Winery Merricks
Baillieu Vineyard
51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916 · $$
A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.
Pt. Leo Estate Sculpture Park
The Pt. Leo Sculpture Park is a sixteen-acre outdoor gallery set inside the grounds of one of the Peninsula's most ambitious winery estates, with more than sixty significant works from major Australian and international artists - including pieces by Antony Gormley, Emily Floyd, and Marcus Tatton - scattered through the lawns and gardens above the vines.
The walking loop takes about an hour to an hour and a half, and the best way to approach it is with a wine in hand from the estate's own terrace. Entry is free and the work is genuinely worth the attention - this is not a winery decorated with sculpture, it is a serious outdoor gallery inside a winery.
Allow a full half-day if you are also eating at Pt. Leo Restaurant or Laura. This is one of the Peninsula's most complete art-and-food destinations and deserves the time.
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Winery Merricks
Elgee Park
89 Junction Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926 · $$
The Baillieu family's 1972 vineyard, the planting that started the modern Peninsula wine region, still in family hands, still making restrained Chardonnay and Viognier.
Glamping Merricks
Happy Glamper
Peninsula-wide, based Point Leo VIC 3916 · $$
Mobile bell-tent glamping that pitches styled tents at nominated Peninsula foreshore campsites, setup and packdown handled, children welcome.
Keep going
More ways to use this side of the Peninsula
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, dangling over eucalypt canopy, with the bay widening out below until Melbourne appears on the northern horizon. As a first move on a Peninsula weekend it is surprisingly effective: you arrive, you go up, and the whole region orients itself around you in a way that makes the rest of the trip easier to plan. The summit has a cafe, a lookout deck, and short walking trails through the scrub. Come at the start of a clear day for the view north across the bay; come at the end of a clear day for the light spreading over the ridge. Go midweek if you can - weekends in school holidays can be busy. Book tickets online if visiting in summer.
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Balnarring Beach
Balnarring Beach is Western Port's quiet argument against the bay-side beaches most visitors default to. The sand is paler, the water flatter, and the crowd is almost entirely local - a few families on summer weekends, a scattering of walkers the rest of the year. The beach itself runs for kilometres, with ti-tree scrub backing the dunes and almost no built infrastructure. This is the Peninsula beach people come to when they want to swim without any of the theatre. Good for a slow afternoon between a Merricks lunch and a Balnarring produce stop. Very good for dusk walks in autumn when the light turns mauve across the water. Go through the Balnarring Beach hamlet for the easiest access point. Bring your own chair. Don't expect a kiosk.
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Montalto Sculpture Trail
Montalto's sculpture trail is the quieter, gentler sibling of the Pt. Leo Sculpture Park - a curated walk through the vineyard and gardens with a rotating collection of contemporary Australian work, small enough to browse in under an hour but carefully enough placed that each piece earns its spot in the landscape. The trail is designed to be walked before or after a meal at the Montalto restaurant, and that is exactly how to use it. Arrive for a late-morning cellar door tasting, walk the trail, then move into the dining room for a long lunch. The afternoon disappears and the pace is right. Ask the cellar door team what is new when you arrive; the collection changes periodically and the permanent and rotating works are labelled differently.
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Journal pieces that deepen this stop
Hub Guide 8 min
Merricks: The Peninsula Insider Guide
2 May 2026
Merricks is the understated corridor between bay and ridge where the Peninsula's wine country starts to feel private. Come for the general store, the estates, the pub and the rare pleasure of a district that seems to know exactly how little fuss it needs.
Service 9 min
First Time on the Peninsula: The Honest Starter Guide
10 April 2026
You have never been to the Mornington Peninsula. You have a free weekend. You want to know what is actually good, what is overrated, and what the people who live here would tell you to do. This is that guide.