Explore
Things to do on the Mornington Peninsula
The best Peninsula days are built outside the booking: a walk before lunch, the right beach for the wind, thermal water when the weather turns. Everything we cover is on this page once. Filter by mood, or jump to a town.
Filters
The winter issue
What the Peninsula is best at right now
Thermal springs, pub dinners, long-lunch fireplaces, and walks the crowds have finally left alone.
Beach
Bushrangers Bay
Bushrangers Bay is a hidden ocean beach accessed via a 2.5-kilometre walk through coastal heathland from Cape Schanck - and, remarkably.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Bushrangers Bay Walk
Bushrangers Bay is the walk we send people to when they say they want to see the wilder side of the Peninsula without.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Cape Schanck to London Bridge Coastal Walk
The spectacular clifftop traverse from Cape Schanck to London Bridge is the Peninsula's most scenic long coastal walk.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Coppins Track
Coppins Track runs four kilometres from Sorrento Ocean Beach through clifftop coastal heathland to Diamond Bay.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Greens Bush - Two Bays Section
The Greens Bush section of the Two Bays Walking Track is the most rewarding bushwalking segment the Peninsula has - 8.9 kilometres one-way.
Reviewed April 2026
Beach
Gunnamatta Ocean Beach
Gunnamatta is long, wild, and remote-feeling despite being accessible from the main road.
Reviewed April 2026
Coastal walks
The walks that reset the weekend
Cape Schanck, Bushrangers Bay, the Two Bays. The ranked list lives at the Peninsula's best walks; the deeper guide at coastal walks and tracks.
Walk
Cape Schanck Lighthouse Walk
The Cape Schanck Lighthouse walk is one of the most dramatic short coastal walks in Victoria.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Farnsworth Track
The Farnsworth Track is the Peninsula's most efficient clifftop-view-to-effort ratio: 1.5 kilometres one way between Portsea Ocean Beach and London Bridge.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Mornington Peninsula Foreshore Walk
The foreshore walk between Mornington and Mount Martha is the Peninsula's most dog-friendly significant walk and one of its most reliably beautiful -.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Summit Circuit Walk - Arthurs Seat
The Summit Circuit is the ideal short walk for most Peninsula visitors who want the Arthurs Seat view without committing to an all-day trek.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
The Two Bays Walking Track
The Two Bays Walking Track is the Peninsula's answer to a real day hike - a 26-kilometre ridge-and-coast traverse that runs from Cape.
Reviewed April 2026
Walk
Two Bays Walking Track
Two Bays is the Peninsula's signature long-distance walking track - a 26-kilometre one-way trail linking Port Phillip Bay at Dromana with Bass Strait.
Reviewed April 2026
Beaches
Which beach, and why
Bay calm or back-beach surf: pick the water that matches the wind, not the closest car park. The full case for each is in the beach guide.
Beach
Balnarring Beach
Balnarring Beach is Western Port's quiet argument against the bay-side beaches most visitors default to.
Reviewed April 2026
Beach
Dromana Beach
Dromana Beach is a long, gentle arc of sand near the midpoint of the Peninsula - a forgiving bay beach with shallow.
Reviewed April 2026
Beach
Portsea Front Beach
Portsea Front Beach is slightly less busy than Sorrento's equivalent and, on a clear morning, just as pretty.
Reviewed April 2026
Beach
Rye Ocean Beach
Rye Ocean Beach is the back-beach counterpart to Rye's calmer bay side - a wide, exposed ocean beach with a dune backing.
Reviewed April 2026
Beach
Safety Beach
Safety Beach is the Peninsula's most reliably calm swimming beach - the name is genuinely accurate - and the right answer when you.
Reviewed April 2026
Golf
Eleven courses, honestly ranked
From friendly country clubs to the ranked links at Cape Schanck and St Andrews Beach. Compared properly in the golf guide.
