The Travel Journal

Disclaimer: All photos used in this post are taken from the @vicmarket Instagram page. I was given permission to use these photos, none of them were taken by me.

Melbourne has some great attractions and activities to experience when you visit. There are parks, zoos, food, bars, and so much entertainment to keep yourself busy while visiting. One of these is the Queen Victoria Markets. A great activity for anyone who’s looking to spend a bit, or a lot of money. If you like browsing through hundreds of market stalls, the Queen Victoria Markets are definitely for you! 

The Queen Victoria Markets has so many stalls to look at. If you’re shopping for friends, family, or yourself, there are plenty of things to find. My friend and I got there in the morning, and we didn’t end up leaving until around 1pm. We started looking through the fresh produce section since it was on the far left of the outside markets. Everything looked so colourful and inviting. There were fruits and vegetables that I’d never seen in grocery stores before, at least not where I’m from. I would’ve bought some things to try when I got back home with my family but I wasn’t sure how well they would go on the plane ride back. So, we moved on to non-food-related items. The first thing I bought at the markets was a gift for my partner. There was a whole stall dedicated to 3D-printed items, many being from video games or animes. I bought them a 3D-printed Guardian from The Legend of Zelda, but there were so many other pieces I could’ve bought for them, or even myself. But most of the pieces I was interested in for myself were a little out of my price range for the day. Not that I really stuck to this mindset later on. But hey, I’m on holiday so who cares.

Although we saw some great things at the Queen Victoria Markets, we eventually realised that a lot of the stalls were selling very similar items. Now trust me  I love crystals, but it got a bit boring after walking past a crystal stall for the tenth time. There were also a lot of toy stores, especially ones selling plushies and fidget toys. There were quite a few clothing stores as well which centred around the same theme and style of clothing, but they weren’t selling the same specific items of clothing. If you’re looking for something very specific here, you’ll probably find what you’re looking for. Nevertheless, the Queen Victoria Markets are home to so many market stalls, so seeing the same items again and again is to be expected. The shop owners are trying to appeal to a large group of people, trying to get as many customers as possible, so they would be focusing on today’s popular topics to ensure sales, and this just happens to be crystals, plushies, fidgets and animes.

Another thing you’ll notice pretty early at the Queen Victoria Markets is how busy it is. I can only stand the amount of people and noises for a few hours before I need to leave, so if you have bad sensory issues, definitely think about it before choosing to go. You really have to stick close to your buddies while you’re there or you’ll most likely lose each other at least once or twice. Once you’re looking at a stall though, it’s a lot easier to talk to each other and look around. You can get away from the crowd that’s walking through the tight corridor from stall to stall. 

The markets I enjoyed the most would have to be the hot food stalls. They kind of remind me of my childhood when I would find a way to convince my parents to buy at least something from a passing food truck when we were on holiday. They have traditional Australian snacks there like pluto pups, loaded fries, corn on the cob, and a LOT of sweet food like crepes, doughnuts and anything chocolate. But they had even more diverse flavours from all over the world. Foods from across Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Now I’m a very picky eater, but the foods these stalls were offering sounded delicious! Sadly, I couldn’t eat every single one of them or my stomach would burst. So, I just enjoyed an amazing Turkish gozleme. If everything tasted as good as this gozleme, I’d just come back simply for the food.

Whether you like it or not, the Queen Victoria Markets are a staple to Melbourne. If you’re planning a holiday, or even if you already live there, this is a place you should really consider visiting at least once in your life. I never even knew this was a thing until my friends forced me to go the last time we were there (I never really saw Melbourne as a holiday destination to be honest). But I’m so glad they brought it up last time because I enjoyed it the first and second time I visited. I probably spent a little too much money. But hey, who’s counting right?