Will Wonderful Weekends Wither Without Wheels?

August 21, 2009 7:12 AM

Tent-phobic city-dweller seeks weekend getaway suggestions which do not require a car to reach.

I've just come out of a long, high-stress period of work, and am looking to take a weekend off with a special someone to just decompress for a bit. The problem is however, my driver's license is suspended for the next three months, which puts a damper on my usual plan of renting a holiday house either in the bush or by the sea to just sit and read in for the weekend, as sometimes a new setting and some quiet can really help me recharge.

I'm wondering if anyone else had any suggestions or general ideas on how to take a mini-vacation without access to a car, keeping in mind that I'm not the person who will ever go camping, ever (again). Sleeper trains? Really expensive cab fares?

I am located in Melbourne, Australia. Bonus karma for any suggestions specific to Victoria.

posted by LongDrive to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

You don't say anything about about what kind of place you want to go or what your budget is.
-Jump on a plane, fly somewhere, get a cab at the airport and stay in a hotel.
-Take a bus somewhere, find a hotel near bus station, stay there.
-Find a group of friends, rent a holiday house, get a ride with one of them.
-Booze it up in a bar, find an attractive stranger, stay in their house for the weekend.
-Dress down, find a homeless shelter, stay for the weekend.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 7:39 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Sorry about that, you're right! I think my question my be actually more region-specific than originally intended... I suppose the sort of place I want to go would be some regional town ideally accessible by train or bus, with some sort of accommodation in walking distance from there. Relative isolation I think is the key, in some sort of bush or coastal setting. Relative isolation in that I don't have to bring a whole weekend's worth of food at the outset, and not being overrun with tourists like me (Daylesford, etc)

Budget isn't really a factor here. Time is. Somewhere thats going to take a half day to get to and back from probably isn't going to work for a short trip.

If I wasn't planning on going with the person I am dating at the moment, option 4 is truly a wonderful idea though...
posted by LongDrive at 8:03 AM on August 21

Or, it could just be a specifically interesting property in an otherwise unremarkable town... Like a train carriage hotel, an nice architecturally designed house, hut with japanese garden, etc. Again, this is region specific to Melbourne/Victoria though...
posted by LongDrive at 8:12 AM on August 21

Why not buy a tourist guidebook for Victoria, stay in a bed & breakfast and see some parts of the city that you've never seen before. I grew up in the Bay Area, but I never went to Alcatraz Island until some out of town relatives showed up demanding to see it.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:32 AM on August 21