Adelaide & the Adelaide Hills

After being back at work for almost a month we decided to take a long weekend and head to South Australia for some great wine and food!

This was our second time in South Australia, more specifically Adelaide and the the Adelaide Hills. We used this trip to revisit some of the places we had loved last time, as well as places that we missed out on or hadn’t had much time in previously.

Think of this post as a bit of a guide to Adelaide and the surrounding hills, acknowledging that there is so much more to do not on this list, e.g. we didn’t get to the coast this time which I can tell you is beautiful, and our trip was confined to areas an hour or so outside of Adelaide (it was only a weekend after all).

Where we stayed

We stayed at the Ibis Hotel in the Adelaide CBD. This place is an absolute bargain! We paid around 100AUD a night and the room was a lot more spacious than we had expected, very modern, clean and in a great location.

When we are on trips where we are spending a lot of time out and about we prefer a more modest hotel and this one is great value for money.

Where we ate

In Adelaide city we ate and drank mostly in the East End area.

Weeks before going we had booked Africola which has great reviews and we had been wanting to go to forever. However, looking at the menu a week or so out from out trip we weren’t that blown away by it, especially after just coming from South Africa, so ended up cancelling and booking a more low key restaurant, Andre’s Cucina & Polenta Bar.

Andre’s, as the name suggests, serves Italian food and yes, polenta does make an appearance on the menu. We found the menu a little confusing. You can do a ‘feed me’ option, but as we were worried we wouldn’t get through it we opted for the a la carte which is built around a combination of mains and share plates. The food is not super cheap but has good quality ingredients and is well cooked. The atmosphere is warm with ‘mood’ lighting.

We also ate at Mothervine, the menu designed around share plates and good wine. We found aspects of their food a little ‘experimental’ in terms of flavours, but overall rated it and the service was impeccable!

If you are looking for awesome coffee and food (the sourdough bread was to die for), try Exchange. We had breakfast there both mornings and again the staff were amazing.

In the hills we mixed it up with German beer hall fare in Hahndorf, Authentic Italian pizza at Pizzateca in McLaren Vale and modern Australian at Maggie Beer in Barossa.

Favourite wineries

Izway Wines - Barossa

Rusden - Barossa

Chateau Tanunda - Barossa

Bird in Hand - Woodside

Samuel’s Gorge - McLaren Vale

Day trips

Hahndorf

On our last trip to South Australia we actually came across Hahndorf by accident. It was at the end of the day and everything was closing (we are not always great at research, haha). We had a bit of a wonder around but were disappointed we didn’t get to spend more time there. So this time we bee-lined for Hahndorf on our arrival, day one.

I love the combination of German knick knack stores, candle and bath stores, boutiques, cute cafes and German pubs. We spent quite a bit of time just wondering around, looking at the stores and making coffee stops.

We had lunch at the Hahndorf Inn, a German pub and were super lucky to have some nice weather while we sat outside with a stein of beer.

So glad we got to come back to Hahndorf, definitely worth spending a bit of time in.

McLaren Vale

McLaren Vale is a lovely place to drive around and Adelaidians really are spoilt with this area being only 40 minutes from the city. If we lived there it would be tempting to head there every other weekend!

We checked out the town of Willinga but spent most of our time at wineries. The area is quite small and it is easy to get from end to the other. We came across a couple of good wineries but I think my top picks are still in the Barossa. Nonetheless, you can’t go too wrong!

As mentioned above, we stopped for lunch at Pizzateca, which serves authentic Italian pizza. I’d recommend booking if you are planning to head there on a weekend for lunch as it gets seriously busy. We were just lucky we got there mid-afternoon when the peak of the day was finished.

Barossa

The weather took a bit of a turn the day we went to Barossa, but even with grey skies we had an awesome time at the various wineries and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The Barossa is well known for some very big name wineries, e.g. Penfolds, Yalumba, Seppeltsfield and while it’s definitely worth checking one or a couple of these out I’d recommend trying some of the smaller wineries, a number run of which are family owned and run. An absolute favourite is Izway Wines. Last time we visited the Barossa we did a tour through Smallbatch wine tours, and while I’d say Smallbatch is for more serious wine people (it’s a pricier tour than the bus ones that get advertised), we got to go to an amazing selection of small wineries and often meet the wine makers. It’s also how we discovered Izway and Rusden.

We stopped for lunch on this occasion at the Maggie Beer Farm Shop, which had lovely food and was not too pricey, although it was officially where I had the worst glass of wine for the weekend.

We also made a stop at a winery called Chateau Tanunda which I’d recommend going to just to see the building and grounds which are lovely! The wine was also pretty damn good too!

Absolutely love Adelaide and the surrounding hills, we will be back!