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Spring Insider · October 2026 Spring 2026
A local point of view.
A Peninsula worth knowing.
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Explore · Regions
The Peninsula's wine heartland: cool-climate pinot, long lunches, and unhurried cellar doors.
Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
Red Hill and Merricks form the Peninsula's most celebrated wine corridor. The ridge sits 300 metres above sea level, catching the cool Bass Strait air that defines the region's pinot noir and chardonnay. This is not a drive-through wine region; it rewards slow movement. Cellar doors range from the architecturally ambitious (Point Leo, Jackalope) to the quietly exceptional (Stonier, Ten Minutes by Tractor). Between tastings, the farmers markets, providores, and destination restaurants make Red Hill one of the most coherent food-and-wine precincts in Victoria.
Red Hill · ridge
Arthurs Seat is the Peninsula's high point - the ridge-top lookout, gondola, gardens and hairpin road that orient the whole region in one view. It is less a village than a landmark, but for visitors it behaves like a destination: come up for the bay panorama, the Eagle, short summit walks and the first real sense of how the beaches, vineyards and villages fit together.
Red Hill · village
Balnarring is the village that locals still treat as their own - a cluster of shops, the Emu Plains Market on the third Saturday of the month through the warmer months, a village pub in a 1930s heritage home, and a road network that somehow always seems to lead back to a cellar door. It sits on the eastern edge of the Peninsula's wine country, closer to Western Port than Port Phillip, and that changes the character: the light is softer, the crowds are thinner, and the vineyards here tend to be smaller family operations rather than destination estates. Balnarring is where you go when you want a Peninsula weekend that feels like the way things used to work before the region became a brand. The beach is genuine and quiet, the coffee is unpretentious, and the drive in from Tedesca or Montalto takes fifteen minutes of roads you've mostly never seen.
Red Hill · village
Main Ridge is the highest part of the Peninsula wine country, and the most forgiving to pinot noir. A few degrees cooler than Red Hill proper, wetter in winter, and foggy on the right mornings - if you drew the perfect place to grow cool-climate grapes in Victoria, it would look something like this. There is no real village centre, just a crossroads, a hall, and a handful of the most serious cellar doors on the Peninsula scattered through ferny side roads. Main Ridge rewards people who want to understand wine country rather than just photograph it: the single-vineyard bottles from this sub-region are consistently among the region's best, the estates are small and run by the people who own them, and nobody is trying to sell you a wedding venue. Come for a morning tasting at one of the serious producers, then drive ten minutes in any direction for lunch.
Red Hill · village
Merricks is where the Peninsula's wine country starts to feel private. There is almost no main street to speak of, just a low-slung hall, winding vineyard roads, and a cluster of estates and restaurants that reward people who know where to turn off. The light is softer here than in Red Hill proper and the bay feels unexpectedly close. It is one of the Peninsula's best places to stay if your idea of a weekend away means vines outside the window, lunch that goes too long, and very little noise.
Western Port · village
Merricks Beach is a hamlet, not a town, and is largely the work of one generation of holiday-house builders who put up timber shacks along the dunes in the 1950s and 60s and then refused to let the place change much since. The beach is shallow, tide-dependent, and quiet - there is no surf, no foreshore café strip, and at low tide it spreads out into hundreds of metres of flat sand that visiting children turn into a private kingdom. The Merricks General Store, technically up in Merricks village, is the one polished thing nearby and is famous for a reason. Stay at Merricks Beach if you want the holiday-house feeling the Peninsula has mostly lost: front-door dunes, no shops, neighbours you have to walk past, and an evening rhythm built around a sundowner on the verandah.
Red Hill · village
Merricks North is wine country with a quieter accent than Red Hill and a longer pedigree than the Merricks village down the road. The roads here run between vineyards that were planted in the 1970s and 1980s - Elgee Park, Baillieu, Stonier - back when the Peninsula's cool-climate Pinot was an experiment most people did not believe in. The result is a small dense pocket of cellar doors with serious wines and almost no signage, hedged in by polo fields, horse studs, and one of the prettier country halls on the Peninsula. There is no town centre, no general store, and that is part of the point. Drive in for a slow cellar-door morning, lunch held at a vineyard restaurant, and an afternoon detour to the Merricks beach side if the weather allows. Stay nearby in Merricks or Red Hill; come here to drink.
Hinterland · village
Moorooduc is the wine country's quieter northern edge - further from the ridge road, less visited, different enough in soil and latitude to grow serious chardonnay that the broader market still underrates. Moorooduc Estate and Barmah Park are the anchors. Use it for a slow cellar-door morning before heading up to Red Hill for lunch.
Western Port · village
Point Leo is a beach, a surf break, and one of the most ambitious privately held sculpture parks in the country - and almost nothing else. The village barely qualifies as a village - a foreshore camping ground, a surf life-saving club, a quiet residential pocket - but pull off the road into Point Leo Estate and you find sixteen and a half acres of contemporary sculpture rolling toward the bay, a hatted dining room with one of the great Australian wine lists, and a cellar door that takes itself only as seriously as it should. The break out front is the Peninsula's most consistent right-hander, and the longboard contest that turns up here each year is the real local calendar. People come to Point Leo for a quiet morning at the beach, an unhurried afternoon among the sculptures, and a long dinner with a Pinot Noir flight. That sequence is the entire reason to come.
Red Hill · village
On a misty basalt plateau above the Peninsula's central ridge, Red Hill has arranged some of the strongest food and wine in Victoria into a circuit that rewards the unhurried. A village by strict measure - a general store, a monthly market, vineyard restaurants that don't advertise from the highway - it nonetheless organises the whole upper Peninsula around itself. The winery restaurant cluster here - Ten Minutes by Tractor, Montalto, Paringa Estate, Principia - has no serious peer in the state. Come on Saturday; plan lunch first.
Red Hill · village
Red Hill South is the lower, quieter half of the Red Hill plateau, and for visitors who already know the headline village it is often the better stay. The roads drop down off the ridge into a softer landscape - a community shop, a small handful of cellar doors, a popular country pub, and a long catalogue of bed-and-breakfasts in renovated farmhouses. The cellar doors here - Foxeys Hangout, Quealy, Lindenderry - pull a different crowd to the ridge-top names, and the lunch options below Red Hill village proper are some of the most rewarding on the Peninsula. The original Red Hill Community Market is temporarily closed; the separate Hill and Ridge Community Market runs first Saturdays from September to May at Red Hill Recreation Reserve. Stay here when the upper village is full or when you want a cellar-door weekend that is slightly off the obvious circuit.
Hinterland · village
Tuerong is where some of the Peninsula's best bottles come from roads most visitors never take. Yabby Lake is the anchor - Halliday Top 100, relaxed cellar-door program - and the same back roads hold Dexter Wines and a cluster of low-volume producers whose fruit ends up in Melbourne's better wine lists. Quiet, specific, worth the detour.
1333 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
The low-waste, low-key sibling of Ten Minutes by Tractor's fine dining room, small plates, garden-harvested produce, and a thoughtful wine list.
10 Nestle Court, Arthurs Seat VIC 3936
Five couples-only suites on Arthurs Seat with bay views. Breakfast provisions are optional; spa and kitchen features vary by suite.
98 Stanleys Road, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Shashi and Rohit Singh's biodynamic family estate, one of the Peninsula's only serious Syrah programs alongside the Amrit single-vineyard range.
51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.
3050 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Balnarring VIC 3926
The village bakehouse for the Balnarring side of the Peninsula, pies, pastries, and the breakfast sandwich that fuels the Saturday market crowd.
3059 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Balnarring VIC 3926
Balnarring's village pub, in a 1930s heritage home on a two-acre block, with open fires, a sunny deck and a large beer garden.
3007 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Moorooduc VIC 3933
All-day farm kitchen and courtyard, brunches, cheese plates, and an easy Peninsula midweek lunch without the wine-country theatre.
3007 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Moorooduc VIC 3933
A rustic, intimate cellar door running a five-wine, five-canape pairing from a hatted-standard kitchen, the most structured tasting format on the Peninsula.
Illustrative, not Cassis Red Hill. Photo: faVori rouge · Mornington Peninsula vineyard · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
164 Arthurs Seat Road, Red Hill VIC 3937
Five adults-only villas overlooking the vines: two with mineral plunge pools, three with outdoor baths.
210 Foxeys Road, Tuerong VIC 3915
Tod and Debbie Dexter produce single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Tuerong. The vineyard is not open to the public.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
A multi-course dining experience at Jackalope Hotel, with a dramatic room and a seasonal menu.
555 Old Moorooduc Rd, Tuerong VIC 3933
One of the Peninsula's founding names, cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir alongside a small run of Italian-leaning bottlings on the quieter hinterland side.
17 Turners Rd, Bittern VIC 3918
Selma and Jonathan Lowther's 1981 planting, one of the oldest on the Peninsula, with a cellar door that doubles as a small contemporary art gallery.
