The Monty in Anglesea proves a motel can still feel like a proper destination.
After a couple of days of cliffs, koalas and glass-walled pods deep in the Otways, rolling into Anglesea and checking into The Monty felt like a change of gear. This isn’t a motel in the beige-carpet, ice-machine-in-the-corridor sense of the word – it’s a full retro reinvention, and it was exactly the kind of stylish stay I needed.
Where is The Monty?
Check in to Anglesea’s coolest new motel.
The Monty sits right on the Great Ocean Road in Anglesea, directly opposite the riverside boardwalk, with the Anglesea River on one side and an easy stroll to Main Beach, local shops and cafes on the other. The location does a lot of the work for you – you can walk to the water, wander into town for dinner, or just stay put by the pool, and you’re still perfectly placed to keep pushing on toward Torquay or back the other way toward the Otways.
What is the style and character of The Monty?
There’s a real warmth to the design at The Monty.
This is a Palm Springs-inspired boutique motel, and it commits to the bit completely. Think desert-toned palettes and playful, colourful artwork against a backdrop of vintage-meets-modern design – built for people who want their accommodation to have a bit of personality rather than just being a place to crash. It’s nostalgic without feeling over the top; there’s a real warmth to the design that makes you want to actually spend time there, not just sleep and go.
What facilities does The Monty have?
Enjoy the outdoor pool and short stroll to the beach.
The centrepiece is the outdoor pool, styled with breeze blocks and desert-inspired plants, which is exactly where you want to be on a warm Great Ocean Road afternoon. Beyond that, there’s an outdoor lounge area, EV chargers, onsite parking, and daily housekeeping. The rooms come with Smart TVs and Chromecast, complimentary wi-fi, and there’s breakfast available if you’d rather not head out first thing. It’s a compact property (16 rooms in total), so it never feels like you’re competing for space at the pool or anywhere else.
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AI Prompt
What are the rooms like at The Monty?
The skylight in the bathroom makes all the difference.
The vintage design makes you feel at home.
Rooms come in King or Twin configurations, all individually styled with that same vintage-meets-modern sensibility – think a copy of Australian Traveller magazine, curated artwork (commissioned locally from That Paper Joint in Brunswick), blackout drapes, minibars and espresso makers. Ours felt fresh and considered rather than cookie-cutter, with details that make you actually want to photograph your room instead of just dumping your bags and leaving.
What is the dining like at The Monty?
Nina is a coastal Californian-Mexican cantina.
Margaritas are served at Nina.
Nina is made for sharing.
The Monty’s onsite dining comes via Nina, a coastal Californian-Mexican cantina serving up an all-day menu of shareable dishes, seafood and house-made queso fresco (and it’s entirely gluten free, which is a nice touch if that’s a consideration for your group). We had dinner there, and it hit exactly the right note after a long day on the road – casual, flavourful and made better by the setting.
Does The Monty have access for guests with disabilities?
The Monty has accessible rooms.
The accessible bathroom.
Yes – accessibility has been a clear consideration in the renovation rather than a box-ticking exercise. The Monty offers dedicated DDA-compliant King rooms with adaptive features and roll-in showers, designed with the same care and style as the rest of the property. It’s worth reaching out directly if you have specific requirements, but the accessible rooms here are a proper, thoughtfully designed option rather than a single afterthought room tacked on the end of a corridor.
Is The Monty family-friendly?
Families are welcome at The Monty.
It can work well for families, particularly with the outdoor pool as an easy drawcard for kids, and the walkable location near the beach and boardwalk. That said, the overall feel leans slightly more toward couples and friends after a stylish, relaxed night away – it’s compact so it suits smaller groups best. Families are welcome, but if you’re after a big resort-style family setup, this one’s more boutique than that.
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The verdict
The Monty is proof that a motel stay doesn’t have to mean settling. It’s stylish without trying too hard, well positioned for exploring Anglesea and the surrounding coast, and the combination of that pool, the riverside cantina and considered rooms makes it a proper stop on the Great Ocean Road itinerary rather than just a place to sleep between destinations.
Details
The Monty is stylish without trying too hard.
Best for: Couples, friends or small groups after a stylish, laid-back stay right on the Great Ocean Road, with easy access to the beach and river.
Address: 109 Great Ocean Road, Anglesea, Vic
Phone: (03) 5263 1472
Cost: From around $150 per night depending on room type and season.
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Emily Murphy is Australian Traveller's Email & Social Editor, and in her 4+ years at the company she has been instrumental in shaping its social media and email presence, and crafting compelling narratives that inspire others to explore Australia's vast landscapes. Her previous role was a journalist at Prime Creative Media and before that she was freelancing in publishing, content creation and digital marketing. When she's not creating scroll-stopping travel content, Em is a devoted 'bun mum' and enjoys spending her spare time by the sea, reading, binge-watching a good TV show and exploring Sydney's vibrant dining scene. Next on her Aussie travel wish list? South Australia and The Kimberley.
Tuck your napkin firmly in place and get ready to dive into Bendigo’s history.
It’s an internationally recognised fact that Bendigo food experiences prove this region knows how to wine and dine. After all, its shiraz-laden landscape was named Australia’s first UNESCO Creative City and Region of Gastronomy. But what visitors lured in by this shiny label might not know is how deeply its culinary scene sits within the gold-rush town’s colourful past.
Whether you’re eating in a grand colonial bank or nibbling through a gold miner’s garden, grab a big plate. In Bendigo, every meal is served with a huge helping of heritage.
Take a food tour
Join a Foodie Walking Tour to local highlights like Ms Batterhams.
