Glenelg Beach

Travel aboard a vintage tram from the Adelaide city centre to Glenelg, locally known as The Bay. Here you can walk along the jetty or promenade, swim at pretty Glenelg beach or just eat ice creams along the waterfront and admire the stunning sunsets at one of many alfresco cafes.
Day-trips from Adelaide to Glenelg are popular but to really get a feel for the place book some accommodation in this relaxed seaside town and stay a few days. There's plenty to occupy you. Visit the historic Bay Discovery Centre, Maritime Museum or the Marina with shopping and restaurants. Other activities include the Glenelg cinema, art gallery, fishing, golf, and scuba diving. Glenelg is a great place for holidays, a seaside beach suburb of Adelaide.

Outdoor Fun

Ride the tram from the city center to the seaside suburb of Glenelg with its wide, white, sandy beaches, grand old homes and many restaurants. Don’t miss Glenelg’s “all you can eat” seafood buffet where you can feast on all the delights of the ocean including oysters, sand crabs, lobster, quaffed down with an inexpensive but excellent Barossa Valley wine. The nearby eastern Adelaide Hills, also known as the Lofty Ranges, provides splendid views of the city and its parklands. Visit Cleveland Conservation Park, an open-range wildlife park near Mt Lofty or Warrawong Sanctuary, home to a large variety of platypus, kangaroos, wallaby and many other native animals.

Nightlife

After dark activities concentrate on Hindley Street and North Terrace, with a wide selection of clubs, pubs, cafes, restaurants and hotels. The Adelaide Casino offers full gaming facilities, nightly entertainment and an excellent restaurant that is surprisingly inexpensive for the quality of their fare. Adelaide prides itself on providing the good things in life - from the finest restaurants to the countries best wines. Vacation Australia recommends North Adelaide for authentic Italian bistros with indoor and outdoor dining areas. You may wish to sample local treats such as gum smoked kangaroo, tuna, salmon and other seafood in Gouger Street City.

Sports

Adelaide, like all other Australian towns and cities, has a very sports active community. Aussie Rules, cricket, tennis, squash, golf, soccer and the ever popular horse racing.

Adelaide Cricket Ground - See Aussie Rules and international cricket. Seasonal.
Memorial Drive - AATP Tennis Championship. Dec 30, Jan 5.
Adelaide City - Clipsall 500. Championship series for V8 supercars. 15 - 17 March.
Adelaide and country - Jacobs Creek international road cycling race. 21 - 26 Jan.
Morphetville - Adelaide Cup Festival. Horse racing. 5 - 21 May.
Oakbank Racing Carnival - a 6 mile horse race over the "jumps" conducted over the weekend as the world's biggest picnic racing event. March/April.
Adelaide city street - road racing/rally event for pre 1970 sports cars. 24 - 27 Oct.
Adelaide Eastern parks - International horse trails. Nov.

Golf & Wine

Kangaroo Kelly says, "In my mind, South Australia produces the best wines anywhere in the lands downunder." Most certainly, the Coonawarra reds are world award winners and the German settlement in the Barossa Valley produces very good whites and reds. There are four main wine producing regions: McLarenvale, Clare Valley, Barossa Valley and the Coonawarra vineyards located southeast at Penola near the Victorian border.

Wine Country

Tanunda, Eudunda, Kapunda, Nurioopta, and Angaston are the villages of today’s generation of once German refugees who settled the Barossa Valley over 100 years ago. You will find wineries such as Wolf Blass, TNT Tolleys, Seppelts and Orlando where the well known Jocobs Creek red is produced. Many buildings and shops reflect the European tradition of this region. Names such as Swartzchoff, Luckie and Schmidt are common in this beautiful and glorious valley.

Clare Valley, further north, is another premium wine-producing region featuring villages and architecture dating back to the 1840’s. Many buildings have been carefully preserved and are now used for restaurants and guesthouses.

Other top wine growing regions are McLaren Vale on the Fleurieu Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills, the Riverland east of Adelaide but the best red wine region is Coonawarra, south east near the Victorian border, where world award winning red wines are produced. Coonawarra is located on the same 20’ deep sand belt that runs through South Australia and Victoria, hence the famous Melbourne and Adelaide sand belt golf courses that drain within the hour after heavy rain. Ideal for red wine production, as well as for world class golf courses.

Beyond the City

Kangaroo Island, accessible by ferry or plane, is Australia’s third largest island, with beautiful bush, national parks and abundant wildlife, including a permanent breeding colony of sea lions. The Remarkable Rocks along the southern coastline are among the island’s many wonders. Day and extended tours are available. Do ride the Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn. The railway is an operating museum, operating regular heritage train journeys on the oldest remaining section of the famous old narrow-gauge Ghan railway. Quorn, is the gateway to the Flinders Ranges, 155 miles north of Adelaide. These spectacular mountains, stretching for about 250 miles into the Outback, are noted for their rich colours, majestic peaks, wilderness areas, prolific wildlife, historic ruins and Aboriginal rock paintings. Activities are camping and bush walking. The best time is in the spring (Sept) when the prolific wildflowers bloom. The lower mountains and plains are absolutely covered in a thick carpet of richly coloured wildflowers that reach further than the eye can see.

Coober Pedy is a colourful Outback mining community that produces most of the world’s precious opals. Tour through an opal mine, with the chance to see an opal being cut. Tours are available. Many of the town’s facilities, including homes and an international-standard motel, are built underground to escape the heat. On the Murray River, the 7th biggest river in the world, you can take a day trip or extended cruise on a modern paddlewheeler, stopping at towns on the way. Very modern and brilliantly designed 8 berth houseboats can be rented if you wish to stay a while fishing or relaxing on the river.

Also see the Yorke Peninsula

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Getting Around

There is an extensive public transport system of buses and trains that operate between the city and the suburbs. The only tram runs from the city center to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. A free “Bee Line” bus operates in the city center and the Adelaide Explorer Bus follows a 21 mile circuit, stopping at major attractions.

See Adelaide Rail and Great Southern Railways for Australia's great train journeys

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