Best Weekend Breaks in SA | Australian Traveller

From ruggedly beautiful coastline to the intrigue of the outback, you don’t need to travel far here to find blissful isolation. Here, the best weekends away in SA for your hit list.

Kangaroo Island

Australia’s third largest island is SA’s natural playground, accessible via a 30-minute flight from Adelaide or 45-minute SeaLink ferry ride from Cape Jervis.

It’s all about indulging in both locally produced food, wine and craft spirits, and unfiltered nature: from sea lions basking in the sun surveying the wild Southern Ocean and a rugged coastline studded with beautiful beaches to the wilderness of Flinders Chase National Park coming back to life after the 2019/20 bushfires.

Plan a long weekend at least to get a taste of what the island has to offer.

Vivionne Bay, Kangaroo Island. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Adelaide Hills

Just beyond city limits and offering a countryside idyll studded with heritage architecture and contemporary interventions, the pull of the Adelaide Hills for weekending Adelaidians is strong.

A choose-your-own adventure kinda place, it offers up everything from the traditional streetscape of Hahndorf, its German heritage evident in everything from its bakeries to cuckoo clocks (also don’t miss the excellent Hahndorf Academy arts hub ), to hip spots like community-minded cellar door The Summertown Aristologist and eclectically renovated pub Crafers Hotel.

Fresh fare from the Summertown Aristologist in Adelaide Hills. (Image: Josie Withers)

And from an off-grid stay in a tiny house to the luxury of botanic garden-adjacent Mount Lofty House or its new Sequoia Lodge.

Coober Pedy

A two-hour flight with Rex from Adelaide, Coober Pedy is where to head when you’re craving something completely different. Australia’s opal capital is an intriguing proposition.

Explore its warren of underground shops, churches and art galleries and stay at subterranean hotels and motels including Desert Cave Hotel, the world’s first four-star property of its type. And up above, the landscape is totally out of this world, too.

Coober Pedy's bewitching landscape — Coober Pedy’s bewitching landscape. (Image: Jolyon Bird)

The nearby Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park is an outback lunar landscape of flat-topped mesas that glow all shades of copper and red come sundown.

Penola

Penola in the heart of the Coonawarra wine region could just be the perfect country town.

Explore its interesting history via a stroll down Petticoat Lane, with its 19thcentury timber and stone cottages, and a visit to Mary MacKillop Penola Centre, which honours the life of Australia’s first saint.

Then set about sampling the region’s superlative local produce, fresh seafood and some of the best red wines in Australia; the Coonawarra harnesses the Limestone Coast’s red ‘terra rossa’ soils to produce beautiful cabernet sauvignons.

Pretty Penola in Coonawarra. (Image: Tyrone Ormsby)

Barossa Valley

With some of the oldest vines in the world, the Barossa Valley is known around the world for its big, bold shiraz and embodies all of SA’s epicurean promise.

Some 80 cellar doors here span everything from the boutique, like David Franz Wines, to internationally renowned wines like Seppeltsfield.

Base yourself in Tanunda for ready access to some of the best wineries; Angaston, home to the Barossa Farmers Market; Bethany, the oldest village in the Barossa; or the village of Marananga, home to luxe digs The Louise and its double whammy of destination diner Appellation and relaxed little sister three75 bar + kitchen.

Dine at Apellation at The Louise. (Image: The Louise)

Clare Valley

Full of country charm and rolling vineyards, the Clare Valley is all about cycling carefree through the vineyards and stopping for a crisp glass of Riesling along the way: one of the first rail trails to be developed in South Australia, the Riesling Bike Trail follows 35 kilometres from cellar door to cellar door through the countryside.

Glamp or stay in a rustic tiny house at Bukirk Glamping while you’re here or bed down in cosy bed and breakfast Trestrail Cottage.

Bukirk Glamping, Clare Valley. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

And don’t miss a visit to Lake Bumbunga in Lochiel, which shimmers different colours throughout the year, from pink to white to blue, depending on the salinity of the water.

Burra

One of SA’s best-kept secrets, Burra occupies a sweet spot between the bucolic countryside and vines of the Clare Valley and the desert plains of the outback.

Formerly a copper mining hub, today its rich 1840s heritage is easily explored. Buying a Burra Heritage Passport from the Burra and Goyder Visitor Information Centre will give you access to 11 sites, including the underground Unicorn Brewery Cellars and dugouts.

The Unicorn Brewery Cellars in Burra. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

And don’t miss the great regional gallery tucked within the old Burra Telegraph and Post Office building.

The underground dugouts in Burra. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Stay in cute cottage accommodation and be sure to check out the abandoned farmhouse three kilometres north of town known as the Midnight Oil House, which appeared on the band’s Diesel and Dust album cover.

McLaren Vale

On the sparkling Fleurieu Peninsula 40 minutes south of Adelaide, McLaren Vale is a hub of sustainable winegrowing, boutique distilleries, foodie experiences and beautiful beaches.

Based out of Moana, local tour operator Luke Harris fuses his passion for the region’s ocean, outdoors and wine with his Gone AWOL tours that span one to two days and combine everything from wine and brewery tours to SUPing and e-biking from coast to vines.

Or savour sustainable seafood and local wine at Pearl on Aldinga Beach.

Pearl on the Fleurieu Peninsula, SA. (Image: Andy Nowell)

Yorke Peninsula

The Yorke Peninsula is a two-hour drive from Adelaide, but feels a world away. A wild coastal escape (with 700 kilometres of jagged shorelines and beaches) where you might spend the day exploring the coastal wilderness of Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park before an evening cosying up by the fire in your cottage accommodation.

Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park's Cape Spencer — Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park’s Cape Spencer. (Image: Chalkie and the Chippy)

Or take the 15-minute boat ride off the coast from Edithburgh to the unique sand island and bird refuge of Troubridge Island, where groups of up to 12 people can stay in the lighthouse keepers’ cottage in blissful isolation for the weekend with just the migratory birds and Sammy the Seal for company.

The wildlife of the Yorke Peninsula, SA. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Port Lincoln

Australia’s seafood capital, this city on the Eyre Peninsula is perennially popular.

Join a tour with Australian Coastal Safaris to dive straight in. Its two-day Hunt and Gather experience will see you hunting and gathering your own abalone and cockles, learning to shuck oysters and taking in the sand dunes at Lincoln National Park.

Tanonga Luxury Eco Lodges near Port Lincoln. (Image: Tanonga).

Or simply tuck into freshly shucked oysters on Boston Bay, which overlooks 960-hectare Boston Island: set to open up to visitors for signature experiences and adventures soon.

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.

Ultimate weekends away in SA