Melbourne is an unlikely city.
Consider the facts: a population of just over 4 million in the southernmost major city of mainland Australia, which is itself one of the southernmost countries on Earth.
And yet it has grown into a thriving hub of culture and the good life, topping the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of the world's most liveable cities two years running.
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It's this improbable rise that pushes people to narrow their focus in search of answers, examining Melbourne's exceptional bars, art events, festivals, coffee and food under a microscope, hunting for some elusive essence that probably isn't there.
At heart, it's a big city that only looks small.
And a lot of its charm lies right there.
Make it smaller with our guide to the best of Melbourne.
Hotels
Luxury
Park Hyatt
Melburnians (never Melbournians or, worse, Melbournites) are traditionally skeptical of global brands muscling in on their proud, individualistic city.
But the Park Hyatt is hard not to forgive.
Surrounded by major landmarks (the stately Parliament House, the Gothic Revival St Patrick's Cathedral, the Old Treasury Buildings, the Fitzroy Gardens), it manages to be both understated and showy all at once, sitting at the end of a long driveway on the edge of the central business district.
It's all Italian marble, wood panelling and a day spa, the best of Melbourne luxury, and all of it a five-minute walk from the city centre.
Mid-Range
Hotel Lindrum
If you like the feeling of history seeping out of your bedroom walls, this hotel on the CBD's main artery of Flinders Street delivers it in full.
Once a coffee warehouse, then the headquarters of the now-defunct Herald newspaper and a billiards centre named after legendary Australian pool player Walter Lindrum, it's now a boutique hotel radiating old-world warmth without giving up modern comforts.
Budding Fast Eddie Felsons can play a frame on the original, restored billiard table, surrounded by Lindrum memorabilia.
Budget
Brooklyn Arts Hotel
With its seven rooms, resident dogs and gregarious host (filmmaker and activist Maggie Fooke), it feels almost rude to use the word "hotel" to describe this outpost of low-key civility.
Conjuring up images of identical rooms and the tiny soaps that live inside them, this lovingly maintained Victorian mansion is a reflection of its creative, eccentric Fitzroy surroundings, an ideal base for exploring the more bohemian northern side of Melbourne.
Restaurants
Vue de Monde
Recently relocated to the 55th floor of the Rialto building, Vue de Monde is Australia's biggest contribution to what might loosely be called "modernist cuisine".
The prices match its lofty position and reputation, with food that fuses a traditional French spirit with modern technique and unique local ingredients. Anyone fancy some salted wallaby?
The clever use of recycled and sustainable materials in the interior creates a refined but unmistakably Australian dining experience.
Don't burden yourself with the a la carte menu; go straight for the best degustation in Melbourne.
The rotovapped macadamia martini in the adjoining Lui Bar is well worth a try.
Bar Lourinha
Tapas with charm.
Spanish cuisine in general, and tapas in particular, has had a profound impact on Melbourne's culinary landscape over the past decade.
Similar restaurants may collect more praise (or perhaps just have more devoted PR people), but Bar Lourinha quietly and consistently outdoes them all.
No meal is complete without at least one order of the yellowtail kingfish "pancetta" with lemon oil.
For the bolder, there's always at least one intriguing offal dish on the menu.
The concise, Europe-leaning wine list rewards anyone willing to venture beyond cabernet and its ilk.
Supper Inn
Founded in the 1860s during the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne's Chinatown has a history rivalled only by its San Francisco counterpart.
And even then, it's a close race.
Chinatown is hardly short of dining options, but it's the revered Supper Inn that has earned the status of an institution, perfect for a restorative bowl of congee at 2am or a lazy banquet around a lazy Susan.
If you go for the latter, the suckling pig is so essential it seems mad you still have to ask for it.
The wine list isn't much good, but you can bring a bottle from the City Wine Shop just down Little Bourke Street.
I Love Pho
If you woke up with amnesia, dazed, in the middle of Victoria Street in Richmond, it would probably take a while to work out that you weren't in Ho Chi Minh City.
Having recently been unconscious, you might want a reviving bowl of Vietnam's ubiquitous noodle soup, pho.
