Melbourne is built for people who arrive on their own: counter service instead of table service, bars made of milk crates, and a tram network that makes 11pm feel like 6pm. These three days string together the places where a table for one is simply a seat.
Seven hectares of open sheds trading since 1878. Solo eating is the norm here — stand at the American Doughnut Kitchen van or the Borek Shop counter. Open Tue and Thu–Sun from 6am, closed Monday and Wednesday; the Deli Hall shuts at 3pm.
The 1913 octagonal dome seats 320 people at desks radiating from the centre, and nobody looks twice at a lone reader. Free, open 10am–6pm daily and until 9pm Thursday. Two upper balconies give the view straight down onto the desks.
Level 88 of Eureka Tower, 285 metres up, is the highest public viewing platform in the southern hemisphere. It opens at midday with last entry an hour before close. The Edge, a glass cube, slides three metres out over Southbank.
A bar bolted to the pylon of the Southbank pedestrian bridge, sitting mid-river in the Yarra. Stairs drop from the middle of the bridge; you order at the counter and take a stool along the rail. Toasties, jugs, open from 9am.
Walks that begin at Blender Studios in West Melbourne and are led by working graffiti writers rather than guides. Three hours through lanes that never make the guidebooks, finishing inside a live studio. Groups cap at around twelve people.
A climate-controlled glass cube inside a Rose Street warehouse, baking what the New York Times called the finest croissant in the world. Doors at 7.30am and stock usually gone by early afternoon; the queue outside talks to itself.
A gravel car park in Chinatown fitted out with a shipping-container bar and stacked milk crates for seating. Open from midday, no table service and no bookings, so you sit wherever there is space — which is exactly the point.
A Johnston Street venue with the stage in the centre of the room and the crowd circling it, so there is no back of the room to hide in. Latin and salsa on Sundays, funk and soul on weekend nights, doors from around 8pm.
Rowboats and kayaks on a bend of the Yarra six kilometres from the CBD, framed entirely by bushland. Hire by the hour from the boathouse, trading on this site since 1863 and open from 9am. Single kayaks suit one paddler perfectly.
An 1861 convent turned arts precinct: sixteen buildings across 6.8 hectares beside the river. Free to wander, with the Convent Bakery firing wood-oven sourdough and benches in every courtyard. Artist studios open to visitors most afternoons.
A 1934 memorial modelled on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, raised on a rise in Kings Domain. Free, open 10am–5pm. At 11am a mirror throws a shaft of sunlight across the Stone of Remembrance in a simulated solstice ray.
Roughly 1,400 little penguins nest in the boulders of the St Kilda pier breakwater and come ashore after dark. Free, no booking, and Earthcare volunteers in high-vis vests are there to answer questions. Red-filtered torches only, no flash.