We spent a few months waiting for approvals to fix our boat, so we used that time to visit places we wouldn’t take the boat. After flying to Melbourne and driving the Great Ocean Road trip, we crossed into South Australia. During a week in South Australia we stopped in Adelaide, its adjacent wine regions, and found some other gems.
Travelling Around Australia
One thing we’ve noticed is travelling around Australia is easy. Flying in Australia is much less of an ordeal than back in North America. It may not be cheap, but flights are priced better than in Canada.
Flights are usually on time, and you don’t even need ID to get into the airport or on board. Plus, people are respectful when boarding planes. We’ve flown several times within the country and have yet to see passengers try to board outside of their group. It’s a nice place to travel by plane.
Driving in Australia is pretty good too. We rarely experience traffic, and the main roads are in great condition. It’s no wonder so many people get campervans or caravans and hit the road in this country. Driving is fun because the views can be really nice and there’s usually animals to see. On this trip, we saw lots of sheep, kangaroos, and even some alpaca. We also saw a lot of dead roos on the side of the road, and tried to avoid driving at dawn, dusk, and after dark, always a concern in Australia.
About South Australia (SA)
SA covers almost a million square kilometers and is the 4th largest state in Australia. It’s located in the southern central part of the country, west of Victoria, east of Western Australia, and south of the Northern Territory. The bottom of the state is bordered by the Southern Ocean.
South Australia is known for its wine regions like Barossa and McLaren Vale, as well as its capital city, Adelaide. We enjoyed exploring these and other places during a week in South Australia.
For our time in South Australia, we had a rental car and booked accommodations for minimum two nights where we stopped. With all the driving, we wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves too.
As I mentioned, South Australia covers over a million kilometers. We would need many months to explore that much area. In our short visit, we stopped in rural towns and saw a tiny portion of the southeastern corner of the state, driving through vineyards and rural fields. We passed farms and farm animals and met friendly laid-back Aussies.
Here’s a link to a map of some of our highlights of a week in South Australia.
Mount Gambier
Our first stop in South Australia was Mount Gambier, and what a great introduction. A relaxed mountain town of about 25,000 people, we would have liked to linger longer than the few hours we had there. It felt like a place for mountain biking and hiking, with lots of parks, cool breweries and natural sights.
Our top places to visit in Mount Gambier included Blue Lake and Umpherston Sinkhole.
Blue Lake is a volcanic crater lake that changes color throughout the year. Apparently, in summer the lake is turquoise like the Caribbean. When we visited, in autumn, we saw a deep blue color darker than the sky.
The Umpherston Sinkhole is very popular because it is exceptional. It’s a beautifully landscaped garden in a sinkhole. You can walk down stairs into this hole to find yourself surrounded by greenery. This lush garden is filled with trees, plants, and flowers. It even features vines covering the walls.
Both places in Mount Gambier are free to enter and are worth a visit if you’re spending any time in this part of South Australia.
Coonawarra
We hadn’t heard of Coonawarra but its location between Mount Gambier and Adelaide makes it a great stopover on a road trip. An up-and-coming Australian wine region known for cabernet sauvignon, it’s less famous and ostensibly less busy than many others. We visited on ANZAC weekend and found many restaurants booked on Saturday afternoon. We survived! The wineries were top quality and it’s a beautiful area.
We spent two nights at a cute self-catering cottage, which came with bicycles we used to visit wineries explore the outdoors. It was relaxing and fun and we saw lots of sheep and sampled delicious wine.
Adelaide
We loved little Adelaide for its food and culture. Much smaller than Sydney or even Brisbane, it’s population is 1.4 million and is known as the 20 minute city for how easy it is to get around. It’s also a vibrant city with lots of street art, museums, and excellent restaurants.
We walked everywhere in Adelaide, which had nice pedestrian shopping zones and parks. Food choices were very good, we ate at some good restaurants, and even the pubs serve excellent food and wines.
Our timing was good as we enjoyed the last day of the Chihuly displays at the Botanic Garden.
The garden is also home to a flying fox camp, similar to the one in Port Macquarie.
Just to the east of the city are beautiful beach towns with walking and cycling paths, which we drove through on our way to the airport.
If you can’t tell, we would have preferred to spend more than a week in South Australia. For sure we would have lingered longer than two days in Adelaide, enjoying the street life, food, and culture. The walkable city has cute shops, a cafe culture, and world class street art by artists we recognized from before, including Tahiti.
The Barossa
which wine region to visit
When we planned a week in South Australia, we had to choose which Adelaide wine region to visit. This is a difficult decision because there are several and of course you want to visit them all. Many people recommended McLaren Vale, because of the quality of the wines and its proximity to the sea. For us, visiting somewhere because it’s near the ocean isn’t a selling point as we are usually on the ocean. Instead, we opted for Barossa and weren’t sorry.
About barossa valley
The Barossa Valley region is northeast of Adelaide. It took us less than 90 minutes to drive there, with some scenic stops on the way. The region encompasses a few towns. We stayed two nights in a tiny house on a campgrounds in Nuriootpa. It was accessible to vineyards, coffee shops, and a bike rental place so we could cycle some of the Barossa Trail.
After visiting many wine regions in New Zealand and Niagara Canada, Barossa was a nice change. For a high end wine region of Australia, it is still Australia and I mean that in the best way. None of the wineries were stuffy, they were relaxed and fun. We have been turned away by big corporate “reservation required” for wine tastings and prefer the spontaneity.
Visiting Barossa was much like the rest of a week in South Australia: seeing sheep, stopping at vineyards for tastings, and choosing from good restaurants and coffee shops. We also saw palm trees scenery reminiscent of Los Angeles. It was a highlight among many in Australia.
What is your favorite thing about South Australia or Australia? Share in the comments. And thanks for reading about how we spent a week in South Australia.
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For sure Adelaide will be added to our bucket list. But if we spend the same amount of time in breweries, vineyards and pubs (or taverns, as the Aussies tend tocall them) like you, we have to add at least 1 months to our travel plans 😂😂
I think you need to be more efficient with your time, Kobi! One drink in each pub is enough hahaha.