Melbourne Executive Visitor Transport Guide

Arriving

Melbourne Airport is around 23 kilometres from the CBD with no rail link, so ground transport is not optional. Plan 45 to 70 minutes off-peak and up to 90 minutes in weekday peak as a range rather than a promise.

Book the arrival as a flight-tracked transfer with a meet and greet if you are arriving internationally. After a long-haul flight, the difference between being met at the door and finding a rank is larger than it sounds.

Where business actually happens

Melbourne's commercial activity is spread across more districts than a visitor expects. The CBD grid holds law, banking and government; Docklands holds a cluster of corporate headquarters; St Kilda Road runs professional services south of the river; Southbank mixes corporate and hospitality; and Cremorne and Richmond hold much of the technology sector.

Crossing between them is short in distance and unpredictable in time. Trams share the road surface, and the CBD's hook turns and tram lanes make even a two-kilometre movement variable. Allow twenty minutes between districts as a working assumption, and thirty in peak.

Structuring a two or three day visit

• Group meetings by district rather than chronologically wherever the counterparties allow it.
• Hold a vehicle for any day with three or more meetings — see our roadshow guide for why per-leg bookings fail.
• Keep the first meeting of the trip at least three hours after landing on an international arrival.
• Book the departure transfer at the start of the trip, not the night before; the last day is when schedules slip.

Evenings

Melbourne's dining is concentrated in the CBD laneways, Carlton, Fitzroy, South Yarra and Richmond, and parking near all of them is difficult. An evening movement with a chauffeur is less about luxury than about not spending twenty minutes circling.

For client dinners, book the return as a held vehicle rather than a fixed time. Dinners never end when they are scheduled to.

If the trip extends

Visitors with a free day most often ask for the Yarra Valley, the Mornington Peninsula or the Great Ocean Road. Of the three, the Yarra Valley and the Peninsula are comfortable day trips; the Great Ocean Road is a full eleven to thirteen hour commitment and should not be added to a day with an evening flight.

Questions, answered