2006 AFL Finals

We are planning a trip to Australia for Sept. 2006 and would like to know the dates for AFL Grand Finals in Melbourne. We have discovered that there will be a 25% surcharge if we are in town during the finals. Needless to say we would like to avoid those dates if possible.

Thanks.

The AFL grand final is usually the last Saturday in September. I think next year it will be Saturday 30th September. The final round before the finals commence is on the weekend of Saturday 2nd September and then there are 4 weeks of finals culiminating in the grand final on the 4th week.

It is a wonderful spectacle and if you ever have the luck to get tickets, you would thoroughly enjoy it as it is a very fast moving game.

The three weekends before the grand final, are taken up with the elimination games and if you are in town for one of those, it would again be worthwhile to try and get a ticket.

Hope this helps.

Jennie

The AFL grand final is usually the last Saturday in September. I think next year it will be Saturday 30th September. The final round before the finals commence is on the weekend of Saturday 2nd September and then there are 4 weeks of finals culiminating in the grand final on the 4th week.

Thanks so much. We can't wait to see beautiful Melbourne.

AZ cruises,

I am not sure if you are at all familiar with Melbourne but I wrote this a couple of postings down when someone asked what to do in Melbourne.

Here it is:

"From your dates it sounds as though you will be in Melbourne in early January or just after Christmas in late December. This is the quietest time of the year for Melbourne. In late January we have the Australian Open Tennis Championships here and in March we are having the Commonwealth Games.

It will be easy to get around as there will be a lot less cars on the road in the period I think that you will be here. We have a great tram service and also a good train service which can get you almost anywhere. We have a free tram which goes right around the city block. Melbourne is a grid city and is one mile by one mile. We also have a great Tram Restaurant which serves good food and you are taken on a very scenic route around our suburbs while you eat. It is an easy city to get around especially if you like walking.

We have wonderful gardens, they surround the city and are a feature of Melbourne. We also have a great Botanical Garden, two very good Art Galleries - one has all Australian Paintings and that is at Federation Square and the other holds our overseas art and that is a block away at our Arts Centre. We also have an excellent Museum with a huge area devoted to Aboriginal artifacts, plus lots of interesting buildings as Melbourne is probably the best example of Victorian architecture in the world. Treasury Building is an interesting building to look over as it used to hold all the gold during the late 1800's. It is also a beautiful building. If you can see over our Parliament House (State) that is another outstanding building. We have our World Heritage listed Exhibition Building which was built for a World Exhibition back in the 1800's. Our Immigration Museum is also worthwhile. We have our Victorian Market which people love to visit for the shopping and also our Zoo which is fantastic in that the animals are in their natural habitiat and not in cages. It is supposed to be the third best in the world.

We have great shops if you are interested in shopping and fantastic restaurants. You can eat any sort of food here due to our all our immigrants since the second world war.

We also have penguins and you can do a tour of them at Philllip Island about a 2 hour drive away and also go on a train called the Puffing Billy which is a very scenic ride up in our Dandenong Mountains about 30kms from the city.

We also have the Great Ocean Road which is very scenic and similar to the drive on the Amalfi Coast.

Another interesting trip is one on our Yarra River. You can catch a boat and go either up the river or down the river to a suburb called Williamstown where you can have something to eat and a good look around before returning.

We also have a Casino right on the river and at the Art Centre there will be nightly plays and a musical over the summer period."

I know you are thinking of visiting at a later time but other than it being warmer in January than say August/September, there is always something happening in our city.

Hope this is of use. ;)

Jennie

Jennie,

Wow - what a wealth of information. I do appreciate the time and effort you took to forward it to me. In my opinion half the fun of a vacation is the planning and I'm sure your notes will help to ensure we have a great visit in your wonderful city.

Thank you!!!