Mornington Peninsula: Where To Eat, Stay And Play

Whether you’re looking to lie on the beach and enjoy a low-key picnic lunch, spend a day at the winery or have a couples’ getaway with all the bells, whistles and glamping, the Mornington Peninsula is an ideal holiday destination for a day, a week or longer.

It was a joyful discovery for me as a Melbourne resident (it took me less than 1.5 hours to get there along the Nepean Highway). For interstate and international visitors, it’s certainly a great opportunity to show off Victoria’s wineries, beaches, food and walking riches, all a short trip from Melbourne.
If you’re not driving, there’s a bus from Melbourne and ferries to Phillip Island, French Island and Stony Point. The Visit Victoria website offers more advice on getting around.

Eat and drink

Store Fifteen All-Day Breakfast — If you love an all-day breakfast you’ll want to put Store Fifteen on your hit list

Pizza, smoothies and frozen yoghurt – oh my!

The Mornington Peninsula has become a foodie’s wonderland, where you’ll find an abundance of cafes, restaurants and outdoor picnic venues to meet your every craving. While dining in is recommended, takeaway to eat by the beach on a warm day is hard to resist.

There’s several cafes at the Peninsula Hot Springs, so you’ll be catered to if you want pizza and equally, if a low-carb, gluten-free salad appeals, that’s on offer too. If you opt for a glamping experience (more on that in the Stay section), there’s an on-site restaurant at nearby Blue Range Estate .

In the beach town of Mornington itself, Store Fifteen offers nutritious smoothies, coffees, teas and an all-day breakfast menu with plenty of vegan, gluten-free and vegetarian options. There’s a range of juices (try the refreshing celery juice) and don’t miss its super-fresh salads. And while you’re here, it’s almost mandatory to eat frozen yoghurt. Drop into YOMG for the mango matcha frozen yoghurt or maybe the salted caramel is more your flavour? There’s a whole lot of juicy burger options if you’re ravenous too.

Dine on multiple hats at Pt Leo Estate

If you’re after a side of fine dining with your wine tasting, you can’t go past a stop in at Pt Leo Estate . Aside from world-class wines, you’ll also find Laura; the restaurant named ‘New Restaurant of the Year’ in the Good Food Guide 2019. This two-hatted restaurant offers a fine-dining experience, headed up by Pt Leo Estate’s culinary director Phil Wood.

If you’re after something a little less fancy, Pt Leo Estate Restaurant has only the one hat, but all the flavour. We especially recommend trying the snapper ceviche with avocado, coconut and chilli, and the John Dory, served with teriyaki sauce, mushroom XO and macadamias.

Gravel ant-infused gin

From a sip perspective, you can’t go past a visit to Bass and Flinders Distillery in the Mornington Peninsula. Known for its impressive range of brandies and gins, it provides an attractive alternative to a weekend packed with wine tastings – especially if you’re willing to experiment with, erm… different flavours. Bass and Flinders is known for its innovative ideas, such as its ‘Angry Ant’ premium gin, created with the addition of an edible native ant: a gravel ant that has been foraged as a food source for centuries.

Though it may sound slightly startling, the infusion of the gravel ant means that the gin is enhanced with a unique, slightly tangy flavour reminiscent of the Australian outback, which those who are brave enough to try it just love. Hand on heart.

Stay

Adults-only glamping under the stars

New to the accommodation offerings on the peninsula is Mornington Peninsula Glamping. The first glampsite to pop up on the peninsula, it’s located on the Blue Range Estate Winery , run by the Melone family.

An adults-only retreat, each of the glamping tents accommodates two people maximum. Within the five-by-five-metre tents is a queen-size bed, two lounge chairs and a coffee table. You won’t need to go device-free either, with solar power to ensure you can remain connected if you desire. Within easy walking distance is a shared cooking and dining area (barbecues, hot water and boutique coffee and tea) plus bathroom facilities, which are just as snazzy and chic as the tents.