Golf course
Eagle Ridge Golf Course
Eagle Ridge is the Peninsula's hinterland option - a parkland-feel 18-hole course set among gum trees and dams in the Boneo valley.
Reviewed April 2026
Golf course
Flinders Golf Club
Flinders Golf Club sits above West Head at the southern edge of the Peninsula - a 9-hole course with some of the best.
Reviewed April 2026
Golf course
Moonah Links
Moonah Links is the Peninsula's most complete golf property - two championship courses (Open and Legends), on-site accommodation.
Reviewed April 2026
Golf course
Mornington Golf Club
Mornington Golf Club is the closest Peninsula course to Melbourne - about 60 minutes from the CBD via the freeway.
Reviewed April 2026
Golf course
Portsea Golf Club
Portsea Golf Club is the classic Peninsula member's club at the tip.
Reviewed April 2026
Galleries & attractions
The indoor and culture layer
Galleries, sculpture parks, gardens, and the national park at the tip. When the forecast turns, start with rainy-day plans or the hot springs.
Lookout
Arthurs Seat Eagle
Arthurs Seat is the Peninsula's highest point and the Eagle is the gondola that runs people up it - twenty minutes each way.
Reviewed April 2026
Attraction
Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens
Ashcombe Maze holds Australia's oldest symmetrical hedge maze, a circular rose garden, a lavender labyrinth, and a small café that sells lavender everything, ice cream.
Reviewed April 2026
Lookout
Cape Schanck Boardwalk
The Cape Schanck boardwalk is short, obvious, and absolutely worth doing.
Reviewed April 2026
Gallery
Montalto Sculpture Trail
Montalto's sculpture trail is the quieter, gentler sibling of the Pt.
Reviewed April 2026
Gallery
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
MPRG is the region's most consistently interesting art institution - a public gallery with a permanent collection weighted toward Australian modernism and a.
Reviewed April 2026
Attraction
Point Nepean Fort Walk
Point Nepean rewards people who are happy to walk a little further than the average Peninsula day-tripper.
Reviewed April 2026
By town
Every town, its own page
Thirty-seven towns and localities, each sequenced into walks, beaches, and lunch by people who live here. The town page is the real guide; this index is the door.
- Arthurs Seat Arthurs Seat is the highest point on the Mornington Peninsula.
- Balnarring The village the rest of the Peninsula forgets.
- Bittern A working Western Port village hiding one of Victoria's best wading-bird wetlands.
- Blairgowrie The gap between Rye and Sorrento - less talked about.
- Boneo The quiet rural triangle that holds Peninsula Hot Springs.
- Cape Schanck The boardwalk at the tip of the headland, where the Southern Ocean comes in.
- Capel Sound The Peninsula's biggest beachfront camp ground and the quieter half of the.
- Crib Point The walking village between Hastings and the Stony Point ferry - quiet, mangrove-edged, train-accessible.
- Dromana The gateway town - more accessible than the hinterland, still genuinely Peninsula.
- Fingal The Peninsula's thermal heart - where the weekend slows all the way down.
- Flinders The village that the Peninsula keeps to itself.
- Hastings The Peninsula's working port, where the seafood is better than the streetscape.
- Main Ridge The highest point on the Peninsula, where the pinot is best and.
- McCrae Bayside swimming, a lighthouse, and the Peninsula's oldest homestead - the bay's quiet middle.
- Merricks A quiet corridor between the ridge and the bay.
- Merricks Beach A 1950s holiday-house hamlet with a tide-flat beach and no commercial centre.
- Merricks North The older, quieter half of the Peninsula's wine country - pioneer vineyards.
- Moorooduc The overlooked northern wine pocket where serious producers work without the Red Hill fuss.
- Mornington The commercial hub - the most town-like part of the Peninsula, still worth knowing.
- Mount Eliza The Peninsula's underrated northern village - quietly the best brunch strip and.
- Mount Martha The most liveable part of the Peninsula - where the beach meets.
- Point Leo Sixteen hectares of contemporary sculpture rolling toward Western Port - and one.
