Tour by City Circle Tram, Melbourne

Touring around Melbourne by the classic old "W class" City Circle Trams, which connects the main attractions in Melbourne's Central Business District, is joyful . The highlights of the service are:

1. the "hop on, hop off" service is offered completely free of charge throughout the year except on Christmas Day and Good Friday,
2. the recorded voice announcement explains about each attraction very clearly as the tram travels,
3. free handouts are available with valuable tour information, and
4. the service also linked with the major rail-way stations of Melbourne's city loop, making the service accessible for those staying/living in the suburbs.

Classic 'W' class trams on City Circle

Trams run in both directions approximately every twelve minutes between 10am and 6pm Sunday to Wednesday and extended hours, 10am - 9pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Clockwise service: Flinders Street > Harbour Esplanade > Docklands Drive > La Trobe Street > Victoria Street > Nicholson Street > Spring Street > Flinders Street (source: www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au).

Key attractions that can be reached by the City Cirlce service are:

1. Parliament house of Victoria
2. Windsor hotel
3. Carlton Gardens
4. Royal Exhibition building
5. Imax theatre
6. Melbourne Museum
7. State library of Victoria
8. Melbourne Central station (and Coop's shot tower)
9. Queen Victoria market (need to walk a bit from the tram stop)
10. Flagstaff Gardens
11. Victoria Harbour
12. Waterfront city
13. New Quay
14. Ethihad stadium
15. Docklands park
16. World trade center
17. Melbourne Aquarium
18. Rialto Tower (Melbourne 360 Observation Deck)
19. Immigration museum
20. Flinders street station
21. Federation square
22. St Paul's Cathedral
23. Treasury gardens

Here are some of the shots I took during my short tour for 3 hours covering few of the attractions. And, I am planning to explore all the attractions soon.

Web of tram power lines

View from Harbour Esplanade

Victoria Harbour

Car sale at Waterfront city

Ethihad stadium

New Quay

Flinder's street railway station

Federation Square

A Horse caravan

St. Paul's Cathedral

Additional tips to Tour around Melbourne:

1. City Tourist Shuttle Bus is another free service in Melbourne's CBD. The route of this bus service is slightly different from that of City Circle Tram and covers some attractions that are not covered by City Circle Tram such as Royal Botanic gardens, Shrine of Remembrance, Queen Victoria Gardens, etc.
2. All public transports in Melbourne only support Myki from 29-12-2012. No more tickets on-board the trams.

For maps and info:

1. City Circle Tram (source www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au)
2. Melbourne City tourist shuttle (source www.thatsmelbourne.com.au)

Other pages of Melbourne:

1. Birds of Melbourne
2. Smile of Nature in Melbourne

NB: This page is updated in January 2013.