Best Luxury Accommodation In The Yarra Valley

Victoria’s picturesque Yarra Valley isn’t just home to rows upon rows of cool-climate grapes – it has plenty of elegant accommodation options, too.

Wine regions like the gorgeous Yarra Valley are inherently indulgent. There’s something about sipping quality wine straight from the source and dining on local produce at a sprawling vineyard that feels both relaxing and regal. It’s therefore easy to justify splurging on where you sleep to round out the experience. Planning a visit to the region? Here’s a round-up of the Yarra Valley’s best luxury accommodation.

The Farmhouse at Meletos

Best for: Channelling a European holiday

The Tuscan-style Farmhouse is a two-storey boutique hotel with views of sweeping vineyards and an apple orchard. The 23 luxury rooms are decorated simply and each has slightly different furnishings and touches, along with shuttered windows and vintage timber floors, so there’s not a whiff of a cookie-cutter hotel. The high-ceilinged lobby feels homely the moment you step in, with a fireplace encircled by leather couches, a high-strung chandelier and a spiral staircase.

the bedroom at Farmhouse at Meletos with scenic views from the window — Wake up to scenic vineyard views.

The Tuscan Suite is the star of the show, with exceptional views out to the distant Great Dividing Range, a bathroom that’s almost as big as the bedroom, and an ornate black chandelier hanging beside the bed.

the living area with fireplace and leather couches at Farmhouse at Meletos — The cosy lobby features rustic touches.

If you’re travelling with a group, you can book the self-contained five-bedroom villa on the north side of the property. The villa has a generous living area and an enclosed courtyard, so there’s plenty of space to kick back with friends or family with a few bottles of local vino.

The Meletos restaurant offers a refined menu with views of the gardens, and adjoins the elegant Ernie’s bar.

Address: 12 St Huberts Road, Coldstream

Chateau Yering Yarra Valley

Best for: Feeling like royalty

Despite its unassuming plain white exterior and underwhelming entrance, Chateau Yering, located in a Victorian mansion on a 250-acre estate, feels palatial the moment you step inside. Parts of the hotel look a little tired, but it’s undeniably steeped in history, given the historic homestead was built in 1854 on the site of Victoria’s first vineyard. The 32 suites—each with their own colour scheme and personality—channel the opulence of Versailles, with fine furnishings like heavy floral curtains, padded bedheads and antique furniture. Depending on what room you choose, you could enjoy soaking in a claw-foot bath or oversized spa in your marble ensuite.

The hotel’s lounge, Chinese room and library have maintained their original fittings to provide a glimpse into life in the 1800s, and Eleonore’s Restaurant includes elements of the original dining room. In the restaurant, you can dine on a two or three-course menu plus canapés, sitting on chairs embroidered with gold thread and under ornate ceiling roses, or opt for a meal in the casual Streetwater Cafe.

a look inside Chateau Yering Yarra Valley — Stay in a luxe suite at Chateau Yering. (Image: Visit Victoria)

Address: 42 Melba Highway, Yering

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Kangaroo Ridge Retreat

Best for: Getting away from it all

If you love a room with a view, book a luxury cabin at the adults-only Kangaroo Ridge and wake up face-to-face with the Yarra’s misty mountains.

a scenic Yarra Valley landscape as seen from Kangaroo Ridge Retreat — Take in the view of the Yarra’s misty mountains. (Image: Gunvor E Jakobsen)

Enjoy a soak in your private spa bath, then wrap yourself in a plush robe, select a vinyl record to spin, and sit by the fire or on your balcony with a glass of wine from your personal bar.

the luxury cabin exterior at Kangaroo Ridge Retreat, Yarra Valley — Enjoy a sweet escape to the Kangaroo Ridge Retreat. (Image: Gunvor E Jakobsen)

A range of gourmet snacks are complimentary in the larder, and you can hire a private chef for an intimate dining experience, or pre-arrange an in-room dining pack.

the living room at Kangaroo Ridge Retreat, Yarra Valley — Stay in a luxury cabin with a view at Kangaroo Ridge Retreat. (Image: Gunvor E Jakobsen)

Want to arrive like the VIP that you are? Book a helicopter transfer from Melbourne.

the bed at Kangaroo Ridge Retreat, Yarra Valley — Get cosy at the luxe Kangaroo Ridge Retreat. (Image: Gunvor E Jakobsen)

Address: 38 Turners Lane, Healesville

Yarra Valley Lodge

Best for: Families and golf lovers

Yarra Valley Lodge offers hotel-style accommodation on the grounds of a golf and country club. The lodge has 102 rooms that have either a private balcony or access to a garden terrace. Visit the Heritage Retreat & Day Spa for a massage or facial, or to work off a few wines at the spacious gym. The lodge also has a tennis court, a 20-metre heated swimming pool and a children’s pool.

the dining at Yarra Valley Lodge — Each room has either a private balcony or access to a garden terrace.

