The 7 best things to do on rooftops in Melbourne

Located just five minutes from St Kilda, Classic Cinemas screens a variety of Hollywood blockbusters, foreign films and family favourites, as well as being home to the Jewish International Film Festival. In December 2019, the cinema launched Classic Rooftop Cinema, which operates through summer and into autumn. It also includes a rooftop bar, which people can enjoy whether or not they're seeing a film. The rooftop has sweeping views across the nearby buildings, all the way to the bay. 

The rooftop pool at the Adelphi Hotel is one of the most photographed pools in Melbourne, thanks to its cantilevering glass bottom, which juts out nine storeys over Flinders Lane. It's open from 6am most days if you're one for an early-morning swim; otherwise, Friday evening is perfect for a swim and an after-work cocktail. You don’t have to be a guest at the hotel to experience it.

This one’s pretty obvious, but pleasant nights are made for rooftop drinking. We’re partial to Johnny’s Green Room, the rooftop bar on top of King and Godfree in Carlton, for its jaw-dropping views of the Melbourne skyline, drink-friendly snacks like freshly shucked oysters and cheese platters, and a list of cocktails, highballs and Spritzes.

French Saloon, housed above Kirk’s Wine Bar, doesn’t beat diners about the head in some cliché, so-Frenchy-so-chic kind of way. It’s typically understated, with a curving red timber ceiling, a long zinc bar, a winsome little terrace with umbrella-covered tables. It looks and feels like it could have been serving oysters – natural with a tiny bottle of Tabasco, or punchily flecked in bottarga and horseradish – at the dawn of existentialism.

Melbourne City Rooftop Honey makes use of underutilised city rooftops to provide resting places and crucial nutrients for swarms of honeybees that might otherwise die. The company sells the honey collected from these urban hives on its website (you can even choose honey collected north of the Yarra and honey collected south of the Yarra), and there is also a mentoring program to help aspiring apiarists learn what the buzz is about. Expert beekeepers from Melbourne City Rooftop Honey will take you to several rooftop sites to learn about various stages of hive development.

Luxury hotel Sofitel boasts one of the best views of the city... in its swanky sky-high bathrooms. Sofitel's loo is not so much a toilet as a powder room: golden drapes frame the floor-to-ceiling windows, from which you can see all the way out to the Dandenongs, as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance, the 'G and even out to the sea. While you're up there, sit back with a cocktail at the luxe Atrium Bar on 35.

Head to the back of Nitro Lab ice cream and take the lift up to Heroes karaoke bar. The third-floor bar is stuffed with posters, paraphernalia and tchotchkes, and there’s a pan-Asian menu of bar snacks to keep you fortified before your moment in the spotlight. You can book a private room if you’d like to limit your embarrassment, or sing for free to a room full of strangers. After you sing, you can go up one more level to the rooftop to cool off, or just put your name down at the bar to have another go on the mic.