Restaurant Sorrento
Bistro Elba
100–102 Ocean Beach Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943
A Southern French bistro on Sorrento's Ocean Beach Road, open for lunch and dinner throughout the week.
Sorrento Ferry
Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
The Sorrento ferry is the Peninsula's single most iconic water experience and one of the genuine small joys of the bayside. The car and passenger ferry runs between Sorrento and Queenscliff across Port Phillip Bay - forty minutes each way - and on a good day the crossing regularly encounters resident dolphins, seals, and the occasional fur seal lounging on the channel markers.
Walk on as a foot passenger for a day trip to Queenscliff (a charming fishing village in its own right, with a good fish-and-chip shop and a small wine bar), or take the car across and use the crossing as a shortcut to the Bellarine Peninsula wine country. Either way, the ride itself is the point. Stand on the upper deck; watch the wake; look for dolphins in the bay.
Check the timetable; crossings run every hour. Book ahead in summer, especially if you are taking a car.
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Where to eat, drink, or stay nearby
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Exterior photographed in 2006. Photo: Biatch / Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Source
Hotel Sorrento
Hotel Sorrento
5-15 Hotham Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943
A Sorrento clifftop hotel with restored limestone rooms, contemporary suites, a guest-only pool and several dining spaces.
Pub Sorrento
The Sorrento Hotel
5-15 Hotham Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943
The centre-of-the-village trading post on Ocean Beach Road, reliable parmas, a big dining room, and the default Sorrento pub for a reason.
Keep going
More ways to use this side of the Peninsula
Walk Coppins Track
Coppins Track runs four kilometres from Sorrento Ocean Beach through clifftop coastal heathland to Diamond Bay, following a route threaded with a century of local history. Interpretive signage along the way reads the landscape for you: the Peninsula's quarantine era, the military history of the area, the natural history of the heath. Diamond Bay is a small, almost-always-empty beach at the far end and an excellent turnaround point for a round trip. The track is more than a walk; it is one of the best ways to understand how this stretch of the Peninsula actually came to look the way it does. Coastal erosion, endemic flora, and the old paths between bays are all visible as you move through. Allow around 2.5 hours return. Best in the cooler months - the exposed heath gets hot in summer midday.
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Walk Mornington Peninsula Foreshore Walk
The foreshore walk between Mornington and Mount Martha is the Peninsula's most dog-friendly significant walk and one of its most reliably beautiful - seven kilometres one way along the coast, with sweeping Port Phillip Bay views, heritage bathing boxes, clifftop lookouts, and several quiet little beaches you can detour into along the way. Start at Mornington Pier and walk south toward Mount Martha, or reverse the direction for a later-afternoon light run. The track is well-formed throughout, accessible to most fitness levels, and supports everything from a fast morning run to a leisurely family stroll. It is the best long morning walk on the bayside, followed by coffee at either end. For the full seven kilometres, allow 90 minutes walking at a brisk pace or two hours with stops. For a shorter segment, the stretch between Mills Beach and Fossil Beach is particularly good.
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Golf Course Mornington Golf Club
Mornington Golf Club is the closest Peninsula course to Melbourne - about 60 minutes from the CBD via the freeway. That proximity makes it the obvious choice for a day-trip round or an after-work nine, and the reason casual Melbourne golfers know it well. The course itself is parkland, relatively short, and more practical than dramatic. Not the round you drive down for; the round you take when you are already in Mornington. Visitor play is straightforward - the club takes public bookings, and the weekend pressure is less than at the coastal links courses. The facilities are solid. The course drains reasonably well through winter. Pricing is fair. For a first-visit Peninsula golfer who wants to play somewhere scenic without the drive to Cape Schanck or Fingal, Mornington is a reasonable start. Pair it with brunch at Commonfolk, a walk along the Esplanade, and the Wednesday farmers' market if your timing lines up.
Open the guide →Further reading
Journal pieces that deepen this stop
Insider Edit 7 min
Breakfast Before the Crowds: Four Peninsula Mornings
9 April 2026
The long lunches get the headlines. But the Peninsula's first hour of the day - the flat white, the croissant out of the oven, the eggs on a working bakery's sourdough - is the quieter, better-value half of the food story. Here is where locals go, and the order to do it in.
Service 7 min
How to Plan a Mornington Peninsula Corporate Retreat
19 April 2026
The best Peninsula retreats balance work, hospitality, and recovery. This is how to structure an offsite that actually feels worth leaving Melbourne for.