Here’s a recipe for a great holiday: take world-class regional produce, add exceptional wines, and mix this with some of Victoria’s most beautiful scenery. It’s a winning combination – and you’ll find it in Victoria’s Yarra Valley.
The Yarra Valley region, just one hour’s drive from Melbourne, is paradise for food and wine lovers. With a reputation as one of the best cool-climate wine regions in the world, its art galleries and food trails offer plenty to tantalise your senses, while exceptional food is served in its many cafes, wineries and innovative restaurants. And aside from your gourmet travels, you can also enjoy memorable nature encounters in the surrounding national parks and state forests.
Foodies from here and abroad flock to join the Yarra Valley Regional Food Trail. It’s a self-drive tour that criss-crosses the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges area, with clearly signposted stops at more than 100 orchards, farm gates and roadside stalls. Stock your picnic hamper with goodies from local producers including handmade chocolates and cakes, breads, hand-picked berries, home-made preserves and dressings, smoked fish and cheeses.
The Yarra Valley is the birthplace of the Victorian wine industry and is now recognised as one of the world’s foremost wine growing regions. The region boasts more than 55 wineries producing high-quality pinot noir, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. Stock up on the numerous varieties on offer at the cellar doors, including Yering Station, Punt Road and smaller boutique wineries like Seville Estate, Evelyn County Estate and Elmswood Estate.
Learn about traditional methods of producing sparkling wine at Domaine Chandon, a renovated 1880s homestead that boasts a colonnade styled on Champagne architecture. Celebrated winery De Bortoli dishes up its Yarra Valley wines with fabulous northern Italian cuisine so make sure you allow plenty of time – long lunches are an established tradition here.
This region boasts some of Victoria’s most beautiful countryside and its beauty has inspired a robust art scene. You can admire the work of local contemporary artists in the region’s many studios, open spaces and galleries, including the Burrinja Gallery and the William Ricketts Sanctuary in the Dandenong Ranges. The impressive TarraWarra Museum of Art in Yarra Glen comprises of three galleries – two to display the museum's extensive collection and one to host temporary exhibitions, and you’ll also find several galleries in Healesville, including Tuscany Gallery and Art at Linden Gate.
When your tastebuds are ready for a rest, explore the area’s surrounding national parks and state forests for some intriguing wildlife encounters. See the endangered leadbeater’s possum at the Yarra Ranges National Park, home to tall forests of mountain ash and temperate rainforest. Keep an eye out for lyrebirds, rosellas and kookaburras at Kinglake National Park, and stroll among the popular European-style gardens at Maroondah Reservoir Park.
To witness an amazing gathering of native wildlife, visit the 30-hectare Healesville Sanctuary at the foothills of the Yarra Ranges. Here you’ll see more than 200 wildlife species, including platypus, koalas, emus, Tasmanian devils, lyrebirds, and dingoes in a natural bush setting.
You’ll also be able to immerse yourself in the magnificent parks, gardens, native fern forests and nature trails of the Dandenong Ranges. Take a ride on Australia's oldest steam train, Puffing Billy, and travel through dense forests and lush fern gullies.
As you drive through the Dandenong Ranges, you’ll discover yet another reason to visit the Yarra Valley – picturesque villages like Olinda, Gembrook, Belgrave, Emerald and Sassafras, where you can wander through some of Victoria's best gardens. There are plenty of craft shops to lose yourself in and, with food never far from your mind, why not set yourself the challenge of discovering the region’s most scrumptious Devonshire tea?
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