Best road trips in South Australia: 10 drives you won’t forget
South Australia is the most underrated road trip state in the country. Travellers rush through on the way to the Red Centre or Western Australia, barely stopping beyond a night or two in Adelaide. That’s a mistake. This state has it all: world-class wine regions, dramatic coastal cliffs, remote outback tracks, stunning peninsulas, and a food culture that punches well above its weight. The roads are good, the crowds are thin, and the rewards — for those willing to slow down and look — are enormous.
I’ve driven every single one of these routes. Some more than once. South Australia keeps pulling me back, partly because it’s genuinely beautiful, and partly because you can get to places here that feel almost entirely undiscovered. In a country where the east coast tourist trail is increasingly well-worn, SA offers something rare: real, unhurried exploration.
Here are the ten best road trips in South Australia, from weekend escapes to full week-long odysseys.
📋 TL;DR – Best road trips in South Australia
- 🍷 The Barossa and Clare Valley loop is the best short road trip — world-class wine and food within a weekend.
- 🦭 The Eyre Peninsula offers sea lions, oysters and epic cliffs — one of Australia’s most underrated drives.
- 🌺 The Fleurieu Peninsula is Adelaide’s backyard getaway: McLaren Vale wine, whale-watching and beautiful beaches.
- 🏜️ The Flinders Ranges road trip delivers outback scenery that rivals Uluru — and far fewer tourists.
- 🌊 The Yorke Peninsula is SA’s best-kept secret for beaches and diving.
- ⛽ Allow buffer days — SA is bigger than it looks and the best stops are never where you expect them.
- 🎣 Seafood is exceptional throughout — oysters, King George whiting, crayfish. Eat it fresh and eat it often.
🍷 1. The Barossa Valley and Clare Valley wine loop
This is South Australia’s most famous road trip, and it fully deserves the reputation. The Barossa Valley sits about 70 kilometres northeast of Adelaide — close enough for a day trip, but far too rich to rush. The valley is home to some of Australia’s oldest Shiraz vines, some dating back to the 1840s, and the cellar doors here range from small family operations to grand estate experiences. Penfolds, Seppeltsfield, Henschke, Yalumba — the names here are legendary in the wine world.
From the Barossa, the road north takes you through Kapunda and up to the Clare Valley — a slightly cooler, narrower valley that produces some of Australia’s finest Rieslings. The Riesling Trail, a converted railway line that runs 33 kilometres through the valley, is perfect for cycling between cellar doors. Together, this loop covers about 400 kilometres and can be done in two very comfortable days, or three days if you want to linger — and you will want to linger. The food scene in both regions is exceptional: smoked meats, local cheeses, and produce that seems to taste better when you’re eating it with a glass of Shiraz in the afternoon sun.
🦭 2. The Eyre Peninsula coastal loop
The Eyre Peninsula is a large triangular landmass that juts south from the Spencer Gulf, and a loop around its coast is one of the best-kept secrets in Australian road tripping. Most of the road is excellent and the scenery — dramatic limestone cliffs, pristine white sand beaches, turquoise Southern Ocean waters — is consistently beautiful.
Port Lincoln is the obvious base: it’s South Australia’s seafood capital, and eating freshly shucked oysters and just-caught tuna here is one of life’s great pleasures. From Port Lincoln, the road heads south to Coffin Bay National Park (the oysters here are extraordinary — arguably the best in Australia), then around the southern tip past Sleaford Bay and up the west coast. The sea lion colony at Point Labatt is the only permanent colony of Australian sea lions on the mainland — watching them laze on the rocks while the Southern Ocean churns behind them is magical. The full loop from Port Augusta is around 1,500 kilometres and rewards at least five or six days.
👉 Book a South Australia tour from Adelaide on GetYourGuide →
🌺 3. The Fleurieu Peninsula
Just an hour south of Adelaide, the Fleurieu Peninsula is the perfect long weekend road trip. The peninsula is anchored by McLaren Vale to the north — one of Australia’s most exciting wine regions, specialising in bold Shiraz and Grenache with a Mediterranean character that matches the landscape perfectly — and Victor Harbor to the south, a lovely seaside town that sits on the Encounter Coast where Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin met in 1802.