- Point Nepean The end of the Peninsula, where military ruins and ocean light do.
- Portsea The most private end of the Peninsula - the back beach is.
- Red Hill The most concentrated food and wine precinct on the Peninsula.
- Red Hill South The quieter, lower-elevation half of the Peninsula's wine country - better B&Bs, fewer crowds.
- Rosebud The practical bay town where the beach is better than the reputation suggests.
- Rye The Peninsula town that gives you the calm bay.
- Safety Beach The calmest broad bay foreshore on the Peninsula.
- Shoreham A tiny coastal settlement where bush, vineyard and beach sit almost on.
- Somers A sheltered Western Port beach and a wetland reserve at the village.
- Sorrento Ocean baths carved from limestone at the tip of the Peninsula.
- St Andrews Beach Back-beach surf country with the Peninsula's best brewery for a sunset.
- Stony Point The only point in Victoria where you step off a train and.
- Tootgarook A modest bayside village hiding the Peninsula's largest freshwater wetland behind its dunes.
- Tuerong The wine-country back door, where some of the Peninsula's best bottles come.
- Tyabb The Peninsula's antiques district and grass-strip airshow town - two reasons to.
Specialist guides
The deep-dive verticals
- Golf → All courses, ranked
- Spa & springs → Treatments and thermal water
- Dog-friendly → Beaches, walks, cafes
- Fishing → Jetties, charters, seasons
- Boating → Ramps, hire, moorings
- Tours → Guided days and operators
Planning basics: getting here getting around where to base yourself things to do, ranked day trips weekend trips with kids free things to do markets rainy day
Markets, exhibitions, and family programs run most weekends. The live calendar is at What's On.
The full list
All 55 experiences
One list, one render: every walk, beach, course, gallery, lookout, market, and day spa we cover. Narrow it from the filter bar above.
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Alba Thermal Springs & Spa
The Peninsula's second-generation thermal springs complex, cleaner architecture, smaller crowds, better pacing than the original.
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Arthurs Seat Eagle
Arthurs Seat is the Peninsula's highest point and the Eagle is the gondola that runs people up it - twenty minutes each way.
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Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens
Ashcombe Maze holds Australia's oldest symmetrical hedge maze, a circular rose garden, a lavender labyrinth, and a small café that sells lavender everything, ice cream.
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Balnarring Beach
Balnarring Beach is Western Port's quiet argument against the bay-side beaches most visitors default to.
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Balnarring Market
A relaxed village-scale monthly market on the Balnarring Village Green, local produce, makers, and the Peninsula's most family-friendly market morning.
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Bushrangers Bay
Bushrangers Bay is a hidden ocean beach accessed via a 2.5-kilometre walk through coastal heathland from Cape Schanck - and, remarkably.
-
Bushrangers Bay Walk
Bushrangers Bay is the walk we send people to when they say they want to see the wilder side of the Peninsula without.
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Cape Schanck Boardwalk
The Cape Schanck boardwalk is short, obvious, and absolutely worth doing.
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Cape Schanck Lighthouse Walk
The Cape Schanck Lighthouse walk is one of the most dramatic short coastal walks in Victoria.
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Cape Schanck to London Bridge Coastal Walk
The spectacular clifftop traverse from Cape Schanck to London Bridge is the Peninsula's most scenic long coastal walk.
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Coppins Track
Coppins Track runs four kilometres from Sorrento Ocean Beach through clifftop coastal heathland to Diamond Bay.
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Dromana Beach
Dromana Beach is a long, gentle arc of sand near the midpoint of the Peninsula - a forgiving bay beach with shallow.
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Eagle Ridge Golf Course
Eagle Ridge is the Peninsula's hinterland option - a parkland-feel 18-hole course set among gum trees and dams in the Boneo valley.
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Endota Spa Mornington
The Mornington town-centre day spa, reliable treatments, sensible pricing, and the sixty-minute option that fits before lunch on Main Street.
