Glamping Shoreham
Iluka Retreat & Camp
Red Hill South VIC 3937 · $$
Thirty structures on 36 acres near Shoreham, the Peninsula's only fixed-site multi-tent group glamping venue, with a private freshwater lake.
Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens
Ashcombe Maze holds Australia's oldest symmetrical hedge maze, a circular rose garden, a lavender labyrinth, and a small café that sells lavender everything, ice cream, scones, shortbread, tisane, from a room that smells exactly like the fields outside. The gardens are at their peak in spring when the lavender is up, but the maze works in any season and the café is reason enough in autumn.
The place is deliberately low-tempo. You walk the maze, you sit in the lavender, you drink tea, and you leave feeling like you have stumbled into a slightly older, gentler version of the Peninsula. It is a good rainy-afternoon reset and an even better spring morning plan. Pair it with Flinders Sourdough on the way through or Flinders General Store afterwards.
Bring the kids. Bring older visitors. Do not try to be cynical about it, the charm wins.
Pair it with a booking
Where to eat, drink, or stay nearby
The best explore pages should lead somewhere next.
Villa Shoreham
Mantons Creek Estate
240 Tucks Rd, Shoreham VIC 3916 · $$$
Four adults-only vineyard suites with on-estate Italian dining, two minutes from Ten Minutes by Tractor, the most under-indexed southern Red Hill base.
Keep going
More ways to use this side of the Peninsula
Bushrangers Bay
Bushrangers Bay is a hidden ocean beach accessed via a 2.5-kilometre walk through coastal heathland from Cape Schanck - and, remarkably, almost nobody goes here even in summer. In April it is completely deserted. Dramatic rock formations, sea caves along the cliffs, and the raw power of the Southern Ocean breaking against the headlands at the far end of the beach. The walk in from Cape Schanck is straightforward and well-marked, descending gradually through the heath to the back of the beach. Once you arrive, the scale of the place - cliffs, caves, ocean, almost no human presence - is the reason to come. Walk the sand, look at the rock formations, turn around. One of the Peninsula's genuinely remote-feeling experiences, hiding in plain sight. Bring water; there are no facilities at the beach itself.
Open the guide →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 committing to a full-day hike. The track drops from the Cape Schanck lighthouse precinct through coastal scrub and opens onto a broad crescent of basalt and sand that feels much further from Melbourne than it is. The return climb is enough to justify lunch afterwards, but not so punishing that it tips into chore. Do it in the late afternoon when the light starts to flatten across the water and the whole coastline turns silver.
Open the guide →Cape Schanck Boardwalk
The Cape Schanck boardwalk is short, obvious, and absolutely worth doing. A lot of Peninsula viewpoints require an act of faith before they pay off; this one gives you the basalt formations, the pounding water, and the lighthouse almost immediately. Think of it as the Southern Ocean aperitif before a longer walk or a late lunch inland. It is particularly good for visitors who want scale and coastline without needing to dedicate half the day to it.
Open the guide →Further reading
Journal pieces that deepen this stop
Venue Guide 5 min
Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens — Visitor Guide
22 April 2026
Multiple travel websites still list Ashcombe as closed. It is not. The café re-opened January 2025, the maze is fully operating Thursday to Monday, and the lavender labyrinth uses 4,000 plants across 40+ varieties. Here is the accurate guide.