Adelaide is the most liveable city in Australia according to people who live there, and also according to several international liveability indices, which makes it harder to dismiss as bias. The streets are wide, the food is excellent, the beaches are 20 minutes from the city centre, and the whole thing moves at a pace that makes Sydney feel exhausting by comparison. Things to do in Adelaide? SO many. Starting here.
Things to Do in Adelaide City
Adelaide Central Market has been running since 1869 and is one of the best fresh produce and food markets in Australia. Over 80 stalls covering everything from local cheese and smallgoods to fresh seafood to the kind of bakery that's been run by the same family for three generations. Go on a weekday morning when the stallholders are in a good mood and the produce is freshest. It's worth at least a couple of hours and you will absolutely buy things you didn't plan to buy.
The Adelaide Oval is one of the most beautiful sports grounds in the world and that's not hyperbole. It sits on the edge of the Torrens River with the city behind it, has a roof climb similar to the Sydney BridgeClimb, and hosts AFL footy in winter and cricket in summer. If there's a game on while you're there, go. The atmosphere is excellent and the ground itself is worth seeing from the inside.
Glenelg Beach is 20 minutes from the city centre by tram (the tram is free within the CBD, which is a very Adelaide thing) and is the main beach suburb. Good beach, good cafes, and dolphin swimming tours that leave from the jetty. Wild dolphins in the Gulf St Vincent come close to shore regularly and the boat-based dolphin encounters here are some of the most reliable in South Australia.
Hahndorf is a German village in the Adelaide Hills 30 minutes from the city and is exactly as charming as that description suggests. It was settled by Lutheran immigrants in 1839 and the main street still has the original character, good German food, local wine and produce, and craft shops that are better than the average tourist town equivalent. Good half day from Adelaide.
North Terrace is Adelaide's cultural boulevard and has the Art Gallery of South Australia (free entry to the permanent collection), the South Australian Museum, the Migration Museum, and the State Library all within a few hundred metres of each other. Free afternoon sorted.
Rundle Street and Hutt Street are the two main eating and drinking strips in the city and both are worth exploring. Adelaide has more restaurants and cafes per capita than any other Australian city, which sounds like a statistic people make up and is actually true. The food in this city is genuinely that good and genuinely that serious about itself.
Adelaide as the Gateway to Bigger Things
Spend time in the city properly and then start working outward. The Barossa Valley is an hour north and is world-class wine country. Kangaroo Island is a ferry ride off the coast with more wildlife than you'll know what to do with. Port Lincoln is where you get in a cage with great white sharks. And Adelaide to Uluru overland tours leave from here into the outback. Adelaide punches SO far above its weight as a base for day trips and multi-day adventures that it deserves way more credit than it gets.
Back to the Adelaide & Surrounds hub for the full picture.
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