The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, usually held on the final Saturday in September or the first Saturday in October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The sport may be incomprehensible to outsiders, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid being swept up in the fever of this hallowed event.

The first of the four tennis Grand Slam events of the year, the Australian Open kicks off the season in high style. Founded in 1905 and held during two weeks of January each year, tennis superstars volley and lob to claim the first Grand Slam title of the season.

The Rod Laver Arena is the main venue for the open, but it's also a multipurpose arena (located within Melbourne Park).

Eureka Tower is a 975 foot-tall gold-plated skyscraper by the Yarra River. On the 88th floor, the Eureka Skydeck, the highest public observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere, offers dizzying views of the city and its neighborhoods. Daredevils will enjoy the Edge Experience, a glass-floored box that suspends visitors over 980 feet above the city.

Situated on the fringes of the city center, these 150-year-old-plus gardens feature gorgeous indigenous specimens, such as flame trees, Moreton Bay figs and spotted gums. Visitors can also spy a number of curiosities, like explorer Captain James Cook’s cottage (shipped over from England in 1934) and the Fairies Tree, the stump of a 300-year-old red gum in which whimsical pictures are carved.

One gallery worth getting out of town for is Heide, the former home of art patrons John and Sunday Reed, who helped nurture the careers of Australian artists, such as Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan. Having outgrown their original space, a new “gallery to be lived in” was commissioned in 1964—the modernist structure is a pristine example of midcentury design, and the changing exhibitions offer unique insight into a significant period in Australian art. The beautiful grounds play host to sculpture exhibitions.

Launched in 1987 by Barry Humphries (of Dame Edna fame) and Peter Cook, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival hosts local and international comedy stars at venues throughout the city. One of the three largest comedy festivals in the world (the other two being Edinburgh’s Fringe and Montreal’s Just for Laughs), the festival basically takes over the city for several weeks in March and April with a large program of stand-up, cabaret, theatre, street performance and visual arts.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, which occupy more than 93 acres, are renowned for both their beauty and their scientific significance. More than 50,000 plants representing over 10,000 different species are on display along dozens of paths that wind around ornamental lakes and shady forest.

The Spring Racing Carnival is Melbourne’s biggest horse racing event, taking place from September through November when it reaches its peak with the running of the famous Melbourne Cup. During the carnival, the city is bursting with energy, not to mention colorful flowers, silks and ladies in fascinators.