The Fleurieu is compact enough to cover in two or three days, but rich enough to fill a week. The Willunga Farmers’ Market (held every Saturday morning) is one of the best in Australia. The coastal cliffs around Cape Jervis are dramatic and almost entirely unvisited. And from June to September, southern right whales gather in Encounter Bay — watching them breach from the cliffs above Victor Harbor is one of those wildlife experiences you don’t forget. The full loop from Adelaide covers around 300 kilometres.
🏜️ 4. The Flinders Ranges
The Flinders Ranges are South Australia’s greatest outback secret. Four hundred kilometres north of Adelaide, these ancient mountains — some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth — rise dramatically from the flat red plains in a series of jagged ridges and spectacular gorges. Wilpena Pound, a natural amphitheatre 8 kilometres wide and 17 kilometres long, is the centrepiece: a raised basin of Precambrian quartzite that has been a sacred site for the Adnyamathanha people for tens of thousands of years.
The drive from Adelaide to Wilpena Pound takes about five hours and is well worth doing slowly, stopping at the Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn (a beautifully preserved heritage steam railway), the Hawker Hotel for lunch, and the extraordinary Aboriginal rock art at Yourambulla Caves. From Wilpena, day drives take you into the heart of the ranges: Parachilna Gorge, Brachina Gorge (a drive through a geological timeline spanning 600 million years), and the stunning Sacred Canyon with its ancient engravings. The night sky out here — away from any city light — is extraordinary. Bring warm layers even in summer; the desert gets cold at night.
🌊 5. The Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula — the “arm” of South Australia reaching south between the Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent — is perhaps the state’s best-kept road trip secret. It has a quiet, unhurried character that makes it perfect for a long weekend escape from Adelaide. The west coast faces the Spencer Gulf with calm, warm water ideal for swimming and fishing. The east coast looks onto the Gulf St Vincent with excellent diving and snorkelling at Edithburgh tidal pool and around the remarkable HMAS Hobart shipwreck off Stenhouse Bay.
The Innes National Park at the very tip of the peninsula is the highlight: dramatic cliffs, beautiful beaches, Cape Spencer lighthouse, and some of the best surfing in SA at Pondalowie Bay. The town of Moonta, Wallaroo and Kadina in the north make up “Little Cornwall” — a heritage area that tells the story of the Cornish miners who came here in the 1860s. The full loop from Adelaide is about 800 kilometres and comfortably done in three days.
🌿 6. The Limestone Coast
The Limestone Coast in South Australia’s southeast is a surprise package — a region of extraordinary wine (Coonawarra’s Terra Rossa soil produces some of Australia’s most celebrated Cabernet Sauvignon), remarkable geological features, and coastal scenery that goes largely under the radar compared to better-known South Australian destinations.
Mount Gambier is the main hub — the city sits inside a dormant volcanic crater, and the Blue Lake (which turns a stunning cobalt blue from November to March for reasons that are still not fully understood) is genuinely one of the most beautiful natural features in Australia. Around Mount Gambier, the Naracoorte Caves (a UNESCO World Heritage fossil site) and the extraordinary Tantanoola Caves reward exploration. The drive from Adelaide along the coast via Robe — a beautifully preserved nineteenth-century port town — and Beachport makes a lovely alternative to the inland route. Allow four to five days from Adelaide for the full loop.
🏔️ 7. The Outback Highway — Hawker to Marree and Birdsville
For travellers who want to go deeper into the outback, the route from Hawker north through Marree and along the Birdsville Track is one of Australia’s great remote drives. The Birdsville Track — 520 kilometres of mostly unsealed road from Marree to Birdsville in Queensland — runs along the eastern edge of the Strzelecki Desert and the Simpson Desert, through country that is searingly beautiful and genuinely remote.
This is not a drive for the unprepared. 4WD is highly recommended. You need to carry extra fuel, water and food. Let people know your plans. Travel between May and September only — summer temperatures out here regularly exceed 50°C. But if you’re ready for it, the rewards are extraordinary: the silence of the outback at night, the colours at sunrise and sunset, the otherworldly quality of the gibber plains, and the satisfaction of reaching Birdsville — population around 100 — after a drive that most people will never make.
For more inspiration, check out Best Wine Regions Australia.
