expatasia

After the NT part of our upcoming holiday we will be arriving in Adelaide on Dec 23 and will have til the beginning of Jan to travel round a bit using a rental car. My mate's MIL is from there and he just emailed me the following suggestions:

Port Fairy (picturesque town)
Nelson (on the Victoria/S.A. border)
Robe (this is where a lot of the rich people from Adelaide have their holiday homes)
The Kurrong (a big wetlands at the mouth of the river Murry)
The Adelaide Hills (just to the east of Adelaide)
McClaren Vale (Wineries to the south of Adelaide)
Most of these are on the Great Ocean Rd but a few are slight diversions.




Are you familiar, can you recommend any of these places? And golf courses/hotels (for hackers not pros)?

Thanks.

shiels

Theres an animal sanctuary place in Adelaide, cant remember the name tho, was our favourite visit, when we were on our reccie there in 06. Enjoy.

NickyC

Port Fairy is very nice but it's well into Victoria and a long way from Adelaide. Great if you're driving to/from Melbourne but it's not exactly a day-trip from Adelaide (if that's what you're planning).

Robe is a real gem. Scenic, historical, it has some nice little shops and cafes, a cute little harbour plus a couple of great pubs. Definitely stop there if you can - but it's at least 4 hours drive from Adelaide.

Don't forget the Barossa. There are some great places to eat and drink. Clare Valley is lovely too. Burra is a another interesting small town, north of Clare.

Edited to add Goolwa. Murray river town - another nice spot.

Sherlock Holmes

Glad you bought this up. We often go to Melbourne but it's time we discovered Adelaide (we live half way between the two) so if any Adeladians have any city ideas for a short break.....

To the OP: Nelson is still a long way from Adelaide but if you go there, find the Ocean beach which is very nice but has no amenities. The estuary beach has lots of flies and usually stinks. If you do go, get the boat up river to Princess Margarer Rose Caves.

The Ocean Road doesn't really start until Apollo Bay (in that you actually get to drive along the coast) but it is a LONG way from Adelaide.

Are you doing the train from Darwin to Adelaide?

Sherlock Holmes

Nicky, is Burra the place with the cave dwellings?

trice_ie

The hills are great stop in handorf which is a german time on the way up that's a funky little spot

A day around glenelg is always good and at that time movies in the park is fab aswell

Sherlock Holmes

Thank you.

expatasia

Unfortunately not, we fly into Alice Springs via Cairns and five days later fly down to Adelaide on 23/12. Now researching hotels in Alice and tours of the area.

earlybird

I just came back from a week in Adelaide. We stayed a few nights in the Adelaide Hills at Mount Lofty. We took a drive to Murray Bridge through to Lake Alexandrina, Victor Harbour and across to Cape Jervis to watch the sunset. You can also get to Kangaroo Island from Cape Jervis though we didn't have time to do the island but worth a visit if you have a couple of days up your sleeve. We also went to the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens (a cool climate garden) which had rhododendrons in flower. We visited a wildlife sanctuary in the hills (there are a couple around). The Botanic Gardens in Adelaide are also quite nice. The roses should look lovely by then.
We also did a tour with Gray Line Tours through the Barossa and on to Handorff.

Vash the Stampede

If you're still looking for accommodation, I can recommend this website: www.stayz.com.au

Don't know how many people will be coming with you, but if it's only 2 or three, you could check these places out:

• Adelaide: www.stayz.com.au/11354
• Glenelg: www.stayz.com.au/69802
• Glenelg: www.stayz.com.au/8173
• Glenelg: www.stayz.com.au/3786
• Parkside: www.stayz.com.au/9212
• Parkside: www.stayz.com.au/5343
• Hove: www.stayz.com.au/57397

Average price is $110 (£67) per night, but some offer a lower price for a 1-week booking. My wife and I stayed in the first one ("Castle Apartment") when we visited Adelaide in 2006. You can read our Aussie holiday thread here.

jothefw

Cleland maybe - this is a great park in Mount Lofty and you can wander around at your leisure and feed animals, stroke a koala etc. We went back in 2006 and really enjoyed it, must take the kids back!

If you want a base that's in the city but not - if you know what I mean - North Adelaide is lovely. Lots of nice parklands, good choices of accommodation and cafe, coffee culture too. We based ourselves there when we did our reccie and now if I have an overnight in town it's my first choice.

Glenelg is the sea side resort of the city and has a tram from the city out - so you can dump the car and go into town for a meal or base yourselves in the city but go out to the bikini clad streets for a quiet beer, people watching

Port Victor is good and only 1hr 1/2 from Adelaide, through the beautiful wine regions of Mclaren Vale and from there you can go to Goolwa and do the Coorong and down the coast to Robe if you like. We love Robe! But best fish and chips are at the Jetty in Kingston! (30 mins before Robe!)

Let me know if I can help any further, as lots of people have suggested, Hahndorf is lovely, as if Clare and surrounds - lots of changing landscapes.

jothefw

Oh I missed the golf course question! Keith (my home town) has a lovely course - I'm not biased at all as I don't play but it's beautiful, slightly hilly with lovely trees!

Kingston has a good course and there would be masses around Adelaide - I'll do some investigating as I said I don't play so I'll find out.

(Golf spoils a good walk in my opinion )

expatasia

Thanks - I do the walking & hacking, the OH does the golf. Too expensive & faraway here.

Wendy

Port Noarlunga is nice if you are into snorkelling...might be a bit cold right now though It's my favourite beach, I just love it there.

I went to Victor Harbour the other weekend, (first time since I got here ), had a really lovely day out there. I walked all the way around Granite Island, there's some amazing views! but I couldn't move my legs for the next two days

I also love Cleland wildlife park, it's just so lovely there. I will definitely be going again this year.

For golf, there's a course at West Beach. Not into golf myself, so can't say if it's any good or not though. http://www.adelaideshores.com.au/golf/default.aspx

(Last pic is Port Noarulnga, the rest are Victor Harbour)

NickyC

Yes it is. It was a copper mining town and some early settlers did live in cave-like dugouts. Quite of lot of the miners came from Cornwall.

It's an interesting area, very bleak landscape surrounds it with many abandoned farmhouses - quite different from the green Clare Valley which is only just down the road a bit. Worth visiting.