Is staying in Glen Waverley a good alternative to Melbourne CBD

A few months back, I went on a work trip to Melbourne. My boss booked a hotel in Glen Waverley. I thought he was crazy for staying in Glen Waverley and not staying in Melbourne CBD. What the hell is at Glen Waverley?

For those that don’t know, Glen Waverley is around 25 kilometres from the CBD of Melbourne in the eastern suburbs. If you’re traveling by car, the easiest way to get there is by using Springvale Road. If you’re using a train, hop on the Glen Waverley Line from Flinders Street, Southern Cross, or Melbourne Central. Boy was I surprised what Glen Waverley had to offer. So much so that Bec and I spent a weekend in Glen Waverley and used it as a base to travel into the Melbourne City Centre.

If you are a midlife travel couple like us, you might just find Glen Waverley a good alternative to staying in the city center of Melbourne. After traveling together for over 26 years, we have found that we don’t need much, just a comfortable hotel, good places to have a drink and food, and some shops to have a look at.

Where can you stay in Glen Waverley

Staying in Glen Waverley will be much cheaper than staying in the city. Glen Waverley has two big hotels, Ibis and Novotel. We stayed at Ibis Glen Waverley where the room prices were $135 per night. You would easily pay double that price for a hotel in the city. The hotel rooms were neat and tidy, all you need for a couple’s weekend in Melbourne. The bed was comfy, a lounge chair to sit on and a flat screen TV.

The hotel had a bar and restaurant you could use, which had happy hour twice a day and a selection of meals. Breakfast was available each morning from 7am to 10am. You could order for an extra $29 a day or if you paid at check-in you could get it for $20. We normally have a hotel breakfast. It is one of the things that Bec loves.

I had the breakfast on a previous stay and to be honest it was average. Just eggs, bacon, hash browns, baked beans, toast and cereal, that sort of breakfast, a bit like an English breakfast. For us it just didn’t seem value for money, especially if you were travelling on a modest budget.

If you were driving your car to Glen Waverley, which we always drive to Melbourne, there is underground secure parking. Parking was $20 a night, which is around 50% cheaper than parking in Melbourne.

Places to eat and drink in Glen Waverley

Kingsway in Glen Waverley is definitely the place to eat and drink. It starts at Springvale Road and runs past the Ibis Hotel we stayed at, finishing up near the Glen Shopping Centre that we will talk about later in the article. About in the middle is an eating and entertainment precinct where both sides of the road are lined with restaurants and cafes.

I can best describe it as a mini Swanston Street. For those who don’t know, Swanston Street is a foodie street in the Melbourne CBD. In Glen Waverley, you have some great options for eating, mainly Asian food but you will find other options as well. You will find hotpot, Korean BBQ, dumplings, burgers, kebabs and ice cream. Let’s not forget the good old KFC.

We ate at Seoul Garden Korean BBQ all-you-can-eat restaurant. It was mega, plate after plate of food for $49 for dinner. You can do BBQ and Hotpot at your table, you can head to the buffet and grab things like chicken wings, sushi, rice, noodles, and salad just to name a few. We can highly recommend this place. We also grabbed some crispy pork belly and rice from the Roast Bar.

The pork belly was unbelievable, so crispy and tasty, that perfect combination of crunch and fatty pork. It was $17 for a container and worth every cent. Crispy pork and rice is one of Bec’s go-to dishes especially in Asia so to find it in Glen Waverley brought a smile to her face.

Bec loves a good bubble tea, so we headed to Heytea, which makes some of the best. If ice cream is your thing, Mixue is popular. If you have never heard of Mixue, it has over 45,000 stores worldwide, mainly in China, making it the world’s largest food-service chain by number of stores. Our daughter, who lives in China, can’t believe that an ice cream sundae costs $4.50 at Mixue in Australia when in China it’s around $0.30 for the same thing.

If you’re looking to have a few drinks, which let’s be honest Bec and I always are, there are a few options such as the Glen Waverley RSL, The Century City Tavern, Piatella Bar and Cafe.

We went left field and headed to Archie Bros. It’s like a games arcade in Century City, which is like an indoor mall that leads off Kingsway.

Sounds like a strange choice for two adults our age, but as a midlife couple we are always on the lookout for a bargain. $12 cocktails seemed like a good deal and it certainly was. You had a choice of 3 cocktails, Fireball Highball, Frisky Whisky and Yuzu Margarita. Having had some not so memorable experiences with Fireball whisky before we skipped that and tried the other two. The Yuzu Margarita was the winner, tasty and fresh, we proceeded to have 3 each.

What can you do in Glen Waverley for fun and entertainment?

I just previously mentioned Century City. It’s where all the fun and entertaining things lie. Inside, you can find Strike 10 Pin Bowling, interactive darts, Archie Bros Arcade and Bar and Village Cinemas. I think this delivers some pretty good options considering they are all located next to each other. Couples of any age, even couples in their 40s and 50s like us, could easily find something to do. We are even planning, next time, to have a go at the darts along with some more cocktails.

What sort of shopping is available at Glen Waverley?

You will not find many small shops along the Kingsway strip, there are some small Asian grocery stores, but the main action happens at The Glen. The Glen is a two-level shopping mall featuring retail and dining. We didn’t eat there, just for the record, we did have a coffee.

The Glen has over 200 different stores you can shop at. We went to TK Maxx, Target and Strandbags. While some women have a thing for shoes, I have a thing for suitcases and luggage. You will find plenty of big box retailers in there such as Aldi, Woolworths, Cotton On, Daiso, H&M and JB Hi-Fi just to name a few. I really like The Glen Mall. It had enough shops and brands that you know, minus the crowds of the major shopping centres in the city such as Melbourne Central or the Emporium.

Getting from Glen Waverley to Melbourne CBD

As we touched on earlier, we think the best option is to catch the train from Glen Waverley Station to Flinders Street Station or Southern Cross Station in the Melbourne CBD.

Trains run from Glen Waverley into the central business district of Melbourne every 20 minutes with the trip taking around 30 minutes. The Glen Waverley train station is also located on Kingsway so accessing the station from The Glen, the restaurants and the hotels is simple. It’s actually so convenient to be honest.

So can you use Glen Waverley as a base for a weekend trip to Melbourne?

Most definitely, and we will certainly use it again in the future. The area, if you stay at Ibis or Novotel, is compact and restaurants, shopping, entertainment and the train station are all in the one area. If you have mobility issues, there are no long distances to walk, there are less people than the city centre and the prices are cheaper for hotels and food.

The 30 minutes each way on the train is maybe the only downside but the trip was smooth and provided some views of the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Bec and I both give it a thumbs up and really do think you should give a weekend in Melbourne a go staying in Glen Waverley. There really is no downside to it.

We’ve been giving straight-up travel advice for midlife couples for over 26 years. Take a look at the story behind Street Eats & Window Seats. And for more on travelling in Australia, head to our Australia guide.

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