5 Reasons to love Adelaide

Hi there!

Welcome back 😃.

I’ve been living in Adelaide for over 2 months now and I haven’t really written much about it since I posted my “Adelaide, who?” blog.

And I just wanted to zoom in on a few things. Because Adelaide is a fairly unpopular location I believe for travellers and backpackers, but as a traveler myself, I can only recommend!

Why? I’ll tell you 5 reasons why I love Adelaide:

1. The beaches! (And the amazing sunsets)

They’re amazing. And endless.

What I look for in a new city is a very simple: the simplicity of things and not just one or two main beaches to choose from. Oh, and a few good chai places, but that’s generally covered just for being an Australian city.

But back to the beaches: most cities I’ve been to in Australia have a few main beaches to choose from and they’re usually not connected to each other. This means the most convenient beaches are quite popular and therefore crowded.

What I look for in a city is just one looooong strip of beach all the way down the coastline. And Adelaide has that.

See? It’s just a block of city on the right and suburbs around it. And once you hit the coast, it’s just an endless beach all the way down to like Melbourne or something.

Well, that might be a bit of a stretch. BUT trust me when I say: it’s the best city to find quiet and local beaches and to go for endless strolls along the coastline without bumping into rocks or creeks or you know, annoying buildings or even worse: a crowd.

It just takes a train, tram, or bus ride to get to a coastal suburb and you can very easily figure it out from there.

My favourite non-touristy beaches I’ve been to so far are Seacliff, Brighton, and Grange Beach. They’re all very easily reachable by train from the city and I haven’t seem them crowded yet at all. There are a few hidden not too crowded cafes in these areas as well.

2. The public transport

Which brings me to the next thing on the list: the public transport. It’s SO straightforward, it’s almost ridiculous.

In a good way.

So far, I’ve only been taking the train because of personal preference, but that in itself is jus the most convenient thing in the world. The trains are short and have a moustache at both ends, which, when I saw it for the first that, spoke to my heart immediately. I love little whimsical things like that. Especially since they did this to support the Movember Madness.

But it’s also so easy. Trains go every 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the time and day. There is one central train station in the city, and this is the base of all local trains. They come in and leave in the same direction which means that it’s always possible for a train to come in early so most of the times I find the next train waiting at the platform up to 10 minutes before the train actually leaves. So, you can get a nice spot and settle in instead of getting into the funnel of a million people trying to get on the train as soon as it arrives 2 minutes before its departure time.

Anyways, I can go on and on but that might become a bit boring. All I’m trying to say is: Adelaide is a very public transport friendly city and the trains and stations are very well maintained and also safe.

3. The vibe

Adelaide has SUCH a good vibe. Sure, there are some weird people around. It’s still a relatively large city, but the overall vibe is just good. It’s so chill. I mentioned this in my previous blog already, but I just wanted to point out it hasn’t changed. And that says a lot. First impressions only go so far, but this first impression was spot on.

The people are friendly and relaxed. Like I said before, it’s a relatively small city, so it’s easy to remember faces and to run into the same people in cafes, on the train, at yoga class, etc. and people are just friendly and open for a chat.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still one of my biggest nightmares to end up in a boring smalltalky situation I can’t get out of, but so far, I’ve actually only had pleasant random chats with people I met randomly.

4. The Hills

Ah, the hills.

So, there’s this thing in Adelaide. People will want to live near the beach but also love the hills. It’s kind of like a Sofie’s choice. Because the beach is on the left side of the city and the hills on the right. This might not mean much to you, but if you draw a straight line between the two right through the city, it’s at least 25 kilometers to get from one side to the other. Having to cross suburbs, busy traffic, and the city.

So, it’s a pretty big choice here: do we go for the hills or the ocean? Because the stupid city is always going to be in the way.

My personal preference is the ocean side. But without a car, it is really difficult to get to the beautiful spots in the hills. Even with the fantastically organized public transport situation I talked about, it’s always tricky to find your way to more remote areas around the city in Australia.

My solution is to make friends with people who have cars or motorcycles and can take me to beautiful spots in the hills, because it is very much worth it. The views are beautiful and there’s so much wildlife.

5. The community

The sense of community in Adelaide is so great.

Ever since I’ve been off social media, I’ve been waiting for the moment I would start missing it, because it could have easily happened that I would feel like I’m missing out.

Adelaide is such a community drive city, it feels like everything that is happening and needs to be communicated, will be communicated mouth-to-mouth. It feels like one big social community group where people actually still prefer talking to each other in real life instead of via their social media profiles.

Do I sound like a granny now? Yes, I know. I realise. And I love it.

This is the vibe I was looking for, that’s all I’m saying.

And that sums it up for now.

I could go on and on about little things I enjoy about Adelaide, but these are the general things I wanted to share now.

I will zoom into perfect hidden gems for chai and laptop work sometime, but for now I am going back to the offline world to enjoy my life!

Bye!

Xoxo, Domi

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