Adelaide (population 1.4 million — the capital of South Australia, founded 1836 as a planned city by the colonial surveyor Colonel William Light who designed the distinctive grid of streets surrounded by a ring of parklands (the Adelaide Park Lands — the 770-hectare green belt that completely encircles the central city (the most significant example of planned parkland surrounding an urban grid in Australian history)) is the most underrated city in Australia: overshadowed by Sydney and Melbourne in the popular imagination, Adelaide has quietly developed an identity built on exceptional food and wine (the Adelaide Central Market — the largest fresh produce market in the Southern Hemisphere, operating since 1869), world-class arts (the Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide Fringe — the second-largest arts festival in the world after Edinburgh), cycling culture (one of the most cycling-friendly cities in the Southern Hemisphere) and access to the most important wine regions in Australia (the Barossa Valley (the most important wine region in Australia — the home of Penfolds Grange, the most expensive and celebrated Australian wine), the Clare Valley (the finest Riesling outside Germany and Alsace), the McLaren Vale (the most complex Mediterranean-climate wine region in Australia) and the Adelaide Hills (the cool-climate sauvignon blanc and chardonnay region) are all within 1 hour of the city center). The 2.5km Rundle Mall pedestrian zone (the main shopping street since 1976 — the first pedestrian shopping street in Australia) and the Rundle Street café strip (the most important café culture street in Adelaide) connect the East End (the university, gallery and museum precinct) to the Central Market and Chinatown (the second-oldest Chinatown in Australia). Adelaide was repeatedly named the world's most liveable city in the 1990s–2000s by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and consistently ranks in the top 10 globally.
Adelaide Central Market (Gouger Street — the most important institution in Adelaide's food culture: the largest fresh produce market in the Southern Hemisphere (operating since 1869: the most continuously operating market in Australia): 70+ stalls including the cheesemongers (the providores selling South Australian farmhouse cheeses), the deli stalls (the mettwurst (the German-style cured pork sausage that is a specific Adelaide food tradition — the Germans who settled the Barossa Valley in the 1840s brought the mettwurst tradition), the Kangaroo Island produce (the island 112km from Adelaide that produces the most important honey, olive oil and wine from the most biodiverse preserved ecosystem in South Australia)), the Vietnamese grocery stalls (the Adelaide Vietnamese community that settled around the market from the 1970s), and the bakeries and pastry stalls. The market basement parking and the Gouger Street Chinese restaurants adjacent to the market are the best value food experience in the Adelaide city center.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSouth Australian Museum (North Terrace — the most important natural history museum in the Southern Hemisphere: the world's largest collection of Australian Aboriginal cultural objects (the Ngurunderi (the Ngarrindjeri ancestral being) collection — more than 30,000 Aboriginal cultural objects, including the most significant collection of Aranda (Arrernte) ceremonial objects from Central Australia: the Palaeontology gallery (the largest collection of Ediacaran fossils in the world — the Ediacaran period (635–541 million years ago) is named after the Ediacara Hills in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia: the first complex multicellular life forms on Earth were discovered in these hills), the Antarctic Expedition gallery (the memorabilia from Douglas Mawson's 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition — the most scientifically productive Antarctic expedition in history).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAdelaide Oval (War Memorial Drive, North Adelaide — the most beautiful cricket ground in the world (consistently voted by cricket fans and players as the most aesthetically striking international cricket venue): the setting between the Torrens River and the Cathedral (St Peter's Cathedral — the Gothic Revival cathedral on the adjacent hill) is unique in international cricket. Features: the Victor Richardson Gates (1930), the Hill Stand (the grassed embankment — the traditional area for the Adelaide cricket spectator), the Scoreboard (the manual scoreboard, operating since 1911 — the oldest cricket scoreboard in Australia that still operates manually), and the Adelaide Oval Rooftop Climb (the guided climb over the roof of the Oval — the panoramic view of the Adelaide CBD, the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Gulf St Vincent).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGouger Street (the most important restaurant strip in Adelaide — the street that runs past the Central Market and hosts the highest concentration of restaurants in South Australia: the Chinese restaurants (the Ying Chow restaurant at 114 Gouger St — the most celebrated Chinese restaurant in Adelaide, famous for the fried rice with pork floss and the crispy skin chicken: always packed, very good value), the Korean BBQ (the Korean grills where the customer cooks their own meat on the table charcoal grill), and the Mediterranean restaurants (the Lebanese, Turkish and Greek kitchens that reflect South Australia's diverse Mediterranean immigration since the 1950s).