A day out in Adelaide was what we needed. We’d had Ruby in day care for the month while we plugged away at work, and decided it was time to treat ourselves.
So for Ruby’s last day in day care, we decided to treat ourselves to a date. As anyone who has travelled with kids would know – you never get a break, let alone a date with your partner, so this was luxury!
Inside Adelaide’s Japanese garden
We headed into Adelaide for the day and it was utter bliss to be able to stroll around the city at leisure, not having to stop for nappy changes or to feed Ruby endless snacks.
If you’d like an idea what to do on a perfect day out in Adelaide, here’s what we got up to.
Inside the Japanese garden
The Adelaide-Himeji Garden
The first stop was the Adelaide-Himeji Garden – a Japanese garden on the south of the city. It’s small, and only takes twenty minutes or so to walk around, but it’s a gorgeous little haven in the metropolis.
So peaceful
It made us feel like we were back in Japan and, perhaps because it was drizzling slightly, we had the whole place to ourselves.
Best of all, it’s free entry! You can find it near the corner of South Terrace and Glen Osmond Road.
The Zen zone
Adelaide Central Market
The market we certainly didn’t have to ourselves, but it was fun to get amongst the crowds and see what foods were on offer.
Trendy Adelaide Central Market
Because we had taken the bus into the city, we (sadly) couldn’t buy many groceries, but the produce we did see was very reasonably priced.
Some of the fresh produce on offer at the Adelaide Central Market
However, we did take the opportunity to fill our bellies, and started our self-guided foodie tour with a coffee and a chocolate éclair from The Perfect Cup café.
The delicious-looking Bread Bar
We then ate sausage in pita bread from a street stall, French cakes from the patisserie and sushi from the Japanese restaurant. We walked around sampling any foods we fancied until our bellies were bursting.
Producer in Residence stall at the Adelaide market. This changes on a monthly basis!
The markets are a great place to go to get a cheap eat – you can even browse the book shop and pick up something to read while you snack.
You can find the market at 44-60 Gouger St.
Dave at the little Japanese hole-in-the-wall
Rundle Mall
We hopped on the tram and headed up the road to bustling Rundle Mall where the main shopping hub of the city is.
There is every shop under the sun there, but we didn’t linger too long because we are on a tight travelling budget and don’t have any space to store new buys.
But if your situation is different, you might want to spend a few hours shopping along this street.
A beautiful building on Rundle Mall, with an ugly Kmart in the background
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia, Library and Museum are all housed next to each other on North Terrace. We headed there next and spent a good hour in the art gallery, wandering through the interesting exhibits.
A highlight was the room full of red string which has been strung up in arched shapes around the space.
The Ramsay Art Prize was also on, and some of the entries were stunning. My favourite was the bright sequined blanket which glistened in the spotlights. Some rather odd art included two giant horses sewn together and suspended from the ceiling.
Entry is free.
The red string art inside the Art Gallery of South Australia
South Australian Museum
The building the South Australian Museum is housed in is a marvel of its own. Formerly built in 1856, a new glass addition has been added to give it a modern twist.
Inside the museum there is every animal you can think of, stuffed and persevered. It reminded me of the movie ‘A Night at the Museum’ – I half expected the animals to come to life!
There are extensive Aboriginal history displays and artefacts as well.
My favourite part of the museum was the room of jars which had all kinds of creatures on display, including a collection of human skulls dating back hundreds of thousands of years.
Like the art gallery, the museum is free to enter, aside from special exhibitions which cost.
The Art Gallery of South Australia
Adelaide Cricket Ground
We didn’t have time, but Dave would have LOVED to have visited the Adelaide Cricket Ground. You can do a historical tour of the stands and view the new facilities. There’s also a Donald Bradman museum on the site.
The tour costs $25 and it is recommended you book in advance, which you can do so online here.
I’m not so sad we missed it, but I was sad about missing…
The National Wine Centre
Okay, so we were a bit wined out after visiting about a hundred South Australian wineries when my parents were here, but if we weren’t I’m sure we would’ve made it to the National Wine Centre.
Apparently, they have wine vending machines there! Need I say more…
So there you have it – our perfect day out in Adelaide. It was a fabulous date day.
If you’re keen to do it too, we purchased the all day fare for $10.40, and you can use it to take both buses and trams for unlimited rides up until 4:30pm. It worked out a lot cheaper than parking our car in the city for the day.
Have you been to Adelaide? Let us know what we missed off the list so we can add it for next time!
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