Phillip Island is home to about 32,000 little (blue) penguins. It is only 2 hours’ drive from Melbourne CBD and is popular with tourists from all over the world to visit the penguins. However, we discovered a better penguin’s place which is free of charge that I will explain at the bottom of this post.

Ben and I booked a one-day tour to Phillip Island for penguins. Since our tour departs from Melbourne CBD at 11.30pm and the penguins only come out after sunset, we have a lot of time in-between and can visit other places, such as Maru Koala and Animal Park and also explore the town of Phillip Island.

 

Maru Koala and Animal Park

We stopped by this animal park which is only 15 minutes from Philip Island.

I love kangaroos. We were glad to have bought food from the entrance and feed them – they are super cute and lovely. I don’t ever want to eat kangaroos! Though I know many Aussies eat them and many supermarkets in Australia sell kangaroos’ meat… 😭

Koala’s park – super lazy koala.

Sometimes, I wish I am a koala.

I hope to have more time with the animals but we were following a tour, so we did not spend a lot of time here.

 

Explore Phillip Island town and The Nobbies

It is a lovely and relaxing small town. I could just sit here forever to enjoy the stunning beach. There are also many resorts, restaurants and cafes on the island.

We had delicious fish and chips while enjoying the great view. After our dinner, the tour guide drove us to The Nobbies (south-west of Phillip Island). We saw a beautiful sunset there.

After the sun is set, it is time to see penguins.

 

Penguin Parade, Phillip Island

They are not just normal penguins. They are called ‘little penguins’ because they are the smallest species of penguins. In New Zealand, many people call them blue penguins.

There is a ‘Penguin arrival calendar’ that indicates when the penguin will come out from the sea. The timetable is different every day; the arrival time in winter will be earlier than summer. Usually, the penguin viewing area is closed about 50-60 minutes after the first penguin arrives from the sea.

Yesterday there were about 750 penguins coming out and we hope many penguins will come out today too, but we have waited for quite a while. Ben was inpatient and kept saying the penguin failed to keep their appointment. 😓 Finally, we saw them.

It is cute to watch the little brave penguins coming out from the sea, but it was also very crowded (too many tourists) and it was a bit far away from the penguins.

We didn’t take any photo of the penguins because we are NOT allowed to. We felt very angry to see so many tourists ignoring the warning and take photos (with flash) that will hurt and scare the little penguins. Ben and I just took photos at the parade with the fake penguins…

Our tour is Melbourne Australia Tours. Overall it is a very comfortable tour as it is a van tour with only 8 people (including us) which surprise us, as we expected a coach with many people. It costs AU$98 per person for the tour which is a good price. Our tour guide’s name is Collin. He is flexible and considerate so we quite enjoyed the tour. In winter we can go back home by 10pm, in summer it will be midnight because daylight will be longer.

The best way to travel to Phillip Island is to do a road trip and stay overnight here. We will do that when we got a car!

 

An alternative way to see penguins: St Kilda Pier Penguin Colony

Phillip Island is great, but we discovered an even better place to view penguins: St Kilda Pier Penguin Colony. It is home to about 1000+ little penguins which is significantly fewer than Phillip Island, yet we strongly recommend this place.

The entry fee to Penguin Parade in Phillip Island is $26 per person (not including the cost to get there), whilst it is totally free to visit penguins in St Kilda. But it is not only about the money; St Kilda is also much quieter and has fewer tourists. It offers a closer view of the penguins and also we are allowed to take photos (as long as it is not flash).

Each day the best viewing time is different. We went to St Kilda Pier Penguin Colony on 26 July 2018 (winter) and the best viewing time is between 5.30 and 7.30pm. We get there at about 7pm and surprisingly there were very few people – maybe not many people know this place yet.

We can see the penguins walking or sleeping right in front of us.

A penguin sleeping in St Kilda Pier Penguin Colony

There are many volunteers – most of them are friendly and they even help to ‘red light’ the penguins when you want to take photos of the penguins – so you can see them more clearly. They said the red light and photos do not hurt the penguins but a flash would.

July is actually a quiet month for penguins in St Kilda yet we can spot quite some of them. There will be a lot more penguins between October and March/April, and we will definitely come again.

Lastly, we can also enjoy a great city view of Melbourne from St Kilda pier. It is a bit cold but worth it. 🙂