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.

Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate, where most of the rain falls in the winter months. Of the Australian capital cities, Adelaide is the driest. Rainfall is unreliable, light and infrequent throughout summer. In contrast, the winter has fairly reliable rainfall with June being the wettest month of the year, averaging around 80 mm. Frosts are rare, with the most notable occurrences having occurred in July 1908 and July 1982. There is usually no appreciable snowfall, except at Mount Lofty and some places in the Adelaide Hills.

Many restaurants in Adelaide allow "BYO". You can bring one or more bottles of wine to the restaurant and the staff will pour it for you and add a service charge to the bill, typically between about $8 and $20. Often this will work out cheaper than buying wine at the restaurant. Check beforehand with the restaurant.

There are pubs and bars dotted all around the CBD, but a few districts are worth singling out. Rundle St and its neighbouring area (also known simply as "The East End") have a number of popular pubs. Hindley St used to be notorious as the seedy home of Adelaide's strip clubs and bikie bars, but it and its surrounds ("The West End") have undergone a renaissance. The eastern end of Hindley St is more mainstream, whereas the western end (West of Morphett St) has a few trendier and more alternative venues. The seedy places are still there, but so too is a university campus and a number of trendy bars and clubs. Also important are Gouger St (still mostly restaurants, but an increasing number of bars and pubs) and O'Connell St, home to a few of North Adelaide's popular pubs.