A Long Weekend in Adelaide & Kangaroo Island
If you’re on a working holiday visa in Australia, or you’re an Aussie who wants a quick weekend getaway, a perfect option for a long weekend is South Australia.
Of course, like anywhere else, there is so much to do and not enough time to do it. You can fly into Adelaide as a jumping off point for South Australia (JetStar is a good cheap airline that’ll get you there). SA is chock full of lovely vineyards, nature trails, wildlife experiences and festivals that happen all year round.
There’s a few great day trips you can do from Adelaide, or even overnight adventures. A popular option for adrenaline junkies is to go cage diving with sharks on an overnight trip. There’s also swimming with dolphins and wine tours in the area. I didn’t do the shark experience this time around but I did do a shark dive (sans cage) in Fiji and it was absolutely a lifetime highlight.
Anyway, I flew into Adelaide over Easter weekend, spent 1 night there, then did an overnight tour to Kangaroo Island with Groovy Grape, and had 1 more night back in Adelaide before heading back to Sydney. I didn’t have to use any vacation days (since Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Aus).
Here’s a bit more information about my itinerary:
2 Days In Adelaide
Keep in mind that a holiday weekend means most shops are closed. Adelaide Arcade is a gorgeous old mall that’s worth a walk through, but you can’t do much more than window shopping with everything shut down. Luckily, museums stay open all year round except Christmas Day, so you can easily fill up a day checking out the Migration Museum and South Australian Museum. The latter has one of the largest collections of Aboriginal art and history in the country (and the world).
It’s also a great walking city; the CBD forms a perfect grid and is surrounded by a park. You can walk right into their professional football stadium to take a peak at the fields (Australian football, that is. Which is basically rugby), rent a paddleboat down on the river, or hire a bike which is completely free thanks to the local government.
Kangaroo Island Overnight Adventure
This was definitely the highlight of my trip. It’s crazy just how much we jam packed into a 2 day itinerary. Some of the vistas and walking trails rival those of New Zealand. From Admiral’s Arch to the Remarkable Rocks, this tiny island off the coast of Adelaide has a lot to offer day trippers, weekend revelers, or even hardcore campers who stay for at least a week or two.
Kangaroo Island, aptly named, is a great spot for wildlife lovers. In just two days, I saw heaps of koala bears at Flinders National Park (and even at our campsite), kangaroos, wallabies, unique birds, seals and sea lions. Seal Bay is a small beach in the middle of the south side of Kangaroo Island. It’s home to 800 of the world’s remaining 10,000 Australian Sea Lions. They roam freely on the beach, sunbathing and snuggling. You can get really close to them with a ranger by your side. We also went to a small honey farm, ticked sandboarding off the bucket list, and had a good ‘ole fashioned Australian BBQ all in one day :)
Groovy Grape was a great tour organizer; we didn’t have to worry about accommodation, food, transport or anything. And our guide Jerry was amazing. She’s from Adelaide and does the Kangaroo Island trip so often that she knows exactly which trees may be home to a mama and baby koala duo, where to get the perfect photo ops and how to beat the crowds of giant busses. Groovy Grape keeps their tour groups small, less than 25 people even during high season. They’re definitely worth checking out if you don’t have time to hire a car on your own!
(Pro Tip: it actually helps to wait to the last minute for bookings sometimes. A few of my friends on the tour booked it <5 days before we left and got an Easter weekend discount. They saved $50 from what I paid!)
All in all, it was an amazing weekend. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about booking your own adventure in Aus! Also, the proof is in the pudding (what a weird expression) but I did so much in 4 days. 2 even.
You DO have time to travel. You just have to be willing to make these adventures a priority.
❤ Liv