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Farnsworth Track
The Farnsworth Track is the Peninsula's most efficient clifftop-view-to-effort ratio: 1.5 kilometres one way between Portsea Ocean Beach and London Bridge.
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Flinders Golf Club
Flinders Golf Club sits above West Head at the southern edge of the Peninsula - a 9-hole course with some of the best.
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Greens Bush - Two Bays Section
The Greens Bush section of the Two Bays Walking Track is the most rewarding bushwalking segment the Peninsula has - 8.9 kilometres one-way.
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Gunnamatta Ocean Beach
Gunnamatta is long, wild, and remote-feeling despite being accessible from the main road.
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Montalto Sculpture Trail
Montalto's sculpture trail is the quieter, gentler sibling of the Pt.
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Moonah Links
Moonah Links is the Peninsula's most complete golf property - two championship courses (Open and Legends), on-site accommodation.
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Mornington Farmers' Market
A monthly bayfront produce market that knows what it is and stays close to its growers.
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Mornington Golf Club
Mornington Golf Club is the closest Peninsula course to Melbourne - about 60 minutes from the CBD via the freeway.
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Mornington Main Street Market
The northern Peninsula's midweek town market, a broad mix that folds easily into a Mornington visit.
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Mornington Peninsula Foreshore Walk
The foreshore walk between Mornington and Mount Martha is the Peninsula's most dog-friendly significant walk and one of its most reliably beautiful -.
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Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
MPRG is the region's most consistently interesting art institution - a public gallery with a permanent collection weighted toward Australian modernism and a.
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Mount Eliza Farmers Market
A smaller community farmers market in Mount Eliza village, producers drawn from the Mornington corridor.
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Mount Martha Beach
Mount Martha is the gentlest swim on the Peninsula.
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One Spa at RACV Cape Schanck Resort
The Peninsula's best resort-style day spa, proper scale, serious treatment menu, and a cliff-edge location that nobody else on the Peninsula can match.
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Peninsula Hot Springs
The original Peninsula thermal springs, still the biggest, still the most complete wellness circuit for people who want the full ritual.
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Point Nepean Fort Walk
Point Nepean rewards people who are happy to walk a little further than the average Peninsula day-tripper.
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Point Nepean National Park
Point Nepean is the Peninsula's great historic national park - a former defence installation at the very tip of the land.
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Portsea Front Beach
Portsea Front Beach is slightly less busy than Sorrento's equivalent and, on a clear morning, just as pretty.
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Portsea Golf Club
Portsea Golf Club is the classic Peninsula member's club at the tip.
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RACV Cape Schanck Golf Course
RACV Cape Schanck is the scenic one.
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Red Hill Hinterland Cycling
The rolling hills of the Red Hill hinterland are some of the most rewarding cycling terrain in Victoria.
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Red Hill Market
Victoria's finest artisan craft market, more than 200 stalls of craft, produce, plants and peninsular makers, first Saturday of each month.
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Red Hill Truffles
Red Hill Truffles is a working truffière on the Red Hill ridge that opens for seasonal truffle hunts from late autumn through winter.
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Rosebud Country Club
Rosebud Country Club runs three nine-hole courses (North, South, and East) that mix-and-match into 18-hole rounds.
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Rye Beachside Market
A Sunday-morning stall row on the Rye foreshore, with the bay a few metres away.
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Rye Ocean Beach
Rye Ocean Beach is the back-beach counterpart to Rye's calmer bay side - a wide, exposed ocean beach with a dune backing.
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Safety Beach
Safety Beach is the Peninsula's most reliably calm swimming beach - the name is genuinely accurate - and the right answer when you.
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Sea Search Encounters
Sea Search Encounters runs snorkelling and scuba trips out of the Sorrento pier to some of the Peninsula's best-kept underwater secrets - the.
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Sorrento Back Beach
The back beach is where Sorrento stops performing and starts feeling elemental.
