Travel Guides: All Countries / Oceania - Australia / Australia / South Australia
 |  | Travel Reviews : South Australia |
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| | | | Wild and welcoming
We rented an apartment in Adelaide opposite an attractive park, a 10-minute walk from the city centre. We arranged it through our travel agent and it couldn't have been easier.
Adelaide is a really welcoming city and we soon found our way about. The art gallery was impressive and had a good little cafe. There were lots of other fine places to eat, many where you could eat outside and lots that do BYO (bring your own wine).
We rented a car, drove up to the hills and visited the Cleland wildlife park, which wasn't that busy when we were there so it was very relaxing - we picnicked in the woods and fed kangaroos.
Another day we drove out to the wineries in McClaren Vale. We sampled quite a few wines and there was no pressure to buy - everyone was really laid-back and friendly. The countryside out here was lovely.
South Australia
The wine wizards of Oz
From the Mail on Sunday
So you're off on your gourmet tour of South Australia,' remarked the former Foreign Secretary, adding sardonically, 'That'll make a very short article!' But the head of an Oxford college at the same lunch party swiftly disagreed. 'Australian food is now first class.'
In the past decade I've enjoyed some fabulous meals in Sydney. Could South Australia now compare? It is, after all, the leading wine state. And where good wine flows, good food grows. I went to see.
Adelaide boded well. It's the smallest, quietest and cheapest of the five largest state capitals - sparkling Sydney, busy Brisbane, municipal Melbourne and pretty Perth. These others tend to look down affectionately on the graceful, British-planned city of broad boulevards. 'You can cross the whole place in 20 minutes,' say the locals.
It was laid out by the Surveyor General in 1834. Fortunately, many of the original stone churches, museums and university buildings still stand. And it's called the Festival City. Median house price in Adelaide is £51,000 and the average weekly rent is £68. Migrating Poms have yet to discover it in force.
A splendid NWC wine centre for all Australia is whizzing up in a corner of the beautiful Botanic Gardens - and the other three wine-producing states were peeved not to be hosting it. After all, the first well-known Australian wines in Britain came from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
The centre will have a tasting gallery, with tuition on how to sniff out and observe the delicate differences of good wines. South Australia, with its now famous Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Clare Valley and Coonawarra wine fields, is steaming ahead.
We drink their good wines in Britain. But their very best - now equalling the best in France and costing nearly as much - are seldom seen here. They are marvellous. These areas, plus McLaren Vale (more than 50 wineries on Adelaide's fringe) and Padthaway, neighbouring Coonawarra, are the names to seek out.
Australia fostered the art of the winemaker - the dextrous blending of wines. France tenaciously held to its terroir, its grapes, its tricky weather and the changing vintages. Aussies mix everything like magicians. They aren't in awe of vintages. In general, they drink wines terribly young.
Adelaide's vast Covered Market next to its Chinatown embraces 250 shops, nearly all selling foodstuffs, many exotic and some doubtless aphrodisiac. Even the coffee shop featured more than 50 coffees from around the world.
South Australia
Head south for a taste of Oz
South Australia is a hugely contrasting place to visit. From the cosmopolitan south coast to the desolate Outback, the state offers all the experiences associated with a trip to this part of Oz.
The capital Adelaide is home to just over one million residents (70% of SA's total). Its Mediterranean climate, world famous Arts Festival and urbane Rundle Street ensures that visitors continue to flock to the city. Glenelg beach, a scenic half-hour journey on the city's only remaining tram, is the most pleasant and accessible of Adelaide's beaches.
But if you've got a week or so to spare, why not get away from the bustle of the city and check out what the rest of South Australia has to offer?
An hour's drive north-east of Adelaide lies the state's main wine-producing area - the Barossa Valley. It is here that over half of all Australia's wine is produced.
There are over 50 wineries, most of which are open to the public. The well-known ones all provide free tastings - very refreshing on a hot day!
Once you've seen enough vineyards, get a taste of the valley's German heritage from one of the quaint towns of Bethany or Tanunda. If you time it right, your trip could coincide with one of the many local festivals - the most celebrated being the Barossa International Music Festival in October.
Kangaroo Island, or KI as the locals like to call it, is one of the best places in South Australia to see the country's wildlife in its natural habitat.
Just a half-hour flight from Adelaide, more than half of the island has yet to be cleared of its vegetation. Its isolation from the mainland means that native species can survive without the threat of the dingo or the fox. There are koalas aplenty on KI.
Accommodation consists of caravan parks, family-run B&Bs and discreet hotels. Kangaroo Island is all the better for its lack of high-rise resorts.
