The Sovereign Hill VIP Gold Pass is fantastic value and gives you an extra special experience of Sovereign Hill.

When:  10.00 am to 5.00 pm every day except Christmas Day.  (During daylight saving, Sovereign Hill is open until 5.30 pm)

Where:  Bradshaw Street BALLARAT

Cost:  VIP Gold Pass for a family (2 adults, 4 children) is $240 (includes value of $515+).  For more information click here.  Also – limited VIP Gold Passes available so if you don’t want to miss out do book ahead.

As you may know, Sovereign Hill is one of Australia’s iconic tourist attractions, and it offers a unique insight into life in an 1850s gold mining town by re-creating Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851 when thousands of international adventurers rushed to the Australian goldfields in search of fortune.

Set on 25 acres of an original mining site, Sovereign Hill has an array of shops, hotels, a theatre, schools, factories, gold diggings and underground gold mines to explore. It’s just like stepping back in time – from the hustle and bustle of Main Street where costumed ladies and gents parade their new-found wealth, to the excitement of the Red Hill Gully Diggings where you can pan for real gold to keep.

At the end of 2015, Sovereign Hill launched a new VIP Gold Pass. The revamped VIP Gold Pass has been developed to provide visitors with greater value, and to provide a complete Sovereign Hill experience. Priced at $240 for a Family of 2 adults and up to four children, the pass includes:

– Entry to Sovereign Hill and the Gold Museum
– Unlimited coach rides (with priority queuing)
– A Labyrinth of Gold mine tour
– Devonshire tea
– An express digital Costume photo experience (just a heads-and-shoulders costume shot).
– A Touch of Gold experience (touch the $150,000 gold bar at the Gold Pour)
– 1 return pass valid for 12 months.  (which means with this pass you can visit up to four times, given each of the two visits qualifies for the next day return FREE)

Our most recent visits to Sovereign Hill have been made as part of the Christmas in winter celebrations – and so it was a nice change to be visiting in summer.  The kids have their favourite spots to revisit (I am seriously considering setting up a market stall to sell our lumpy candle collection!!).  And we must’ve done the mine tour four times in as many years, yet it never gets old (I think I am slowly becoming a bit of a mine expert in the process).  We love strolling the streets and meeting the “locals” as well as popping into the shops and blacksmiths to check out the wares (if you need a poker for your fireplace make sure you check out the blacksmith).

The gold pour is always exciting – and the crowd never fails to gasp at the sheer beauty and incredible properties of the gold as it turns from molten metal to a hard bar within moments.  The added bonus as a VIP Gold Pass holder was that at the end of the gold pour we were invited to come and hold the bullion – and I think Charlie had a touch of gold fever.

When I was a child Sovereign Hill was an annual excursion for our family – and I love that my kids now share the joy of stepping back in time and exploring this quaint little town.  Learning about and appreciating a time in our not so distant past and one that my family was part of a few generations ago.

As part of the VIP Gold Pass we had a costume photo taken – and my slightly startled expression is not dissimilar to the one my grandmother wore whenever she was photographed, which is a little spooky.  And that death stare Charlie’s giving is 100% genuine, he did not want to be in that photo.

This time we packed a picnic (knowing we had a Devonshire Tea to look forward to) and found a lovely spot under the shade of a tree – there are plenty of picnic tables in different corners of Sovereign Hill.

As always with your entrance ticket into Sovereign Hill, as you leave you can have it stamped which enables you to return the following day for free – and given there is so much to see this is actually a wonderful thing if you’re staying over in Ballarat.  You’d be shocked to hear that we still haven’t seen everything – mostly because we are creatures of habit and love returning to all the things we love, meaning we continually run out of time to make it to everything!  Plus on this occasion we had priority queing for unlimited coach rides with our VIP Pass – the kids were keen to get a few rides in.

But the cool thing about the VIP Gold Pass is that we have a return ticket to use anytime in the next 12 months – so the perfect excuse to return for Christmas in winter I say!

Thank you Sovereign Hill for having us to visit – for families who plan to visit more than once a year then this offers fantastic value and a little extra that is sure to delight.