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.
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.
FriendsMixed120 min driving
The Peninsula golf weekend that actually makes sense for a group where not everyone plays. One serious round at St Andrews Beach - Tom Doak architecture, public access, world top-100 credibility - anchors Saturday. The rest of the weekend shapes around it: ridge stays, vineyard lunches, coastal walks for the non-golfers, and a Sunday that sends you home slowly through Red Hill. Not a 36-hole grind. A shaped weekend that uses golf as the hero round rather than the only event. Book St Andrews Beach 4+ weeks out; plan the lunch at Montalto the same day.
Day 1
- Afternoon
Jackalope Hotel
Arrive Friday afternoon, check in, settle. The ridge stay positions both golf days and the non-golf days properly - Cape Schanck is 15 minutes south, Red Hill restaurants are at your door.
- Evening
Doot Doot Doot
Friday dinner at the hotel restaurant. Sets the weekend up as an event rather than a golf grind.
Day 2
- Morning
St Andrews Beach Golf Course
Saturday morning tee time at St Andrews Beach. Book 4+ weeks ahead. Links country, firm fairways, Tom Doak greens. Allow 4.5 hours for 18 with walk-ups. Non-golfers drive to Cape Schanck for the boardwalk and Bushrangers Bay.
- Midday
Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove
Late lunch at Montalto piazza - relaxed, no dress code required, close enough to the course to work as a recovery meal. The whole group meets here whether they played or not.
- Afternoon
Bushrangers Bay Walk
Late afternoon walk for the non-golfers (or an easy option for everyone). Southern Ocean cliffs and the light at 5pm. Optional - skip and rest if the morning round was tiring.
Day 3
- Morning
Commonfolk Coffee
Sunday brunch in Mornington. Strong coffee, good eggs, no queue before 9am. Shake out the Saturday legs.
- Midday
Ten Minutes by Tractor
One cellar door before the drive home. Serious pinot noir and chardonnay. The ridge sending you off.
Sleep here
Stays that anchor this escape properly
Move the trip outside
Explore stops inside this plan
St Andrews Beach Golf Course
St Andrews Beach is the Peninsula's strongest public-access golf story. Tom Doak architecture, world-ranking credibility, and an address anyone can book - that combination is rarer in Australian golf than the prestige market would have you believe. The course sits in coastal duneland near Fingal, with enough exposure to the Bass Strait weather to make the same round play differently depending on when you show up. Go in autumn when the light flattens and the crowds thin. Book well ahead for weekends. Pair it with the hot springs or a southern Peninsula lunch and the whole day holds together as a proper trip rather than an isolated round.
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 →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
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.
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.