The Ultimate Travel Guide to the Barossa Valley

Hello! Last year (in July 2023), my partner Luke and I stayed in the Barossa Valley, South Australia for a whole week and I have spoken about this on my blog before under my "travel" section but I thought I'd put together the ultimate travel guide (based on our experiences) for ya'll to enjoy. So here goes!

I would recommend spending longer than a week here because there is sooooo much to do!

First, I feel like I've gotta start by saying we actually didn't have the best start to our trip LOL, Luke forgot his wallet (which had his debit card and license in it) 2 hours into our trip, so thankfully his parents were able to come and meet us halfway so we didn't have to drive all the way back (and ironically, we never got pulled over or asked for ID anywhere - but if we didn't get it, we probably would have, ya know, Murphy's Law and all that). Thankfully, nothing else went wrong on the trip, other than myself getting a bit grumpy and tired. Bit doing an 8 hour drive in one day is very hard. Just saying.

The Barossa Valley is known for amazing food, epic wineries, chocolate, my favourite - donuts, and just being a great overall travel destination (and must-go travel destination, that is).

We stayed in an Airbnb in the little town "Tanunda" which was super cute but it's more of a base as you've gotta drive to get to places. Now, this is before we had any pets, so I probably won't do any pet friendly places for this guide, but do feel free to comment below if you're stayed in the Barossa Valley and have taken your furbabies with you.

"This" is the particular Airbnb we stayed in - and I think for a whole week (like 6 nights, 7 days, it was around about $1000AUD). So not too bad on price for a whole week. However, I think this particular Airbnb was heritage-listed (meaning unlikely that renovations could be made). So it was very very cold and it only had one toilet, which was at the other end of the house. It was comfortable BUT the only things I didn't particularly like was that there was only one toilet and it was really really cold. If you are someone with IBS and travelling with another person, then having another toilet helps. I guess Luke and I are lucky that both houses we've lived in so far have 3 toilets LOL.

If you're interested in staying in the Barossa Valley, I would suggest checking out some of these Airbnbs (not sponsored, but I'd love it if they would sponsor me one day because I love travelling and we wanna take Benji on many puppy adventures too):

• Rogasch Cottage

• Elders Office

• Tal House (where we stayed)

• Halletts Valley Hideaway

• Farm stay in Humbug Scrub, Australia

And we gotta start with the wineries because they were sooo fun!

The Best Wineries in Barossa Valley

• Saltram Wines (I got a cool scarf here) but we were too late for lunch so we just had a bit of an afternoon tasting. I felt classy. But the food menu did sound really appealing. Has anyone been here for lunch? Let me know in the comments below.

• Chateau Tanunda (my absolute favourite BECAUSE I got to try Tawny and it's the most amazing thing ever + the customer service here was epic - we bought so much wine, in fact, we still have wine from here). Tawny is kinda like a port dessert wine, it tastes like golden syrup, trust me, it's amazing.
  

• Barossa Valley Chocolate Company - here we did a wine pairing with chocolate tasting, it was soooooo yummy and the staff were amazing and so kind. If you wanna do something a bit different, I highly recommend doing a chocolate and wine tasting, it's so fun.

Wineries we missed (and need to go back to)

• Seppeltsfield

• Penfolds (a brand of wine I quite like)

• Chateau Yaldara (a wine shop I am 1000% going to purchase from)

• Honestly, there is sooo many we missed (we will go back one day, but don't worry, we did actually jam-pack each of our days there)

Foodie Vibes

Ahhh oh my god, this was honestly the BEST part of the Barossa Valley because there was SOOOOOOO much good food, and honestly, the best meal I've ever had - or "food" experience was at Maggie Beer's Farm Shop.

• The Farm Eatery (Maggie Beer) - oh my gosh, this was an experience, it was like an 6 course set menu where the food just kept coming and coming. It costs $100 PP but you get SOOOO much food, and the best bread you will ever have (fresh baked bread that changes every day). I remember the waiter said to us, there's so much more food coming don't eat all the bread, but we wanted to eat all the bread and we still ate all the food. SOOOO GOOD.

• 1918 Bistro & Grill - now we had been driving for like 8 hours on the first day so being able to get dinner here was epic and yes, I still think I was underdressed but the lady commented on my hoodie nonetheless LOL. This place had an epic dessert-tasting platter and amazing cocktails and I would go back here. As this was more of a "fine dining" experience, it was a bit pricier so just keep that in mind if you din here. But it was worth every cent we spent. The dessert cocktails + the dessert tasting platter were DELICIOUS.
  

• Bar Musque - ahh I really liked the vibe here, it was a good place to sit and people watch after a long day of driving, good drinks and good food. However, we did have to wait AGES for our cheese board which sucked because we didn't think it was something that needed so much effort? Like other people were getting hot mains before we did. We kinda think we got forgotten about, but it did eventually come, thankfully. It also had a sign out the front that was funny. I can't remember what it said exactly but it was really funny.

• Browns Barossa Donuts - okay so if you know me, you know how much I love donuts (yes, even though I have IBS, donuts are one of my favourite sweet treats, and omg, I was so excited when I got to try a vanilla slice donut). These donuts were hands down the best donuts I've ever eaten (and I've eaten a lot of donuts LOL).
  

