Botanical Gardens. Very serene and lovely with weddings taking place on a beautiful sunny day. A very green, lush place. We did a quick photo stop at the Shrine of Remembrance where we got a hilltop view of the city. As the Formula 1 race track was being prepared for the following weekend, Simon was able to take us for a ride on it so we could imagine the drivers racing at 350km/hr while we drove a comfortable 50km/hr. He then took us to the colourful Brighton Bathing Boxes at the beach citing these small pretty storage boxes cost a whopping $600,000 to own and all of them were closed and not being used when we went there. We drove through St Kilda with running commentary. As time permitted, we were able to see the colourful, graffiti'd city alleyways and lovely, quaint and classy arcades with famous tea houses with a music trio playing some wonderful classical music to set the tone of the place. We walked past lots of popular and quaint cafes and restaurants which I would try out if I lived here. The atmosphere was great! The food that we did eat in Melbourne during our stay was delicious. All in all a great way to spend 5 hours getting to know Melbourne so I would highly recommend using The Private Tour Guide if you want a private tour. Simon is good at telling you all you need to know about Melbourne and answered any question I had. Thanks for a great tour. I now have an appreciation of why this city has such a good reputation and will definitely be back to soak up some of the culture it's renowned for."- Michele