59 Travel Hacks To Save Money In Australia's Capital Cities

We tramped our capital city streets in search of seriously cheap entertainment.

While we didn’t sleep under railway bridges or jeopardise any moral codes, we found sightseeing on the cheap is not only viable but also strangely satisfying.

The results are in. Here’s proof that some of the best sights and things to do in Australia’s capital cities are free – or if not free, at least within the budget of travellers once attracted to four cents a litre off petrol, frequent flyer points and no-deposit mortgages.

Many of these places to see and things to do are my own preferences, and as such they’re only representative. Testing and approval of kids’ things has been completed by my fun-loving nine-year-old daughter, and with one or two exceptions further details can be found via a quick Google. Happy budget trails!

Melbourne

The City Circle tram is free, encircles the CBD and main city sights.
Scienceworks is free for kids, $15 adults; special exhibitions cost extra. Location in Spotswood is difficult on public transport. Focus is on kids here.
The Melbourne Museum has improved. Go if it’s raining or 40ºC, or both. Kids free, $15 adults.
Melbourne city tourist shuttle, free bus tour of major city sights like Victoria Market, museum, Botanical Gardens, Shine of Remembrance. Every 30min, 90min round-trip.
For under $7 day ticket, less at weekends, ride Melbourne’s trains, trams and buses. Go to famed St Kilda Beach, walk the pier, swim in the bay.
Take your bike, or hire one, and take the bike path along the Yarra River, or the track from St Kilda along the foreshore.
The historic Victoria Market brings the taste of cosmopolitan Melbourne to all who visit. Free, unless tempted…

Adelaide

Travel free on the City Loop Bus. Two routes around Adelaide’s CBD, for shopping and sightseeing. Stop at the excellent museum or art gallery on a hot or rainy day. Adelaide markets have cheap food.
Popeye Motor Launches is a 40min cruise along the River Torrens. $10 adults, $5 children.
Free bikes to ride around Adelaide from the Bicycle SA office, or the Rundle Street Market on Sundays, and see all the sights from the saddle.
Stroll the Botanic Gardens’ impressive collections of palms, endangered cycads and culinary herbs on display. Free, and free guided walks are available too.
Take the Tram to Glenelg a 20min ride from the city to beachside suburb Glenelg. $4.20 adults, or $8 for a day-trip.
Taste Haigh’s Chocolates – a free 20min tour and tasting of SA’s iconic choccies shop. Mon-Sat, 5min from the city.
Watch an Indigenous performance at Tandanya – the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. Free entry to the gallery, dance performance $5.
Tour Adelaide Oval’s cricket ground, Sir Donald Bradman Collection. Tours Mon-Fri (non-match days), tickets $10.

Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.

Canberra

Into politics or not, Old Parliament House is a great experience just for the Australian history enacted here. $2 adults, $1 kids.
The current Parliament House on the hill has free entry, but we’re all paying for it.
Questacon is not free and not cheap, but your kids will love this fantastic scienceworks experience. $49 family ticket. Most expensive item on this whole list.
The Australian War Memorial is free.
BYO bike for a ride (or a long walk) around Lake Burley Griffin.
National Gallery and National Museum have free general entry.
CSIRO Discovery Centre gives kids some educational hands-on science information. $6 adult, $3 kids.

Sydney

A firm favourite is the Old Sydney Observatory, between The Rocks and Darling Harbour. Free entry to museum. Tours $7 adult, family $20.
The Powerhouse Museum adjacent to Darling Harbour, hours of exploring for the family. $10 adult, $25 family.
At Darling Harbour there’s cheap eats, buskers, boats and a few dollars for the ferry under the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay.
Sydney Ferries travel to all parts of the Harbour. Be sure to include the Manly Ferry and Jet Foil.
The iconic Opera House is open for tours $74 for a family, but it’s free to admire from the outside.
See historic houses (Historic Houses Trust) in Sydney – Vaucluse House for a picnic and harbour views. Most entry or tours cost $8 adult. Government House visit is free.
Instead of an expensive bridge climb, walking across Sydney Harbour Bridge is free.
Instead of a spa package, take a dip at the iconic Icebergs Ocean pool. Salt water is Mother Nature’s penicillin, isn’t it? They also have a sauna which can be used at your leisure. $8 for adults. $5.50 for kids
Harbour waterfront camping on Cockatoo Island. $45 byo tent, or $75 for tent package, plus ferry from Circular Quay.

