Restaurant Sorrento
Bistro Elba
100–102 Ocean Beach Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943 · $$$
A beachy, artfully dilapidated French bistro on Ocean Beach Road, twice-baked soufflé, ocean-trout gravlax, and a wine list built on small emerging French producers.
Sorrento Ferry
The Sorrento ferry is the Peninsula's single most iconic water experience and one of the genuine small joys of the bayside. The car and passenger ferry runs between Sorrento and Queenscliff across Port Phillip Bay - forty minutes each way - and on a good day the crossing regularly encounters resident dolphins, seals, and the occasional fur seal lounging on the channel markers.
Walk on as a foot passenger for a day trip to Queenscliff (a charming fishing village in its own right, with a good fish-and-chip shop and a small wine bar), or take the car across and use the crossing as a shortcut to the Bellarine Peninsula wine country. Either way, the ride itself is the point. Stand on the upper deck; watch the wake; look for dolphins in the bay.
Check the timetable; crossings run every hour. Book ahead in summer, especially if you are taking a car.
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Where to eat, drink, or stay nearby
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Hotel Sorrento
Hotel Sorrento
5-15 Hotham Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943 · $$$
A grand old bay-facing pub-hotel whose best rooms still make Sorrento feel gloriously old-school.
Bakery Sorrento
Sorrento Bakery
111 Ocean Beach Rd, Sorrento VIC 3943 · $
An Ocean Beach Road institution that has fed generations of beachgoers, pies, pasties, custard scrolls, and a proper sourdough loaf.
Keep going
More ways to use this side of the Peninsula
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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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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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.
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Journal pieces that deepen this stop
Hub Guide 8 min
Sorrento: The Peninsula Insider Guide
2 May 2026
Sorrento is the Peninsula at its most legible — limestone, tide, old money, and a main street that still works once the holiday theatre clears. Come in the off-season, stay two nights, and use it as a real town rather than a summer errand.
Insider Edit 7 min
Breakfast Before the Crowds: Where Locals Actually Eat at 8am
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.