South Australia roadtrip from Adelaide to Port Lincoln and back through the Barossa Valley wine region

April 21 - 24, 2017

While my main reason for traveling to South Australia was to cage dive with Great White Sharks (see blog post here), I had an amazing time road tripping to Port Lincoln from Adelaide and spending a few final days in the Barossa Valley.  These aspects of the trip deserved a short post for those looking to visit the area. I’d recommend a minimum of 4 full days to do the drive and probably 3 full days to properly do the Barossa wine region.  We did all of it in 4 days plus the cage diving, which was a little gruelling.  Good old Australia… so much to see and none of it close together!  

We only spent the evening in Adelaide.  It’s quite normal but filled with delicious restaurants like Africola.  It was one of the best meals I’ve had in Australia.  There’s also a ton of cute bars off Hindley Street that’s apparently awesome; we didn’t go out because we had an early start.

The first half of the drive to Port Lincoln is BEAUTIFUL.  I wish we’d had more time to explore some of the beaches and parkland on the Adelaide side.  They come highly recommended.  Mount Remarkable National Park was a great pit stop.  You really feel like you are out in the middle of the bush, surrounded by wildlife.  So many kangaroos (and spiders).  We stayed at Mambray Creek Campgrounds which provided exactly what we needed - nature, a car park and tent area and bathrooms with showers.

The second half of the trip to Port Lincoln was a little less scenic.  You pass through a lot of small petrol-stop towns filled with more industrial structures than natural ones, before you reach Port Lincoln.  We stopped to hurriedly set up camp while it was daylight, and then continued on down the coast to Farm Beach.   

It was pretty meh, so we continued on to Greenly Beach which was well worth the terrible dirt road we had to drive down.  The car park is on a cliff and you walk down to the most secluded, lovely beach.  Very romantic!  We spent the rest of the day there and caught the sunset before heading back to Port Lincoln. 

Port Lincoln is apparently quite lively on Friday and Saturday nights.  There are a couple bars on the water.  We had an early morning for the cage diving so we didn’t make it out but we were told it was good fun for a night.  We stayed in the Port Lincoln Tourist Park a little ways out of town on the ocean, which was nice but I kind of wished we’d been within walking distance of town.  Kind of up to you, what you’re looking for.

I was up at dawn to head to the port for cage-diving.  You can read about my experience here.

Back in Adelaide, post road trip, we dropped the rental car and took the train out to the Barossa Valley for our final day/night of the trip.  We arrived very late at Discovery Parks Tanunda, which was straight out of an American summer camp movie.  Our cabin was made completely of wood paneling and straight out of the 70s.  It was pretty hilarious.  

It was pouring rain so we ran to the first restaurant that looked open.  The neon “Open” sign swung in the rain, the restaurant dark behind it.  Straight out of an 80s horror flick!  But inside The Barossa Valley Brewing was cozy and had "all you can eat" chicken wings!!!  YUM!

Within minutes we’d made friends with the only other patrons of the pub, a few young people who worked at some of the wineries.  Before we knew it, we’d been offered a private wine tour for free!  It was the guy’s day off and apparently he loves nothing more than showing people the grapes.

The next day we hit four wineries throughout Tanunda.  The scenery along the way was breathtaking!!

Two Hands Wines

Our new friend works at this winery.  It felt like an upscale family estate.  Everything in place, a nice hearth and two adorable dogs napping near the entrance, but perhaps not quite cozy or unique.  I thought the wine was quite good though!

Izway Wines

This is my type of winery.  Small, cozy and uniquely decorated like an upscale hunting lodge.  And the wine was delicious.  Definitely my favourite stop of the day.

Kaesler Wines

What a beautiful outdoor area for a quick lunch and wine tasting.  It felt like an old, brick Italian villa with flowers and sunshine all around you.  I soaked up the wine about as fast as I soaked up the sun. Mmm.

Yalumba

Australia's oldest family winery; you can feel the history here.  It's a huge, sprawling property that feels resort-like yet comfortable.  It felt like a family estate.  The wine and the cheese/meat board were yum!

Our lovely friend returned us to the train station so my friend could head to the airport and I could crash in Adelaide before leaving the next day.

Overall, South Australia was a lovely holiday.  I wish I'd had more time to spend here.  I would definitely come back!

