5 Reasons Why You Should Visit Adelaide
- We have some of the best wines in the whole world
- What makes Adelaide wines great?
- How many wineries are there in Adelaide?
- Where should I go in Adelaide for wines?
- Barossa Valley
- McLaren Vale
- Adelaide Hills
- Clare Valley
- Coonawarra
- Adelaide’s sports culture is alive and exciting
- What happens during the Adelaide Cup?
- What makes the Adelaide Oval a popular destination?
- We have some of Australia’s most iconic critters
- What are Adelaide’s most iconic animals?
- Which animals can I see in the Adelaide Zoo?
- Which animals can I see in the Cleland Wildlife Park?
- Our beaches are very picturesque!
- Henley Beach
- Glenelg Beach
- Semaphore Beach
- Our festivals are amazing
- Fringe Festival
- Tasting Australia
- Adelaide Film Festival
Sweet sunny Adelaide is a city of wonders, and we’re proud of everything it offers. If you’re looking for a splendid trip down south, how about spending it in Adelaide?
We’ve got everything from sprawling gardens to delectable wines! We balance posh and suburban offerings all within 20 minutes of transportation.
Here, we’ll guide you through the best of what Adelaide has to offer. After all, if there’s anything we Adelaideans love to do, it’s to remind everyone of why we’re one of the best tourist spots in the world!
We have some of the best wines in the whole world
You should definitely visit Adelaide because we have some of the best wines in the world. In fact, one of our local wineries, Taylors Wine, had their bottle of Shiraz named the best in the world in 2020.
What makes Adelaide wines great?
Adelaide has such great wines because of its climate perfect for winemaking, especially in the hill regions. We enjoy reds, whites, and sparklings on the regular, thanks to the highly dedicated work of our local makers.
How many wineries are there in Adelaide?
The city is home to more than 150 wineries placed in picturesque locations. These are complemented by the historic architecture, perfect for any Instagram feed!
Visiting the wineries is best done through a tour, where you’ll join fellow tourists in tasting sessions and meetings with the locals. Try some of our tasty coffin bay king oysters and white fish with your drink!
Where should I go in Adelaide for wines?
The best wineries in Adelaide include Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, Clare Valley, and Coonawarra.
Barossa Valley
With a fifty-minute drive from Adelaide, we were able to tour the city’s oldest wineries in Nuriootpa, Angastons, and Tanunda.
We felt relaxed in no time as we felt the cool breeze of the town, and then we took the relaxation up a notch as we had our first bottle of chardonnay!
The wines here are earthy and vintage. We suggest trying their riesling, sauvignon, and grenache because of their bold flavors.
McLaren Vale
McLaren Vale is a chic and luxurious destination for wine lovers! It’s a great reflection of Adelaide’s diverse cuisine—with the best Spanish and Italian restaurants in the area.
There are over 80 cellar doors here, some of which feature award-winning bottles of Shiraz, red wine, and grenache. We got stunning views of the coastline and beaches nearby, giving us a little bit of everything Adelaide offers.
Adelaide Hills
If you want to go somewhere near the city, Adelaide Hills is a great destination, as it’s just 15 minutes away. The best drinks we had here are the cool-climate grown ones like chardonnay and sparklings, which are perfect for casual wine drinkers.
It’s also the spot for annual Adelaide Festivals, such as Sparkling Springs, Chardonnay May, and Winter Reds. Because this area holds many festivals throughout the year, we always visit it when we have the chance!
Clare Valley
Clare Valley is the best place for white wine enthusiasts. To enjoy the scenery and not just its wines, we followed the Riesling Trail, where we saw historic buildings and cellar doors.
Those not fond of getting sweaty are recommended to try having a posh glamping experience at Bukirk. We were amazed at the view of sunsets and nights here, especially as we sipped glasses of the sweet local wine.
Coonawarra
Our red wine centre is the Coonawarra region, the Bindjali Aboriginal term for “wild honeysuckle.” While small, the city’s local bottles pack a strong yet flavorful taste that is perfect for eating with one of our best offerings, the steamed barramundi with lime.
