Melbourne

Melbourne needs 3 days: the center and its street-art laneways on one, the St Kilda neighborhood on another, and a Great Ocean Road trip on the third. March-May (southern hemisphere autumn) brings mild, stable weather, considered the best time of year. It's expensive, competitive with Sydney for cost of living. It's consistently ranked as one of the world's most livable cities, and its coffee scene (introduced by postwar Italian and Greek immigrants) is considered Australia's best, with more specialty cafés per capita than almost any other city.