Review: Melbourne Outlet Shopping Tour
Top Oz Tours offers a great range of Melbourne tours and experiences. You can book this tour here.
The Victorian capital may be renowned for its trendy shopping strips and glitzy retail centres, but tucked away in the suburbs around the CBD is where you’ll snare the real bargains.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Melbourne outlet shopping. For the untrained bargain hunter, finding these hidden gems on your own can be tricky. So, when I was offered a spot on the Melbourne Outlet Shopping Tour with Show Me Melbourne, I couldn’t resist!
Shot of coffee. Tick.
Comfy shoes. Check.
Credit card. You betcha!
It’s Saturday morning and the city is already bustling with Christmas shoppers. Our tour may start at the iconic Forum Theatre on Flinders Street, but we head straight out of town and on towards an industrial area near Port Melbourne. My first lesson in Melbourne outlet shopping — expect to find an outlet where you least expect it!
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Top 10 Things to Do in MELBOURNE, Australia, 2026 | Ultimate Melbourne Travel Guide for First Timers
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We’re a lively bunch of eight (mainly from Tasmania and Queensland), and everyone is excited by the prospect of an eight-hour shopping frenzy. Our tour guide Tracey, a self-confessed bargain shopper, tells us it’s a crazy weekend for outlet tours.
‘It’s the end of the bus season and the last weekend for many larger outlet tour buses from outside Melbourne. So it may get a little frantic!’ Fortunately this small group tour offers a flexible itinerary, and we manage to avoid the other bargain hunting hoards altogether.
‘Who’s after what?’ shouts Tracey from behind the wheel. ‘Shoes, shoes and more shoes’ yells someone from the back. To which Tracey replies, ‘It wouldn’t be a shopping tour if we weren’t hunting for shoes!’
Our first stop is Fields Knitwear, which stocks heavily discounted cashmere and wool blends. It’s a 30-degree day, so I decide to put this on my ‘must return to before winter sets in’ list.
Next up is the shopping mecca of South Yarra. We pull up on Toorak Road, and head down a garden path and up a staircase. A door opens to reveal Azeta Wholesale Jewellery. My eyes light up at the amount of bling on display — and all of it at bargain prices.
Clutching my bag of shiny new baubles, I head past the macaroons on offer at Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie and into the leather-filled Aladdin’s cave that is Siricco. This is followed by the main event on this tour — shoe shopping on Swan Street in Richmond. I’m in retail heaven!
We’ve had the bargains — now it’s time for the bubbles. Our lunch stop at the Kingston Hotel includes a much-needed glass of bubbly. It’s a chance to rest the feet and compare the goodies we’ve bought so far.
Refreshed and ready for more, we hit the nearby suburb of Abbotsford. Tucked away is the Richmond Chocolate Factory Outlet. I enjoy a quick hit of sugar, then it’s off to Collingwood for one last shoe shop.
Loaded with bags, I make my way back onto the bus. Our final treat for the day is a raffle and one of our lovely Tasmanian ladies claims the prize. You guessed it — more delicious chocolate!
After a long day of retail-wrangling I return home with plenty of bargains. This Melbourne Outlet Shopping Tour is a fun way to shop without the hassle of carrying your bags or dealing with public transport or parking. For a shopaholic like me, that’s bliss!
The writer travelled as a guest of Show Me Melbourne. You can book this tour here.
Browse our full range of Melbourne tours and experiences here. We offer a Best Price Guarantee.
Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Vanessa O’Hanlon is an Australian television news and weather presenter, and an avid traveller. Her travels began with a flight to Egypt, a visit to the pyramids and a camel ride, and she knew there was no turning back. Since then, Vanessa’s backpack has seen a thing or two — from exploring relatively untouched Bhutan to braving the cold on the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.
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