Flights and travel guide to Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia. In Adelaide, you can enjoy stylish architecture, boutique shopping, sandy swimming beaches, fabulous arts events, nightlife, fine dining, and some of Australia’s best café strips. Its population is slightly over 1 million, which makes it by far the largest city in the otherwise sparsely populated state. It is also known for having the conveniences of a large city, while at the same time being far less cosmopolitan than the “Big Four”.

Adelaide is centrally located among the wine regions of McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Clare Valley, all of which are within day-trip distance.

There are plenty of airlines offering flights to Adelaide from major UK airports including London Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester, Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff, New Castle, London Gatwick.Adelaide’s airport has regular international connections to Auckland (Air New Zealand), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Bali (Pacific Blue), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia Airlines) and Singapore (Singapore Airlines & Qantas ) as well as domestic connections to many Australian cities. Budget airlines Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Tiger Airways offer the cheapest domestic airfares.

The airport is connected with the public transport system or taxi and the city center can be reached with 15-25 minutes. Skylink Adelaide operates a regular service to most commuter specified destinations within the CBD area from the airport (7.50 AUD), as well as services out to Keswick Interstate Railway Terminal (4 AUD). Airport to the closest beach, West Beach, is only 4 km away. West Beach is an excellent swimming beach with minimal surf and is well serviced with holiday apartments and a camping area/caravan park.

• Check out the wineries, beaches, whale watching, fairy penguins and other attractions south of the city on the Fleurieu peninsula.
• The Adelaide Casino on North Terrace, adjoining the Festival and Convention centres. Adelaide Casino is South Australia’s only licensed Casino, and offers not just great gaming, but also three restaurants, and four bars, including the LOCO nightclub and Grandstand sports bar. Valet parking is also available.
• The Bicentennial Conservatory is not free, but it is a worthwhile visit, simulating a tropical rainforest with mist falling from the roof. Be warned, it is quite humid so if you have difficulties breathing or can’t tolerate warm temperatures you should not enter.
• West Beach is ideal for family walks and swimming - it is close to both Glenelg and Henley Beach. At Henley Beach there is Henley square which hosts some 15 restaurants - an excellent dining venue. Beaches south of and including Semaphore are all excellent white sand beaches, some with public toilets and cold water showers. If you want to ‘wet a line’ there are jetties at (suburban beaches, from north to south) Grange, Semaphore, Henley Beach, Glenelg, Brighton and Port Noarlunga.
• During the summer months get down to the Adelaide Oval for a cricket match. Australia plays host to a couple of touring nations each summer and they will play a few matches at this beautiful ground which is just minutes from the city centre. Tickets for internationals tend to be snapped up quickly, but domestic matches (South Australia play their home matches in Adelaide) are frequent and equally exciting.
• The local sport is Australian Rules Football. Home games for the local teams the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power are played at AAMI Stadium in West Lakes, usually referred to by its old name of “Football Park” or “Footy Park”. Getting tickets shouldn’t be a problem - check out the AFL website for more details.
• Alternatively, the local footy league, the SANFL, has 4 games per weekend. Norwood Oval, home of the Redlegs, is situated on the Parade in Norwood which is home to a variety of restaurant, café and pub options for after the game.
• Soccer is increasingly popular in Australia, although certainly not yet at the level of Aussie Rules or (in other states) rugby. The local team in the national A-League is Adelaide United, who play home games at Hindmarsh Stadium.
• Take a tour of the Coopers Brewery, the only remaining large family owned brewery in Australia, well known around the world for their bottle conditioned ales. Founded by Thomas Cooper in 1862, the Brewery is currently run fifth generation Tim and Glenn Cooper. All proceeds from the tours go to charity.

There is extensive free Wi-Fi access (port 80 only) in the CBD and the airport provided by Internode. View coverage here:

Salisbury east and Para hills are areas known for rock throwing incidents involving buses. These include routes 205, 206, 560, 225, 226, T500, 229. However these suburbs are quite a far distance north of the city out in the suburbs and travellers are unlikely to venture there. In the past few months of early 2009 there have been many violent incidents and social disturbances in the Northern suburb of Davoren Park. It would be inadvisible to travel alone at night through this and/or surrounding suburbs. In Adelaide, car theft and break ins are a nuisance. Do not leave valuables in view at any time even for a few minutes whilst leaving the vehicle unattended. Be careful when driving through the suburbs of Wingfield, Christie’s Beach and Hackham due to a recent spate of carjackings.

Many of the suburban railway stations are rundown and poorly maintained, with poor lighting and graffiti ridden bus stop style shelters. If catching a train at a suburban station, it is best to arrive at the station within 1 - 2 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. The trains are fairly reliable in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne. There are security guards on all trains after 7PM with many bus connections available. Exercise personal safety at Adelaide, Woodville and Noarlunga stations (and Gawler, Noarlunga lines).

Adelaide is no more dangerous than any other similar sized Australian city to walk around. If you don’t go looking for trouble, you usually will not find it. Police actively patrol the vicinities of Rundle Mall and Gouger/Hindley St, the latter being where many of the city’s nightclubs and bars are located. Taxi ranks are located by the Adelaide Casino, North Terrace, outside the Hilton on Victoria Square, and the Western end of Rundle St where it intersects with Pulteney St. outside of Hungry Jacks. Avoid the parklands and playground on West Terrace, there are often homeless and intoxicated groups there who may cause trouble.

• Flights to Adelaide from Aberdeen
• Flights to Adelaide from Belfast Intl
• Flights to Adelaide from Birmingham
• Flights to Adelaide from Bristol
• Flights to Adelaide from Cardiff
• Flights to Adelaide from Edinburgh
• Flights to Adelaide from Glasgow
• Flights to Adelaide from London City
• Flights to Adelaide from London Gatwick
• Flights to Adelaide from London Heathrow
• Flights to Adelaide from Manchester
• Flights to Adelaide from Newcastle