I Love Pho looks noticeably more modern than some of the (many) other options, but serves what's almost unanimously considered the best bowl on the street.
Rita's Cafeteria
Melbourne has plenty of traditional pizza lovers, but the recently opened Rita's Cafeteria bucks the trend.
Variations on the classic tomato-and-mozzarella formula abound, but it's the unusual combination of kale, blue cheese, walnuts and fresh grapes that wins over even Melbourne's finest culinary minds.
Good vegetarian options, well-matched wine, salads, pasta and risotto are also on offer.
Nightlife
The LuWow
Tiki and Kustom Kulture are enjoying a quiet renaissance around the world, led by Juxtapoz magazine.
With the former global glory of Trader Vic's reduced to corporate greyness, it falls to places like the LuWow to build absurdly baroque simulacra of the South Pacific.
Owner Josh Collins has a background in set and prop design, and it shows.
At the front there's the "Island Village", with table service and tiki cocktails carrying a genuinely outrageous amount of alcohol, served in authentic mugs.
At the back, the "Forbidden Temple" offers turbaned staff, cabaret and various live, exotic performances.
Black Pearl
It's almost impossible to overstate how good cocktail lovers have it in Melbourne.
On industry awards alone, Black Pearl is probably the most generous reward for the money you spend on fine drinks.
But that's a soulless metric, and the Pearl is anything but soulless.
Storytelling bartenders, canonical classics and incredible original cocktails are all house specialities.
If you want a quieter atmosphere with table service, make a reservation at the companion bar upstairs, The Attic.
The Toff in Town
Another slightly schizophrenic Melbourne venue, the Toff is a mid-sized live room with a huge sound system.
Anything can happen on stage: secret gigs by visiting international artists, sets from Melbourne's best local bands like World's End Press or Lost Animal, right through to drag balls at the House de Frost disco night.
Across the hallway are private carriages that evoke the golden age of train travel, complete with service call buttons.
The idea of celebrity-spotting might be too obvious for the collective Melbourne psyche, but if you wanted to do it, you'd do it at the Toff.
Bar Ampere
Bon vivant and raconteur Vernon Chalker is a Melbourne hospitality legend.
All of his venues are worth a visit, but Bar Ampere is his newest and most distinctive, which says a lot.
Inspired by Filippo Marinetti's 1909 Futurist manifesto and named after the unit of electric current, it's a steel and stone tribute to retro-futurism.
Aperitifs and digestifs, charcuterie and tinned goods make up the menu.
Chalker's first venue, Gin Palace, the 15-year-old home of countless martinis and endless debauchery, is conveniently next door if the night calls for a more overtly plush setting.
The Gasometer Hotel
Rescued from the indignity of being an Irish-themed pub about two years ago, the Gaso quickly became Melbourne's best pub.
It shuns the city's traditional tipple (the ubiquitous Carlton Draught) in favour of local craft beer on tap.
Traditional pub grub has been swapped out for seasonal, themed menus.
Lately the Gaso has become the top spot to catch some of Melbourne's newer bands.
A recent gig featuring local heroes Royal Headache drew a queue that wrapped around the block.
Shopping
Metropolis Bookshop
As you've probably noticed, it's impossible to read every book in the world.
That's why we need bookshops like Metropolis, to make sure the books we do read are worth the time.
Fully independent, with a special emphasis on art, design, architecture and culture, Metropolis offers stunning Taschen photo monographs, typography treatises, local small-press editions and illustrated children's books, and, of course, plenty more in between.
If you're still stuck, manager Molly is an encyclopedic delight.
Alice Euphemia
If something can be considered even remotely creative, someone in Australia is doing it to a high, idiosyncratic standard.
The exclusively local women's clothing and jewellery at Alice Euphemia is proof of that rule.
Inside the Edwards Moore-designed interior you'll find psychedelic tribalism from Romance Was Born, grown-up girlish wear from Kuwaii and understated elegance from LOVER, plus jewellery from designers like Julia de Ville and Lucy Folk.
Even American musician, film director and fashion figure Kanye West is known to have dropped by during his tour.
The only thing missing is clothing from Alpha 60, designed by brother-and-sister duo Alex and Georgie.
