The Dandenong Ranges offer a unique range of tourism experiences and offers quality accommodation just 45 minutes from central Melbourne. For over 100 years the Dandenong Ranges have been an idyllic retreat for Melburnians wanting to take the mountain air and escape the bustle of city life. Today visitors flock to the romantic hilltop villages for luxury hideaways, beautiful gardens, and magnificent tall forests and views. Visit Olinda and the National Rhododendron Gardens, home of 15,000 rhododendrons, 12,000 azaleas, 250,000 daffodils, native birds, and spectacular panoramic views of the Yarra Valley and distant ranges. Spend a relaxing afternoon browsing through the many art, antique and handicraft galleries and sampling a famous Dandenong Ranges Devonshire cream tea.Take a ride on Puffing Billy, Australia’s oldest steam railway, through thick forests, fern-filled gullies and past gorgeous villages with poetic names like Belgrave, Gembrook and Emerald. Home of spectacular tall forests, the Dandenong Ranges National Park is the perfect place to unwind and relax. Over 300 kilometres of walking tracks meander through lush gullies and misty mountain ash forests to magical places such as Sherbrooke Forest, Dongalla Homestead and the Thousand Steps. For those looking for a romantic getaway, choose from one of the many B&Bs hidden amongst the hills, garden-fringed guesthouses and self-contained cottages offering spa baths, open fires and panoramic views of city lights, and lush forests and valleys.The Dandenong Ranges are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consists mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathered valleys and gullies covered in thick temperate rainforest, predominantly consisting of tall Mountain Ash trees and dense ferny undergrowth. After European settlement in the region, the range was used as a main source of timber for Melbourne. The ranges were popular with day-trippers from the 1870s onwards. Much of the Dandenongs were protected by parklands as early as 1882 and by 1987 these parklands were amalgamated to form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, which was added to again in 1997. The range experiences light to moderate snow falls a few times most years, frequently between late winter and late spring. Today, the Dandenongs are popular amongst visitors, many of which stay for the weekend at the various Bed & Breakfasts through the region. The popular Puffing Billy Railway, a steam engine tourist railway, runs through the southern parts of the Dandenongs. You will find that Dandenong Ranges accommodation sets the bar for quality accommodation.