← Barossa Marathon·2 nights

Adelaide: Two Nights in the City

A flat, compact city with free galleries on one street, a botanic garden next door and a heritage tram to the beach, an hour from the finish.

Duration2 nights
TransitAbout 1 hour 15 minutes by car from Tanunda
DepartsTanunda

After the Barossa Marathon: Adelaide

The Route: Tanunda → Adelaide → Glenelg → Adelaide Airport Logistics: Drive or transfer to the city, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Trams, buses and walking in Adelaide. Marathon Month: August Duration: 2 nights

Tanunda ──(approx. 1 hr 15 mins by car, via Gawler)──> Adelaide CBD ──(approx. 30 mins tram)──> Glenelg
                                                            │
                  Adelaide Airport (ADL) ◄──(approx. 20 mins)┘

The Barossa Marathon ends in Tanunda in late August, an hour from Adelaide. Two nights in the city before flying home suit post-marathon legs well: Adelaide is flat, laid out on a grid, and small enough to cross on foot.

August in Adelaide is winter, with cool days, cold mornings and rain on and off. That favours indoor sights, and Adelaide has plenty on one street. Short winter days mean sunset before six o'clock.

A hire car from the Barossa can be returned in the city or at the airport. Without one, arrange a transfer, or ask about the SARRC race bus back to North Adelaide on race day.

Night One: The City and North Terrace

Adelaide was laid out in 1837 by Colonel William Light, who surrounded the grid of the city centre with a ring of park lands that survives today. The city is nearly level from one side to the other.

North Terrace, the boulevard along the northern edge of the grid, holds the Art Gallery of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the State Library, side by side, all free to enter and all indoors. The museum's collection of Aboriginal cultural material is one of the largest in the world. Give it an afternoon and sit down often.

Night Two: The Botanic Garden and Glenelg

The Adelaide Botanic Garden, at the eastern end of North Terrace, is free, with flat paths, lawns and glasshouses, including a 19th-century palm house. On a wet winter morning the glasshouses are warm.

In the afternoon, take the tram from the city centre to Glenelg, a journey of about 30 minutes on a line that opened in 1873. Travel is free inside the city centre; a standard Adelaide Metro ticket covers the rest. At Glenelg, the seafront and jetty are flat and the beach is empty in August. South Australia was proclaimed a colony here in 1836.

Adelaide Central Market, off Victoria Square, is the city's great food hall. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so plan a visit for Tuesday before flying if the timing allows.

Where to stay: The Mayfair Hotel, on King William Street in a restored 1930s building, puts North Terrace and the tram within a short walk. The InterContinental Adelaide on North Terrace is beside the river and the railway station, with the galleries on the doorstep.

Where to eat: Rundle Street in the East End has the city's densest run of restaurants and cafés, a short walk from the Botanic Garden. At Glenelg, Jetty Road's cafés serve fish and chips to eat on the sea wall.

Getting to Adelaide Airport

Adelaide Airport (ADL) is about 7 km from the city centre, around 20 minutes by taxi or rideshare. Adelaide Metro's airport buses run between the terminal and the city at standard fares.