120 Arthurs Seat Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
David Lloyd's tiny cult estate, single-clone Pinot Noirs from individual rows, plus Gamay, made for the Burgundy obsessives.
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.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
165 Shoreham Road, Red Hill South VIC 3937
A long table in Red Hill’s historic coolstore and packing shed.
795 White Hill Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
Biodynamic Red Hill estate with an all-day deck, sunny long lunches, and a sparkling program that holds its own against anything French.
Photo: Two Palms Australia, courtesy of Visit Victoria
1180 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
A working olive grove and produce kitchen on the Red Hill ridge, grazing boards, wood-fired mains, and oils pressed from the estate's own trees.
Illustrative, not Happy Glamper Balnarring Deluxe. Photo: Honk squeak · Balnarring Beach, Victoria, Australia · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
Balnarring Foreshore Reserve, Balnarring Beach VIC
A furnished bell tent at Balnarring Foreshore Reserve with the campsite fee included, subject to the operator's seasonal availability.
Illustrative, not Hideaways at Red Hill. Photo: faVori rouge · Mornington Peninsula vineyard · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
Red Hill VIC 3937
Woodland Cottage at Hideaways at Red Hill is a two-person guest suite with an indoor spa bath.
101 Balnarring Rd, Balnarring VIC 3926
Kevin Bell's boutique single-vineyard Pinot project, three tiny blocks (Lodestone, Garamond, Hommage) and some of the Peninsula's most sought-after bottles.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
An art-led vineyard hotel in Merricks North, with Doot Doot Doot dining and room choices from Terrace to Lair.
1180 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
The Peninsula's hinterland pie stop, proper beef pies, a sweets cabinet worth detouring for, and a garden café out the back.
235 Stanleys Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Tom McCarthy and Lucas Blanck's new-school Peninsula label, lighter-style Pinot, approachable Chardonnay, and a cellar door that feels like a bar.
263 Red Hill Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Single-vineyard pinot noir and chardonnay from one of the Peninsula's most decorated estates.
1385 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
The Peninsula's original winery pizza barn, wood-fired margheritas, handmade pasta, and T'Gallant's Pinot Grigio by the carafe.
3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
An intimate fine-dining room at Pt. Leo Estate, with seasonal menus and an unhurried view across the grounds.
110 Myers Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
A small Main Ridge estate with a focused Pinot and Chardonnay range and one of the ridge's most peaceful tasting rooms.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
142 Arthurs Seat Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
A Red Hill hotel set on 34 acres of gardens and vines, with an on-site dining room and a weekend cellar door.
295 Main Creek Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
A working farmhouse goat dairy on the Main Ridge, farm-made cheeses, goat-milk gelato, and a café with views across the paddocks to the herd.
80 William Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
Planted in 1975 by Nat and Rosalie White, the Peninsula's founding vineyard, still making restrained Pinot and Chardonnay from the original blocks.
166 Red Hill Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Sri Lankan flavours in a European wine-bar setting, from the Polperro team, paired with natural wines and small Peninsula producers.
1 Merricks-Frankston Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
A small, long-standing Merricks estate making one of the Peninsula's rare serious Shiraz programs alongside Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
3460 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
The old Merricks general store reborn as a cellar door, bakery, and produce-forward lunch room.
Photo: Two Palms Australia, courtesy of Visit Victoria
33 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Single Vineyard Pinot Noir and a Sunday lunch beneath the olive grove canopy.
501 Derril Rd, Moorooduc VIC 3933
Richard McIntyre's pioneering low-intervention estate, home to the Robinson Chardonnay, one of Australia's genuine Chardonnay reference points.
337 Main Creek Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
Foxeys' second, quieter Main Ridge site, Italian-feeling long lunches, valley views, and a Pinot Gris program that rewards attention.
Photo: Two Palms Australia, courtesy of Visit Victoria
271 Tucks Road, Shoreham VIC 3916
Mike Aylward's precise, minimal cellar door turning out some of the Peninsula's most quietly obsessive pinot noir.
110 Tuerong Rd, Tuerong VIC 3933
Three winemakers, small-batch Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and cult-favourite status among Australia's best sommeliers.
26 Merricks Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
George Mihaly's fastidiously farmed single-site Pinot Noir estate, appointment-only tastings, often led by George himself.
Photo: Paringa Estate
44 Paringa Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
A serious single-vineyard producer with one of the Peninsula's most dependable restaurant terraces.