Perth

Kings Park, the world’s largest inner city park, has views of the city and picnic spots. The Botanic Gardens have spring wildflowers, and Federation Walkway Swan River views. Free walking tours of the park.
Swim, snorkel, surf or relax on one of Perth’s 19 metropolitan beaches.
The Cultural Centre, home to Perth’s art gallery, museum, state library and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). Free.
Mountain Bike the Munda Biddi Camping shelters provided free for those enthusiastic riders wanting a weekend escape.

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Brisbane

Queensland Museum and Art Gallery both have free entry.
Brisbane Powerhouse has free music and comedy every Sunday. Moonlight cinema here too.
Free films at Harry Kirby Park, Apsley, Sept-May.
Southbank precinct has BBQ areas, picnic spots, sandy beach, bike track, water playground for kids. Free.
Mt Coot-tha lookout and botanic gardens, on bus route 471, views of city and river.
Free downtown bus loops encircle the CBD.

Darwin

Hire a bike and ride the Esplanade. Or hire a motor scooter, about $25 for two hours.
Free tours of Parliament House, Wed and Sat.
Follow history trails through Darwin, visit Lyons Cottage, free.
See WWII storage tunnels, images of war in the Top End, $5.
See a movie at the Deckchair Cinema, $12.
Fish feeding at high tide, the Esplanade, $6.
Self-guided tour of Fannie Bay Gaol, free.
Darwin’s City Shuttles cost $2 per ride.
Mindil Markets, Thurs and Sun evenings during dry season; food and craft.

Hobart

Salamanca Place market on Saturdays are free. Local produce just picked from Tassie’s green thumbs or greenies, crafts, busker-type entertainment – for kids too.
The Tassie Museum (free entry and tours), see the Tassie tiger, comprehensive Antarctic exhibit. Art Gallery for a rainy day, but the Maritime Museum is small and not free.
Mt Wellington overlooks Hobart and the Derwent River – a worthwhile view from the top. Free, but getting there isn’t.
Walk the hilly streets of Battery Point to Sandy Bay, colonial cottages and history. Free if self-guided. Tours $15.
The Hobart docks – commercial fishing boats and restored heritage vessels reflect perfectly in tranquil waters. Free.
Mure’s, dockside, has waterfront views and great seafood (cheaper fish ‘n’ chips downstairs).
Cascade Brewery tour costs $20 adult.
Heritage sailing ship, Lady Nelson, cruises the Derwent. From $15/adult, $5 kids.
Red double-decker bus, city tours from Brook Street pier. Costs about $14, all-day ticket.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock, one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915. Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore, one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

59 travel hacks to save money in Australia’s capital cities

We tramped our capital city streets in search of seriously cheap entertainment.

Melbourne

Adelaide

Canberra

Sydney

Perth

Brisbane

Darwin

Hobart

Where to take your mum out on Mother’s Day in 2026

Which Qantas flights have been cut? Inside the airline’s extended schedule changes

What’s on around Australia in May 2026

Don’t miss the world’s most iconic meteor shower next week

Inside Geelong’s glow-up from factory town to creative capital

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces

We tramped our capital city streets in search of seriously cheap entertainment.

Melbourne

Adelaide

AI Prompt

Canberra

Sydney

Perth

Brisbane

Darwin

Hobart

Where to take your mum out on Mother’s Day in 2026

Which Qantas flights have been cut? Inside the airline’s extended schedule changes

What’s on around Australia in May 2026

Don’t miss the world’s most iconic meteor shower next week

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces