As I travel with my partner and we are both in our mid/late twenties, look at this as a guide to New Years in Mornington for couples looking for a good way to bring in the New year.

Guide to New Years in Mornington

What is on:

Obviously, this will vary year from year but there are a few places that have a special event annually. Keep in mind the Mornington Peninsula council has restrictions on public New Years events since a few years back so all events are hosted privately by Restaurants, Hotels and Wineries.

If you’re young and wanting to not waste your last day of the year at home then these are our top picks:

1. Portsea Hotel – New Years Eve Party (Annually)
   
   The hotel is located right on the water and has a fantastic outdoor area so that you can chill and really bring in the new year!
   
   Events link here.
   
   
2. Sorrento Hotel – New Years Eve Party (Annually)
   
   Located on top of the hill, you can still get views of the water, Sorrento tends to put a theme to their parties and previous years (2017 / 2018) they settled with a White party and saw the likes of Richmond’s Alex Rance attending.
   
   (Have attended this New Year’s party! Hot tip, either have a designated driver or pre-organise transport as it can be difficult to get transport with the crowds and being away from the city)
   
   Events Link here.
   
   
3. Publican (Mornington) – Dinner with after party
   
   This is actually what Leigh and I did, we took part in their “Feed Me” menu for $60.00 and we ate 8 different courses of beautiful asian inspired meals and paired it with a beer and pims! At about 9pm they bought out a DJ and moved some tables to make a dance floor. If you want to kick on after this, head to Merchant Lane to continue to party.
   (Pictured The Publican – Venue no longer open)
   
   
4. The Baths – Dinner & Drinks
   
   _{(Photo by Mila Photography)}
   If you prefer a semi quieter night, then a 4 course dinner and drinks all night with a DJ might be more your thing.
   In 2023/2024 The Baths are having a NYE event doing just that and best of all located right on the waterfront giving views out to Port Phillip Bay towards Melbourne and hopefully a glimpse of the cities fireworks.
   
   Events Link here.
   
   5. The Continental – New Years Eve Party
   
   Another 2023/2024 New Years Party option.
   Set in the iconic Intercontinental Hotel Sorrento, with a wide variety of modern entertainment areas, your are sure to be entertained all night.
   
   Events Link here.
   
   Visit Mornington have an up-to-date events list here.

Location:

We chose Mornington over any other town along the Peninsula purely based on the accommodation we could find that would accept dogs (see my post on a dog owners guide to Mornington here) and I am very glad that it worked out perfectly as after we travelled down the coast we found a lot of the other beautiful destinations such as Rye, Safety Beach etc were very very busy (with people) but the cafe’s and fish and chip shops were either closed or limited hours whereas in Mornington’s main strip we did not feel like we were effected or missing out as a lot of the cafe’s and shops were open as normal trade (except the cafe surcharge on New Years day).

The Private rental we stayed in was beautiful and had everything we needed, best of all we walked everywhere as it was so close, even New Years Eve which made getting around easy and not a hassle!

We have stayed in Rye, Tootgarook, Blairgowrie + Mornington over the NYE period and prefer Mornington for the ease of walking to places + less required driving. (but still love the others, the whole Peninsula is beautiful).

(Pictured one of our Airbnb stays in Mornington CBD – Property no longer available to rent)

Restaurants / Shops:

We found in Mornington itself, a lot of the cafe’s were open as per normal which is fantastic. Keep in mind when driving to Rye, Rosebud and surrounding towns that trading hours were affected (even fish and chips closed at certain hours of the day) so just keep this in mind when road-tripping down to surrounding towns and schedule your meal times wisely. For shopping, we found on certain days shops were just closed over the holiday period. You might have more luck than us but good to keep in mind.

You can view some of our favourite restaurants in a Mornington pet-friendly guide here.

This is our personal guide only, we just love to share our favourite things!

(Post updated November 2023)

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