Melbourne Day Trip: Puffing Billy & Healesville Sanctuary Review and Highlights

We spent the day outside Melbourne to check out Puffing Billy, a cute steam-powered train, and the Healesville Sanctuary, full of local animals.

The itinerary for this tour

As we had no car, we ended up taking a tour that I booked via Viator. I certainly could have rented my own car, but driving in Melbourne isn’t exactly simple for someone from the United States. Not only do the Aussies drive on the left, but there are hook turns in the city. What exactly is a hook turn? You’ll find them near the light rail lines. Though you drive on the left, you can’t make a right from anywhere. Instead, you need to follow the signs that tell you to wait on the left. In fact, it’s generally as far-left as you can go, so you can clear the way for anyone wanting to go straight.

The thing is… you’re typically not going to find a turn signal that will tell you it’s clear to turn. Instead, you just need to camp out there until the light is about to turn red. Even if the light is green, you need to wait until the coast is clear. That’s about as good as I can describe it. Hook turns aren’t common even within Australia, but you’ll find them here. It takes getting used to, and it’s a contributor to why I didn’t drive here.

Anyways, with that out of the way. Our itinerary for this day trip is pretty simple.

Head out of Melbourne going to the east.
Ride Puffing Billy somewhere along its path..
From there, head north to the Healesville Sanctuary to see local animals.
Close by, there is a chocolate store that has chocolate-making equipment on display.

The drive time to Puffing Billy from Melbourne is about 45-60 minutes. Puffing Billy is about 75 minutes in length, with an extra 30 minutes to check out the museum and rest. The drive time to Healesville Sanctuary to Puffing Billy is about 45 minutes. Collectively, depending on how long you spend at Healesville, this can amount to a full day activity.

What is the “Puffing Billy”? It’s a steam-powered train that long ago used to haul lumber, materials, and animals. Puffing Billy is the name of the train, but there are different routes you can take depending on your departure time. What makes this steam train a little bit different than most is that passengers are encouraged to ride it by hanging out the window. Overall, it’s a popular tourist destination with many itineraries that touch it. It’s a family-friendly tour for sure.

This tour was operated by Wine Hop and Coastal Tours and operated as a group tour, far less personal than a private or semi-private tour.

A brief reminder to use a shopping portal

Yes, you can just directly book the tour from Viator but doing so would rob you of the opportunity for more rewards. Viator is on many shopping portals, so book via one of those. In our case, I waited until Viator was having a 30X deal on the Capital One Offers portal. Rewards are offered based on the price paid in USD, so the $473 USD price tag for our family of 4 earned over 14,000 Capital One miles. Not a bad haul for taking a tour that I would have taken anyways.

Click here for a reminder on what you can do with Capital One miles.

On top of that, you should check if your credit card offers a rebate for making a purchase via Viator. Every little discount adds up.

Puffing Billy

Official website: https://puffingbillyrailway.org.au/
Price: Varies with route, from $44.50 AUD per adult, $22 AUD per child aged 4-15, and $16.50 AUD per toddler aged 1-3 (in 2026)

On our trip, our Puffing Billy departure was in the morning, though it’s my understanding that ticket availability could change the order of the attractions. If you’re interested in visiting Puffing Billy on your own, book your tickets as far out as possible. And if you’re visiting on your own, your ticket automatically is booked as a roundtrip. The tour we were on was only a one-way journey.

When we arrived at the Belgrave train station, a cute sign welcomed us to the start of the adventure.

Belgrave is a small, cute train station. There’s a ticketing office, small cafe, and gift shop on site, but otherwise not much else.

Boarding the Puffing Billy

We received our tickets, which were assigned to a specific train car. There was a little bit of confusion over the kids having a different car assignment than us parents but we were still able to ride with each other.

When we approached the train, we could see that many others, including other tours, already chose their seats. The railway staff were dressed in old-time outfits from the early 1900’s to add to the historical charm.

We entered our car and climbed aboard the train. The kids wanted to ride like everyone else and so we helped them up. For those wondering, you do not need to ride this way. You can just sit from inside the train and ride it “normally”. But when in Rome…

A few notes about hanging your legs over the side:

Children aged 4 and under cannot sit on the edge.
Children with a green wristband (handed out when you get your ticket checked) can sit on the edge but require parental supervision.
As long as you hang onto the bar, you should be fine without fear of falling out.
You can get on or off the seat at any time during transit.

And just like that, we were off.

The Yarra Valley scenery is nice

As you might expect, this train doesn’t move that quickly, but it picks up a nice breeze. If you’re here around the Australian winter like us, the windchill might get a bit nippy. The breeze might feel a tad more comfortable during other times of the year.

As for the scenery, you’ll pass through a lot of green trees. These trees aren’t close enough to whack you but if your legs are long enough and you stretch them out, you might be able to touch a stray branch.

