Adelaide - plus Glenelg, wine tasting in the Barossa Valley & Aussie Rules Football

We spent 5 nights and four days in Adelaide area.   Adelaide is the largest city in the Australian state of South Australia and the fifth largest in the country with just under 1.5 million residents.  Adelaide is near the coast and also near three wine regions, the Barossa Valley, the McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills area.  Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and very warm and dry summers, with some summer days into the low and mid-40s (Celsius).   The nearly 20miles of sandy coastline near Adelaide has some beautiful beach areas.  

Adelaide has a different history than Sydney or Melbourne in that it is the only freely settled British province of Australia, in other words, not a convict settlement.   Adelaide is also a planned city, built in a clear grid pattern, which makes it easy to navigate.  The central business area has some beautiful historic buildings, a nearby botanical garden and zoo, is completely surrounded on all sides by the “Adelaide Park Lands”, a huge park of 760,000m2 that encases the business district.    The central business district also has a free tram system, a lively pedestrian retail street, a beautiful historic shopping arcade and a pleasant river area that runs by the football stadium and casino.   The tram system extends well outside Adelaide central area on a pay system.   

We stayed on the south side of the Park Lands, a short tram ride straight into the centre and also about a block from Unley Road, a busy road filled with shops and restaurants.  

During our four days in Adelaide we had a few things planned.   On day 1 we had an excursion planned to Glenelg, a beautiful beach town suburb of Adelaide.  We were meeting up with an awesome couple that are friends and fellow Newfoundlanders, who had given us a huge amount of information on Australia and New Zealand prior to our travels there based on their more than 10 visits to each.    They were spending 2 months in Glenelg, what a great way to pass your winter!   Day 1 in Glenelg we had a walk around the area of the beach and boardwalk around the marina, out to the beautiful pier and had a great fish and chips supper.   

On day 2 we met up again with our friends in central Adelaide and they guided us around the highlights of the central business district.  It was fantastic having their knowledge of the area.  We visited a wine history facility, the historic central train station, the botanical gardens, the state library and the Rundle Mall pedestrian street area.  

Day 3 we had a full day bus wine tour to the Barossa Valley wine area.  The tour was booked through Top Oz tours again and was from a company called “Taste the Barossa.”  We were picked up at a hotel about a 15min walk from our vrbo accommodation at about 9:00am.   The drive to the wine area is in the order of an hour. The tour had a couple of stops beside the three wineries we visited.   We stopped in the quaint town of Tanunda to have a morning snack and coffee before the wine tasting started.  We also stopped at the whispering wall dam.  This is a curved dam where you can stand at one end of the dam and hear people whispering 140m away at the other end.  The winery stops were at the Rosenvale Vineyards, a wine tasting and lunch at Saltram Wines and a tasting session at Chateau Yaldara.  The tour was on a mid sized bus with about 14 people plus the bus driver/tour guide.  The driver was great, he provided commentary along the way giving a history of Adelaide and general area as well as of each vineyard we visited.   

The tour dropped us back in the city at about 6pm and we capped off the day with a great meal at a recently opened Indian restaurant called Gem Kohinoor, which was only about a 5min walk from where we were staying.   

On our last day in Adelaide we went to the South Australia Museum and then we went to the Footie Festival !  “Footie” is the nickname for Australian Rules Football, a game that is hugely popular in the country.  It is something akin to a combination of rugby, soccer and American football.   It is played on a large oval shaped field.  See another page in our blog for our experience at the Footie Festival and attending an Aussie Rules Football game at the Adelaide Oval with about 50,000 people!

Below are some pictures from our days in Adelaide: