About the Mornington Peninsula

Drive along our coastlines with their waterfront restaurants, cafes, lively local markets, grand historic gardens and lavish cliff-top mansions and you could well imagine that you've arrived in the Mediterranean.

The Mornington Peninsula has long been a favourite destination for lazy beachside holidays that come with green hinterlands and wild ocean beaches on the side. But if you haven't visited us for some time, you'll be very pleasantly surprised at how the Peninsula has completely redefined the traditional beachside holiday.

Our bays tempt you with every type of water sport you could wish for, from sailing to scuba diving, fishing to sea kayaking.

You can walk for quiet miles along coastal trails, through national parks and on peaceful country lanes, breathing in ocean-fresh air that's instant balm for the weary mind and body.

Here are five top tips for your stay

• The Mornington Peninsula has a maritime climate, but there are quite different micro-climates at our inland wineries compared to the coast. Moorooduc is a noted inland winemaking area, and its wineries feature some magnificent gardens and equally memorable restaurants.
• The Briars Park is known for its 1840s homestead, bushland and wetland trails, koalas, wallabies, kangaroos and native birds you can view from bird hides. There's viewing of another kind at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, the premier art gallery on the Peninsula.
• Stroll along endless beaches, book a luxury sailing trip and see the splendid Mt Martha and Mt Eliza cliff-top homes, or travel on the historic Mornington Railway steam train.
• Two excellent golf courses give you the choice of coastal play or rural play amid a peaceful flora and fauna reserve.
• Call into our villages: Mornington (weekly main street market, monthly racecourse market, galleries, cafes and restaurants), Mt Eliza (it was a setting for the Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner movie 'On the Beach' and has good shopping), Mt Martha (another exclusive village with good shopping, a foreshore reserve and a very enjoyable boardwalk through Balcombe Creek Wetlands).

www.visitmorningtonpeninsula.org/northernpen.asp

Indulgence is now something we also do very well on the Mornington Peninsula too.

Our wineries offer 50 cellar doors, along with restaurants and cafes set in beautifully landscaped gardens and on terraces overlooking the vines. A wine-tasting can stretch into lunch or dinner, and then into an overnight stay in a luxurious suite.

So come and sample at 50 cellar doors - try the hallmark Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, along with excellent Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Semillon, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Visit Mornington Peninsula's only microbrewery for beer tasting and dining.

Then settle down for lunch or dinner at a vineyard, and experience how our chefs bring together the inspirational produce and wine that surrounds them.

A number of high-profile Melbourne chefs have now discovered the joys of living - and cooking - on the Peninsula, using our organic vegetables, aged meats, fruits from cherries and bio-dynamic apples to blueberries and quinces, olive oil, seafood, preserves, coffee that's roasted on demand and local cheese. Much of this produce is also available at gourmet food stores - look for the Mornington Peninsula Gourmet brand at retail outlets, restaurants and cafes and on produce - it's your assurance of top local quality. You can also pick or buy a lot of seasonal produce at the farm gate (see the Mornington Peninsula Gourmet website), including plump berries and luscious cherries during summer. A game of golf on one of our 18 courses can also stretch into a post-game drink on a shady verandah, dinner in a fine restaurant and a night in a resort hotel right on the golf course. Hidden along our hinterland roads are European-style country retreats, intimate hotels, cottages and charming B&Bs. Our coastal accommodation includes beachside luxury in contemporary suites, limestone-and-lace B&Bs and heritage hotels - all with a bonus of fresh sea breezes. How far do you have to travel to indulgence in all of this?   We're just an hour from Melbourne, even though our Mediterranean-like coastline may make you feel we're a world away. Just drive along our coastlines and cruise our quiet country roads, and the Peninsula's love affair with wine, fresh produceand bountiful food on the table quickly becomes obvious.

With a climate that's very similar to the Mediterranean, the Peninsula's landscapes have become similar too, silvery olive groves, rolling hills laced with vineyards, waterfront cafes and restaurants, roadside signs for strawberries or free range eggs and lively local markets where growers bring just-picked and just-made produce.

