Phillip Island Penguin Parade

Phillip Island lies approximately 140km south-east of Melbourne's CBD in South Gippsland, reached in 1.5 to 2 hours by car via the South Gippsland Highway and the Phillip Island Bridge at San Remo, or by a coach day and evening tour that departs central Melbourne in the afternoon. The island's best-known attraction is the Penguin Parade at Summerlands Beach, where colonies of little penguins, the world's smallest penguin species, come ashore nightly after dusk to their beachside burrows, watched from a raised boardwalk and grandstand viewing area. Because the island rewards a full day, most visitors arrive by mid-afternoon and spend the remaining daylight at the Nobbies Centre, where boardwalks look out over a fur seal colony on Seal Rocks, or on the Cape Woolamai coastal walking trail at the island's eastern tip. Churchill Island, a working historic farm connected by a causeway, and the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory are further options for travellers with more time before dusk. A typical itinerary has visitors crossing the bridge from San Remo by early-to-mid afternoon, exploring the Nobbies or Cape Woolamai while the light lasts, then having dinner in Cowes, the island's main town, before heading to Summerlands Beach for the Penguin Parade. Because the little penguins come ashore regardless of season, the trip runs year-round, but the parade's start time shifts with sunset -- as early as around 5:30pm in midwinter and as late as 9:30pm at the height of summer -- so checking the day's viewing time before departure is essential. Cowes' waterfront strip has cafes and fish-and-chip shops for an early dinner ahead of the parade, and the return drive to Melbourne typically finishes late in the evening.