Staying in Melbourne city with a car
 

Hello,

Planning a trip down to Melbourne in a few months time. We'll be spending some time outside of the city (Great Ocean Road, Mornington, etc.) but will also be sleeping in the city for 4 nights (2.5 days of which we're planning to actually be within the city area and maybe a few suburbs - Brighton beach, St Kilda, etc.). We'll have a car with us. Not sure the best way to go about finding accommodation in the city. Last time we visited we booked a hotel around 10min outside of the city centre (with free parking) and took a bus into the city. This time to avoid potentially needing to be out all day and not having a place to rest in between things, thinking it might be helpful to have the accommodation within the city. Noted the free tram that runs around the city which could get us around the city without needing to take the car out of the parking lot. But we also might want to drive a little out the city (e.g. St Kilda or Brighton) for a short part of the day before returning to the city in the afternoon, etc. to continue about our day within the city.

Cheers!
Any ideas how best this can be done? Looking at the hotels online, seems like city hotels charge an exorbitant amount for parking per day ($60+), or simply tell you to park in a public parking lot nearby (around $20-30 day park, cheaper if we book online with Secure Parking, etc.) but those I would imagine won't let you conveniently go in and out for that one price.

We'll be staying from Wednesday night till Sunday afternoon in the city.

The last few times we've stayed in the city in Melbourne we travelled by train so didn't have to pay to park. We stayed a number of years ago at Clarion Suites Gateway which is in William Street, across the river from Southbank. I remember watching the amazing flames that go up hourly (or used to?) from outside the casino. I just checked and parking there is $27 per day with unlimited exit/entry. I think you'd have to prebook a space.

The other option is look on Booking.com. You can tick the box for parking and it gives you a big range of hotels but you'd then need to check each one in your price range to see exactly what's offered. As you say, some will have parking in their building, some will offer it nearby and sometimes it will be very expensive. I can't think of another way to do it. I guess you could check the forums on Trip Advisor and see if anyone else has asked the same thing.

Kay

To put closure to this thread - it turns out that all of the accommodations (mostly apartments and Ibis hotel group) I've enquired in Melbourne CBD either have their own parking lot with multiple entries or have partnered with nearby parking lots allowing multiple entries. From what I understand at this point, some provide true unlimited multiple entries and exits for $30 a day. Others provide discounted rates of e.g. $12 per exit or each 12 hours. Best to enquire specifically with the accommodation - which have all been very responsive. So it's not a complete nightmare - can be solved by factoring in an extra AUD$30 per day.