Top Reasons to Go

Top Reasons to Go

Arts & Music

Adelaide's Festival Centre is the focus of the city's cultural life. Its name hints at the highlight of South Australia's arts calendar -- the biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts, a tremendously successful celebration that was the forerunner to other artistic festivities throughout Australia. Beginning a week before is the Adelaide Fringe, presenting all that's new in the independent arts. Adelaide also hosts the internationally acclaimed youth festival Come Out in off-festival years, and the annual WOMADelaide celebration of world music. Country towns and regions have their own festivals, the most notable of which is the Barossa Under the Stars music concert each February.

Bush Tucker

South Australia, along with the Northern Territory, led the way in educating the Australian palate in the pleasures of bush tucker -- the wild foods in the Australian countryside that have been used for millennia by the Aboriginal people. Kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and other regional fare were introduced to a skeptical public who now embrace it and seek ever more inventive preparations of native ingredients. Many menus also have local seafood, especially tuna, King George whiting, and oysters from the waters of Spencer Gulf and the Great Australian Bight, the expanse of ocean off Australia's curved central southern coast.

Historic Homes

Adelaide's accommodations are bargains compared with those in any other Australian capital city. Even so, you might consider staying outside the city in one of the historic properties in North Adelaide or in the Adelaide Hills to have the best of both worlds: easy access to the pleasures of the city as well as to the vineyards, orchards, and rustic villages that are tucked away in this idyllic, rolling landscape. Wonderfully restored 19th-century homes and guesthouses are plentiful in Adelaide and throughout the state.

Outdoor Escapes

Kangaroo Island's Flinders Chase and the Outback's Flinders Ranges national parks are great places to take in South Australia's geographical diversity. Coastal expanses and seascapes stretch into lowland meadows and open forests toward rugged Outback mountain terrain. Australian creatures abound at Cleland Wildlife Park. Carry water in this dry state, and drink it often -- the heat is deceptively dehydrating.

Wonderful Wines

South Australia is considered Australia's premier wine state, and produces more than half the total Australian vintage. The premium wines of the Barossa Region, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, and Coonawarra are treasured by connoisseurs worldwide, and many South Australian producers and wines have been awarded international honors. Whether or not you make it to any cellar doors, be sure to schedule a trip to the National Wine Centre in Adelaide to get a good working knowledge of Australian wines. Then test your knowledge by ordering a glass with dinner.