A Two-Day Guide to Adelaide – Australia’s Festival Capital

For foodies, beach-goers and art-lovers keen to escape to Adelaide, ‘Australia’s Festival Capital’, here is our 2-day guide to all there is to see, eat and do – along with a few fabulous hotels.

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Photographs by Orlando Gili & Marina Pliatsikas, Words by Liz Schaffer

The view from the rooftop bar at Hotel Indigo Adelaide Central Market

First up, a note on those famous festivals. Adelaide hosts 11 major arts and cultural festivals annually – alongside a plethora of smaller celebrations – everything from The Cabaret Festival and Illuminate Adelaide with its winter-brightening installations, to the music and culture focused WOMADelaide. The showstopper, though, is The Adelaide Fringe, the world’s second largest annual arts festival (after Edinburgh), which has been running for almost 70 years. If theatre, art, cabaret and comedy call, you should absolutely time your visit around these festivities.

And then there’s the food and wine to consider. Not only does Adelaide boast one of the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest undercover fresh food markets, but the bar and restaurant scene is also booming (in full swing on Peel and Leigh Streets), and the natural larder is unbeatable. This city is surrounded by vineyards, farmland and the ocean, with three world-famous wine regions – The Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale – all easy day trip destinations (although drawing out the escape is thoroughly recommended).

Day One: The Icons

First opened in 1869 and humming with more than 70 stalls selling South Australian produce, condiments, tipples and meals, Adelaide Central Market is a lively and aromatic temple of food. Mixing the artisan and the everyday, a few hours here will fly by as you move from stall to stall, sampling everything on offer and chatting with those who grew, raised and produced it. Gems among this gastronomic smorgasbord include Smelly Cheese Shop, which specialises in fromage from across the globe, and Blackeby’s Old Lolly Shop, that has stood here since 1906. For a thorough introduction, take a wander with Food Tours Australia, whose guides not only know everyone by name, but are quick to procure you an 11am Prosecco (paired with melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto, of course). The best place for this mid-morning indulgence is Lucia’s, a restaurant, stall and bodega that has been dishing up Italian fare and supplies since 1957.

The surrounding streets are filled with historic buildings, the striking remains of printing works, tea rooms, arcades and story-packed pubs. Admire the fabulous facades as you stroll to North Terrace, where many of the city’s galleries and museums hold court. Start your cultural pilgrimage with the grande dame – the Art Gallery of South Australia, home to an impressive permanent collection and visiting international exhibitions, as well as the Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art and Tarnanthi, a festival that showcases Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Sculptures can be also be admired in the Botanic Gardens – alongside a meal at the aptly named, fine-dining Restaurant Botanic, where dishes celebrate Australia’s diverse flora and produce. The Gardens purchased two colourful, large-scale sculptures from contemporary glass artists Dale Chihuly, one inspired by the Sturt’s desert pea, South Australia’s state flower, the other a cascading chandelier. These pieces were originally part of a months-long exhibition that saw Chihuly’s works displayed among the trees, waterlilies and lofty glasshouse.

The iconic glasshouse

For a more intimate artistic experience, continue on to JamFactory, a pioneering, not-for-profit centre for craft and design where you can pick up unique wares from South Australian makers, watch glassblowers at work, and join a range of short classes, which last from one day to eight weeks.

Keep the festivities going into the evening at super-friendly Proof Bar, famed for their experimental cocktails and regional wine list, before tucking into something heartier, perhaps at Italian restaurant Mensa (a chic mix of contemporary decor and traditional flavours) or Port Adelaide’s La Popular Taqueria, where the Mexican spirit is strong.

Sleep: Stay close to the gastronomic action (which makes catching the market’s early-morning theatrics that much easier) at Hotel Indigo Adelaide Central Market, which is found a few hundred metres from the culinary action. The hotel boasts the city’s highest rooftop bar and a restaurant that utilises market ingredients, and has found numerous quirky ways to pay homage to the city. The pink hues and hot short pins worn by the team honour Don Dunstan, the South Australia premier who stood up for the LGBTIQ+ community, vintage festival posters line the rooms and hallways, and decorations have been crafted by JamFactory artisans. All this is pared with a pioneering focus on sustainability.

Rooftop cocktails at Hotel Indigo Adelaide Central Market

Day 2: The Elements

At least one Adelaide day should be spent surrounded by greenery or waves. If the calm, dolphin-harbouring water calls, settle on the sand at Semaphore, Henley or Glenelg Beach, which are all crowned by photogenic piers – Semaphore’s nostalgia-inducing marvel is more than 500 metres long. If you’re staying all day, sunsets over the Gulf of St Vincent are spectacular from all three beaches, although if you catch the display at Glenelg you can follow it with a few tipples at Ballet Wine Bar.

For something a little quieter, head to the neighbouring Fleurieu Peninsula to lose track of time on Aldinga Beach, tearing yourself from the waves for lunch at The Star of Greece – the view-boasting seafood restaurant’s name a nod to the ship wrecked here in 1888 (its mast still visible at low tide) rather than Mediterranean cuisine. Just around the sandstone headland you have Port Willunga, where sunset paints the landscape golden, the scene often admired from the historic ‘fishermen’s huts’ – hand-carved, cave-like structures that watch over the skeletal remains of a long-washed-away jetty. This is one of South Australia’s most photographed beaches for a reason.

Looking out from the fishermen’s huts at Port Willunga

For a more pastoral escape, there’s the verdant Adelaide Hills, a cool-climate wine region known for its experimental natural offerings (the tipples from Whip Wines and Ochota Barrels are particularly game-changing), big-hitters like Shaw & Smith (where tastings are paired by uninterrupted views of the grape-draped hills), and family-owned mainstays like Tapanappa Wines, which is beloved for their bubbles. You’ll also find botanic gardens, wildlife sanctuaries and historic communities like leafy Hahndorf, the country’s oldest surviving German village – the Continental connection immediately apparent in its bakeries and cafes. There’s also The Cedars, the home and studio of artist Hans Heysen, celebrated for his watercolour and oil paintings of the Australian bush – so much so that the 1,200-kilometre-long Heysen Trail (a renowned walking route that extends from Cape Jervis in the Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges) was named in his honour.

While the Adelaide Hills could easily be explored on a day trip, you can also draw out the getaway by staying at Sequoia Lodge, a luxurious, adult’s only oasis with a celebrated farm-to-table restaurant, or Sticky Rice Villas, three lush villas inspired by Balinese, Japanese and Thai architecture, where guests can join an assortment of private or group cooking classes. Both accomodations are a mere 30-minute drive from the Adelaide CBD.

We hope you enjoy your Adelaide escape. If you're looking for more Australian getaways, be sure to check out our Australia magazine, which you can buy as a single issue, or as part of our Australia & New Zealand bundle.

Fresh fare at the Adelaide Central Market

Artisans at work in JamFactory

Architecture appreciation on the streets of Adelaide

Mixing up cocktails at Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets