Adelaide Travel Guide: Barossa Valley and Kangaroo Island

Adelaide is the gateway to Australia's best-known wine regions — but the city itself is worth the trip too, with a compact, walkable centre. The region's big advantage: you can combine city, wine and wildlife in the same trip without long drives.

If you haven't planned the rest of your trip yet, the complete Australia travel guide helps you fit Adelaide into your itinerary.

What to see

• Adelaide city centre — the Central Market, founded in 1869, is one of the largest undercover fresh produce markets in the Southern Hemisphere, with around 70 traders from more than 40 nationalities and over 8 million visitors a year. The Adelaide Oval, a historic stadium renovated and reopened in 2014, seats 53,500 and hosts cricket and AFL matches. The Adelaide Botanic Garden, spanning 51 hectares, opened to the public in 1857. All of it is walkable from the city centre.

• Barossa Valley — the country's best-known wine region, about an hour's drive from the city centre, with more than 150 wineries and 90 cellar doors. Seppeltsfield, founded in 1851, is the most traditional stop: it holds the Centennial Cellar, home to the world's longest unbroken single-vintage Tawny collection (dating back to 1878) — every year a 100-year-old vintage is released, and you can taste straight from the barrel on a guided tour. Day tours leave Adelaide with tastings and lunch included.

• McLaren Vale — Adelaide's second wine region, with something the Barossa doesn't have: its own coastline (31km of it). If your plan is to combine wine with a beach day, McLaren Vale wins easily; if wine is the sole focus with a full day to spare, the Barossa has more cellar doors to choose from.

• Kangaroo Island — free-roaming wildlife (koalas, sea lions), reached by ferry leaving from Cape Jervis (about a 2-hour drive from Adelaide) to Penneshaw, a ~45-minute crossing. You can also fly directly from Adelaide to Kingscote (~30 min). On the far side of the island is Flinders Chase National Park (326 km²), home to the Remarkable Rocks — granite boulders the size of a small house, stacked on a rocky dome 75m above the sea — and the Admirals Arch, a natural rock arch. Seal Bay is one of the few beaches in the country where you can walk close to a wild sea lion colony, with a mandatory guide.

How much it costs

Base itinerary

3 days: day 1 — Adelaide city centre. Day 2 — Barossa Valley (full day). Day 3 — Kangaroo Island (day trip, or overnight for more time with the wildlife).

5 days: the 3 days above, plus a second night on Kangaroo Island and an extra free day in Adelaide.