Mirador SpringsRetreat

Fifteen acres of botanical garden laid out by local artist Reg Fazzini from the early 1970s, once part of Victoria's Open Garden Scheme, with an adults-only retreat now built into it — high on the Strzelecki Ranges above Trafalgar South, looking across to Mt Baw Baw. You book one of two glamping tents, each with its own private bath house, or the self-contained cottage. Between them sit tiered lawns, winding paths, a natural spring, an orchard, a heated pool and a swimming pond with a rowboat. Ninety minutes east of Melbourne, and free to roam apart from the owners' own house. The resident miniature donkeys are, by every account, the comedians of the property.