Our gentle maritime climate puts a very individual stamp on Mornington Peninsula wines, as do the micro-climates which result in quite different wine styles from the same grapes grown at neighbouring vineyards.

With a coastline that's more Mediterranean than Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula has a string of seaside villages where you can enjoy local seafood including mussels, whiting and flathead.

Some hotels, restaurants and cafes overlook the water, others are right on the beach. And yes, you can buy take away fish and chips on the beach at Sorrento if you'd like to stroll while you eat.

Or you can put together a gourmet picnic, select a bottle of chilled local white wine, then head off to Cape Schanck or Point Nepean and enjoy a lazy al fresco Peninsula lunch.

A fragrant lavender farm, huge hedge mazes, cottage gardens, formal gardens perfumed with 70,000 rose bushes, gardens with towering trees from the 1860s.they all grow beautifully on the Mornington Peninsula.

Perhaps it's our gentle maritime climate, perhaps there's a magical ingredient in our soil? Or perhaps you should just come here, stroll through our beautiful landscapes and experience it all for yourself. Our gardening traditions stretch back nearly 150 years, and so a magnificent heritage has set the standard for our more contemporary gardens.

Three of our most famous estates are maze gardens, which also feature water gardens, wetlands with native birds, a maze for children, a 'maize maze' in autumn, a rose maze, rose gardens, outdoor sculptures, garden chess and cafes.

Others are heritage gardens, with mansions and homesteads dating back to the 1800s and surrounded by classic gardens, natural bushlands and wetlands that are the favourite haunts of thousands of birds.

Gardens are an art form too, with some of our art galleries set in magnificent landscaping and sculpture gardens. Our vineyards are becoming more and more reminiscent of Europe, with the silvery olive groves of Italy and the vast formal rose gardens of France.

If you feel inspired to try a little Mornington Peninsula magic in your own garden, we have a specialist herb nursery, the Diggers Club at historic Heronswood and a huge garden centre that's just ready and waiting to fill your boot with plants.

And don't forget the southern hemisphere's largest strawberry farm, where you can pick your own in summer. It's just one of the many farms and gardens whose fresh produce you'll enjoy in our fine restaurants and cafes. The Mornington Peninsula is rapidly becoming known for some of the world's best natural golf terrain, with gently rolling sand-hills creating perfect contours and fast-draining sandy soils providing excellent year-round golf. This region, now known as 'The Cups', has 18 golf courses that range from nine holes in a very relaxed country atmosphere to public courses and clubhouses that are equal to the best private clubs. So the play is as good as it gets - and so are the vistas that surround you. The famous cliff-top course at Flinders Golf Club looks out over Western Port Bay, while Cape Schanck Golf Course (designed by Robert Trent Jones Jnr) sits atop one of Australia's most spectacular coastal headlands. The long-established Portsea Golf Club offers even better play after a number of design improvements in recent years, while The Dunes Golf Links is widely recognised as Australia's best example of a true links course. If you like the thought of a relaxing drink on a broad verandah after play, the championship Eagle Ridge Golf Course has a magnificent sand-stone clubhouse. And Moonah Links has impeccable credentials, as it is host to the Australian Open. Some of our golf courses have luxurious resort accommodation, so you can stay where you play. Or you can ask a specialist golf tour operator such as Koala Golf Tours to package a trip for you, with transport, accommodation and access to a number of courses.

Do spend some time travelling around the Mornington Peninsula - with its cliff-top mansions, seaside villages and secluded bays it has a delightful air that seems more like the Mediterranean than Melbourne.

And after an invigorating day on the golf course, don't forget to enjoy a little indulgence at one of our day spas.

To plan your Mornington Peninsula holiday, visit our Activities and Attractions page and Tours and Trails pages. Our Trip Planner pages will help you put it all together, as will our pages on Sub Region and their villages. If you'd like free, expert advice on accommodation and your bookings made, just go to our Visitor Information and bookings page.

www.visitmorningtonpeninsula.org/accommodation.asp