Grab a pre-dinner drink in the Lodge Bar (which also offers all-day dining), then head to the pop-up restaurant for a three-course share menu on Friday and Saturday nights.

a fine dining setup at Yarra Valley Lodge — Head to the pop-up restaurant for a three-course share menu.

Address: 2 Heritage Ave, Chirnside Park

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Carl’s Hut at Solitude

Best for: A couple’s retreat

Carl’s Hut is secluded luxury at its best, tucked in amongst vineyards and a forest on Solitude Estate. The cosy, rustic cabin, which dates back to the 1940s, has been beautifully restored with great attention to detail—think exposed timber beams, fine linen, a crackling fire, heated polished concrete floors and quality kitchen appliances—to ensure a comfortable and memorable stay.

the bedroom at Carl’s Hut at Solitude — Get comfy in this rustic and quaint cabin. (Image: Nick Skinner)

Prep yourself a charcuterie platter of local produce, crack a bottle of Yarra red (available to purchase) and sit on the balcony to hear nothing but birds and the quiet rustle of grazing wallabies. Come nightfall, it’s the perfect place to stare at the stars.

the kitchen at Carl’s Hut at Solitude — Carl’s Hut has been beautifully restored with modern amenities. (Image: Nick Skinner)

Address: 435 Beenak Road, Yellingbo

Re’em Yarra Valley

Best for: Modern luxury

Located on the 200-acre Helen and Joey Estate, Re’em is a luxe boutique hotel in the Yarra Valley. The accommodation has the comforts of a hotel with a 24-hour reception, room service, and onsite restaurant and bar.

a scenic vineyard landscape at Re’em Yarra Valley — Re’em offers 16 thoughtfully appointed rooms. (Image: Hugh Davidson)

The 16 modern rooms are generously sized and have a private patio or balcony, depending on which type of suite you choose. Floor-to-ceiling windows afford exceptional views across the vineyard and lake.

a bathtub with views of the surrounding vineyard at Re’em Yarra Valley — Soak in a tub facing the vines at Re’em Yarra Valley. (Image: Hugh Davidson)

You can taste estate-grown wines at the cellar door (where you can also order snacks and picnic packs), then easily access other wineries in the surrounding Yarra Valley region. Come lunch or dinner time, you can eat out, or stay in, dining on an Asian-inspired menu at the classy Re’em restaurant.

the living room at Re’em Yarra Valley — Each suite has a private patio or balcony. (Image: Hugh Davidson)

Address: 12–14 Spring Lane, Gruyere

Discover the best restaurants in the Yarra Valley.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock, one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915. Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore, one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

The best luxury accommodation in the Yarra Valley

Victoria’s picturesque Yarra Valley isn’t just home to rows upon rows of cool-climate grapes – it has plenty of elegant accommodation options, too.

The Farmhouse at Meletos

Chateau Yering Yarra Valley

Kangaroo Ridge Retreat

Yarra Valley Lodge

Carl’s Hut at Solitude

Re’em Yarra Valley

The dark sky stay with incredible stargazing an hour from Melbourne

The best Yarra Valley accommodation for your perfect getaway

The best Yarra Valley winery accommodation for a romantic escape

Inside Geelong’s glow-up from factory town to creative capital

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces

Victoria’s picturesque Yarra Valley isn’t just home to rows upon rows of cool-climate grapes – it has plenty of elegant accommodation options, too.

The Farmhouse at Meletos

Chateau Yering Yarra Valley

AI Prompt

Kangaroo Ridge Retreat

Yarra Valley Lodge

Carl’s Hut at Solitude

Re’em Yarra Valley

The dark sky stay with incredible stargazing an hour from Melbourne

The best Yarra Valley accommodation for your perfect getaway

The best Yarra Valley winery accommodation for a romantic escape

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces