We'll be in Melbourne for 2 1/2 days in early April. Does anyone have experience/suggestions for day trips (tours) and which companies are good? Is trip down to penguins worth the time? Thanks.

Don't know names of tour companies.

Recommend you spend a day driving along the Great Ocean Road to Lorne and back.

Then spend another day going EITHER to Healvesville Nature Sanctuary (Australian animals) and Yarra Valley wineries OR the Dandenong Ranges (Puffing Billy train and all that good stuff).

Spend half a day downtown (going on the Circle Tram and, if possible, taking in the Queen Victoria Market or Southbank).

The weather is never a sure bet in Melbourne, but the fall (March-April) USUALLY is a very pleasant time there.

IMO, no - skip the penguins if you have 2 1/2 days in Melb. And I think the city itself deserves more than 1/2 day. The city area has Southbank, several gorgeous parks, newly refurbished art museum (very nice), and a fairly recent history museum. Queen Vic Markets are open daily except Mon & Wed, and are worth a visit. Then there is the city & surrounds itself - shopping, Chinatown, quick tram ride to Lygon St (Italian section), tram ride to St. Kilda, fantastic zoo, etc. Get yourself a good guide book! Plus, if you are here on a weekend, April is footy season so you might be interested in catching a game. GOR is indeed a fantastic site, and there are plenty of tour companies which operate day tours. I don't know of any off the top of my head, but there are information stands outside Flinders St. Station, Bourke St. Mall, and there was a large tourism office on Swanston St. near Lt. Collins (not sure if it is still there).

There is a new tourism office in Melbourne. It is in Federation Square on the corner of St Kilda Road and Flinders Street, opposite the Flinders Street station. If you visit there, take the time to go to the Ian Potter Gallery (also in Federation Square) for a great collection of Australian art.
The Great Ocean Road stretches beyong Lorne - in fact, in my opinion, the best part is between Lorne and Warrnambool. A day trip won't give you time to do the whole length of the road.
If you don't have time to go to Healesville, Melbourne Zoo is excellent - you can wander through the kangeroo enclosure.
You can see penguins on a boat trip which leaves from Southbank in the centre of Melbourne. This goes in the late afternoon, leaving the rest of the day for other sightseeing.
The craft market on St Kilda Esplanade on Sunday is worth visiting for good craft and people watching.
If the weather is good, you can take a ferry from Southbank to Williamston (old port area, lots of places to eat and browse).
The Art Gallery in St Kilda Road has just re-opened after massive renovations and is worth visiting. The gardens in the city area are really lovely, particularly Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens in the autumn. You can take a boat to the Botanical Gardens and walk back through the gardens to the CBD.
Hope you enjoy your holiday.

LouUS,
I disagree with the above posters re. the penguins. The trip to Phillip Island to see the Little Penguins come ashore in the evening is unique, and NOT the same thing as just taking a boat trip to see penguins. The downside, of course, is that the trip takes most of a day, so you have choices to make.
I liked Melbourne too, but I had more time than you, and I did both. I don't regret the penguin trip at all.

LouUS, I agree with Les that seeing the "fairy penguins" come ashore is a unique experience. I enjoyed it very much.

However, Phillip Island is quite a long drive from Melbourne. Perhaps a local resident can refresh my memory on that point. I seem to recall it was AST LEAST 1.5 hours. The penguins leave the sea, cross the beach, and walk to their nests in the vegetation around sunset. We had the disadvantage of going between Christmas and New Year (southern hemisphere summer), when sunset in any case was late, and that was exacerbated by Daylight Savings Time. We got back home to Melbourne after midnight.

You would have the advantage of going in April when sunset in any case is earlier. You will be assisted further by the fact that Daylight Savings Time will have ended the last Sunday of March. Those factors will make the trip to Phillip Island more doable for you if it's important to you. I just did a Google search to find out sunset times in Melbourne in April, and they are as follows:

April 1st - 6:14pm
April 11th - 6:00pm
April 21st - 5:46pm
April 30th - 5:35pm

When we went to Phillip Island there were loads of people, visitors who had come in their own cars as well as tour buses. The HUGE parking lot was filled. Admittedly that was the summer vacation season. Still, I understand the penguins are a popular sight at any time of year.