South Australia
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| | | | Adelaide's garden suburbs
In neighbouring Gouger Street, with Jolly Graeme Andrews as our guide, I counted 40 restaurants, some from countries offering cuisine I'd pay to avoid. Vineyards lap Adelaide's garden suburbs.
Here, now called Magill Estate where the hills begin, is the fount of the now-mighty Penfolds, established by Dr Penfold in 1844. It's part of huge Southcorp, which offers well-known brands in British supermarkets.
But its top-of-the-range Grange rivals anything from France. It was surreptitiously evolved by its winemaker Max Schubert (60 years with the company) who, without telling the management, allowed barrels of Grange to mature slowly, French style. 'French oak is less savage than American oak.'
Mrs Penfold, the doctor's stern Victorian wife, devised a concoction of her home-grown fortified red wine, plus beef extract plus malt, which was given to patients as a tonic. They and the doctor's profits flourished. The Penfolds planted more vines.
There are now 6,500 vineyards in Australia producing about 1.3 million tonnes of grapes last year, up 77,000 tonnes on 1999. The Adelaide Hills, swiftly reached by a new road and tunnel, sprouts with new vines. Last year Australia hit a record 146,000 hectares - an amazing rise of 19 per cent.
Trouble is everybody thinks he or she can make good wine in Oz. A lake of Chardonnay slurps about and sceptics warn about the huge planting of olive trees. 'In five years there'll be an olive oil sea, too.'
Wineries with 'cellar-door sales' (these make pleasing breaks) abound in Hahndorf, a pretty mid-19th-Century village settled by Germans. Orchards, vineyards and market gardens encircle it. In January, you can buy a kilo of fresh strawberries for £2.
Sadly, we chose a duff spot for lunch. One should always avoid places with a car park stuffed with coaches. Inside it was like a factory canteen, tottering with wheezing pensioners. It was our only bad meal in three weeks in Oz.
At Hillstone Wines, halfway down the village, a bright girl was handling the tastings. This, begun by another doctor in 1980, has now added 11 new hectares rolling between woodlands in the Adelaide Hills, growing, yes, Chardonnay, but also the less usual Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot.
Outback heaven on Route 87
If you want to really get away from it all, hire a car in Adelaide and head up Route 87, otherwise known as the Stuart Highway. In no time you'll be cruising through the outback.
Some national car rental firms will let you drop your vehicle off at a different location - Alice Springs across the Northern Territory border is ideal. So don't feel that you'll have to drive back - you can always fly.
About a three-hour drive north of Adelaide, The Flinders Ranges consists of three national parks and is rich in Aboriginal culture. The spectacular scenery combined with the diverse vegetation and wildlife makes this area extremely popular with bushwalkers.
Keep heading up the Stuart Highway and you'll reach Australia's answer to the Wild West - Coober Pedy. It's easy to see why the movie Mad Max III was filmed here.
Much of the accommodation is built underground due to the heat as 50C is not uncommon. It's worth sleeping underground if only for the novelty value, and the dugouts are surprisingly cool.
The 3,000 locals are all prepared to sweat it out for one reason - the town is the largest producer of opals in the world. Signs on every street corner warn you to watch out for the mineshafts and never to walk backwards. Sound advice.
Should you have a 4x4, head off the Stuart Highway via the Oodnadatta track to sample some small-town life in the outback.
The towns of Marree and Oodnadatta are both ideal bases to visit the arid Lake Eyre - the saltiest lake in the world. It's probably best to leave your swimming cossie behind though - it's been seven years since there was last any water in it. Ask around if you want to book a scenic (if slightly hair-raising) flight over the region.
These remote towns are similar to most in the outback - one, possibly two places to stay and a single pub - where everybody drinks the local grog. You'll make new friends very quickly round these parts.
Feb-June is the best time to visit Adelaide and the coastal areas. The summer (Dec-Feb) can get rather hot and the winter (June-Aug) may remind you of back home. In the north, temperatures can get so hot in the summer that you'll soon want to hide in a bunker with the locals.
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| | | | Mount Lofty House
We stayed in splendour in the Hyatt in Adelaide overlooking the river. Eights, fours and pairs shot along below us in the cool morning. And by noon the temperature was hitting the high 30s and rising. Couples lay, flaked out, under the trees. Across the river stood the Oval - all cricket grounds are ovals in Oz.
The road up to the Barossa is scenic. Mount Lofty House, now taken over by the French group Mercure, is Scottish Baronial. It takes itself too seriously, but offers gigantic views over its gardens and rolling valleys. 'We get four flushes of roses every summer,' beamed the girl gardener.
Dinner was described as 'fine dining'. Served in an over-decorated, darkish room, it was simply quite good. Breakfast overlooking the valley was top-class. The immense green vineyards of the Barossa unroll like giants' carpets.
