Arriving to the city in the late afternoon, my friends and I decided to make the most of the perfect summer weather and head straight for the beach.
Street art in Glenelg
The next closest Australian city to Perth (yet still a three hour plane ride away), Adelaide was a short getaway for us and it was lovely to travel with some friends from home, as my last few trips were all solo.
Staying at the Mantra on Frome, we shared a 2 bedroom apartment and the location was central and convenient. Our receptionist advised taking the tram to Glenelg, the beach area, with the line ending right at the ocean – super easy!
We had a fresh Vietnamese dinner at one of the restaurants here and then enjoyed some dessert with a fabulous sunset. The beach itself wasn’t too busy and we had a quick swim before we ate.
With only a few days in the Adelaide area (one of which was spent on Kangaroo Island), we didn’t see a huge amount of the city. One day is enough in my opinion to take in most of what there is to see in the CBD.
River Torrens, near the city centre
Rundle Mall is worth a look at if you want to do some shopping, it was apparently the first outdoor mall of its kind in all of Australia. Today, you’ll find all the Aussie major brands here and a few food courts feeding off of it too that are good for a bite to eat if you’re on the go.
We stopped into the Central Market for breakfast and really enjoyed Zed’s, their hollandaise was one of the best I’ve ever had and the biscotti was delicious too!
I have some friends I met from a group tour in the UK who live in Adelaide and caught up with them one night. I was hoping to try a hidden bar in the CBD but since it was closed we met at the Crab Shack – right across from our hotel and a popular choice for a younger crowd.
Decorated like beach shacks mean you can just hang outside for a chat or you can head inside for a dance, it was a huge venue and a cool place!
East End Yiros was also near our accommodation and not too far from the CBD and is definitely a recommendation for a seriously good feed.
Yiros/gyros are everywhere around Adelaide. Greece flashbacks!
While we had a couple days around the city, we decided to spend a day doing a tour of the Barossa Valley – one of Australia’s most well known areas for wine.
Booking through a company called Des’ Minibus, we chose the Boutique Wine Tour which ran all day and only had the five of us booked on to it so we had a private tour basically!
Schild Estate, even matched chocolates to our wine
The area is famous for shiraz/red wine varieties and we stopped into some lovely small wineries my favourite being Torbrek Vintners, in addition to the famous Penfolds estate.
I’m not going to lie, after four wineries with tasting lists like the one below, I was wined out but overall the day was wonderful and the scenery was lovely.
Moorooroo Park Vineyard had a beautiful garden area which backed onto Jacob’s Creek, making for a serene place to simply wander around after tastings.
Rarely travelling domestically in Australia, due mostly to the cost over the equally close to travel to continent of Asia, I found Adelaide certainly made a nice trip for a few days!