Start in the capable hands of Bendigo Guided Tours. Named as the 2025 Victorian Best New Tourism Business, they run two 12-person options. A Taste of Bendigo – Foodie Walking Tour will see you tasting seasonal dishes and sipping wine, craft beer and cocktails made with regional spirits over two-and-a-half hours, with stops at Ms Batterhams, Wine Bank on View, The Dispensary and Bendigo Brewing.
You can up the ante a notch or two with the Four Hats of Bendigo – a night of fine-dine hopping with the experts across Terrae, Le Foyer, Alium Dining and The Woodhouse.
Book a table
Dine at Terrae.
Alternatively, see Bendigo’s stars under your own steam. There’s Terrae, where produce from the owners’ own farm kitchen garden and orchard is plated up inside what was once a bank, while cocktails are poured in the underground bar below. For something special, book a private table in old bank vault. Rather less wholesome? The bullet hole in the window – a throwback to Victoria’s wild gold rush era.
Another former bank-turned-eatery, Alium Dining, goes full art nouveau inside a 1908 building overlooking the Alexandra Fountain in the heart of Bendigo. Here, Alium’s Asian-meets-European flavours run all the way from duck leg croquettes with mandarin marmalade to raw trevally with coconut and nước chấm, to pork milanese with anchovy and stout mustard.
Beneath an old school hall at Mackenzie Quarters, Ms Batterhams serves southern European-inspired dishes inside a 19th-century basement bar and restaurant. Beyond its sourdough crumpets (smeared with taramasalata, paprika and parsley oil, if you must know) is the origin of the restaurant’s name: Winifred Batterham, the owners’ mother’s former kindergarten teacher. Honour her properly with a ‘Winifred’ cocktail.
Alium Dining offers a unique setting inside a 1908 building.
Carnivores, get ready to bang your sharpest knives on the table. Bendigo’s only dedicated steakhouse, The Woodhouse, specialises in Wagyu sourced from surrounding farms. They’ve got beef every which way – from tartare topped with Giaveri Oscietra caviar and wagyu toast to porterhouse dry-aged and grilled over redgum.
Your next bank stop on the food circuit is Bunja Thai. Housed inside the former Colonial Bank, it’s all Victorian-era Australian grandeur, from the enormous arched ceilings to the detailing overhead. Thai Singha and local craft beer jostle for attention – but both are perfect quenchers when you’re sharing barramundi baked in banana leaf beneath all that old-world opulence.
If your trip through Australia isn’t complete without a country pub stop, make it The Bridgewater Hotel on the Loddon River. Renovated since its 1942 beginnings, but the establishment still retains its Art Deco charm. It’s the kind of place where steak burgers come stacked with bacon, egg, cheese and dripping beetroot relish, and are best handled in the riverside beer garden.
Pour a glass
Find over 180 local wines at Heathcote Wine Hub.
Your plate’s been stacked. Now it’s the glass’s turn – ideally with the famously bold shiraz and cab sav grown here. Early settlers in Bendigo and Heathcote were onto something when they first planted vines in the area’s mineral-rich soil, and their legacy still pours strong across more than 60 cellar doors today. Start big at the Heathcote Wine Hub, where more than 180 wines from nearby vineyards sit beneath the rafters of a restored former wooden church, with 16 available to taste by the glass.
Heathcote Winery might have become one of the area’s first commercial wineries in the seventies, but its story started way before its courtyard tastings. Back in 1854, it operated as a miners’ produce store during the gold-rush years. Other cellar doors aren’t immune to reinvention under the wine wave either. At Munari Wines in Heathcote, charcuterie boards are presented in their newly renovated cellar, originally the stables of the former sheep station.
Discover local events
Time your trip for the Heritage and Hidden Spaces Wine Walk
Time your trip right and watch the parks, gardens and buildings fill with food and drink. Fans of the malt: mark 29 August 2026 for Bendigo On The Hop, when craft breweries take over venues throughout the CBD. Brews make way for history at the Heritage and Hidden Spaces Wine Walk (17 October 2026), where bottles are opened inside some of the city’s most interesting buildings – including rarely opened spaces. In November, the Regional Gin Gala raises spirits in Mackenzie Quarters with a boozy celebration of its homegrown distilleries, including Noble Bootleggers, Envy Distilling and In Good Spirits. Explore wine, food and live music at Heathcote on Show (6 – 8 June 2026).
Take it all in
Tram meets tasty at Bendigo Tram Cafe.
Takeaway means something different in Bendigo. At Australia’s oldest operating Tram Depot, the Tram Cafe sits aboard an out-of-service 1916 N-Class Tram that serves tea and scones. Once you’ve polished off the last crumb, you can even pop into the driver’s cab and try the controls yourself.
Peppergreen Farm continues Bendigo’s long connection to Chinese market gardens, first established here by immigrants in the 1850s. Today, the not-for-profit farm invites visitors to pick up organic produce, alongside jars of honey harvested from its own hives.
Indulge in retail therapy
Elevate your at-home dining experience after a trip to Bendigo Pottery.
If there’s still room in your bag among the clanking jars and bottles, stop by Uniquely Bendigo inside the Old Post Office. Sharing space with the Bendigo Visitor Centre, it’s a one-stop shop for favourites like Bendigo Brittle, Bridgeward Grove and Tea Associates.
If you’d rather leave your fingerprints on your Bendigo souvenir, there’s a place for that too. At Bendigo Pottery, visitors can try their hand at shaping clay while taking part in another tradition of evolving old spaces – creating works of art within Australia’s oldest working pottery.