Angaston, a very pretty village by Australian standards, is the gateway. Close by stands the 1856 'homestead', built for those great settlers the Angas family. The family owns several hundred thousand acres and became the local grandees.
The house now belongs to the National Trust, but you can, by arrangement, take B&B there and hold dinner parties surrounded by good antiques and evocative bric-a-brac, relics of grand colonial life before the Second World War. 'They had 22 servants and six gardeners,' mused the present tenant, giving us scones and coffee on the veranda.
In Tanunda, a long, straight street of quite attractive houses, is the new Wine and Visitor Centre. Peter Lehmann, a big name here, buys in all but three per cent of its wine, which it markets stylishly.
It sells it across the counter, together with a Weighbridge Platter. This assortment of local snacks of smoked hams, cheeses and quince jams are often bought by shoppers who picnic in the garden under the gigantic purple and white flaked gum trees.
It was a joy to drive north to the beautiful Clare Valley. There, we went around the religious vineyard of the Jesuit Winery of Sevenhill Cellars, established in 1851 to make fortified altar wines. It now makes plenty of good, stout stuff.
Then we crossed the road to stay in cosy comfort, deliciously dined and kindly fussed over at pretty Thorn Park Country House. David and Michael here have just six rooms. So book early. People come from all across Australia. You'll love it. And so, I think, would the former Foreign Secretary.
Travel facts: Austravel (0870 166 2070 or www.austravel.com) offers a two-week self-drive holiday in South Australia. For further information, call the South Australia Tourism Commission on 020 7431 7474 or visit www.southaustralia.com
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| | Destination Guide : South Australia |
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| | | Wine-growing wonderland |  | Why go on holiday to South Australia?
It may be the driest state in the country but it's also one of the most surprising. The bush, coastline and great semi-desert landscapes are wonderful, the people liberal and easygoing - and if you like a drop of wine you'll think you're in paradise.
How much does it cost?
If you shop around you can find return flights for as little as £400, though high season fares are likely to be closer to £700. Moderate hotels in Adelaide go from around £20 though a good option is to take an apartment (from £35 a night).
In the wine-growing Barossa Valley you can rent a tourist park cabin from around the £15 mark. Packages to South Australia aren't as many as to other parts of Oz but a good travel agent can put together a custom-made package for you, even pre-booking excursions.
When should I go?
The climate is warm and temperate. Adelaide has a short, mild winter and long, dry summers.
Most rain falls in winter. Summer temperatures are 28C (82F) max to 17C (62F) min; and winter is 16C (60F) max to 8C (46F) min. Water temperatures average 18C (64F) in summer.
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| | | Spectacular scenery | | What should I do when I'm there?
Adelaide is Australia's calmest state capital. It's gracious and splendidly appointed, with several grand buildings, museums and galleries to keep visitors happily occupied.
The lovely surrounding parkland provides an escape from things urban, as does Glenelg Beach - take the scenic tram there. The nearby Adelaide Hills have walking trails and spectacular scenery. The city has a lively arts scene too, and a renowned festival.
What's outside Adelaide?
Yorke Peninsula is a popular holiday area once colonised by Cornish copper miners. "Little Cornwall" is well preserved and has fine coastal scenery. The Innes National park is just as picturesque and a Mecca for fishermen, reef divers and surfers.
Kangaroo Island, the third-largest island in Australia, has great scenery, good beaches and heaps of wildlife plus many shipwrecks for divers to explore. It's worth taking an organised tour to see the conservation sights such as Seal Bay.
Can I get off the beaten track?
Up north the vast stretches of outback offer much of interest, but you will need a permit to visit the conservation and Aboriginal areas. There are several trails to follow to see the Simpson Desert, the rocky Sturt Stony Desert and vast salt lakes.
Check out the tiny towns to taste the outback way of life. Famous opal town Coober Pedy's inhabitants live in dugouts to escape the brutal heat. There are countless places to walk, with more than 1,000km of trails in the Adelaide Hills.
The Southern Vales of the Fleurieu Peninsula are a treat but the rugged and colourful Flinders Ranges are the highlight for ramblers.
Is the wine region worth a visit?
Australia is now at the forefront of world wine making and the best known wine-producing areas in South Australia are the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Coonawarra and McLaren Vale districts. Vineyard tours and cellar tastings make a great day out.
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| | | Wildlife paradise | | Where's good for nightlife?
Adelaide has a lively performing arts scene with good theatre and music. There's a casino, a good jazz scene and various nightclubs for those who like to stay up a little longer. Try the East End for the numerous cafes and restaurants.