• Barossa Valley Chocolate Company (yes, I'm putting this again because we bought some wine here and it's chocolate so who doesn't love it?)

• Barossa Valley Cheese - this was a cute wee spot where you can do a cheese tasting and buy all the cheese.
  

• Four Seasons of Nosh - oh my gosh, surprisingly, we only went out for brunch ONCE (I know, who are we?) on this trip and we went to this cute AF cafe. The aesthetic was a major vibe, it was cosy, they had smoothies, good coffee, and good food + the staff were lovely too. I absolutely recmmend checking this place out if you're ever in the heart of Tanunda.

• Barossa 50s diner - a bit of a quirky place and you've gotta try a milkshake here because they are so yummy! Look at how much of a 1950s vibe this place was, it was also giving major Riverdale vibes + it was always really busy. However, the management staff were a bit mean to the non management staff if they didn't go fast enough so I wasn't a fan of that. But hey, they could have just been having a bad day.

• Char Barossa - I liked this restaurant, the food was nice, the staff was nice, but it just wasn't AS good as some of the other foodie places we'd tried and I think it was a bit more expensive than we were expecting, but they did do one of my favourite things a restaurant can do and that's a dessert platter. When we came out of this restaurant, the weather was spooky (see photo 6 below).

• Royal Copenhagen Ice Cream Bar, Brighton (so technically in Adelaide) - we stopped for ice cream here because why not? I think the flavours were chocolate, caramel and then some sort of "cookie monster" flavour but I'm not 100% sure on that one.
  

• FruChocs, Tanunda Shop - sooo apparently FruChocs are one of those South Australian staple foods that you've just gotta try. Basically, they are apricot/peach candies covered in chocolate (I think, I'm not 100% on that one, but that's how they tasted). And yes, I know I'm no supposed to eat apricot (due to my IBS), but one of these didn't hurt me when I was offered to try it. I think that if I did live in South Australia, I would have to start eating apricots because they seem to be in lots of dishes. But they did have a lot of other candies to try to. We ended up buying a few things from this shop, like white chocolate rasberry FruChocs and Violet Crumble (that was so good). I also have to mention here that along with FruChocs being the "local" cuisine you have to try, there is also that thing called a Frog Cake. Luke bought one from a supermarket for me to try and it was honestly disgusting. Have a read of the wiki page I linked. Just so weird (sorry not sorry).

• German Arms Hotel, Hahndorf - ahh this was such a cute wee town to explore, I kinda wish we had more time here or at least a whole day rather than just the afternoon. Of course, being in a "German" town, we had to go to the German Arms Hotel and the food was yummy, I liked the beer paddle and the dessert, the pretzels were okay but I wish they were better. A good novelty thing to try though.

Astrophotography + Animals/Nature Spots

• Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park - we had some trouble finding this place but it was a super cute loop walk where you could see so much wildlife. It was a bit rainy and cold on the day we went, but we saw kangaroos, wallabies, and soooo many birds. Some we still don't know the names of!

• Moorunde Wildlife Reserve - oh my gosh, I absolutely loved this walk. We went here twice (I think), the first night we tried to do some astro here but there was a bit too many power lines so it didn't really work out and the second time we did the walk where you might be able to see some wombats. We didn't see any wombats at the walk BUT WE did see them when we got back in the car and drove back LOL.

• River Murray Dark Sky Reserve - hands down, the best place I've ever been to take astro-photos (other than NZ of course) but it was so cool how they have designated areas for people to set up their camera gear and telescopes, amazing. We did want to come here for a sunset but we just didn't get a chance too. One day though!
  

Adelaide Spots

Soooo we also went to Adelaide 2/7 days we were in the Barossa and I wish we got to stay there because I did like it (although Rundle Mall scared me a little bit with how much it met the "sister" city vibes of CHCH).

• Adelaide Zoo - one word for you: PANDAS. I wasn't a panda fan before I went here, but once seeing them IRL, I was like "I get it". They are so cute and cheeky. I still think they're kinda dumb though.

• Adelaide Botanic Gardens - another great spot, right next to the zoo and there was this massive bat colony and we saw a kookaburra eating a mouse here. We also met a photographer here who was also as excited as us watching the kookaburra eat the mouse.

• Adelaide Oval - if you're ever in Adelaide, getting a tour of the Adelaide Oval is a must do! Put it on your list!! I honestly was like "I'm not a sports person, I won't enjoy this" but it was really cool you learn sooooo much AND you get to go in the media room which I thought was the coolest thing (aka the room where the journalists sit). And I don't think it's that expensive either.

• Glenelg Beach (plus all the other ones along that drive) - words can't describe how amazing these were, I would love to live near these beaches.

• Rundle Mall - a cute shopping strip that made me feel a bit off because of how much it looked like my home town CHCH and a lot of things went wrong for me in CHCH. I kinda wish there were more foodie places to check out because I think that would have been cool. I did enjoy "the balls" scuplturesculpture though.

So there you go, the ultimate guide to travelling the Barossa Valley. A great winter escape. Have you been yet?

See you soon! Much love,

Ash xoxo

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