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBarossa Valley (70km northeast of Adelaide — the most celebrated wine region in Australia and one of the most important in the world: the Shiraz (Syrah) vines of the Barossa are the oldest continuously producing Shiraz vines in the world (the oldest vines (the "Ancestor Vines") date to 1843: they survived the phylloxera outbreak that destroyed virtually all the vineyards of Europe and most of the New World because South Australia remains one of the last phylloxera-free wine regions in the world): the Penfolds Grange (the most celebrated and most expensive Australian wine — the Shiraz-dominated blend created by Max Schubert in 1951 after he visited Bordeaux and decided to create a wine of comparable ageing potential using Australian grapes: Penfolds Grange is the only New World wine to have received a consistent 100-point score from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate): the Barossa Valley wineries (the Penfolds Magill Estate, the Seppeltsfield, the Henschke "Hill of Grace", the Yalumba — the oldest family-owned winery in Australia (founded 1849), and the Jacob's Creek (the most exported Australian wine in the world: 11 million cases per year)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAdelaide Hills (the ranges that rise to 727m (Mount Lofty — the summit with the panoramic view of the entire Adelaide metropolitan area, the Gulf St Vincent and on a clear day, the Yorke Peninsula) 30 minutes east of the Adelaide CBD: the cool-climate wine region (the Saino Blanc, the Chardonnay, the Riesling and the Pinot Noir from the higher altitude sites) and the Hahndorf (the German village — the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia (founded 1839 by the 200 Lutheran migrants from Klemzig, Silesia who settled the Adelaide Hills to escape religious persecution): the hauptstrasse (main street) lined with German bakeries (the streuselkuchen, the strudel, the German-style rye bread), the smithy, the antique shops and the local winery cellar doors).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRundle Street (the East End of Rundle Street — the main café, restaurant and bar strip of inner Adelaide: the 500m terrace strip with the most diverse eating options in South Australia: Africola (the African-influenced restaurant by chef Duncan Welgemoed — the most celebrated contemporary Adelaide restaurant: the sadza (the pap), the berbere lamb, the bunny chow (the Durban curry in a bread loaf hollow) and the most important African cooking outside Africa in Australia), the bars (Udaberri Pintxos (the Basque pintxos bar, the only dedicated pintxos bar in South Australia), the Clever Little Tailor), and the Burger Theory (the Adelaide craft burger that won the best burger competition in Australia three years running).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMcLaren Vale (45 minutes south of Adelaide — the most complex Mediterranean-climate wine region in Australia: the Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre (the GSM blends that are the signature wines of McLaren Vale) grown on the red soil over clay and limestone geology that most closely resembles the Southern Rhône Valley of France): the d'Arenberg Cube (the 5-story building shaped like a Rubik's Cube, designed by Chester d'Arenberg Osborn of d'Arenberg Winery — the most photographed wine cellar door building in Australia: the building has a virtual reality experience inside that allows the visitor to experience wine-making synesthetically), the Shottesbrooke, the Fox Creek, and the Chapel Hill wineries), and the Willunga Farmers' Market (the most celebrated regional farmers' market in South Australia, held Saturday mornings).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGlenelg (the most popular beach suburb of Adelaide — 11km from the CBD, connected by the Glenelg Tram (the historic tram service (since 1929) that runs from Victoria Square in the city center to the Glenelg beachfront: the only surviving tram line in Adelaide after the rest of the tram network was closed in 1958): the Gulf St Vincent beach (the calm, protected water of the Gulf — no surf, warm water in summer (24–26°C), the Holdfast Shores marina, the Stamford Grand Hotel (the Art Deco hotel on the beachfront, 1966 in its current form — the most prominent hotel on the Adelaide beachfront)), and the Jetty Road shopping strip (the boutiques, cafés and restaurants of the most popular beach suburb in Adelaide).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAdelaide Festival Centre (King William Road — the performing arts complex that was the first dedicated arts center in Australia (opened September 1973 — 4 days before the Sydney Opera House, which opened October 1973): the Elder Hall (the most important concert hall in South Australia), the Dunstan Playhouse (the 620-seat drama theater), the Space Theatre (the flexible experimental space) and the Outdoor amphitheater. The Adelaide Festival (the biennial festival of international performing arts held in March in even-numbered years: the most important biennial arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere, launched in 1960) and the Adelaide Fringe (the annual festival held in February–March: the second-largest Fringe festival in the world after Edinburgh, with 6,000+ events across the city in three weeks) make Adelaide the most important arts festival city in Australia in their respective years.
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