Argentina Itinerary

Next stop on the trip : Argentina

I've already booked a flight to Buenos Aires, but it is pretty European so I want to head to wine country as soon as possible - Mendoza.

From my preliminary research, flights from BA to Mendoza are pretty frequent and often regardless of the day so I'm less worried about getting to Mendoza as I am about finding a good place to stay. Normally, I would really research the area to find the best location but since you spend most of your time on wine tours it doesn't really matter where your hotel is as long as the wine tour will pick you up from there.

Using a combination of TripAdvisor and Expedia Hotels, I narrowed it down to a few choice options. Casa Glebinias eventually won me over with its perfect scores on TripAdvisor and the fact that it is run by an old, extremely cute looking couple. I was even able to call them and had Alberto (the husband) answer the phone. He was very sweet and extremely helpful in terms of offering a car to come get us at the airport.


My Google research did mention that it was better to avoid the weekends in Mendoza because some wineries are closed, especially on Sundays. Thus, rather than book-ending Mendoza with BA like I'd originally planned I changed the itinerary:

LAX to Lima
Lima to Cusco
Cuzco
Cuzco (Machu Picchu)
Cuzco
Cuzco to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Mendoza
Mendoza
Mendoza
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio to LAX

This also means that I'll be in BA for Friday and Saturday night ensuring a couple great nights of partying.

I booked Casa and also booked my flight from Mendoza to Rio with a layover in BA. One thing to be careful of is that the BA domestic airport (AEP) and international airport (EZE) are not the same. Since we are flying domestic to BA and then international to Brazil we have to switch airports which involves taking a shuttle. On a good day it takes the shuttle about 30 minutes to get from one to the other so be careful.

Now, all that is left for Argentina is booking a hotel for Buenos Aires and the wine tours for Mendoza. For wine tours, I'm currently looking at a group called Ampora who do small tours of 2-8 people for about $135/person. There are two different wine regions you can tour. I'll be back with more information on this later.

Unlike Mendoza, it does matter where you stay in BA so I had to do some major research. I started on WikiTravel checking out the different neighborhoods. Essentially there are four main areas that are then broken up even more:

1. San Telmo: The original wealthy neighborhood of BA that was vacated when yellow fever broke out. Thus, it still retains old world architecture and wonder. It is south of downtown.
   
2. Microcentro: This is the main downtown area where a lot of the tourist attractions are but it is noisy, dirty, etc.
   
3. Recoleta: North of downtown, this is the new wealthy neighborhood and where customers of the Four Seasons stay. Too expensive for me.
   
4. Palermo: North of Recoleta, this area is a little bit more up-and-coming, trendy and youthful. Sounds like me!

Once you start looking into Palermo though you find even more districts which hilariously are named after famous areas of U.S. cities like Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho. Palermo Soho is known for its laidback style and beautiful parks but also its crazy nightlife.


Thus, I looked for a place here and found multiple great options all at a cheaper price than I anticipated going in. I finally landed on Mine Hotel Boutique because of the Expedia pictures and the, yet again, flawless reviews on TripAdvisor.


All that's left now is to figure out Rio de Janiero.

Wine Tasting in Budapest

Question:

I am thinking of traveling to Budapest next May to taste wine. Is that a good time if year to visit and how long should I plan to stay to see the best of the city?

Answer:

Budapest is generally a great place to travel regardless of the time of year as even in winter the Christmas markets are amazing. I went in August and it was warm, but not too hot which was ideal for going to the baths, which Budapest is famous for. May is traditionally the best month to go although it is the most touristy time (not that Budapest is ever really overrun with tourists).


My suggestion would be to stay at the Art O'tel right near the river. It is close to the action and is reasonably priced for what you get. The breakfast is delicious and included.


In order to see all the sights of Budapest in a leisurely amount of time I suggest staying in the city area for 3-4 days, however if you are adding in wine tasting you should probably tack on a day or two.

Be sure to try Kekfrankos wine, which is famous in that region. In terms of dining the Hungarian Grey Cattle goes down well with a nice Cab. The most delicious restaurant, Kasca, is located on Kasca Street a few blocks down from the hotel. It is very romantic!


For more information on wine-tasting in the area here is a link you can check out:

http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/wine-tasting-in-budapest.html

For more information about Budapest in general visit the Hungary section of my website:

http://www.travel-addict.com/Trips/Hungary

Happy Travels!