24 Hours in Canberra

Saturday Afternoon at Parliament

Another big city to try and squeeze a lot out of! So here is how we spent our 24 hours in Canberra.

We arrived in Canberra just after lunch. Luckily, we were able to check into our hotel right away, then it was straight back out the door to head to Parliament House.

It was quite amazing to us that we were able to drive so close to the parliament building and, apart from a quick security check, walk right in – very different to our experience of visiting the Houses of Parliament in the UK!

Pro Tip – Do check in advance as to whether Parliament is open for public visits. It’s free to enter and you don’t need a timed ticket, but you don’t want to turn up just to be turned away.

Parliament wasn’t sitting the day of our visit, so we had free roam of a lot of the first floor of the building. We wandered around at our leisure and there was plenty of staff at hand to point us in the right direction. There are also various tours available which are free, but you do need to book tickets for these.

The building is modern but spectacular, the entrance grand and spacious, and the varnished floors around the building buffed to a high shine. The three main rooms open to visit were the Great Hall, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and then there were also exhibitions in between including the Prime Ministers Portraits.

Please note – I can’t include any photos from inside the parliament here; although you are allowed to take them, you can’t publish them.

After an hour or so of moseying around, we visited the Queen’s Terrace café for some lunch and found there was a decent choice of sandwiches, hot food, and drinks. They also had a band playing and the sun was shining – all of that made for a very relaxing time on the terrace!

We captured some shots of the view from the terrace – the Old Parliament House, the Anzac Parade and the Australian War Memorial – then wandered outside to take a few more photos, before driving over Lake Burley Griffin and up to the Australian War Memorial.

The approach to it is stunning – The Anzac Parade is grand, with individual memorials on either side and if it wasn’t raining and we weren’t so short on time, I would have liked to take a closer look – next time!

The memorial itself is an impressive building but there is a lot of construction work ongoing at the moment, meaning you don’t quite get the same impact as you approach. There is also a temporary side entrance, which you approach the whole museum in the wrong order and don’t walk straight into the commemorative courtyard as you usually would.

They do have an information centre displaying a model of the plans for the building, which look fantastic, and I look forward to visiting again once it’s complete.

Pro Tip – While advance tickets aren’t essential, they were fully booked when we arrived, so I would advise booking in advance.

Fortunately, while they were booked out for that afternoon, we were able to get tickets for the next morning, so just had to change our plans slightly – we drove up to Mount Ainslie lookout to take in the panoramic views of the city. It was a stunning view, even with the black clouds threatening further showers.

Once we had had our fill of the views, and before it started raining again, we headed back to the hotel to recoup and plan our evening.

There was a huge choice of restaurants in Canberra, but we wanted something close to the hotel. From reviews and maps, we chose a place in the Manuka area of the city. Once we got there, however, we found the restaurant we had picked was probably not a place we wanted to be BUT hadn’t anticipated there being so many other lovely looking restaurants in the area.

We were spoilt for choice, but chose a busy Malaysian restaurant and were not disappointed! The food at Abell’s Kopi Tiam was delicious – we had the Malayan Beef Rendang and Crispy Boneless Chicken with chilli and hoi-sin sauce.

A Sombre Start to Sunday

We headed back to the Australian War Memorial first thing and it was brilliant!

The exhibitions there were interesting and interactive, and there was plenty to read but also lots to hear and experience. Jumping in a simulation of a fighter plane bombing a city in Germany before being shot down was especially poignant and The Holocaust: Witnesses and Survivors gave me chills.

The Roll of Honour and Hall of Memory were particularly beautiful and we both agreed it is probably one of the best memorials or museums we have ever visited. It was very emotive.

Afterwards we needed brunch and a mood lift, so drove into the city centre. We found a great little place, Oliver Brown, which is a Belgian Chocolate Café. We ordered a savoury breakfast, but did get a spoonful of chocolate drops to go with our coffee – delicious!

Once we were fed and watered, we went shopping – It was an accidental shopping trip but those are the best kind! The Canberra Centre was opposite the café and we wandered in not really knowing what to expect, but it was huge! You could probably find everything you want and more in that shopping centre, and it also had some great looking food offers.

You easily spend a whole day in there, and there certainly were people there doing just that in the run up to Christmas! We easily got lost and I didn’t even remember to take any photos there.

Conscious that we had a 3 hour drive to get home, we headed back to the car in the early afternoon, already feeling tired and arms laden with bags.

We had a fab 24 hours in Canberra, and are definitely glad we didn’t listen to the naysayers telling us not to bother. We will certainly be back!

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