# The best family hotels in Melbourne

Written 2026-11-03 by Play Day. Family hotels across central Melbourne, from themed kids' bedrooms near Queen Victoria Market to bunk beds looking out over Flagstaff Gardens.

Melbourne's city center is trams and laneways, with a lot for kids packed into it: [ACMI](https://ourplayday.com/places/acmi-melbourne) is a free museum of film, TV and video games with plenty to play, and the [National Gallery of Victoria](https://ourplayday.com/places/national-gallery-of-victoria-melbourne) has its collection free to see under a stained-glass ceiling. Kids get a bedroom done up like a circus or a racing car at one hotel here, and bunk beds that look out over a park at another.

## Collins Street and Federation Square

Collins Street has the city's grand 19th-century buildings and its boutiques, with laneway cafes all around. A few blocks down is [Federation Square](https://ourplayday.com/places/federation-square-melbourne), a big open square of restaurants and cafes with free festivals through the year and a gallery that shows only Australian art, and the hotels here are a short walk from it.

### [The Westin Melbourne](https://ourplayday.com/places/the-westin-melbourne-melbourne)

Neighborhood: Collins Street

The Westin is on Collins Street, across from City Square, and the rooms are big. Some have a Juliet balcony, with views over St Paul's Cathedral.

Kids get their own Eat Well menu. Federation Square is about 300 meters away, and [Transport Public Bar](https://ourplayday.com/places/transport-public-bar-melbourne) on the square has a kids' menu of pasta bolognese, a cheeseburger and a petit parma.

- Suites: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes

### [Stamford Plaza Melbourne](https://ourplayday.com/places/stamford-plaza-melbourne-melbourne)

Neighborhood: Little Collins Street

The Two Bedroom Suite at the Stamford Plaza puts a queen and a double in separate bedrooms, each with its own marble bathroom, around a dining table and a kitchen with a full-size stove and a dishwasher. Every suite has a spa bath, too.

It's at the Paris end of Little Collins Street, about a 10-minute walk from Flinders Street Station. [Good Nature Hotel](https://ourplayday.com/places/good-nature-hotel-melbourne) is closer, a pub with a fully enclosed playground you can see from the dining room.

- Suites: Yes
- Kitchenette: Yes
- Pool: Yes

## Chinatown and the theaters, up to Carlton Gardens

The top end of the city is Chinatown, which dates to the 1850s and is packed with restaurants, and the old theaters around it. Just past the edge of the grid, Carlton Gardens holds the Royal Exhibition Building (from 1880, and World Heritage listed) and [Melbourne Museum](https://ourplayday.com/places/melbourne-museum-carlton), with its dinosaur skeletons and an IMAX, and the playground next to the museum is laid out like a Victorian maze, with a big tunnel slide and a flying fox. Hotels up here have the gardens and the museum within walking distance.

### [Melbourne Marriott Hotel](https://ourplayday.com/places/melbourne-marriott-hotel-melbourne)

Neighborhood: Exhibition Street

On the Marriott's first floor, the family rooms have two double beds for four and open onto a courtyard.

Her Majesty's Theatre is steps away, and the hotel is inside the free tram zone. Breakfast is a big buffet with omelets made to order, [Stalactites](https://ourplayday.com/places/stalactites-restaurant-melbourne) is a couple of blocks off for a Greek dinner where kids get a souvlaki of their own, and Carlton Gardens is about 400 meters north.

- Suites: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor, heated

## Queen Victoria Market and Flagstaff Gardens

The northwest corner of the city center is quieter, built around [Queen Victoria Market](https://ourplayday.com/places/queen-victoria-market-melbourne), which opened in the 1870s and is still one of Melbourne's best-loved places, a big open-air market of fruit, vegetable and food stalls. Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne's oldest public park, is just down the road, all lawns and towering elms with a good playground.

### [Flagstaff Gardens Hotel Melbourne](https://ourplayday.com/places/flagstaff-gardens-hotel-melbourne-melbourne)

Neighborhood: William Street

Directly across William Street from the gardens, the Deluxe Parkview Family Suite has a king bedroom and bunk beds out in the open-plan living area by the dining table. Up on the top floor it looks out over Flagstaff Gardens to Docklands and the skyline.

The playground in the gardens has a huge round rope climber, a hammock swing, a sandpit with two diggers and a frame of five swings. A tram stop is a minute or two from the door.

- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Suites: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Kitchenette: Yes
- Pool: No

### [Pegasus Apart'Hotel](https://ourplayday.com/places/pegasus-apart-hotel-melbourne)

Neighborhood: A'Beckett Street

Pegasus has two-bedroom apartments made for families, each with a themed kids' bedroom (Circus, Racing Car, Super Games or Jungle) that comes with toys, its own TV and a games console. The Family-Themed Apartment sleeps four in a queen and two singles, with a separate living space.

From A'Beckett Street, Queen Victoria Market is about a five-minute walk, and trams stop close by. Brentani, downstairs, does a buffet breakfast.

- Suites: Yes
- Kitchenette: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor, heated
- Laundry: Yes

## Bourke Street's west end

Bourke Street runs through the middle of the city, with trams rolling through the busy mall, and its west end reaches down toward Southern Cross Station. [SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium](https://ourplayday.com/places/sea-life-melbourne-aquarium-melbourne) is a short walk south, on the river, with sharks, penguins and a walk-through tunnel.

### [Alto Hotel on Bourke](https://ourplayday.com/places/alto-hotel-on-bourke-melbourne)

Neighborhood: Bourke Street

Alto is in a late-19th-century building at the Southern Cross end of Bourke Street, on the tram route. The 2 Bedroom Superior Apartment has a queen in one bedroom, two singles in the other (lit by a skylight) and a sofa bed in the lounge, with a full kitchen.

There's free espresso in the guest lounge, and Alto was one of the first hotels in the city center with an environmental rating. The aquarium is about 550 meters away.

- Kitchenette: Yes
- Pool: No

Page: https://ourplayday.com/guides/australia/melbourne/family-hotels