🦘 8. The Coorong and Murray Mouth
The Coorong is a 145-kilometre lagoon system separated from the Southern Ocean by a thin peninsula of sand dunes — the Younghusband Peninsula — and it’s one of Australia’s most important wetlands and a hauntingly beautiful landscape. The drive from Adelaide south to the Coorong passes through the Fleurieu Peninsula and the hills of Currency Creek before hitting the coast at Goolwa, where the Murray River finally meets the sea after a 2,508-kilometre journey from the Snowy Mountains.
The Coorong National Park protects the lagoon and its extraordinary birdlife — tens of thousands of waders and waterbirds gather here, including the rare hooded plover. Meningie, on the shores of Lake Albert, is a lovely spot to base yourself for exploring the area. The drive continues south to Kingston SE, where a giant lobster (inexplicably famous as “Larry the Lobster”) marks the gateway to the Limestone Coast. The whole loop from Adelaide is around 600 kilometres and makes an excellent three-day weekend drive.
🌅 9. The Nullarbor — the ultimate SA road trip finishing line
The Nullarbor is less a destination in itself than a rite of passage — the vast, flat treeless plain stretching across the border between South Australia and Western Australia is one of the world’s great drives. The Eyre Highway, which crosses it, is 1,675 kilometres from Port Augusta to Norseman in WA. The longest straight stretch of road in Australia — 145.6 kilometres with not a single bend — is on the Nullarbor.
The treeless plain is, paradoxically, not boring. The scale of it is hypnotic. The Head of Bight, where enormous southern right whales gather just offshore from June to October, is one of the world’s greatest whale-watching spots — and you don’t need a boat. The Bunda Cliffs, which drop vertically 70 to 100 metres into the Southern Ocean, are dramatic beyond words. And crossing the Nullarbor gives you a very specific, very satisfying feeling: you have genuinely done something. This is a drive that earns its bragging rights.
🏝️ 10. Adelaide Hills loop
For a shorter, easier South Australian road trip — perfect if you have limited time or are looking for a gentle introduction to the state — the Adelaide Hills loop is an excellent choice. The Hills rise just 20 minutes from the Adelaide CBD and cover a series of charming towns, excellent wineries, wildlife parks and scenic lookouts.
Hahndorf — Australia’s oldest surviving German settlement, founded in 1839 — is the most popular stop, and it’s easy to see why: the main street is lined with historic buildings, artisan producers and excellent restaurants. Stirling and Aldgate are pretty village stops. The Cleland Conservation Park at Mount Lofty lets you get close to koalas, wombats and kangaroos in a genuinely beautiful native bush setting. And the views from Mount Lofty summit — at 710 metres, the highest point near Adelaide — stretch all the way to the city and the sea on a clear day. The full loop is under 200 kilometres and makes a perfect day or overnight trip.
👉 Book an Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf day trip on GetYourGuide →
🚗 Planning your South Australia road trip
South Australia rewards those who plan ahead — not because the roads are difficult, but because the best experiences require a little forward thinking. Book accommodation well in advance during the peak season (December to February on the coast, and during the Barossa Vintage Festival in April). If you’re heading to the Flinders Ranges or any outback routes, always check road conditions beforehand — flash floods can make even sealed roads impassable after rain.
The best time to visit most of South Australia is spring (September to November) and autumn (March to May): the weather is mild and beautiful, the vine leaves are changing in the wine regions, and the crowds are manageable. Summer on the coast is wonderful but can be extremely hot inland. Winter is excellent for the Fleurieu’s whale season and surprisingly pleasant in Adelaide itself — the city barely gets cold enough to matter.
Hire a car in Adelaide — rates are generally reasonable, and a small SUV or mid-size car is perfectly adequate for all but the most remote outback routes. If you’re planning the Birdsville Track or the Gibb River Road in neighbouring WA, upgrade to a 4WD. Drive on the left, keep your speed down on unsealed roads, and always, always fuel up when you get the chance. South Australia’s roads are quieter than those of NSW and Queensland, which is precisely what makes them so wonderful to drive.
Planning your Australia itinerary, read our guides to things to do in Adelaide, best road trips Queensland, how to plan an Australia road trip, 3 weeks in Australia, australian road trips ranked, 3 days in Melbourne, and 3 days in gold coast.
