Adelaide Local Attractions

Be sure to visit the Adelaide Zoo which is currently home to the only Giant Panda’s in the Southern Hemisphere, Wang Wang and Funi. Specialized Panda tours can be organized through reception. The Adelaide Zoo also features many other attractions for visitors including two rainforest habitats, a seal bay and a children’s petting zoo where you can hand-feed the animals.

Rundle Mall is the shopping heart of Adelaide. It was created in 1976 as Australia's first pedestrian mall. You'll find more than 600 retail stores, three major department stores and 15 arcades there. There are also outdoor cafes and bars to relax in. The mall is renowned as a venue for performances, promotions and events, from fashion parades, to buskers and street performers. The Rundle Mall Discovery Trail allows you to experience the pedestrian strip's many quirks and features, from sculpture and art to the history of its buildings. Highlights include the mall's 19th century buildings such as Beehive Corner.

You can also learn about the ghosts of beautiful Adelaide Arcade. Public art is plentiful in Rundle Mall, from classics such as Bert Flugelman's Spheres (or more commonly known as the Mall's Balls) and four resident bronze pigs - Truffles, Oliver, Horatio and Augusta. Children love to clamber over them. Rundle Mall opening hours run from 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, 9am to 9pm Friday, 9am to 5pm Saturday and 11am to 5pm Sunday.

This 16-hectare garden features stunning collections of plants including Australian natives, exotics and ornamental plants. To make the most of your time, stop by the Visitor Information Centre and find out what is happening at the Garden and which plant collections are looking their best. Things to see include the magnificently restored Victorian Palm House, the Mediterranean Garden, the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion, the Museum of Economic Botany and the Bicentennial Conservatory.

You can also join a free guided walking tour provided by the friends of the Botanic Garden. Tours leave from the new Schomburgk Pavilion at 10.30am daily.

The Adelaide Central Market buzzes with life and colour all year round and is a special place for the regulars, who wouldn't shop anywhere else. Here you'll find a huge range of fresh food, all under one roof - fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, seafood, gourmet cheeses, bakery products, sweets, nuts and health foods.

Shoppers can also take a break in some of the hippest cafes in Adelaide. It's the experience of shopping here that people love to return to again and again - the noise, the fresh food smells, the variety, the colour and the atmosphere of an international melting pot of food and cultures. The Adelaide Central Market is open from Tuesday to Saturday every week.

Glenelg is Adelaide's most popular beach destination. It's always buzzing with people enjoying the sand and sea, foreshore parks and summer entertainment. Stroll along the jetty. Browse through the hundreds of shops and dining at sidewalk cafes along Jetty Road. Moseley Square, where Jetty Road meets the beach, is the terminus for the City-to-Bay Tram. Recently upgraded to new trams, the original trams operate during holidays and are synonymous with Glenelg, having operated for over 70 years and used and adored by residents, commuters, shoppers and visitors. Nearby Holdfast Shores Marina is the base for Temptation Sailing's dolphin cruises.

The Bay Discovery Centre at Glenelg Town Hall tracks the history of Holdfast Bay and its evolution into today's seaside lifestyle. Stroll along Jetty Road's shops, cafes and restaurants. Visit the Bay Discovery Centre, Holdfast Shores Marina and picnic at Kingston Park Coastal Reserve. Walk the Federation and Proclamation Trails. Five kilometres south along the Esplanade, is the seaside hamlet of Brighton, also a favourite beach playground, with a delightful village atmosphere along its own Jetty Road. At Kingston Park, Kingston House is the oldest building in Holdfast Bay, built in 1840 and set on a three-acre reserve with stunning coastal views. On the foreshore, a striking monument by South Australia sculptor John Dowie marks one of the significant spring sites on the Tjilbruke Trail and a wheelchair-friendly boardwalk heads south to Marino Rocks.