One of the best events here is the Coonawarra Vintage Launch which includes a grape stomp and bottle smash to welcome the harvest season. The locals here were all smiles when we got there, which made them amazing drinking buddies too!
Adelaide’s sports culture is alive and exciting
Adelaide is worth visiting for sports fans because of our sports culture, including football, motorsports, cricket, soccer, and more! We Adelaideans especially take pride in being the home of the Adelaide Cup of the South Australian Jockey Club.
We also have one of the best spots for viewing sports games: the Adelaide Oval. Made with state-of-the-art architecture and capacity (more than 50,000!), every game in the Oval is always exciting!
What happens during the Adelaide Cup?
Adelaide Cup is an annual handicap horse race held at the 3,200-meter-long Morphettville Racecourse. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the continent visit to watch and bet yearly.
Fun fact: The Adelaide Cup is a holiday! Chug your heart out as you watch the race unfold in front of you during this energetic celebration!
Looking for more sports? There’s always the Adelaide Oval to visit, where you can watch spectacular games on the regular.
What makes the Adelaide Oval a popular destination?
Adelaide Oval is at the city’s heart, housing up to 53,000 spectators for every show. It has witnessed many cheers, smiles, and tears from energetic football and cricket watchers.
Just because there’s no game doesn’t mean it’s not alive! After all, there’s a golf course, a scenic rooftop you can climb, and plenty of restaurants to visit!
We have some of Australia’s most iconic critters
One of the best reasons for visiting Adelaide is that it’s a great place to interact with kangaroos and koalas up-close. They’re practically the mascots of Australia at this point, and interacting with one should definitely be a part of a trip here!
What are Adelaide’s most iconic animals?
Adelaide’s animals belong on a broad spectrum, from cute to exotic to ferocious! The best animals to see in Adelaide include
- Dolphins – You can find more than 400 dolphins playing in the 10,000-year-old mangrove forest of the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary. Intelligent, energetic, and playful, they’re a joy to watch with the whole family!
- Koalas – With their cute and cuddly appearance and their diet revolving around Eucalyptus leaves, koalas are very popular!
When you see one awake, please take the opportunity to interact with them, as they sleep for almost 20 hours a day!
- Kangaroos – These muscular marsupials are a mascot for all Aussie travel posters, and who can blame them? With their pouches and their giant hops, they’re always a fascinating sight.
- Wombats – The idea that wombats resemble small bears is enough to encourage anyone to see them. Plus, it gets better: they always smile too!
- Dingoes – These native dogs have slick and prominent yellow fur that makes them instantly recognizable. They’re one of the top predators in Australia, and watching one running at full speed is always an incredible sight for us!
The best places to visit to see Adelaide’s different animals are the Adelaide Zoo and the Cleland Wildlife Park.
Which animals can I see in the Adelaide Zoo?
Adelaide Zoo features over 2,500 animals, including some of our favorites: lemurs, koalas, kangaroos, hippos, and more!
The best part? They’re the only place in all of Australia with pandas!
Cutely named Wang Wang and Fu Ni, the duo came from the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in China. We saw the two having a great time munching on apples and pears, sleeping half of the day, and occasionally posing idly for us to take pictures.
Our favorite season in the Adelaide Zoo is Christmas when zookeepers provide animal food and gifts. These include balls of meat for lions and sweet cakes for pandas!
Which animals can I see in the Cleland Wildlife Park?
Cleland Wildlife Park is home to many marsupials, exotic birds, dingoes, and wetland animals. We like how the park is divided into sections mimicking these animals’ natural habitat, which makes the experience more immersive for us.
Cleland Wildlife Park is the more adventurous zoo in Adelaide. In fact, we found the trip upwards Mount Lofty an adventure in itself!
For the brave young’uns, buy animal food by the park’s entrance so that you can feed the kangaroos and wallabies up close. They’re very comfortable with humans, and our galleries were filled with selfies with them.
Our beaches are very picturesque!
Another great reason to visit Adelaide is that our beaches can be visited within a 15-minute drive from the CBD. Having a dip after a long day of work is effortless!
