Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia. It is clean and quiet. Many people may think that there is not much Adelaide can provide to tourists. In our recent visit to Adelaide, we enjoyed very much. Here are the places we visited and things we did.
Pre-trip preparation
In order to make sure we can enjoy the most of out of our Adelaide trip, we booked a car to be picked-up at Adelaide airport upon arrival. We booked earlier and managed to get an early bird discount. After discount, the car rental only cost about AUD 170 for 5 days. Our suggestion is, try to book your car as early as you can in order to enjoy the early bird discount. You can cancel the booking at no cost if you change your mind later.
We searched for cheap SIM cards online before our trip, but all seems to be expensive. So we decided to get SIM cards only when we reached Adelaide airport. At last, we get ourselves Telstra pre-paid cards, which is $10 for 7 days. Although it only comes with 2GB of data, that is enough for us. On the road, we use in-car navigation to reduce network usage. At night, we use free WiFi provided by the hotel. The problem with this SIM card is that you need to activate it online. So you need Internet access. Therefore, we had to activate it first while we still in airport as Adelaide airport provides free WiFi.
Places to visit
Below we summarise the places we visited by region.
Adelaide city
We tried once to park our car in city car park. We found that it is too expensive. So most of the times we took free bus to city (we stayed in North Adelaide, and the hotel is not far from free bus line). Luckily Adelaide city is not big. Most places we want to go are either within walking distance or covered by free city bus / trams.
In Adelaide city, we walked along Rundle Mall. We also visited The University of Adelaide and Art Gallery of South Australia on North Terrace. The admission to The Art Gallery of South Australia is free. You could also register for their free guided tour. The tour only last for 1 hour, but the tour guides are professional.
Next we went to central market and Chinatown (which is just next to central market). From central market you can get some good local food, vegetables, and fruits. There were not many people at the time we went, so we enjoyed the walk very much.
If you want a short escape from buildings, try the Adelaide Botanic Garden. If you don’t want to drive, you can walk to the garden from North Terrace.
Glenelg
Glenelg is a beach-side suburb which is just about 20 mins drive from Adelaide city. Although it is not as famous as other beaches in Australia, at Glenelg you can enjoy one of the top ten sunsets in Australia. At night you can walk along Jetty Road in Glenelg. Fun fact: “Glenelg” is also spelled as “Glenelg” in reverse.
Victor Harbour
Victor Harbour is just 1 hour drive from Adelaide city. In Victor Harbour, you could first visit the South Australian Whale Centre. Then you can walk around Granite island. There is a causeway connecting Victor Harbour and Granite island. You can either walk on the causeway or try the horse drawn tram to go to Granite island.
In our recent visit (which is in winter), we joined the big duck boat tour. We booked the Southern Ocean Adventure which lasts for 90 mins. This tour runs once on weekdays and twice on weekends. In the tour, we managed to spot one whale “waving” at us although it was a bit far from us. It was on a raining day so we all got very wet. LoL. We highly recommend you not to miss the tour if during whale season, and book online before your trip to Victor Harbour.
Adelaide Hills
There are multiple places you can go around Adelaide Hills. Our first stop was Mount Lofty. It is located 30 mins (driving) from Adelaide city. On Mount Lofty, you can have a complete view of Adelaide city. However, the place can be windy. Fun to try: see if you can spot the koala living on one of the trees at the entrance to Mount Lofty Summit.
After Mount Lofty Summit, we had a short stopover at botanic garden. The botanic garden is quite big. We did not manage to walk the whole area. But we definitely like the feeling to be surrounded by trees and flowers.
Our third stop was Hahndorf, a small german town which is just 15 mins drive from Mount Lofty. We enjoyed the stroll along the main street. According to some websites, it is recommended to go Hahndorf on weekdays as weekends may be crowded.
There are two places in Adelaide Hills we missed this time: Cleland Wildlife Park and Waterfall Gully. May be we will try next time.
Barossa Valley
If you love wines, you should not miss Barossa Valley. Our first stop was Barossa Farmers Market (Angaston Rd & Stockwell Rd, Angaston SA 5353). It opens from 7am to 11:30am but only on Saturdays. We had a lovely breakfast in the market.
Our next stop was supposed to be Barossa Valley Cheese Company (67B Murray St, Angaston SA 5353) which is only 2km from farmers market. Don’t know why, we missed this stop even though we had put it on our list. Well, may be next time.
So, our (real) second stop was Barossa Valley Sculpture Park. At the park, you can have a view of Barossa Valley from higher viewpoint. The sculptures are also interesting. You can definitely take some good photos in the park.
Our third stop is Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop. In there, you enjoy wine tasting and may be settle your lunch there. They sell wines, jams, oils, dressings, and others. The outdoor area is also big enough to walk around. No doubt that there are other places in Barossa Valley where you can shop for good wines. You could try to join some local wine tasting tours if you like.
Our last stop was The Whispering Wall. The Whispering Wall is a dam built between 1899 and 1903. The acoustic effect is fantastic: you can stand at one end of the dam and whisper, your friend at the other end can hear you clearly. My wife whispered, “I love you.” And I whispered back, “I love you 3000.” *LoL*
Other things you could try in Barossa Valley include, but not limited to, hot air balloon and Segway. Check this out for other activities.
Other things to do
Lake Bumbunga, Clare VAlley
Bumbunga lake is about 1.5 hours drive from Adelaide. It is a pink lake. We always want to see a pink lake. But some pink lakes in Australia are not pink anymore. Is Bumbunga lake still pink? We will find out next time.
Royal Adelaide Show
This is annual event that you should not miss. Get yourself a ticket, and you can just spend your whole day in the show. It is suitable for people of all age.
Barossa Medieval Fair
We only get to know this when we were on our way back to Adelaide from Barossa Valley. When we drove pass Tanunda, we was a guy wore like a knight and walked on the street, then only we got to know about the Barossa Medieval Fair Thanks to “the knight”, we did not miss it. We decided to have a short stop-over. It was fun.
Harbour town
If you want to shop, then other than Rundle Mall, you could try Harbour town. Harbour town is just next to Adelaide airport. The outlets in Habour town provide good discounts. Before starting your shopping, you can first go to the guest lounge and get yourself a tourist discount card. You may get further discount on certain items with that card.
Single Dimple's Diary / Reading Log 