Between Friday and Sunday, you can eat at the winery’s restaurant if embracing the great outdoors as your kitchen doesn’t appeal to you.

Art and luxury collide at Jackalope

If you’re planning a trip to the Mornington Peninsula, Jackalope undeniably needs to be a part of your itinerary – if not to stay, then to explore and appreciate.

Not only a treat for those looking for a chic place to rest their head, it’s also a deservedly acknowledged spot for the art appreciators among us to explore, as the property houses boldly curated collaborations with incredible Australian designers – some inside, some in the form of sculptures scattered around the property’s vineyard foundation.

Speaking of designers, 45 of the hotel’s ‘designer dens’ are furnished with custom-made interiors, and the hotel’s dining and drinking options are no exception to the strong art-themed decor. Flaggerdoot, Jackalope’s cocktail lounge is reminiscent of a science lab-turned penthouse, and Doot Doot Doot , the hotel’s signature restaurant will leave you floored with meals almost too beautiful to eat.

Play

Soak in the Hot Springs

For many seeking a retreat from daily life and the rejuvenating qualities of nature and water, the Peninsula Hot Springs provide much-needed respite. Choose from the pools or private baths, where natural thermal mineral waters soak tired muscles to heal and harmonise. Whether you come purely to indulge in the thermal pools or to spend an entire day, there’s plenty of choices available. The spa offers massage, facials and body scrubs. But, if you’ve got energy to burn and a curiosity about where you are, take the Indigenous cultural walk. Return in time to do the body clay ritual or take an exercise class in water. There’s two dining venues: both the outdoor cafe, offering gourmet pizza and the amphitheatre cafe where the focus is on healthy, locally harvested ingredients to deliver an organic, wholefood menu. Depending on your timing, you may be lucky enough to experience seasonal arts and entertainment on the nearby amphitheatre stage. The spa dreaming cafe is adults-only (over 16) and also focuses on nourishing and wholesome food. Fully licensed with complete table service.

Stop and smell the roses

Mornington Botanical Rose Garden offers free entry to stroll through a garden of sculptures, gazebos and – naturally – roses of all description. There’s high tea on offer. Check the website for dates and times to book ahead.

Go slow with a beach stroll

With many lovely beaches to choose from within the sheltered waters of Port Phillip Bay, Mother’s Beach in Mornington is definitely one where you can avoid big crowds, swim, walk the shores and get out a picnic if you’re so inclined. Nearby Shire Hall Beach is home to colourful huts, along with plentiful benches, picnic tables and toilets. Fossil Beach offers geologists and budding geologists a picturesque limestone cliff-lined walk. There’s a sign-posted walk that indicates sites of significance regarding the original Aboriginal inhabitants and the first European settlers. The beach is located within the Fossil Beach Geological Reserve.

Further south between Mount Martha and Dromana, Safety Beach is another calm spot. I took a stroll along on it on weekday morning and it was relatively quiet. There was a buzz around the coffee van that sets up near a playground but apart from that, there’s some dog walkers, locals out for their usual walk and joggers. Walk all the way to the pier or stop and crack open a book as you sit and enjoy the ocean view.

Surfing and stand-up paddle boarding-a-plenty

For wilder ocean beaches along the rugged, southern coastline of the peninsula, check out Sorrento Back Beach for bodyboarding, surfing and coastal walking; or Pt Leo Surf Beach for surfing, fishing and camping on the adjacent foreshore reserve.

If you’ve never tried stand-up paddle boarding before, there’s beginner lessons with SUP Fit Mornington . You can organise individual lessons or groups with a focus on making it fun and inclusive. Their locations are varied, from Mount Eliza to McCrae and further out, but each within a half-hour drive of the other.

Discover all the region has to offer with our extensive guide to the best of the Mornington Peninsula.

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.”

where to eat, stay and play Mornington Peninsula