Centrally located, small hotel or B&B in Melbourne
 

We will be visiting Melbourne in mid March, 2012 from SF. Because we are not familiar with the geography, I would like some help on location. Are the areas of St Kilda and Fitzroy within a 20 minute walk of Central Melbourne? We would like to spend about $150 US if possible to stay near Central Melbourne. There are some appealing places in Fitzroy and St. Kilda, but location is the question. I have consulted google maps, but is still hard to tell.

I usually stay at Batemans on Collins there are always 3 of us and we have been getting a two bedroom suite for $149-169 depending on day. Its basically a "Comfort Inn" type place, clean and simple no frills - however does have washer and dryer on each floor - free use.
Also it is directly across from the train station and the trams stop right at the front door. Collins street has lots of shops and places to eat and your pretty much in walking distance of everything. The tourist free shuttle tour bus around town is just around the corner. It makes a big loop, hits the Victoria Market, the Docks etc.

It obviously depends on what you're looking for but you should be able to find something in your price range in the downtown area. The Batman's on Collins, as suggested, should be in your price range - the location is ok, though in some ways it's the 'wrong end' of Collins Street. Central Melbourne is built on a grid of major streets running West/East and North/South, with a myriad of laneways in between. The west side of the grid (where Batman's is) is generally the business/financial end whereas the centre and the east side of the grid is more of the shopping / restaurant end. King Street (n/s) fairly close to Batman's is where most of the nightclubs are - that may or may not be your thing but if you're here on the weekend, expect lots of (probably drunk) people.

I'm not sure where you've been looking but Wotif ( http://www.wotif.com.au ) will give you a pretty good idea of what's available at what price point. They will not be quoting availability yet for March 2012 but you can certainly get an idea of what's available and at what sort of price point. I think all of their listings have a map link so you can easily see where they are.

Melbourne is pretty easy to get around, either on foot or on the trams (or train, if you're going further afield). If it was me, I'd be trying to find somewhere in the CBD (centre) so it would be easy to go back and forth to the hotel, depending on what you were doing, rather than 'coming into the city for the day'. Fitzroy and St. Kilda are both relatively close but not so easy to just pop back if you've forgotten something or just want to go and put your feet up for half an hour.

We could stretch our budget and on further examination it looks like we will have to to stay in someplace "nice" with some character. You stated it correctly about being central- come back and rest - We are willing to stay in Fitzroy or St Kilda, but they seem somewhat inconvenient. I have even looked at airb&b to stay in an apartment or room. Any other ideas out there?

St Kilda and Fitzroy are not within a 20 min walk of the city but there are trams running all day to both places. If you plan on being in the city area a lot during your stay, you could get sick of the travelling and might find it a lot easier to stay in the CBD (central business district).

Have you looked at Citadines? They have a fairly new place on Bourke Street - middle of the city - and it gets good reviews on Trip Advisor. They have apartment style rooms.

Also Punt Hill Apartments have a few places in the city area.

It would be harder to find something with character, it's more likely you'd find something in the suburbs bordering the CBD but then you have the daily travelling into and out of the city. If you go with somewhere close to the city, say Richmond, Carlton etc, check out location of train stations as well as tram lines.

You could look on this website but be careful as I noticed after glancing at the listings that some are nowhere near the city, so map them on Google first or ask on here.

http://www.stayz.com.au/bedandbreakf...melbourne-city

Robinsons B&B is on the edge of the city and has been around a long time, you could check it out -
http://www.ritc.com.au/Default.aspx

Kay

Fitzroy is within 20 mins of CBD -it's actually on the edge of the CBD eg Victoria parade -one side is the city and the other Fitzroy

Hi, Mid March is the Melbourne Grand Prix so prices around St Kilda/Albert Park might be higher than usual. I would stay in South Yarra or the City as it is easy to get everywhere. Fitzroy is not really that central.

How about Hotel Lindrum on Flinders street. Atmosphere and a small boutique hotel with rooms that start from 180 to 200 AUD a night. Melbourne is laid out in a square grid so it is easy to get around on trams.

Fitzroy is as central as South Yarra

Yeah, I have to agree. Fitzroy seems a lot easier walk to the CBD than does South Yarra. I've done that walk quite a number of times. But most of Sth Yarra is over on the other side of Punt Road and south of the river. Nice walk through the Botanical Gardens, but not nearly as short