4 Places to Visit in Victoria This Spring
31st July 2026
Cherry petals collect on the footpath outside the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Vine rows in the Yarra Valley turn green again after months of bare wood. A Murray River town is already warm enough for lunch outside in Mildura. And snow gums and rainforest ferns are all found within the same afternoon’s drive in Gippsland. Spring in Victoria is super diverse, and super special. Here are four ways to enjoy the spring in Victoria this year.
Where to Chase Spring in Victoria
There’s typically one September morning that changes everything, when Melbourne looks like it’s had a good night’s sleep for the first time in months. That day isn’t far away!
The Botanic Gardens fill in around the Ian Potter Children’s Garden with pink cherry blossom, and meanwhile, out in the Yarra Valley, the vineyards undergo their own transformation, with sparse hillsides going from bare and brown to green, almost as if overnight.
But as we all know, Victoria goes much further than the Yarra Valley. Drive north to Mildura and spring means something completely different again. It’s super warm already, dry, bright and closer to summer than spring, it feels. Then in the other direction there’s Gippsland, which is totally different once again; filling out with wildflowers through its mountain ranges and farmland turning lush after winter rain.
Spring is on its way and it’s time to start planning a getaway. Here are four places to visit in spring this year, which reveal four completely different versions of the same season.
Here’s where to go in spring 2026!
Credit: Visit Victoria
Melbourne
By September, the outdoor tables of Melbourne are finally back at every café in Fitzroy and Collingwood! The Botanic Gardens fill in with green that’s been missing since April. But spring is also when Melbourne’s calendar gets back to its usual much invited chaos.
Late September brings the AFL Grand Final, and the build-up alone empties out the CBD, followed almost immediately by the Royal Melbourne Show, Victoria’s largest agricultural show, running 11 days with carnival rides, livestock competitions, wood chopping, showbags and fireworks, and the Melbourne Fringe Festival, which fills small venues and laneways across the city with unconventional and creative performances through mid-October.
Around the same time, you’ve got the Melbourne Marathon Festival which cuts through Flinders Street Station, the Botanic Gardens, Albert Park Lake and the St Kilda foreshore before finishing with a lap of the MCG. Plus, there’s Melbourne Fashion Week, which turns the city into a runway for a week. When October comes around, there’s the Spring Racing Carnival, with Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate building toward the bigger Melbourne Cup Carnival, Derby Day and Oaks Day leading up to the race that stops the whole country.
Add in long lunches back on rooftops and markets reopening after winter, and Melbourne in spring stops being a season and starts feeling like a full-time occupation.
Adelphi Hotel
For a true Melbourne experience, combined with rooftop swims, opt for the Adelphi Hotel right in the heart of town where laneways are just a moment away.
Check out the Adelphi Hotel here.
Credit: Visit Victoria
Yarra Valley
Drive an hour out of the city for a taste of spring that feels fresher and greener. In the Yarra Valley, the vineyards spend winter bare and brown. But when spring finally pushes through you’ll get to witness the new growth, and by October the whole valley is green again. Cellar doors will open their outdoor seating back up, and those famous long lunches at spots like Punt Road turn into the default way to spend a Saturday, glass of Pinot in hand.
And just like in Melbourne, spring is also when the valley’s calendar fills right up. CherryHill Orchards kicks things off with Bloom & Graze on 12 and 13 September at its Coldstream orchard. So get ready for a weekend of food, wine, shopping and entertainment among the trees, before Blossom Festival takes over the Wandin East orchard from 19 September to 4 October, filling the rows with white blossom and turning the whole place into a picnic spot.
Only a short drive away, the Tesselaar Tulip Festival is also a great spring event, bringing over a million spring flowers into bloom, with live entertainment daily. Plus, comedy fans get their own reason to visit with Comedy in the Vines, four days and nights of comedy, wine and music set among the vineyards each October. Wine lovers should time a trip around Shedfest, or the region’s Grape Grazing Festival and Wine Show, both built around moving cellar door to cellar door.
Chateau Yering
So there’s certainly enough going on in spring in the Yarra Valley. And whenever you decide to stay, you’ll want some accommodation which truly shines a light on the beauty of the region. Enter Chateau Yering: a classical and beautifully decorated property with gorgeous gardens perfect for a break from the city.
Credit: Visit Victoria
Mildura
While the rest of the state is still shaking off its winter jumpers in September, Mildura’s sitting somewhere close to thirty degrees! The sun is properly out and that’s really the whole appeal of going there at this time of year. This is the part of Victoria that doesn’t have that gentle transition everyone else gets, it really just goes straight to warm. So if you’re looking for a defrost after the winter, and a kind of early summer holiday this might be a great choice.
Houseboats come back out onto the Murray at this time of year and riverside cafés fill their outdoor tables. Plus, you’ll find that there’s a calendar of things to build a trip around too. The Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show runs its week-long program in early November, giving visitors a chance to taste the lesser-known grapes the region is known for, straight from the winemakers themselves.
The Mildura Show in October has heaps of entertainment and classic country-show energy too. But you don’t need an event to go to. You could just visit for some time by the Murray or a round of golf at Mildura Golf Resort. Because landing somewhere that already feels like summer, months before the rest of Victoria catches up is never a bad idea.
Kar-Rama
Pair your spring trip with some modern accommodation featuring a pool and a central location at Kar-Rama.
Credit: Visit Victoria
Gippsland
Where do we even start with spring in Gippsland? Snow gums are still shaking off frost in the High Country mornings while, two hours south, Ninety Mile Beach is getting warm enough for a walk without a jacket. That gap is basically the whole personality of Gippsland in spring!
Wilsons Promontory’s granite headlands catch the first real sun of the season, bushland running straight down to sand, while inland at Tarra-Bulga National Park the rainforest goes properly green, tree ferns unrolling and waterfalls running full after a winter’s worth of rain. Three landscapes, three different climates, all reachable in the same weekend if you’re willing to drive.
The season has some pretty great events too, including the International Rose Garden Festival which hits Morwell in mid-November. Then there’s the Sale Producers Market which keeps running through spring with local arts, crafts and produce, and out at Brandy Creek Estate, paella feasts with flamenco shows give the wine-and-food scene its own theatrical streak.
Wherever you choose to point the car, mountains, coast or rainforest, Gippsland in spring rewards not picking just one.
Mantra Traralgon
Base yourself somewhere central, where the coast is in reach, but so are the mountains and the forests. At Mantra Traralgon, benefit from comfortable rooms and a location that helps you see it all.