"Don't Overlook Adelaide" a Adelaide Travel Page by tigerjapan

Adelaide seems to be overlooked by a lot of visitors to Australia, which is such a shame. The city itself is small, but as a “base” it offers so much. We were there for 2 weeks and used it to go to the Barossa Valley and Clare Valley (to name only two of SA's wine regions).

Adelaide is a culinary wet-dream (am not a wordsmith). The city, and surrounds, abounds with great restaurants and cafes and the State produces some of the world’s best wines. Six of Australia’s top 10 wines come from South Australia. Adelaide is the perfect place from where to explore these glorious wineries.

I have been lucky enough to visit Adelaide in both winter and summer. The summers can be very hot, but with beautiful, crowd-free beaches in easy reach, it's a great time to go. You can also enjoy some of Australia's best beer - Coopers! Winters in Adelaide are relatively mild and eating out is a great way to spend a winter evening.

The Adelaide market would have to be one of the best fresh produce markets in the world. We spent many a day there eating and shopping and it has a great feel to it.

WOMADelaide, The Fringe Festival and the Adelaide Festival are other great events held in Adelaide. World music, theatre, art and operas are all on offer. The Fringe Festival is fantastic. If you can go when it's on you're sure to have a wonderful time.

I remember before I went reading that Adelaide was once known as a city of puritan spoilsports and that it was renowned chiefly for it's disproportionately large number of churches. It does have a lot of churches, but I felt very relaxed there and at Fringe time there was not a "Puritan Spoilsport" insight.

Adelaide has some great parks and sanctuaries. We went to Cleland National Park and held koalas, patted kangaroos and so on. It was great to just walk around with the animals not excessively caged in

We also went to Warrawong sanctuary: http://www.warrawong.com and experienced a night walk. Warrawong also provides accommodation! For something a bit different this would surely be a lot of fun.

In summer we went down to Victor Harbour and to a number of beaches, a lot of water sports were on offer and we were never without something to do.

The Hills, as they are referred to by Adelaidians, have some very beautiful towns spotted throughout. Harndorf, Aldgate, Belair, McLaren Vale and the outlaying Barossa Valley are just some of the wonderful places in the hills. The Belair National Park is a great place for a BBQ and Harndorf is a great little day trip where you can see the influence of German settlers.

Within easy reach of the city are a number of good hiking trails. Mt Lofty, Waterfall Gully, Morialta Falls are some of the wonderful walks on offer.