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Sorrento Ferry
The Sorrento ferry is the Peninsula's single most iconic water experience and one of the genuine small joys of the bayside.
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Sorrento Golf Club
Sorrento Golf Club is a parkland course on the Peninsula's tip, more traditional and less dramatic than the nearby links courses.
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Sorrento Ocean Baths
The Sorrento Ocean Baths are the kind of coastal detail that makes the Peninsula feel older and stranger than its current reputation suggests.
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Spa by Jackalope
The Peninsula's most design-led boutique spa, small, precise, and the natural pairing with a Jackalope stay or a Doot Doot Doot dinner.
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St Andrews Beach Golf Course
St Andrews Beach is the Peninsula's strongest public-access golf story.
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Summit Circuit Walk - Arthurs Seat
The Summit Circuit is the ideal short walk for most Peninsula visitors who want the Arthurs Seat view without committing to an all-day trek.
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Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm
Sunny Ridge has been running pick-your-own strawberry picking on the Red Hill plateau long enough to be the reference point for this kind.
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The Dunes Golf Links
The Dunes is the Peninsula's other world-class public-access course - Tony Cashmore's links design carved through genuine dunes near Rye.
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The National Golf Club
The National is the Peninsula's most ambitious golf property - four championship courses across two sites.
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The Two Bays Walking Track
The Two Bays Walking Track is the Peninsula's answer to a real day hike - a 26-kilometre ridge-and-coast traverse that runs from Cape.
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Two Bays Walking Track
Two Bays is the Peninsula's signature long-distance walking track - a 26-kilometre one-way trail linking Port Phillip Bay at Dromana with Bass Strait.
Nothing matches those filters yet
Loosen one and the good stuff comes back. Or tell PI what you are after.
Turn it into a weekend: our escape plans sequence these with the right lunch and the right bed.
From the Journal
Further reading for the afternoon half
The Peninsula with Kids: A Day That Doesn't Punish Anyone
A working plan for parents who want the region to feel like a holiday, not a logistics problem.
The Rainy-Day Peninsula Without a Booking
For the grey Saturday when the forecast turns, the hot springs are full, and you still want the region to feel worth the drive.
The Market Saturday: Two Peninsula Weekends Built Around the Right Hour at the Right Stall
The Mornington Farmers Market, the Red Hill Community Market, the Balnarring Emu Plains Market, the Somers makers.
Frequently asked
Five honest answers about Peninsula geography and access
What is the Mornington Peninsula?
A peninsula and local government area in Victoria, Australia, beginning roughly 40 km south of Melbourne's CBD and extending to the tip at Point Nepean. Its bay side (Port Phillip) is calm water; its ocean side (Bass Strait, via the Mornington Peninsula National Park) is surf and cliff. The hinterland, Red Hill, Main Ridge, Merricks, is wine and food country.
How far is the Peninsula from Melbourne?
The peninsula begins around 40–50 km from central Melbourne. Mornington town is about 60 km by road (50–60 min). Sorrento is 110 km by road (1 hr 20 min without traffic) or reachable via the Searoad Ferry from Queenscliff.
What is there to do on the Peninsula?
Hot springs, beaches (bay and ocean), coastal walks, golf, winery lunches, day spas, surf, markets, lookouts, and whale-watching in season. See the full ranked list at things to do on the Mornington Peninsula.
When is the best time to visit?
Summer (December–February) is peak beach season and most crowded. Autumn (March–May) is the best eating and drinking season and the most comfortable for hinterland visits. Winter is quiet, atmospheric, and ideal for hot springs. Spring is underrated, especially for wildflowers and walking.
Is a car necessary?
For most itineraries, yes. Public transport connects Melbourne to Frankston and a limited bus network extends further, but the hinterland, beaches, and most attractions are car-dependent. See getting around for the full picture.
Search
Not sure which way to point the day?
Every walk, beach, spring, and back road on these pages is searchable. Start with a place, a mood, or the time you have.