Is your cruise ship visiting Melbourne? That’s great, there are so many things to do in the city such as shopping, dining and attractions. But not everyone knows Melbourne is surrounded by some stunning scenery and wonderful food and wine regions, such as the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula.
Melbourne is ideal for receiving cruise ships– it is situated on a deep, protected bay which allows even the large Cruise ship to dock at Station Pier in Port Melbourne.
Port Melbourne is a lovely bay-side suburb about 6kms from Melbourne CBD (or a 20 min drive, depending on traffic).
Being an experienced local tour operator, we understand the difficulties of organising cruise excursions – often you have a limited time to explore which doesn’t fit in with existing tours; most tours depart too early and arrive back too late for the boat and therefore not appropriate for Cruise schedules.
Many cruise lines have pre-organised tours that you can purchase whilst on your cruise, yes they do fit in with the ships arrival and departure times, but these are often inflexible, expensive, usually in large coaches with 50 or more other guests and often have only a small selection of destinations to visit.
This is why we recommend a local private tour.
Benefits of booking your shore trip with us –
- We pick you up directly from Station Pier
- Flexible – we can fit into your cruise ship shore excursion itinerary
- Locations you choose – see what you want in the time you have
- Escape the crowds! – we are a genuine small group tour, maximum 11 guests. This also means we can all board the bus and get going quicker.
- We are locals and will provide you with live commentary, local knowledge and answer your questions
- Affordable – our standard private day tours with driver/guide, comfortable air-conditioned vehicle, from $900. We charge for the tour, not per person, so if you have 10 friends on board with you, that’s only AUD $81 each! Only thing you need to pay for is food for the day or you can bring a packed lunch from the ship.
When you choose a private cruise ship to shore excursion you can have flexibility to see what you want and where you can go. Its as simple as getting in touch with us, the tour operator directly. We can build an itinerary that will take you where you want to go and make sure you are safely back at port before your ship departs.
There are many destinations that can easily be reached on your day excursion from Port Melbourne.
Some suggestion for Cruise Ship to Shore excursions in Melbourne are
- Yarra Valley Wine region and Healesville Sanctuary
- Mornington peninsula wineries
- City Sights
- 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge
- Great Ocean Road tour (please note that a full Great Ocean Road itinerary takes 12 plus hours. We can do a limited itinerary that will fit in with your schedule)
Check your cruise ship itinerary to make sure you are docking at Station Pier in Port Melbourne, but most cruise line use this pier, including –
- Royal Caribbean Cruises
- Celebrity Cruises
- Carnival Cruises
- Princess Cruises
- Holland America Line
- Noble Caledonia
- P&O Cruises
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- AIDA Cruises
- Seabourn Cruises
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- Viking Cruises
- SilverSea cruses
- Oceania Cruises
- Azamara Club Cruises
- Cunard Cruises
Handy hint- make sure you have travel insurance before going on your cruise and ensure it includes problems that may arise from shore excursions, ie unexpected road closures, mechanical failure, health issues, etc.
For more information, visit our Private Tour page or contact us