3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
The all-day casual option at Point Leo Estate, wood-fired flatbreads, estate wines, and a terrace facing the bay and the sculpture park.
150 Red Hill Road, Red Hill VIC 3937
Small-production cool-climate pinot and chardonnay poured in one of the prettiest tasting rooms on the ridge.
Illustrative, not Polperro Villas. Photo: faVori rouge · Mornington Peninsula vineyard · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
150 Red Hill Road, Red Hill VIC 3937
Four vineyard villas, each sleeping two with a king-size bed, indoor spa and open fireplace.
263 Red Hill Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Rammed-earth architecture, an estate dining room and six vineyard suites in Red Hill South.
263 Red Hill Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
The dining room inside Wood Marsh's rammed-earth building at Port Phillip Estate, architecturally serious, one-hat kitchen, six estate suites.
12 Arthurs Seat Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
Organic and biodynamic estate pouring its own Pinot alongside imported Chablis and Burgundy, the Peninsula's most direct Old World–New World comparison tasting.
Photo: Courtesy of Visit Victoria
3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
A sculpture park walk followed by a long bay-view lunch in the glass-walled restaurant.
62 Bittern-Dromana Rd, Balnarring VIC 3926
A foundational Peninsula producer best known for pinot gris, friulano, and a cellar door with real local soul.
Photo: Courtesy of Visit Victoria
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
Jackalope's relaxed lunch room, wood fire, vineyard views, and plates built for sharing over most of an afternoon.
Photo: Two Palms Australia, courtesy of Visit Victoria
51 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Airy warehouse, picnic tables, and low-and-slow American barbecue, pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken, the family-friendly antidote to the winery-restaurant circuit.
1/3000 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Balnarring VIC 3926
Artisan bread, pies and pastries from the bakery's sole current shop in Balnarring.
Photo: Peter Tarasiuk, courtesy of Visit Victoria
88 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
The Peninsula's original craft brewery, Belgian-style ales from the only estate hop farm in Victoria.
81 William Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
Small-batch cheesemaker with a tasting room, hard sheep's milk styles, washed rinds, and a rotating seasonal list.
1208 Mornington-Flinders Road, Main Ridge VIC 3928
One of the Peninsula's most photographed cellar-door positions, sweeping Western Port views and a serious traditional-method sparkling program.
23 Old Bittern-Dromana Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
Paul Scorpo's tightly focused family estate, one of the Peninsula's most acclaimed Pinot Gris alongside elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
The Peninsula's most design-led boutique spa, small, precise, and the natural pairing with a Jackalope stay or a Doot Doot Doot dinner.
2 Thompsons Lane, Merricks VIC 3916
One of the Peninsula's founding estates, planted in 1978, grown-up, unflashy, with some of the oldest Chardonnay vines in the region.
1247 Stumpy Gully Rd, Moorooduc VIC 3933
A family-run estate with one of the Peninsula's broadest varietal ranges, Sangiovese, Marzemino, and Picolit alongside cool-climate classics.
1385 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
The Peninsula's Pinot Grigio pioneer, a family-friendly cellar door on Main Ridge with Italian-inspired food and the estate's Prosecco by the glass.
1175 Mornington-Flinders Road, Red Hill VIC 3937
Brigitte Hafner's single-set-menu osteria inside a restored Red Hill farmhouse with the wood oven running all service.
Photo: Provided image
1333 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
Estate-grown pinot noir alongside a seasonal degustation rooted in the Ridge vineyard.
Illustrative, not The Orchard Luxury Accommodation. Photo: faVori rouge · Mornington Peninsula vineyard · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
45 Thomas Road, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Three rammed-earth apartments on ten acres in Red Hill South, each with a spa bath and a private deck overlooking the lake and valley.
80 McIlroys Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937
Two self-contained Red Hill cottages, Peppercorn and Winemakers, on an artisan vineyard property. Breakfast provisions are described for Peppercorn.
37 Red Hill-Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937
A founding Red Hill estate, mid-1980s, renewed focus on single-vineyard Pinot Noir and a deck view to Western Port that earns the drive.
200 Main Ridge Rd, Main Ridge VIC 3928
A small, warm Italian room tucked into the hinterland, handmade pasta, a hand-written weekly menu, and the Peninsula's best neighbourhood trattoria.
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
The vineyard at the heart of Jackalope Hotel, a showpiece single-site program and the home of both Rare Hare and Doot Doot Doot.
