Melbourne day tours for popular Victoria trips

A full day west to the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and the Otway rainforest, with unhurried time at each lookout.

• Twelve Apostles and Gibson Steps lookouts
• Loch Ard Gorge on the shipwreck coast
• Rainforest walk at Maits Rest in the Otways

Wildlife and coastline on Phillip Island, finishing at dusk as little penguins come ashore at Summerland Beach.

Cellar doors, produce stops and Australian wildlife an hour from Melbourne in the Yarra Valley wine region.

• Cellar doors around Yarra Glen and Coldstream

A heritage steam train through mountain ash and tree ferns, plus fern gullies and gardens in the Dandenong Ranges.

Victoria's gold rush city, from the diggings at Sovereign Hill to the Eureka story and Ballarat's wide Victorian streets.

Bay beaches, clifftop lighthouse walks and back-beach surf on the Mornington Peninsula, an hour south of Melbourne.

Granite headlands, squeaking quartz sand and wombat country at the southernmost tip of mainland Australia.

• Squeaky Beach and its quartz sand

Sandstone ranges, valley lookouts and Halls Gap in Gariwerd, one of Victoria's great mountain landscapes.

• Clifftop lookouts over the Victoria Valley

Mineral springs, lake walks and antique-shop streets through Daylesford and Hepburn Springs spa country.

• Hepburn Springs mineral springs reserve