15 of the best high teas around Victoria

15 of the best high teas around Victoria

1. Chateau Yering

Retreat to the Drawing Room or lavish Eleaonore's Restaurant for a traditional high tea at Chateau Yering. Replete with morish savoury bites, perfect petit fours and freshly baked scones (with jam and cream, of course), as well as local sparkling wine or champagne on arrival. With magnificent views out to the estate's rolling vineyards, it’s the ideal way to round out a day of mum appreciation.

2. Balgownie Estate

Take your indulgence to new heights with a sunrise hot air balloon flight over the Yarra Valley followed by champagne breakfast at the beautiful Balgownie Estate. From your soaring vantage point, you’ll be treated to spectacular views of rolling Yarra Valley vineyards glistening in the golden morning light, before tucking into a hot buffet breakfast and a glass of local sparkling wine.

3. Fortnums

Escape to leafy Sassafras for high tea among the gum trees at Fortnums. The traditional high tea features all your favourite accompaniments, including three-tier stands of assorted sandwiches and savoury delights followed by petit cakes, pastries and Devonshire scones.

4. Campbell Point House

In a grand estate overlooking Westernport Bay, the stunning French Provincial stylings of Campbell Point House in Leopold make for a deliciously sophisticated high tea setting. Think chantilly-filled profiteroles, Turkish delights, lemoncurd tarts and truffled egg sandwiches. The seasonally inspired sipping experience is created and curated by on-site chefs who aim to showcase local produce, much of which is grown in the estate’s onsite Potager garden.

5. The Lighthouse Tea Rooms

Afternoon tea is best served with a fluffy scone and lashings of jam and cream. And the charming Lighthouse Tea Rooms, housed in the in the cute-as-a-button keeper’s cottage beside Split Point Lighthouse in Airey's Inlet (made famous by the 1990s TV show Round the Twist), is dishing up Devonshire tea with an unbeatable backdrop. Follow the light to the Surf Coast icon for Noisette pastries, Tea Thief teas, Mork hot chocolates, freshly baked cakes and homemade scones served with sweet raspberry jams from nearby Pennyroyal Farm.

6. The Cape Kitchen

For high tea with some of the best views in Victoria, Cape Kitchen in Phillip Island has you covered. This stunning waterfront wonder is perched on top of a cliff overlooking Bass Straight and boasts uninterupted panoramas of the rugged coastline. This handsome high tea by the sea includes a glass of sparkling wine on arrrival, followed by a selection of decadent sweet and savoury bites. It's available only on selected weekends only so be sure to call ahead first.

7. Avonleigh Farm

Nestled in the lush rolling hills of Tarwin in South Gippsland, five minutes from Meeniyan, is Avonleigh Farm. This elegant, Victorian-era inspired residence is the ideal setting for a relaxed high tea by the fire. Here, lovingly baked profiteroles, cakes, scones and elegant finger sandwiches adorn tiered silver trays, while crystal stemware, antique china and fresh-picked garden roses set a sophisticated scene.

8. Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa

For the ultimate in spa-country pampering, the Sanctuary & Devonshire Tea package from the nearby Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa offers a long, lazy session in the mineral baths, followed by tea in the heritage-listed Hepburn Pavilion.

9. Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm

Back in the Goldfields, Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm is a colourful patch of European countryside in a valley north of Hepburn. Stop by the on-site Cafe La Trattoria for a morning tea with generous, house-made scones flavoured with lavender from the farm’s fields.

10. Craig’s Royal Hotel

Indulge in majestic high-tea style every Sunday at Craig’s Royal Hotel in Ballarat. Served in the hotel’s resplendent banquet rooms, the traditional high tea comes with all the trimmings. Choose from freshly brewed black and exotic teas or coffee, with a mouthwatering array of freshly made savoury and sweet delights made by Craig’s talented pastry chefs.

11. Mansion Hotel Werribee Park

Cruise down the Princes Freeway to Werribee, where high tea at the Mansion Hotel offers a touch of luxury and refinement, just 40 minutes’ drive from the Melbourne CBD. Featuring a glass of Mumm champagne and a selection of sweet and savoury delicacies, delight your senses with a refined Sunday sip session overlooking the gorgeous, manicured grounds of Werribee Park.

12. Fortuna Villa

For a generous slice of history with your tea, Fortuna Villa in Bendigo opens its doors for regular high-tea tours. Guests arrive to the strains of a harpist and are guided around the elaborate mansion – once owned by goldmining millionaire George Lansell – after being treated to tea, coffee or sparkling along with cakes, scones, sandwiches and savoury specialties.

13. The Stables of Como

When mini cakes, finger sandwiches and sparkling wine just won't cut it, head to the Stables of Como, in the gardens of South Yarra's Como House, for a high tea with a twist. The 'Guy Tea' eschews traditonal high tea accoutrements, instead dishing up mini Wagy beef burgers, BBQ pork sliders, twice cooked chunky chips, red velvet lamingtons, Belgian chocolate brownies and lemonade scones, to name just a few of the mouthwatering morsels. There's also barista-made coffee and free-flowing Red Label Peroni. The Stables also offers a traditional high tea and a kids' high tea.

RACV members save on annual National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Membership, which grants free entry to all Victorian Trust properies, including Old Melbourne Gaol, Rippon Lea Estate, Como House and Gardens and more.

14. Woodman Estate

A little further inland on the Mornington Peninsula, Woodman Estate sits beside a lake on 20 hectares of undulating fields and bushland. Partake in the estate’s high tea Wednesday through Sunday, featuring the full white-tablecloth experience, complete with tiered cake stands and a finale of oven-warm scones. Make a day of it by bundling in a leisurely soak with their Hot Springs and Deluxe High Tea Package.

15. Searoad Ferries

For a tea break with a difference, hop aboard a Searoad Ferries vessel on Sunday afternoons for High Tea on the High Seas. Over the leisurely two-hour return journey between Sorrento and Queenscliff, a spread made up of produce from the Mornington and Bellarine peninsulas will be served to you on deck alongside a cuppa or glass of sparkling.