By Adele Chan
Melbourne is one of my favourite cities in the world. You can walk to most places, their coffee is the gold standard, and it’s a melting pot of people of different races and cultures, all of them welcoming and friendly.
And like every major city, there are unique things to see and do apart from the obvious. You could of course go to the zoo, museum, beach, Royal Botanic Gardens, or the famous Queen Victoria Market. I chose to see all the key sites at once from above, with a chartered helicopter tour with Microflite.
ABOUT MICROFLITE
Microflite is recommended by Visit Victoria, the official tourism board for Melbourne and other cities in the Victoria region. It’s one of the most popular and safe helicopter tours available in Victoria, and there are many flight path options and even destinations that you can choose from.
THE JOURNEY FROM ABOVE
I’m most interested in the food and wine tour, which takes me from Melbourne to a winery where I can have lunch and of course, taste wine.
The journey offers a bird’s eye view of Melbourne city, and we made a detour to see the iconic, colourful Victorian-era bathing boxes along Brighton Beach. This helicopter tour is certainly a photographer’s dream.
ZONZO ESTATE
I chose the “Italian Escape”, flying from central Melbourne (Microflite’s Melbourne CBD helipad) to Zonzo Estate, one of the region’s premier wineries that offers authentic share-table Italian cuisine among 45 acres of vineyard.
Zonzo Estate is a relatively newcomer to the Yarra Valley; their 2015 vintage was released in 2016, and there are several highly-regarded red and white wines available, including Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and elegant Chardonnays.
Lunch was a five-course Italian feast that included fancy canapés, antipasto platter, wood-fired pizzas, roasts, and finishing off with dessert and drinks. You can have two glasses of wine, beer or soft drinks as well.
The entire tour time takes around 4 hours. This includes 20 minutes of flight time each way.
Yes, the whole package is quite an investment, so we recommend going with 4+ passengers, which would bring the price down from AUD3,295 for 1 passenger to AUD995 per person.
Visit Microflite’s website to see full rates, destinations, and to make bookings and enquiries. And check out Visit Victoria online to discover what else to do and see while in the beautiful city of Melbourne.