Illustrative, not Chalet Un at Woodman Estate. Photo: Smartiejl · Devilbend lake · resized and converted to WebP SourceLicence
136 Graydens Road, Moorooduc VIC 3933
A private chalet beside the lake on Woodman Estate's 50-acre grounds, with gardens, lake areas and tennis court shared with other guests.
86-112 Tuerong Rd, Tuerong VIC 3933
Tom Carson's single-block Chardonnay and Pinot Noir program, poured from a relaxed cellar door with one of the Peninsula's loveliest lunch decks.
Lookout Arthurs Seat is the Peninsula's highest point and the Eagle is the gondola that runs people up it - about fifteen 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.
Open the guide →
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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Walk The Greens Bush section of the Two Bays Walking Track is the most rewarding bushwalking segment the Peninsula has - 8.9 kilometres one-way through the largest remnant bushland on the Peninsula, with ancient grasstrees (some more than two hundred years old), pockets of dense tea-tree alive with birds, fern gullies, and open eucalypt forest interrupted only by the sound of the occasional kangaroo. This is where the walking really slows down. The canopy closes overhead in places, the understory birds work the tea-tree continuously, and the track passes through a landscape that looks more or less as it would have before European settlement. Genuinely beautiful, and far quieter than the coastal sections of the same trail. Walk it one-way with a car shuffle, or do a shorter circuit from the Greens Bush Carpark off Baldrys Road. Best in autumn and spring.
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Gallery 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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Gallery 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 seventy 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 ticketed 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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Tour The rolling hills of the Red Hill hinterland are some of the most rewarding cycling terrain in Victoria. Dedicated bike routes, quiet back roads, and the natural ridge geography combine to link wineries, farms, and viewpoints through some of the most beautiful farmland on the Peninsula. A half-day loop threading together three or four cellar doors - with lunch somewhere in the middle - is one of the Peninsula's most civilised ways to spend a sunny Saturday. Bike hire is available from a handful of operators in Red Hill itself, and the routes can be self-guided or booked as a supported day tour with a driver picking you up at the finish. Either way, the scale of the ridge makes it the ideal bike country: the climbs are real but never punishing, the views open up constantly, and the cellar door schedule writes itself. Best in autumn when the vineyards change colour and the traffic on the ridge roads is minimal.
Open the guide → Attraction Red Hill Truffles is a working truffière on the Red Hill ridge that opens for seasonal truffle hunts from late autumn through winter. The format is the one every winter food-obsessive eventually books: a morning in the field with trained dogs working each row and nosing out the black truffles hidden under the inoculated oaks, followed by a small tasting back at the shed where the truffles go into eggs, butter, and whatever the kitchen is running that week. The hunt itself, watching the dogs work, is as much the point as the truffle on the plate. Truffle seasons are short and weekend slots book out months in advance every year. June and July are the peak months. Dress for the field and understand that rain makes it better, not worse, the dogs work in all conditions and the atmosphere in a wet winter grove is its own reward. Fresh truffles are available for sale when they are up, and the product is excellent. One of the Peninsula's most unusual winter experiences. Book months in advance for weekends.
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Walk 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. A 1.8-kilometre loop at the top of the mountain that guides you past the major points of interest - Seawinds Gardens, the Matthew Flinders Cairn, the William Ricketts sculptures, bay-to-ocean lookouts at multiple points, and the Seawinds Nursery Indigenous Garden - all within an easy hour of walking. The view from the summit is the entire Peninsula in one sweep: Port Phillip Bay on one side, the ridge and the ocean country on the other. On a clear day you can see as far as the You Yangs to the west and the city of Melbourne to the north. Drive or take the Arthurs Seat Eagle (chairlift) to the top. Walk the full circuit. Take a coffee from the summit kiosk on the way back.
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Attraction 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 of experience on the Peninsula. The season runs from November through April, outside that window there's nothing to pick, so check before you drive. During the season, the format is straightforward: collect a punnet, walk the rows, fill it, weigh it at the counter, and pay by weight. The simplicity is the point. The farm café serves strawberry ice cream and sundaes made from the estate's own fruit. It's not a gourmet café, it's a family destination with a very clear purpose, and it does that purpose well. Go in the morning on a clear day when the fruit is cool and the rows aren't crowded. Later in the afternoon on busy weekends, the most accessible rows can be well-picked-over. Wear clothes you don't mind staining. The juice is persistent, and small children will make the most of it.
Open the guide →6 April 2026
Not the biggest estates, not the flashiest rooms. The four Peninsula cellar doors where the wines - and the people pouring them - actually change how you think about the region.
Red Hill & Merricks in 12 photographs
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