Housed in an airy, clinical confection of steel and glass, the Melbourne Museum is big on multimedia displays and flashy interaction, which can sometimes get irritating. On the other hand, they do have the stuffed body of Australia's most famous racehorse, a whale skeleton and an indoor rainforest complete with frogs.

In the middle of Carlton Gardens is the Melbourne Museum, an architecturally imposing structure resembling an international air terminal with its open-plan design and modern approach to the use of space.

The emphasis is on education and interaction, and the main attractions include Bunjilaka, the Aboriginal Centre; a living forest gallery; and the Australia gallery, with exhibits dedicated to that great Aussie icon Phar Lap (the legendary racehorse), and another dedicated to the TV show Neighbours (filmed in Melbourne).

The Children's Museum is a great way to keep the kids entertained while here, although we can't help but notice that the video of a woman giving birth (part of the Mind & Body gallery) seems to be the best way to get them to keep quiet. Disabled access is very good. Beside the museum is Melbourne's IMAX theatre, which screens super-wide format films.

The mottled, skew-whiff building that houses the National Gallery of Victoria's Australian holdings was a choking bone of contention while under construction, but these days everyone seems to have fallen for its sleek, user-friendly displays. The collection is marvellous, ranging from Streeton to Nolan to Whiteley; there is an entire floor of indigenous art.

The fine collection of well-known Australian painters includes the work of the modernists Sir Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, Albert Tucker and John Perceval, and Australian impressionists including the Heidelberg school's Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Charles Condor and Arthur Streeton.

The ground floor of the gallery features the popular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection, and temporary exhibitions (you often need to pay for these) can be found on other floors throughout the year.

Enlivened by the chink of bell birds, the shrieks of cockatoos and the conversations of a lake-full of water birds ranging from swans to mallee fowl, the Botanical Gardens also boasts a 19th century observatory, a fern gully, a bamboo forest, a silver garden, and more shady lakeside lawns than you can shake a picnic rug at.

Certainly the finest botanic gardens in Australia and arguably among the finest in the world, the Royal Botanic Gardens are a majestic must-see. With a prime location beside the Yarra River (indeed, the river once actually ran right through the gardens), the beautifully laid-out gardens feature plants from around the world, lakes and a surprising amount of wildlife, including water fowl, ducks, swans, cockatoos, rabbits and possums.

Peer over one of the small bridges that are scattered about the gardens and you'll probably see some eels, which have lived here since the ornamental lake was a bend of the Yarra.