Things to Do in Adelaide Hills

Less than half an hour from Adelaide’s CBD, the temperature drops, the roads start winding, and the landscape shifts into rolling green hills dotted with vineyards, orchards, and villages that feel more European than Australian. The Adelaide Hills is one of those regions that locals treat as a weekend escape and visitors often skip entirely in favour of the Barossa or McLaren Vale.

That’s a genuine oversight. The Hills pack wineries, wildlife encounters, historic German settlements, and some of South Australia’s best produce into a region small enough to properly explore in a single day, or comfortably stretch across two.

This guide covers the towns, wineries, and wildlife stops worth building a Hills day trip around, plus practical notes on timing and what to skip if you’re short on time.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🍇 The Adelaide Hills is a distinct wine region, known for cooler-climate wines like Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, different in style from the Barossa’s bold reds.
• 🏘️ Hahndorf is Australia’s oldest surviving German settlement, with heritage buildings, bakeries, and pubs worth a wander.
• 🐨 Cleland Wildlife Park lets you hand-feed kangaroos and cuddle a koala, a genuinely good alternative to the more touristy city-based options.
• 🌄 Mount Lofty Summit has the best panoramic views of Adelaide, particularly at sunset.
• 🚗 The whole region is compact, most key stops sit within a 30 to 45 minute drive of each other.
• 🍓 Beerenberg Farm is a great stop for kids, with strawberry picking and a farm shop selling its famous jams.
• 🌡️ The Hills run noticeably cooler than Adelaide, pack a light jacket even on a warm city day.

🏘️ Hahndorf: Australia’s oldest German town

Settled by Lutheran migrants in 1839, Hahndorf is the most historically distinctive town in the Hills, and its main street still leans hard into its German heritage.

1. The German Arms Hotel. A historic pub serving hearty German-style meals, including schnitzels and sausages, in a heritage building dating back over a century.
2. Beerenberg Farm. A working strawberry farm just outside town with pick-your-own seasons and a shop stocked with the jams that made the family business famous nationally.
3. The Hahndorf Academy. A cultural centre and gallery showcasing the town’s history and local artists, worth a quiet half hour if the main street gets too crowded.
4. Local bakeries. Several bakeries along the main street sell traditional German pastries and bread, a good stop before continuing on to the wineries.

👉 Book an Adelaide Hills Wine and Wildlife Tour on GetYourGuide →

🍷 Cool-climate wineries worth a visit

The Adelaide Hills sits at a higher elevation than the Barossa or McLaren Vale, and that altitude produces a genuinely different style of wine.

🍾 Bird in Hand

One of the region’s best-known names, with an elegant cellar door and a strong reputation for sparkling wine alongside its Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

🥂 Shaw + Smith

A respected, design-forward winery with sweeping vineyard views, known particularly for its Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

🍇 The Lane Vineyard

Combining a cellar door with panoramic valley views and a restaurant, this is a good pick if you want to pair a wine tasting with a proper sit-down lunch.

🐨 Wildlife encounters at Cleland

Cleland Wildlife Park, on the slopes of Mount Lofty, is one of the more relaxed and less commercial wildlife parks in the country, and it’s an easy stop to combine with the summit lookout next door.

• 🦘 Hand-feed free-roaming kangaroos. Unlike enclosed zoo displays, kangaroos wander freely through much of the park, and feed is available to buy on entry.
• 🐨 Book a koala holding session. A paid add-on lets you get up close with a koala under keeper supervision, one of the more genuine versions of this experience in South Australia.
• 🦉 See nocturnal species in the dedicated house. A dark, climate-controlled building lets you view owls, bandicoots, and other nocturnal animals that would otherwise be asleep during the day.
• 🌲 Combine with the Mount Lofty summit walk. The park sits right beside the summit, making it easy to pair wildlife viewing with the region’s best lookout in a single stop.

👉 Book Cleland Wildlife Park Entry with Koala Experience on GetYourGuide →

🌄 Mount Lofty Summit and the walking trails

At just over 700 metres, Mount Lofty is the highest point in the immediate Adelaide Hills and offers the best panoramic view over the city and coastline below.

The summit has a café and viewing platform accessible by car, but keen walkers can also tackle one of several hiking trails through the surrounding Cleland Conservation Park, ranging from easy 30-minute loops to longer half-day hikes.

Sunset is the most popular time to visit the summit, when the city lights start coming on below and the whole Adelaide plain is visible in one sweep.

🎒 Practical tips for planning your visit

A few small planning choices make the Adelaide Hills day trip run more smoothly.

• 🚗 Self-driving is easiest. The Hills are compact but spread across winding roads, and having your own car gives you the flexibility to skip crowded stops.
• 🧥 Pack a jacket even in summer. The elevation means the Hills run noticeably cooler than Adelaide, especially in the evening.
• 🍽️ Book lunch ahead on weekends. Popular winery restaurants fill up quickly, particularly around Hahndorf and the main wine routes.
• 🕐 Start early if you want to fit in wildlife, wine, and Hahndorf in one day. All three are achievable, but only with a reasonably early start.

⚠️ What people usually miss on a rushed visit

Most day-trippers focus entirely on Hahndorf’s main street and skip the wineries and wildlife park nearby, missing what actually makes the region distinct from a standard historic town visit.

The other common mistake is treating the Hills purely as a wine destination and skipping Cleland Wildlife Park, which is genuinely one of the better, less crowded wildlife experiences in South Australia.

The Adelaide Hills works best as a loop rather than a single stop: start with wine and views in the morning, add wildlife at Cleland, and finish with a late lunch and a wander through Hahndorf before heading back down to the city. It’s an easy day trip that rewards a bit of structure over a wander-and-hope approach.