Adelaide Hills Holiday Packages

Holidays To Adelaide Hills

Take a break somewhere where green hillsides roll across the horizon, elm trees cast shadows over country roads, and vineyards provide delicious wine.

Whether you’re a visitor or a South Australian local, the Adelaide Hills are the perfect spot for a weekend escape or a relaxing couple of days. Just a 20-minute drive will take you to a region full of wineries and cellar doors, locally grown fresh food, arts and crafts, and forests and orchards. Wake up in a European-style village and spend a day bushwalking or winery-hopping with one of our Adelaide Hills hotels.HistoryThe Adelaide Hills are part of the Mt. Lofty Ranges, the traditional home of the Peramangk people. They were one of the first regions in Australia to be settled by Europeans, and the town of Hahndorf remains the oldest German settlement in the country. After Colonel William Light founded Adelaide in 1836, he referred to the city’s hills as “the enchanted hills”.Things to doThe hills of Mt. Lofty certainly live up their name. And because of their high altitude, their wine has an exquisite taste. Try it for yourself in one of the more than 50 wineries in the Adelaide Hills. If for some reason you don’t like wine, there are ciders and craft beers too. Check out boutique wineries, microbreweries and cellar doors surrounded by stunning hills and fields.Want to visit a village with a quaint and foreign (read: German) feel? Hahndorf has German architecture, German pubs, a German cheesemaker and elm and plane trees that are over 100 years old and turn golden in autumn. Visit the Cedars, the historic home and studio of landscape artist Hans Heyson. Heyson’s furniture, art supplies and even the same rugs are still in place. There are plenty of other fascinating towns in the region too. Birdwood has the National Motor Museum, which houses a collection of classic vehicles, and Crafers is the home of the Mt. Lofty Botanical Gardens.The landscape of the Adelaide Hills has national parks, conservatories, gullies and gorges teeming with fair dinkum Aussie wildlife. Cleland Wildlife Park has guided night-time walks during daylight savings time, and kangaroos freely hopping about. Saunders Gorge Sanctuary has waterholes and rustic hills along with – of course – its gorge. Check out Belair National Park, Morialta National Park and Waterfall Gully for bushwalks, fern gullies, forest hikes and waterfalls.Shopping and diningLike the rest of the hills, the shopping here is a little different, quirky and often surrounded by the beauty of nature. Hahndorf provides a variety of boutique shops including some arts and crafts from local designers. Stirling has a main street with fashion stores, book shops and vinyl record stores semi-hidden behind rows of thick trees. In Mt. Barker you have shopping choices as diverse as op shops, surf shops and party shops. And of course, there are street markets. Stirling Market has a great range of food and fashion, and from September to April, the Stirling Laneways event runs at the same time and features pop-up stalls and live entertainers.This is “the land of the long lunch” so it’s only right that you should have one (it can be “the land of the long breakfast” or “the land of the long dinner” too). Foodies have a platter of choices here, including pubs, cafes and restaurants, but there’s fresh local food wherever you go. Some of the cellar doors have restaurants so that you can pair your wine-tasting session with a satisfying lunch, and you’ll be pleased to know there are artisan cheese and chocolate shops.Getting hereWhere should you start? By booking your flight to Adelaide and Adelaide Hills accommodation with us in the same package, of course. The Adelaide Hills are a short drive from Adelaide, so you can hire a car or even jump in a taxi. You can also catch one of the regular buses out that way. Since it’s so easy to get to, why wait? Come to the Adelaide Hills for a region with so much to see, so much to do and so much to drink.