There are parts of the journey where you’ll be on a raised platform, which can be a little intense for some. It’s not like you’ve got a seatbelt on that will prevent you from falling.

If you’ll give me a moment, this path from Belgrave to Lakeside passed along the edge of a town, including a schoolyard. The children there were happy to see us passing by. So happy, in fact, that they started to do the “6-7” hand motion towards us. Our kids and all other children on the train did it in return. For those wondering if “6-7” was strictly a US phenomenon (like Jenn), it’s definitely not. I know our kids will remember that moment for a long time, so thanks to the local school for making this memorable. Anyways, I digress.

If you can swing it, take the side of the train on the side you board. That side seemed to get better views than the side we were on. But that’s not to say that the side we were on had terrible views. Plus our side had the interaction with the school kids that the other side did not.

Once we arrived in Lakeside, you could take a moment to pose with the train, but there are some big crowds to take that picture.

Lakeside Visitor Centre

Before or after your journey, you can stop off at the Lakeside Visitor Centre. Obviously, if you come here right after your train ride, expect it to be a bit crowded. There is a cafe inside, and if you’re hungry, you better go there straight away without delay right after the train ride. If not, you’re going to be caught in a long line.

Near the entrance is a Lego depiction of the Puffing Billy. Too bad this isn’t a set you can purchase.

If you head all the way to the rear of the Visitor Centre, past the gift shop and cafe, is a small museum. The free entry sounds promising enough. So, what’s here?

This museum is a single room that houses some historical artifacts used in the old days from when Puffing Billy was in use.

You can also see what the train looked like from the early 1900’s. It’s worth a 10-minute pit stop, especially if you’re on a tour and need to kill a little time before the tour continues.

Outside the Visitor Centre is also a nice area to spend some time, especially if you want more fresh air. Just cross these railroad tracks next to the building.

Here is Emerald Lake, which is a nice lake to walk around. Depending on how much time you have, you can certainly enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. But you likely won’t have enough time to fully walk around the lake.

If you’d rather eat outside, there are plenty of tables and benches here.

Closing thoughts on Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy is cute and memorable, but not something I’d want to repeat a visit for. The novelty of the train ride is good in one direction, but purchasing a roundtrip ticket (required if you’re coming here on your own) seems almost excessive. This train reminds me a lot of the Sagano Romantic Train in Arashiyama, Japan or the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, Alaska. The difference here is that you can hang your legs off the side of the train, but the premise is similar.

Train fans will love it here, but others I would say are fine with a one-way as part of a bigger tour. Unlike our visit to the nearby Penguin Parade, we wouldn’t call this one a must-do.

Healesville Sanctuary

Official website: https://www.zoo.org.au/healesville
Address: Glen Eadie Ave, Healesville VIC 3777, Australia
Hours: 9AM – 5PM daily
Price: From $58 AUD per adult, $29 AUD per child aged 4-15 (in 2026)

Next up on our trip was the Healesville Sanctuary, one of many different sanctuaries that specialize in rehabbing sick and injured animals.

Overall, Healesville is fairly large. While it’s still considered a sanctuary, it almost feels like a small zoo. There are many animals here and with seemingly plenty of space for them to stretch out and relax. The production value here also seemed a bit higher than at other sanctuaries like Moonlit, which had more of a homey feel to it.

As evidence of how large it is here, take a look at the map below. There are many residents here and it will take a good hour (at minimum) to walk around the property if you’re rushing. In addition to the number of animals calling Healesville home, there are also a couple of restaurants, paid animal interactions, free talks and presentations, and some areas for the kids.

Our Viator tour included general admission to the sanctuary. Plan to spend 2-3 hours here.

The animals at Healesville

Let’s start with the animal roll call. The first animals you’ll see are the emus, which have plenty of room to run around. These seemed pretty happy.

Again, one of the more interesting creatures to see here are the koalas. Koala interaction rules vary by Australian state and in Victoria, you’re not able to touch, hold, or lift a koala but you can pet them in certain approved facilities. While Moonlit Sanctuary on the outskirts of Melbourne is approved for touching koalas, Healesville Sanctuary is not an approved location. Thus, you can only take a picture next to them but not get closer than that.

That said, the koalas here seemed the most active of those we saw in Australia. Perhaps we just caught them at the right time.

There are some kangaroos here, but they all seemed to be a bit exhausted. Can’t win them all. It seemed like we either had active roos or active koalas, but not both at the same time on this trip.

Turns out at least some of the kangaroos were carrying little joeys around. That was cute when the mommas got up and walked around.

If walking with the wallabies is more of your thing, there’s an area where you can do just that. However, we didn’t have too many that came by to say g’day to us as we walked by.

Healesville also had a few echidnas to show off. There was one person in the exhibit itself getting a closer look at them (for an extra fee).