Our sunny beaches include Henley, Glenelg, and Semaphore. Each of them has defining traits that suit different tastes and personalities.
Henley Beach
Henley Beach has one of the most beautiful coastlines we’ve seen! It’s a mellow mix of family-friendly restaurants, heritage buildings, and bustling crowds.
Before dipping into the waters, try the showers at the nearby Henley Square! Kids will especially love having a cone of ice cream after you swim to cool off.
Visiting here is a breeze because it’s highly accessible via public transport. There’s free parking and plenty of clean public toilets nearby too.
Adding to the fact that it’s highly accessible, you can visit it as part of the River Torrens Linear Park Trail. Whether by bike or foot, it’s easy to make it part of your Adelaide trip itinerary.
The waters are safe because the friendly neighborhood Henley Surf Life Saving Club guards it. Manned by volunteers from all over the city, the club is always ready to provide a helping hand.
It has one of the most scenic jetties we’ve seen, stretching 220 meters. The sunset view here is splendid, and its recent renovations have only made it prettier.
Glenelg Beach
Glenelg Beach is just 20 minutes away via tram! You can bring a bag of extra clothes, a towel, and some spare money, and you’re good!
The beach is famous because it’s where you can go on a dolphin cruise. We had lots of fun snorkeling along with these playful creatures whose smarts can be seen in how they interacted with us.
We especially love the adventurous Adelaide Ocean Safari. You’ll be thoroughly immersed in our local maritime history while seeing it firsthand.
Glenelg is also the home to the only bar on the beach in Australia, the Moseley Beach Club. The set-up is fabulously retro, and the sea view here is beautiful day and night.
Another thing we especially love about Glenelg Beach is that it’s filled with many cafes and restaurants. We highly recommend grabbing a bite or having an intimate dinner here.
Want some thrills by the beach? Ride one of the giant water slides in the Beachouse by Glenelg!
There are also many more thrilling amusement parks in Adelaide if you want an exciting experience.
Semaphore Beach
Semaphore Beach is a classic tourist destination beautifully accentuated by the Art Deco buildings on its boulevard. Here, preserved buildings from the 1920s, such as the Semaphore Palais, teleport us back to the grandeur of old Adelaide.
The history of the beach is also seen in its thrift shops, antique shops, and boutiques. It’s definitely an excellent place for an old soul!
The water itself is shallow and friendly for a simple dip. This, partnered with the pearly white sands, makes your trip worth it.
Another thing that Semaphore is known for is the lines of dunes leading to the beach. It’s especially ingrained in our minds after we took the Semaphore vintage train by the National Railway Museum.
Our festivals are amazing
Visit Adelaide to see our festivals because if there’s anything we always do right, it’s celebrating the arts! We’ve got everything from music, comedy, and cabaret shows!
Some of our most famous festivals include:
Fringe Festival
It’s hard for us to define our Fringe experience in just words; you’ll have to see it yourself! It’s colorful, funny, exciting, and more!
Here, we saw various talents like circus acts, comedy, theatre, and cabaret.
The art festival is the biggest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and welcomes more than 500,000 people annually. It’s held for 31 days from February to March.
We had fun watching plenty of shows, eating food from various cuisines, and interacting with people from all over the world. We hold the festival close to our hearts, hence its title, “The People’s Festival.”
Tasting Australia
If you’re already at the home of some of Australia’s best bottles, the 10-day Tasting Australia Festival is an excellent event to visit for you.
Here, local breweries and winemakers from all over Australia gather to celebrate their rich craft. In addition, we met some of the city’s best chefs and producers face-to-face here.
Even better is that you get to taste these wines along with the tastiest cuisines of the city. May it be with red, white, or sparkling wine, there’s always a dish you can partner with it.
Adelaide Film Festival
Film buffs and casual viewers unite in the biennial-held Adelaide Film Festival. We geeked out over the wide range of genres they show, some of which have won prestigious awards from the Emmys, Cannes, and Berlin Film Fest.
For 2023, the Adelaide Film Festival will be held from October 18 to 29. So remember to book your tickets!
If you can’t wait until the festival, then try watching at some of the best local movie theatres in Adelaide?
