The 8-day One Melbourne

Summary

Along with up to 17 of your soon-to-be best friends, explore all the best bits of Australia's most liveable city and surrounding area with our fully-guided Melbourne welcome week. With transfers, accommodation, job workshops, tax and bank essentials, 12 months' job placement support, and side quests down to beaches, bars and bushlands included – get set up with everything you need to kickstart your working holiday visa in Australia.

Day-to-day itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Melbourne

Welcome to Australia! We will pick you up from the airport and transfer you to Melbourne's beachside burb, St. Kilda – where you'll be spending the week at the Nomads hostel. All you have to do is check in and the rest of the day is yours to take a short walk down to the beach, shoot some pool in the hostel bar or sleep off the jet lag.

Day 2: Meet the group, walking tour and night out

Today is all about making friends and getting the lowdown on working and travelling in Australia. After a morning orientation session with your tour leader, you'll head into Melbourne for a city tour – think street art, coffees, restaurants dedicated to AC/DC. Then in the evening there'll be a welcome dinner on Chapel Street.

Day 3: Work and travel advice, food market and night out

This morning we run a seminar covering everything you need to know to get a job in Australia. We'll get you registered for all your Work + Travel Company (WTC) 12-month membership inclusions. Which includes a Nationwide online Backpacker Job Board, in-house recruitment + placement services, free Wi-Fi and drop-ins at the WTC offices located in Nomads hostel (handy!), mail forwarding, weekly ice-breakers, and as many 1-on-1s as you need to find as many jobs as you want for a whole year! Absolute bosses, travellers typically get placed in a backpacker job and start earning in the first two weeks of doing our packages.

After a morning of geeking out on the important stuff, we'll head out as a group to St. Kilda and South Melbourne Market. Grab food from one of the 100s of stalls and get ready for a night out in Melbourne's best bars and clubs.

Day 4: Mornington Peninsula hot springs

Today is all about pampering. We'll take you to Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs where you can spend the day submerged in natural geothermal pools and steam rooms. Surrounded by bush with stunning coastal views, it's the best bath you'll ever have. Then back to St. Kilda for a free evening – chill, party, bit of both – it's up to you.

Day 5: Great Ocean Road

We hit the road early to drive one of the most iconic road trips in Australia – scap that, the world. If you like coastal views, you're in for a treat – see the legendary rocks of the 12 Apostles, gorge-ous Loch Ard Gorge and go koala spotting in Great Otway National Park. With a head full of sea air and marsupial sightings, you're sure to sleep well this evening.

Day 6: Botanic Gardens, penguins and night out

We wrap the week off with an easy morning strolling around the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne's iconic memorial honouring all Australians who have served at war. Then, in a dramatic change of tone, we go spot penguins waddling about the beach at sunset.

In the evening, it's time for a classic St. Kilda night out with the group. There'll be bingo, drinks, music, maybe some hugging, maybe some crying...

Day 7: Grampians and farewell dinner

For your second to last day, we've got something special planned – a full day adventure in Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park. Take to the walking trails, hike to the top of MacKenzie Falls and keep those peepers peeled for kangaroos and free-roaming emus.

Back in Melbourne we'll put on a farewell dinner and celebrate an unreal first week in Australia. Exchange numbers and start planning the next stage of your Aussie adventure.

Day 8: Check out

Time to check out and continue your journey – whether that's hitting the road or getting stuck into the job hunt in Melbourne. If you need to book extra nights at Nomads or at any of their hostels up the coast (their Magnetic Island hostel is banging) then just chat to the team.

Inclusions

Pre-departure and trip inclusions

• Working holiday visa cost + processing
• Airport transfer
• 7 nights' at Nomads St Kilda (6-bed dorm with en-suite)
• 5 breakfasts, 1 lunch, 7 dinners (including dinners below)
• Welcome dinner
• Melbourne city tour
• Melbourne bar crawl
• St Kilda and South Melbourne Markets
• Great Ocean Road day trip
• Peninsula Hot Springs day trip
• Grampians day trip
• Penguin spotting
• Local transport + buses
• Farewell dinner

Work + travel inclusions

• Support setting up bank account + Mastercard debit card
• Support registering for Australian tax file number
• Information and support setting up medicare
• Exclusive access to jobs board and resources
• Employment info session and 1-to-1 meeting
• Resume writing and interview advice
• 12 months full access to member-only recruitment agency to support with job placement
• Ongoing expert travel and employment advice for your entire time in Australia

If this sounds like the perfect way to kick off a working holiday Down Under then get yourself booked on to our Work Australia program.