We also spied one animal we hadn’t seen before: tree kangaroos. While tree kangaroos are also found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, they also live in parts of northern Queensland.

Don’t forget to say hi to the platypus while you’re here. There’s a special area for viewing it in the dark.

I have always had trouble filming the platypus because it just won’t stop moving and you always view it in low-light conditions. So, you’ll just have to accept this video of it swimming around.

And like we’ve seen elsewhere, the Tasmanian devils here are cute. Just don’t forget the damage their jaws can do. That’s the face of a killer.

Sanctuary Harvest Café

Healesville Sanctuary has three dining facilities on site: two are cafés and one is a kiosk. We ended up eating lunch at the Sanctuary Harvest Café, which is near the kangaroos. This is mostly a quick-service restaurant, but there are some things that will take a little bit of time to prepare. Just place your order at the front and come back to pick it up when it’s ready.

We ordered a few things to tide us over like some pasta, chicken tenders, and a parfait. The food was fine enough–not exactly noteworthy but good enough to keep us going. I’d recommend against getting the pasta, as the meat seemed to dry out the dish quite a bit. Good thing I had some cherry cider to drink that washed it down a bit better.

Children’s play areas

Kids might enjoy Healesville because of the variety of play areas it has. For example, our daughter Char really wanted to spend lots of time at this sand pit, complete with rakes, shovels, and a couple of slides. Thankfully, there is plenty of shade here to stay out of the sun.

Or consider the Australian Wildlife Health Centre.

This facility operates as a surgery, examination, and laboratory area where the keepers can monitor and treat the animals. Viewing is open to the public, so if there is a patient, you can see them at work. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no patient needing treatment while we were there.

Aside from viewing the animals needing treatment, you could also help out some stuffed animals. At the center of the facility is a large play area for kids to reenact what they might be seeing live. Char spent a good amount of time here putting on play clothes and pretend-operating on wildlife.

There is also some education opportunities here, with children able to learn a little more about specific animals and their needs. She liked the interactive displays.

Animal presentation (Spirits of the Sky)

You’ll want to check with the ticket office for the time, but in the afternoon, you’ll find a free show called Spirits of the Sky. Here, you’ll learn about the different birds living in Melbourne and throughout Australia. There is some stadium seating, able to seat big crowds, but it was fairly empty the day we were here.

Two human hosts talked about a number of birds. After hearing the presentation at Moonlit, I’m glad that this is a different set of animals.

There is also some audience participation in the form of fly-bys. The trainers would position themselves such that the birds would fly just over the heads of those in the audience. Watch out for your hats!

Closing thoughts on Healesville Sanctuary

We’ve done several animal viewings in Australia in a short period of time, also checking out Moonlit Sanctuary in Melbourne and Taronga Zoo in Sydney. I knew coming in that the kids had a voracious appetite for seeing animals, so I needed to help satisfy that craving.

How does Healesville Sanctuary compare to Moonlit? For one, Healesville is a larger sanctuary, requiring more time to check out the animals than at Moonlit. However, because of its size, it also felt a little less intimate than Moonlit Sanctuary did.

If you’re looking to touch a koala, then Healesville is really not for you as that isn’t possible here. But if you’re looking for a lot of local animal variety this can be a good option.

All things considered, we liked Moonlit Sanctuary a bit more given the smaller feel and the roo feeding we did. But it was still nice to check out Healesville too.

The Chocolateries Yarra Valley

Official website: https://www.yvci.com.au/
Address: 35 Old Healesville Rd, Yarra Glen VIC 3775, Australia
Hours: 9AM – 5PM daily
Price: Free to enter

The last stop on our Viator tour was the nearby chocolate shop at The Chocolateries Yarra Valley. You might think this is a chocolate factory or tour but that wouldn’t be totally accurate. This is a chocolate and ice cream shop that showcases chocolate-making equipment and has some information posted about the chocolate-making process. That might sound uninteresting, but they do hand out free samples.

When you arrive, you have the option of trying a few different flavors (milk, dark, and white). I chose dark, the obvious best choice of the three. I really should say it’s out of two: white chocolate isn’t even chocolate.

The kids needed a little pick-me-up, so heading to the back to order some ice cream was the best bet for us. Those are some big cones they got there!

While they enjoyed their cones, we waited outside for the rest of the tour group to finish up. We spent a total of 30 minutes here as part of the Viator tour. If not for the tour, we wouldn’t have come here. But I guess getting some ice cream afterwards wasn’t too bad of a stop.

Jenn also spent a little bit of time soaking in the atmosphere, which was gorgeous.

Jenn taking pictures of the surroundings

Overall, it was a nice day we had at both Puffing Billy and Healesville Sanctuary. It’s not quite the must-do Melbourne activity I was hoping for, but we still enjoyed the experience and were happy to be here. And isn’t that the most important thing in the end?

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