Daylesford, Victoria: A Travel Guide

Hi friends! Recently, Luke, Benji, and I spent four nights and five days in the regional town of Daylesford, which is located 1.25 hours from Melbourne CBD. This blog post is dedicated to ALL the cool things we did + travel tips for your next adventure. There's also a vlog so make sure you check that out over on my YT channel too!

There were a few things that we wanted to do that were closed, like The Bathhouse (which I had a voucher for), AND a few of the walking tracks, so we missed those, but we still had a great time nonetheless. Most places are dog-friendly, so we ended up taking Benji with us most places! He was such a celebrity - EVERYONE wanted to stop and pet him, and if they didn't, we heard their conversations switch to be about corgis. I'm glad he had such a good week.

Other Travel Guide Posts You May Like:

• The Ultimate Travel Guide to the Barossa Valley (9 min read)

• Mini Road Trip: Overnight Adventures to Echuca (+ Travel Tips) (10 min read)

• The Ultimate Travel Guide to Rye, Victoria (during off-season + ALL the dog-friendly spots) (8 min read)

• My Top 10 Country Bakeries in Victoria, Australia - by Luke (6 min read)

• Christchurch, New Zealand Travel Guide (An Insider's Perspective) (11 min read)

Here's the vlog!

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Daylesford, Victoria: A Travel Guide

Accommodation (Where We Stayed + Recs)

• Where we stayed - The Artist's Garden Cottage, AirBnB: A pretty cool accommodation that backed onto the Wombat State Forest. We didn't see any wombats, but we did see a kangaroo in the neighbour's backyard and a few foxes. Not too many birds around. It was pet-friendly and had a backyard, but we felt a bit uneasy leaving Benji alone in the yard with all the wildlife, so he came with us to most places.

• The Lake House - If you're looking for something on the luxury side, there is The Lake House, BUT it is very expensive (like min two nights, $1000per night. I think it would be nice for like, a wedding anniversary or something like that. There's also a restaurant and spa there, the restaurant is run by Alla Wolf-Tasker.

• Hotel Bellinzona - a lovely looking hotel more in line with normal nightly rates ($200 per night sorta thing depending on the room).

• Hotel Frangos - right in the centre of the town and lots of David Bromley Art (like we where stayed).

Nature

• Lake Daylesford - It feels like it's going to be a really big walk around the lake, but it's actually not that bad. Benji loved it, and we spent a lot of time here! I even got some great sunset shots one night. Lots of doggos and lots of friendly people around.

• Trentham Falls - About a 20-minute drive from Daylesford and not a hard walk to get down to the falls, BUT it was very disappointing, I think it would have been better if it had been raining a lot. I was sad I didn't get a good photo, but dogs are allowed, and Benji had fun taking some photos with us!

• Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens - A lovely little walk around the gardens. There's also a cafe here, but we didn't go in.

• Wombat State Forest - A lovely forest to take photos and go wildlife spotting.

• The Blowhole and Sailor's Falls- Unfortunately, the tracks are closed around here and we didn't get to go, but dogs are allowed on leash.

Cool Things To Do

• Shopping in the centre of town - so many quirky shops! We had been here a couple of times before, so it wasn't anything new to us, but we really enjoyed David Bromley's Art Gallery, the tea shop, and the crystal shop.

• The Convent - An Art Gallery & place with cafes - we didn't stop here because we thought it would be too long to leave Benji on his own for, but from all accounts, it sounds like a lovely place to go.

• The Amazing Mill Markets - These markets are also in Geelong so make a stop there if you're around. I watched a vlog of this place, but I didn't mind that we missed it. Dogs are allowed in prams or carried if they're small enough. I think these would be cool if you had a lot of downtime and a small doggo.

• Daylesford Sunday Market - We didn't spend a weekend day here so we missed out, but I think this would have been cool!

Foodie Vibes

• Walters 3406 - A cute "hole in the wall" cafe down by Lake Daylesford. Yummy coffee, great toasties, and a great vibe. It was a cafe that made me happy. I think they also do doggy ice cream!

• Daylesford Cider Company - A great spot! We tried some yummy ciders and some mocktails, and a yummy charcuterie board. Lovely staff. I recommend booking because even though we went during the week when it wasn't meant to be busy, it was still quite busy. Dog friendly! Only opening during the day.

• The Virgin Kitchen - Another dog-friendly spot in Hepburn, leans more to the fine dining side of things. We went for brunch, and I had Truffle Scrambled Eggs, and Luke had a Crispy Chicken Benedict. It hurt my tummy a bit because truffle oil is high FODMAP, but the food was delish! I'd love to go here for dinner in summer.

• Hotel Frangos/Koukla - We ate here a couple of times, once for brunch and the other time we got takeaway for dinner. The food was great, 10/10! Amazing restaurant. Benji was super good chilling here.

• Daylesford Hotel - Because we arrived on Easter Monday, a lot of the takeaway places were shut, so we ended up ordering pizza from here. It was quite pricey, but the pizza was delicious, and it came with pizza crust dip, which was cool - I think we should have gotten two pizzas, though, because we were still hungry. We got tiramisu for dessert from here too, and that was so good.

• Cliffy's Emporium - This brunch spot was highly recommend, BUT every time we went there, it was packed and we tried to go super early but the lines were just massive. We will definitely have to try to go back here again.

• Daylesford Seafood Bar - This place is cash only, but it's just an average fish and chip shop; there wasn't anything special about it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing. It was just average.

• The Boathouse - We didn't get a chance to eat here as it wasn't open when we were free, but it has good reviews. It's right on the lake. You can choose between a set menu or à la carte dining. We read that dogs aren't allowed which kinda sucks because it's right where everyone is taking their doggos for walkies!

• Sault Restaurant + Lavender Farm - We didn't get a chance to go here, but it looks really cool! It's not super clear whether dogs are allowed but they have some nice wedding packages. I think the other Lavender Farm Lavandula is dog friendly (on leash).

Relax/Rejuvenate

• Hepburn Springs Reserve - A lovely place to go for a walk, dogs allowed on leash and a lovely cafe in the middle, we stopped for some juice and to sit down here because I was tired. Benji was such a star, everyone wanted to say hi! You can also drink the mineral springs water - it was weird. Some tasted like soda water, and others tasted like sparkling water. It wasn't for me.

• Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa (Unfortunately, the bathhouse is closed for building upgrades right now, so I didn't get to use my voucher, but hopefully it doesn't take too long to rebuild). It would be a lovely place to unwind.

Here's some pictures!

Have you been to Daylesford before? Let me know in the comments below what your favourite thing to do there was!

Thanks for reading,

Ash x

Safe travels!

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