That's fine; their store on Flinders Lane is less than a block away.
Third Drawer Down
You do want a liquid soap dispenser shaped like a giant nose, don't you? Of course you do.
Or maybe a coffee mug that looks exactly like a Canon 105mm lens?
No? How about pillowcases screen-printed by local illustrator Kat Macleod?
Sitting alongside the Museum of Art Souvenirs, Third Drawer Down gathers the best bits of every artistic gift shop you've ever loved, concentrated into a small store on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
There's plenty of quirk here, but it's smart quirk.
Like a Sharper Image for people who know their art and design.
Camberwell Market
Melbourne has a surplus of carefully curated designer and vintage markets.
But for the unfiltered volume of the city's garages and store cupboards, you need to catch an early train to the eastern suburb of Camberwell.
Really early.
Running since 1976, the Sunday market opens at 7am.
As at the best places of its kind, there's always the promise of scandalously cheap treasure from sellers ranging from career bric-a-brac traders to uni students offloading suddenly outdated wardrobes.
Sights
The Astor Theatre
Every city has a cinema, but 75-year-old two-tiered Art Deco buildings are becoming a rarity.
Even so, the Astor isn't a musty repertory house where films go to die, quite the opposite.
Its ability to project in the near-obsolete (but never bettered) 70mm format and in cutting-edge (but rarely supported) 4K digital sets it apart.
Be sure to see something projected in either of these formats on the Astor's giant screen.
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Federation Square is a monolithic cultural complex designed by LAB Architecture Studios, opposite the famous Flinders Street railway station.
Of the many events and attractions at Federation Square, one safe bet is that something interesting is happening at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
Retrospectives of rare and significant films screen every Wednesday at the Melbourne Cinematheque. Other programmes include talks with directors and exhibitions that have featured historical material from the Stanley Kubrick archives, a celebration of 50 years of Australian television and the current video game exhibition "Game Masters".
Abbotsford Convent
Not a real convent, or at least not one any more, Abbotsford is more a cluster of historic buildings housing cafes, galleries, farmers' markets, craft markets and pleasant spots to relax outdoors on a summer's day.
It's also home to the Collingwood Children's Farm, worth a visit even if you're not a child, if only to whisper your troubles to Duncan the Listening Goat, the most sympathetic goat that ever lived.
Artist-Run Initiatives
If, during your time in Melbourne, you limit yourself to visiting the two big state galleries (the National Gallery of Victoria, housed in the famous NGV International building on St Kilda Road and the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art), you'll see wonderful art.
For visitors who want to dig deeper into the cutting edge of Melbourne's art scene, artist-run initiatives (ARIs) are where to do it.
Here are four of the best.
West Space
Founded in 1993, West Space is one of Melbourne's oldest ARIs, known for work that is "complex, experimental, research-driven and diverse".
Examples include Eugenia Lim, who lived in the gallery entirely alone for a whole week, interacting with people only over the internet in "The Hikikomori Project: Stay-at-Home Sakoku".
Other notable artists to have exhibited recently include Tony Garifalakis, Max Kreis and Leith McGregor.
TCB Art Inc.
Down one of Melbourne's more sinister laneways and up an even more sinister staircase, TCB is the most punk-rock of these small galleries.
Keep an eye out for work by Thomas Jeppe, Josie Kidd-Crowe or Veronica Kent.
Kings ARI
Less a gallery for kings to exhibit work and more a nod to its location on King Street, Kings ARI is a great illustration of just how relevant these initiatives are in keeping the best of Melbourne's art scene so famously alive.
Nurturing new talent through its dedicated Emerging Artist Program, exhibitions spread across five separate spaces, which means a constantly varied range of work from exciting young artists.
Platform Public Contemporary Art Space
Much has been written about the integration of art into the fabric of Melbourne's streets, but no place illustrates this philosophy more deeply (both literally and figuratively) than Platform.
Platform consists of three exhibition spaces, the main one located in the pedestrian underpass connecting Degraves Street with Flinders Street railway station.
Thirteen glass-fronted display cases, originally installed to hold advertising, now host an ever-changing selection of artworks that have been livening up dull commutes for more than 20 years.
