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What are your 5 favourite suburbs of Melbourne, excluding the CBD itself?
Mine would be:
Fitzroy: Yes it's sort of hipsterish and gentrified, but it's always had a Bohemian vibe, and it still feels grittier and artier than the likes of South Yarra.
Carlton: Italian food. Need I say more? And the Exhibition Gardens/Museum, I like hanging out here.
Footscray: Where I live. One of the most interesting and multicultural places in Australia, and just all round unique. The most interesting mix of people. Cheap food, markets, groceries...where else in Melbourne do you see old women in conical hats selling vegetables and herbs on the footpaths?
Brunswick: I love the ethnic vibe of Sydney Road, and a lot of great pubs/live music venues. Great place for Turkish food.
Williamstown: It ain't Fremantle, but it reminds me of it, and I love all the old buildings on the promenade. I like the vibe here more than St. Kilda.
Despite living here I don't profess to be an expert. I've spent along time in the SE of Melbourne so there will be some bias!!
Frankston: OK, I know all the Bogan [ for the US a rough translation of that is trailer trash] jokes from the Footy Show. But Frankston has come a long way in 20 years. We have a cultural centre where you go to concerts and events. The library is next to it and is far more modern than the old location was near the Train Station. There are some pretty decent shops. Both obscure [ reminds me that tabletop board gaming shop...] and mainstream Myers etc complexes. You have the food strip where you can get pizza or Souvlaki or other hot food. It doesn't deserve the reputation for crime either. I am happy to walk through Frankston. Better than Noble Park or Dandenong. Those places scare me. There is also a park with a lake. What more can you want?
Here a cyclist goes up Oliver's Hill. He starts in Frankston. Then he goes further away from it and up the hill at about 3:00. Then at the end [6:00ish] he is at the top of Oliver's Hill where it is borderline Mt Eliza [ the next suburb] and Frankston. In their ride you see the bay, Port Phillip Bay with a beach, and houses and some shops.
Come on! Don't listen to Sam Newman! He's a flog. We love Frankston
Brunswick: I agree with the above poster. I call it the "red brick suburb" I used to get on the tram and walk through there and buy an ice cream. Does Franco Cozzo still have a furniture store there? He is an icon. Like this:
Seaford: at this point you could debate whether it's a "suburb" of Melbourne any more. I used to go to school here. There were sheep next to the school and you would pat the sheep through the fence. Seaford also started the first Safety House Program in 1982/83 when I was there. So we made all those Safety House signs that you see everywhere where kids can go into if they are worried, bullied etc.
Moorabin: OK, the train station is the worst in Melbourne. No argument. But Moorabin has the trump of an airport for small planes and a plane museum. I used to go there in the 80's and watch the planes land and take off.
St Kilda: not just the palm trees. I used to go a park there with slides and stuff. The beach is good too.
I should probably still have listed Hawthorn/Camberwell/Kew/Prahran/Windsor.etc, those areas all seem sorta of similar to me, leafy, wealthy.etc. Footscray is pretty unique, although Sunshine is similar. Dunno about the Brunswick one, but the one in Footscray is still here, greeting you everytime you cross the Maribyrnong. Never a dull moment in Footscrazy. Still, I prefer the inner western suburbs like Kensington, Flemington, Ascot Vale, Footscray, Yarraville.etc to the likes of South Yarra and Toorak. While gentrifying, they're still less pretentious, really multicultural and interesting. Love the leafy streets in like Kensington, and Racecourse Road has excellent restaurants.
Yeah the Mornington Peninsula is nice, only been there a couple of times. Frankston wasn't as bad as what I was told. I've seen worse. Dandenong/Springvale.etc just seems like a less interesting Footscray, though Little India is good for Indian, although the western suburbs have a lot of good Indian places too.
There's a lot of interesting suburbs around Melbourne but I think most of my favourite parts are to the south east of the CBD. The areas around Chapel st/South Yarra and St Kilda are my definite favourites in Melbourne, but generally the whole area is pretty nice especially around the shopping strips with tram lines running down the street like Elsternwick, Malvern and Balaclava.
Footscray's an interesting part of the city, it's a Vietnamese suburb which looks and feels very similar to Cabramatta in Sydney but it was a nice surprise to find out there's an African side to it as well.
Fitzroy's a little different though, at least imo. Being a suburb that's talked up so often (I remember there was this survey once which put it as one of the edgiest suburbs in the world), the last time I was there it felt a bit spaced out and even a little quiet for my expectations. Maybe I was there at the wrong time (was a wednesday at around 5pm). There were some rather interesting shops though, and the rest of Melbourne more than makes up for it.
Last edited by ciTydude123; 06-15-2015 at 08:00 AM..
Moonee Ponds is my absolute favourite, and I think it's underrated. Lots of things to do and close to the city. It has a lego store for gods sake, what more could you want.
The other 4 would have to be Carlton (italian food and cinema nova), Williamstown (the beach), Hawthorn (only been a couple of times but I like the architecture), and Keilor (great little place in the west, good memories from there as a kid).
I should probably still have listed Hawthorn/Camberwell/Kew/Prahran/Windsor.etc, those areas all seem sorta of similar to me, leafy, wealthy.etc. Footscray is pretty unique, although Sunshine is similar. Dunno about the Brunswick one, but the one in Footscray is still here, greeting you everytime you cross the Maribyrnong. Never a dull moment in Footscrazy. Still, I prefer the inner western suburbs like Kensington, Flemington, Ascot Vale, Footscray, Yarraville.etc to the likes of South Yarra and Toorak. While gentrifying, they're still less pretentious, really multicultural and interesting. Love the leafy streets in like Kensington, and Racecourse Road has excellent restaurants.
Yeah the Mornington Peninsula is nice, only been there a couple of times. Frankston wasn't as bad as what I was told. I've seen worse. Dandenong/Springvale.etc just seems like a less interesting Footscray, though Little India is good for Indian, although the western suburbs have a lot of good Indian places too.
Frankston has unique personalities
Mr Bogan: The Frankston Pines end.
Mr Yachtie: The beach end at Oliver's Hill. The top of Oliver's Hill also has the most expensive houses in Frankston.
Mr Business: go inland from Mr Yachtie to the shopping complexes.
Mr Country: the area towards Mornington that has a wild country look with infrequent shops and winding roads through some high schools.
Can I list my least favourite, lol? Definitely Patterson Lakes, for the tacky architecture. Oh what a shambles it was down there! It's like everyone wanted desperately to recreate the Venice, LA feel... so kitsch.
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