Adelaide suburb guide

Where to eat: Bring your appetite when you visit the Adelaide Central Market, the largest covered market in the Southern Hemisphere. Top treats on offer include the award-winning Haigh’s Chocolates, which has made sweet treats for more than a century. Walk it all off along the Adelaide Park Lands Trail in North Adelaide, before spending the evening exploring some of the small bars that line Leigh and Peel Streets in the West End; try Maybe Mae, hidden away behind an unmarked timber wall inside a tunnel, or Clever Little Tailor, known for its wide choice of whiskies. For dinner, enjoy a soft-shell crab burger at Bread & Bone on Peel Street, or make a booking at one of the city’s most in-demand restaurants: the high-energy, African-inspired Africola in the East End. 

Where to play: Adelaide is surrounded by some of Australia’s best wine regions, so the city was the obvious choice to host the National Wine Centre of Australia, housed in a striking East End building designed to evoke the ribs of a wine barrel. Drop in to try some of Australia’s most celebrated wines, including Penfolds Grange Hermitage and the Henschke Hill of Grace. At the South Australian Museum on North Terrace, check out world’s largest collection of Australian Aboriginal artefacts and the fascinating megafauna galleries, which feature fossils of long-vanished animals including a giant leaf-eating kangaroo and a six-metre-long snake. Get a fix of contemporary art at the West End’s Samstag Museum of Art or head to the next-door JamFactory to meet some of Adelaide’s most talented artisans, including ceramicists and glass sculptors. 

Where to stay: In the West End, The Franklin Hotel, a converted pub with just seven rooms, is a stylish central sleeping option. A few blocks north, the luxury boutique Mayfair Hotel has a fantastic rooftop bar, while nearby The Playford mixes luxury with old-world charm.

Where to eat: It’s an Adelaide ritual: hopping aboard the (free) 40-minute tram from the city centre to Glenelg to unwind on the long sandy beach. These days, you can also kick back with a cocktail at the elegant Moseley Beach Club or feast on straight-from-the-sea oysters at Oyster Bar as the sun sinks into the ocean. From Glenelg, walk on the sculpture-studded Coast Park Path to Henley Beach (or just hop on the Line 300 bus). Henley Beach has a colourful history – in the early 1960s, it was the first beach in Adelaide to permit bikinis – but these days it is a favourite with families, who frolic in the sand and feast at the al fresco eateries that line its sun-soaked plaza; tuck into blue swimmer crab spring rolls or smoked eel croquettes at the retro-chic SeaSalt overlooking the beach.

Beer lovers will want to enjoy a brew or two in Port Adelaide’s heritage pubs; there seems to be one on every corner. Old favourites, like the Birkenhead Tavern and the Port Admiral, have now been joined by craft breweries, such as Pirate Life Brewing. 

Where to play: Soak up the sunshine at the beach in Glenelg and browse the arts, crafts and fashion on offer at the Henley Square Market (on the last Sunday of the month). In Port Adelaide, you’ll find the National Railway Museum and the Maritime Museum, which explores the many different ways migrants travelled to Australia. Some of Adelaide’s most intriguing galleries are also found here, including Cult & Harper and Fontanelle, but you can get your art fix simply by walking the streets – this area is home to Adelaide’s best street art. Port Adelaide’s best-loved inhabitants are the 30 wild bottlenose dolphins that live in the river; to say hello, take a cruise with Temptation Sailing, which offers the chance to swim with dolphins, too.

Where to stay: Watch the sun go down from your balcony at the beachfront Oaks Glenelg Plaza Pier Suites, or from an ocean-facing room at the historic Largs Pier Hotel, to the north of Port Adelaide.