Going to Melbourne for 3 days in the heat of summer ( Feb 2006). Is it better to stay in the city center or at St Kilda Beach? We plan on taking some day tours to Philip Island,perhaps the Dadenongs, or a seaside community since we love beaches. We will not have a car. Thanks in advance for any input.

We stayed in St.Kilda and loved it. You can take the tram - about 7-minutes - to the Central Business District.

What was nice about St. Kilda was that it was a "community" very eclect in building design, age groups, ethnicities. Lots of restaurant choices. On the otherhand, the one night we did stay in the CBD for dinner... the streets were empty. Not unlike other business or financial districts in many cities. Everyone goes home to the burbs after 6pm.

Though we were right across from the beach when in St. Kilda, which we could have easily visited for a few hours, we were too busy. We rented a car for one day to drive the Great Ocean Road, did a tour to the Dadenongs and wine country on another, spent a morning at the Victoria Market and afternoon in CBD. With the exception of the 1-nt we had dinner in the CBD, we enjoyed the many choices of restaurants in St. Kilda... and there were people on the streets in the evenings.

Hope this helps.

I did spend an entire afternoon in St.Kilda Beach yesterday. I'm staying at the Hilton on the Park in Melbourne. If you like beach, then St. Kilda is the obvious choice. It takes about 15 minutes on the tram from city center to St. Kilda, so you are not too far away from city action.

St. Kilda is very nice. They have some great restaurants/bars right on the beach as well as a main drag with many shops, restaurants and bars. Can't recommend any particular place as I was just "visiting" but it was a very nice relaxing day at the beach. Obviously there was no swimming involved and even in summer that may be an option for only the really hardy ones, but with yesterdays temps being in the 60/70s and sunny there were many sunbathers on the beach. Nice foot/bicycle path that goes on for miles and couple of piers.

I do remember seeing Novotel and it looked very new with most rooms facing the beach. Try to do a Google search.

here is the website:

<b>http://www.novotelstkilda.com/</b>

Thanks so much for the input. Sandi, would you mind sharing where you stayed at St Kilda?

We have chosen Hotel Charsfield in St Kilda. We haven't seen it but it came recommended. We understand that the area can be quite fun.

AAFF - Surprise, surprise... that's where we stayed when we were in MEL - the Novotel - right across from the beach in St. Kilda. We had a junior suite, at then, USD$120/nt. There were restuarants around every corner. We loved staying there.

badsneakers - just checked the site that AAFF posted. We had a deluxe room and it was great. Prices seem to have increased since we visited, but we booked through a wholesaler. Check one of the hotel booking sites for better rates.

We choose St.Kilda and didn't regret it. Stayed at the Novotel, good location. Tram stop in front of the hotel. I think our trip report is still on the forum (spring 2003), otherwise you'll find it on www.smalley.nl/mark.

I know this is a bit late but was browsing, the Novotel at St Kilda is really nice, have stayed their twice, you can get the trams into the centre of Melbourne easily and it is walking distance into the main St Kilda area, if you search on Yahoo Australia you will find links and photos which include Australian sites.