Welby Hotel Review | Melbourne Florida and things to do

Articles by guest author Peter Brooker

For our last night in Florida we took a trip down to Melbourne, and stayed at The Welby Hotel. It was a nice enough ride up from Stuart Town, especially if you take the Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway. We stopped off at the St Lucie Aquarium which was quaint. Five bucks to enter, free parking and we got to see a solitary Lionfish, made famous by the film Naked Gun and Moonraker.

From there we headed north again and stopped off at the Riverside Cafe just opposite Vero Beach. The buffet was fantastic, around $40 all you can eat and with a terrific view over the Indian River beneath the Merrill P Barber Bridge.

After a hearty lunch we ventured north again, and arrived at The Welby Hotel. There is free parking at the hotel which is a nice touch. It was May 4th and we had just missed out on a rooftop screening of Star Wars. But we would have breakfast up on the rooftop the morning after and the views are terrific. The food is also good.

We had dinner booked at the Chart House, which I'll touch upon in a bit. Before that we had time to nip across the road to the infamous Meg O’Malley's Restaurant & Irish Pub. Inside a gentleman called Michael reminisced about his first girlfriend and how flawless her breasts were.

After that marvelous and surreal anecdote, we said our farewells and ventured down to The Chart House. I recommend booking this restaurant if you're visiting. It's set in a very luxurious setting just off the harbour. We enjoyed two Pomegranate Martinis, a bottle of wine (can't remember the name) , some Lobster bisque and a seafood platter.

Afterwards we ventured to the auditorium to watch Adam Carolla do a stand up special.

Back at the hotel the next morning I asked the receptionist if I could take photos of the lobby for my blog, and she said so long as you don't get the logo, the staff or customers in shot. Which was next to impossible. And kinda unnecessary red tape I thought.

The room itself had terrible shower pressure, although we were on the 10th floor. Outside of that it was a very functional hotel. Slightly artsy, but nothing spectacular. The breakfast on the rooftop was decent enough and I guess the real perk was having the free parking onsite.