Hotel Red Hill
Jackalope Hotel
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926 · $$$$
A dramatic art-led design hotel set inside a working vineyard, with Doot Doot Doot's eight-metre chandelier overhead.
Ridge to Sea: A Two-Night Peninsula Escape
Start in Red Hill wine country, finish at the southern tip, and let the weekend widen as it goes.
CouplesFood & Wine95 min driving
This is the Peninsula in the sequence that makes the most sense to us: lunch and vineyard calm on the ridge first, then a gradual drift south until the landscape finally opens out into ocean, forts, ferries, and the weathered social theatre of Sorrento. It works because each day changes register. Day one is indulgent, day two is coastal, day three is all horizon. Keep the bookings light enough that the weekend can still breathe.
Day 1
- Midday
Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove
Arrive through the sculpture park and let lunch set the pace for the whole weekend.
- Evening
Jackalope Hotel
Check in on the ridge and commit to the theatrical version of the Peninsula for night one.
Day 2
- Morning
Stop
If the market is on, start here. If not, use the hour for a slower breakfast and village loop.
- Midday
Polperro
Keep lunch lighter today. The room and the wines both reward restraint.
- Afternoon
Bushrangers Bay Walk
Swap the wine rhythm for ocean air before the second night.
- Night
Hotel Sorrento
Sleep at the tip with a bay-view drink before dinner downstairs or nearby.
Day 3
- Morning
Point Nepean Fort Walk
Finish with the long view over the Heads before heading back to Melbourne.
Sleep here
Stays that anchor this escape properly
Hotel Sorrento
Hotel Sorrento
5-15 Hotham Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943 · $$$
A grand old bay-facing pub-hotel whose best rooms still make Sorrento feel gloriously old-school.
Move the trip outside
Explore stops inside this plan
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 →
Point Nepean Fort Walk
Point Nepean rewards people who are happy to walk a little further than the average Peninsula day-tripper. The road and paths out toward Fort Nepean unfold through old quarantine buildings, scrub, and cliff-edge lookouts before the whole place gives way to bunkers and artillery emplacements looking straight across the Heads. It is a history lesson, a coastline walk, and a very good excuse to leave Sorrento for the afternoon. Hire bikes if you want to cover more ground, but walking keeps the mood right.
Open the guide →Further reading
Journal pieces that sharpen this version of the Peninsula
Slow Peninsula 7 min
A Flinders Weekend: The Case for the Quiet Side of the Peninsula
4 April 2026
When Red Hill is booked out and Sorrento feels like a queue, there is another version of the Peninsula weekend that runs south of everything, closer to the ocean, and slower on purpose.
Editor's Letter 8 min
A Winter Peninsula Weekend: The Case for Coming in July
13 April 2026
Short days, cheap rooms, empty dining rooms, a fire in every cellar door with a hearth, and a coast that looks like a different country in a southerly. Winter is the Peninsula's most underrated season and the one that gives the region back to the people who actually live here.
Try another shape
More escape plans from the rebuild
Plan
Flinders and the Cape: A One-Night Reset
For people who want salt air, one excellent meal, and just enough structure to stop planning.
Plan
The Sorrento Off-Season Weekend
A two-night village-based plan that uses the tip of the Peninsula properly - back beach, national park, a village dinner, and the fort walk that turns the weekend into a landscape.
Plan
The Peninsula Family Day Out
A single day built around one anchor (the gondola), one lunch that works with children (the brewery), and one beach that forgives everything. No drives longer than twenty minutes, no bookings that punish a melt-down.
Plan
The Peninsula Golf Weekend: Two Nights, One Serious Round, Room for the Rest
One public-access course with genuine ranking credibility, a long lunch on the ridge, a hot springs session, and a stay within ten minutes of the first tee. For groups where not everyone plays.