If I were you I would set out from Melbourne 3.5 hours before I expected the penguins to cross the beach. This allows a conservative 2 hours for the drive, half an hour to grab a quick evening meal when you get close to Phillip Island, and still allows you to get a seat an hour before the expected arrival of the penguins. When we went, arriving early to get a decent seat was absolutely necessary.

Also, by April the evenings will be cool, and you'll be sitting outdoors for quite a while, so dress as you would for outdoor conditions in the North American fall / spring.

LouUS, In my first repsonse to you, I gave you my generic advice for Melbourne because I knew nothing about what else you would be seeing in Australia. Also, I didn't know when your half day in Melbourne would be, at the beginning of your trip or at the end. Knowing these details and knowing your interests would be very helpful in targetting advice more specifically.

Mrsfletcher and Marg gave you many other suggestions of things to see and do in Melbourne, and they were very valid.

Something you might want to consider is a round trip that has you overnighting somewhere in the vicinity of Phillip Island.

Suppose you land in Melbourne around lunch or just after lunch. In that case you might consider not going into downtown Melbourne. You could rent a car at the airport and drive straight to Phillip Island. See the penguins, and spend the night in that area.

The next morning, drive to Sorrento, drive onto the ferry, cross the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, and disembark from the ferry at Queenscliff. From there you can drive past Geelong, swing south to Anglesea, join the Great Ocean Road, and drive westwards. Have lunch at Lorne. After lunch, drive into the temperate rainforest behind Lorne, and have a look at Erskine Falls. In a NZ in March discussion thread you said your husband had a bad ankle, so perhaps he won't be able to climb the stairs to the bottom of the falls. That's a pity, because a walk along the river bank down below is just lovely. But my mother wasn't able to walk down the stairs, and she still enjoyed viewing the falls from the top. Then drive to Melbourne in the afternoon, and overnight in Melbourne.

You then could spend the whole of the following day in the centre of Melbourne seeing as many of Mrsfletcher's and Marg's suggestions as you could fit in. With your husband's poor ankle, you'll probably want to take advantage of Melbourne's many trams (trolley cars on rails), including the excellent and FREE Circle Tram that does a circuit around the edge of the downtown core.

My suggested itinerary leaves out Healesville Nature Sanctuary, the Yarra Valley wineries, and the Dandenong Ranges. But, depending on what else you'll be doing in Australia, you may get an opportunity to see Australian animals elsewhere. Also, as Marg mentioned, you can see them at Melbourne Zoo. The Yarra Valley wineries are pleasant enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see them. There are wineries elsewhere in Australia and elsewhere in the world. We enjoyed going to wineries because we found ourselves in the area after visits to Healesville. The temperate rainforests that cover the Dandenong Ranges are really pretty, in my opinion, but you would see some of that type of forest if you went to Lorne.

Oh yes, I just remembered, you asked for information on TOURS, not for information about a self-drive itinerary. I'm not at all familiar with tour companies in Melbourne. However, considering how many tour buses I saw at Phillip Island, there must be several tour companies in the area.

Are you really reluctant to drive? Perhaps the idea of driving on the left makes you nervous. I'm what my kids call a "wussy" when it comes to driving in unfamiliar conditions, but I found it easy to switch from North American to Australian driving conditions and back again. Well, I should qualify that by saying I found it easy outside of city centres. Downtown Melbourne was NOT a place in which I enjoyed driving, and I do NOT recommend that a person who will be there for only 2-1/2 days even bothers learning the ropes. Downtown Melbourne has dedicated tram lanes, and a couple of other unique features that force drivers to jump through hoops. It's much better to use the trams to get around downtown.

Hope this helps.