What's the food like?
Adelaide has more restaurants per head of population than any other Australian city and there's plenty of variety including several veggie eateries. For something different though, try a pie floater from the pie carts that appear on city streets at night.
It's a chunky meat pie covered in tomato sauce, floating in a thick pea soup - mmmmm... Good areas for finding restaurants include the bohemian Rundle Street, cheap eats in Hindley Street, Gouger Street and in North Adelaide on O'Connell Street.
Outside Adelaide you'll find some great places to eat near the wineries in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. Some wineries also have their own restaurants.
What should I buy?
Adelaide has great shopping - check out Rundle Mall. The Orange Lane market is also worth a visit for clothing and bric-a-brac. Out of town at Oaklands Park there's a massive shopping centre.
Check out the excellent city art gallery and museums for gift ideas. Pick up an Akubra hat at one of several stores specialising in outdoor gear on Rundle Street.
What is there for children to do?
South Australia isn't the place for theme parks but it is a paradise for wildlife and walking. Kids will love Cleland Conservation Park, in the nearby Adelaide Hills, where you can picnic under shady trees and feed the kangaroos and wallabies.
There is also a string of good beaches between Maslins Beach in the far south of Adelaide to Grange in the north. Further south are the big surf beaches of the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Tourist office
Australian Tourist Commission, Gemini House, 10-18 Putney Hill, London SW15 6AA. Brochure line: 0906 8633235 (60p per min.).
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| | Fact File : South Australia |
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| | | South Australia | | Did you know?
South Australia has the country's first legal nudist beach.
Language
English
Visas
Required but can be obtained through your travel agent.
Getting there
Adelaide is connected to all other Australian capitals by regular flights; direct UK flights are also available. The city is very well connected to other parts of the country by rail and bus.
Flying time from London
24 hours
Getting around
Kendell Airlines is the biggest regional operator. Premier Stateliner is the biggest bus operator. There is no internal rail network, but several other state lines pass through. The famous Ghan railway will take you up to Alice Springs. Car is your best bet if you want to explore. Adelaide is a very walkable city, with tram links to Glenelg beach.
Currency
Australian dollar
Costs
At time of writing, expect to pay roughly: pint of beer £1; roll of film £1.50; moderate restaurant meal £10; litre of petrol 30p; short taxi ride £4.
Weather
South Australia is warm and temperate. Adelaide has a short mild winter and long dry summer. Most rain falls in winter, with June usually the wettest month. The further north you go, the hotter and drier it is - outback temperatures of 35C (95F) are common. Around Adelaide, summer temperatures climb to around 28C (82F) and water temperature is about 18C (64F). In winter, air temperatures are 16C (60F) max, 8C (46F) min.
Time difference
9.5 hours ahead of GMT
International dialling code from the UK
00 61
Voltage
220 -240V AC, 50Hz. The Aussie three-pin plug is different from ours so you'll need an adaptor.
Opening hours
Shops generally open 9-5.30 Mon-Sat (though some shops close early Saturday). In Adelaide larger stores open on Sundays 10-4. Banks usually open 9.30-4. Post offices open 9-5 Mon-Fri and Post Shops on Saturday mornings.
Health - Before you go
No jabs needed. The UK has reciprocal health arrangements with Australia via Medicare but you have to enrol for this and it doesn't cover all costs so make sure you have sufficient travel insurance.
Health - When you are there
Beware heat exhaustion and sunburn - cover up, slap on the lotion and drink plenty of fluids.
Warnings
Adelaide is a friendly laidback city but it still has big city crime - particularly car theft. Take the usual precautions. Late night no-go areas include the side streets off Hindley Street and the parklands along the Torrens river. Visting the wineries? Don't drink and drive - Aussie laws are strict. In the outback, flies can be a real problem - if you hate them, take a protective net to wear with your akubra hat.
Emergency
Police, Tel. 000. British High Commission, Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla, Canberra, ACT 2600. Tel. 61 2 6270 6666.
Customs
No worries - South Australians are a pretty laid back lot.
Pets
Australia is included in the PETS travel scheme under long-haul regulations. However, this is a long and complicated procedure requiring vaccinations, medical check-ups and route planning; it is not as simple as walking on and off a plane with your pet. Therefore the scheme is more suited to those returning from a long stay abroad, rather than the two-week holidaymaker. It takes several months to set up the relevant documentation; see your vet for further details.
Tipping
Tipping is new to Australia; 10% to waiters and round up cab fares.
Tourist office
Australian Tourist Commission, Gemini House, 10-18 Putney Hill, London SW15 6AA. Brochure line 0906 8633235 (60p per minute).
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| | Available rental properties in South Australia |
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