Our managing director and frequent traveller, Melissa, shares her Bucket List experience of being courtside at AO24...

For me this has always been on my bucket list of must dos. Being a keen tennis player and always watching the grand slams around the world I finally decided I needed to get to the Aussie Open before some of the great players retired - Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and so many more.

I decided to watch the first week of the tennis rather than the last week, there is no right or wrong but more tennis is played in the first week and often you get to see more players in the first few rounds. So my decision was based around that.

We decided to have 5 Nights in Melbourne and really wanted to choose a hotel with-in walking distance of the tennis especially those late night games that often go into the small hours of the morning. Melbourne is a very efficient city around this time of the year, trams are running every few minutes to Flinders station so it’s very accessible from all over the city.

We decided to pre-purchase 2 Night games to Rod Laver arena as part of our package and we choose seats in the lower section, which I highly recommend, close to the court amazing visibility, fresh air if the roof is open, this is so important as the temperatures can be extreme.

We wanted to wait until we were in Melbourne to purchase the ground passes as we weren’t sure what games were being played in what arena during the days, this way we could pick and choose based on the players schedule.

This worked so well for us as on the days we wanted to see some of our favourite players we could then go on to the very easy to use AO tennis ap and schedule in what and where we wanted to be the next day.

If anyone is thinking of going to the tennis I highly recommend don’t wait just book it, it’s incredible and I would love to share my tips and tricks with you. Also some fantastic dining options around the city that you must experience also. Melbourne comes alive over these weeks and the vibe and buzz around the city is exhilarating.

The tennis package for 2025 will be released mid-year and this is a great time to think about booking in so you don’t miss out.

The feeling I felt walking into Road Lava arena to watch Novak Djokovic for the first time was such an incredible rush of excitement and very emotional, breathtaking.

I loved every minute of this experience.