The Best Adelaide Accommodation For Every Budget

Whether you’re looking for affordable accommodation or high-end luxury, here’s where to stay in Adelaide.

If you’re heading to Adelaide for work or pleasure, or planning a staycation, there is nothing like staying somewhere where you will find everything you need on your doorstep. From boutique heritage boltholes to newly refurbished hotels, from campsites and caravan parks to luxury accommodation and chic Airbnbs on the city’s fringes, here is a look at eight of the best places to stay in Adelaide.

Sequoia Luxury Lodge

Sequoia Luxury Lodge is nestled in the Adelaide Hills and it’s as exquisite as a glass of the Mount Lofty House Summit sparkling wine produced exclusively for guests from the grapes grown on the grounds where the vineyard sits. The $18 million luxury lodge comprises 14 luxury sustainably designed suites, an infinity pool and a day spa. Guests at Sequoia also have access to the three-hatted Hardy’s Veranda Restaurant at nearby Mount Lofty House, which is also located on the 12-hectare estate.

Sequoia Adelaide Hills — The doors to Sequoia have quietly opened in the Adelaide Hills.

Mayfair Hotel

One for Adelaide architecture fans, the Mayfair Hotel is set inside the old Colonial Mutual Building, which was transformed into a stylish five-star place to stay in 2015. Located on busy King William Street, the city’s main drag, the Mayfair offers 10 different styles of rooms with all the trappings you’d expect of a high-end hotel: espresso machines, Appelles amenities, fluffy bathrobes and slippers and a complimentary mini-bar. Take in the breathtaking views from the hotel’s Hennessy Rooftop Bar, named after the building’s architects: Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. and dine at the stylish The Den downstairs.

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The Playford

The Playford is located opposite the Adelaide Convention Centre and minutes from Adelaide’s major retail and restaurant zone, making it a popular choice for business travellers. From its gold-leaf walls to its sweeping grand staircase and bold curves, the MGallery by Sofitel hotel – once home to Adelaide newspaper, The News – has a warm Art Nouveau ambience. All up, the hotel in the heart of Adelaide’s cultural precinct offers 182 beautifully appointed guest rooms.

Adabco Boutique Hotel

Adabco Boutique Hotel was originally opened as Our Boys’ Institution in 1897, an accommodation provider that preceded the YMCA. Housed in a charming, heritage-listed building, there is a distinct playful style on show in the boutique hotel with hand-painted artworks and a palette of warm gold and claret reds tempered with original features that will transport you back to the original 19th-century Venetian Gothic-style building. The hotel, located on a leafy street in Adelaide’s east, features spacious rooms, a communal kitchen and a relaxing lounge and dining area just a 10-minute walk to the city centre.

Adabco hotel — Adabco is housed in a charming, heritage-listed building.

Holiday Inn Express

The Holiday Inn Express Adelaide City Centre is located in the north-west quarter of Adelaide’s CBD and although it looks rather austere from the outside, the nine-level, 245-room hotel is all warmth and colour and fun inside with colourful rugs, bold artworks and impressive murals livening things up. The new hotel provides easy access to Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Convention Centre and Rundle Mall and offers guests a free Express Start Breakfast or Grab & Go option.

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Fire Station Inn

As far as fire engine-obsessed kids are concerned, there’s no other accommodation in Adelaide that holds a candle to the Fire Station Inn. There’s nothing flash or subtle about the North Adelaide property, but that’s the whole point. The 4.5-star inn sleeps a maximum of four in a suite splashed with colour from a bright-red 1942 International Fire Truck, which takes pride of place in the Fire Engine Spa Suite. Housed in Adelaide’s first Fire Station (built circa 1866), the suite also includes fireman lights, a red fireman’s pole and memorabilia.

Discovery Holiday Parks Adelaide Beachfront

With West Lakes and Glenelg beaches nearby, there’s plenty to do at the Adelaide Beachfront holiday and caravan park. In addition to luxuries such as an en suite, hot showers and laundry facilities, a stay here also offers access to nearby West Lakes, Henley Beach and Glenelg, which are well worth including on your Adelaide itinerary. Suitable for tents, campervans, and caravans, the pet-friendly campground has a swimming pool, bouncing pool, activity room and kiosk.

Discovery Parks Adelaide Beachfront — Location, location, location.

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Located just an hour north-west of Melbourne, the largely undiscovered Macedon Ranges quietly pours some of Australia’s finest cool-climate wines and serves up some of Victoria’s best food.

Mention the Macedon Ranges and most people will think of day spas and mineral springs around Daylesford, cosy weekends away in the countryside or the famous Hanging Rock (of enigmatic picnic fame). Or they won’t have heard of the Macedon Ranges at all.

But this cool-climate destination has been inconspicuously building a profile as a high-quality food and wine region and is beginning to draw serious attention from oenophiles and epicureans alike.

The rise of Macedon Ranges wine

liquid gold barrels at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — Barrels of liquid gold at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

With elevations ranging from 300 to 800 metres, Macedon Ranges vineyards are among the highest in the country. This altitude, combined with significant day/night temperature swings, makes for a slow ripening season, in turn nurturing wines that embody elegance and structure. Think crisp chardonnays, subtle yet complex pinot noirs and delicate sparkling wines, along with niche varietals, such as gamay and nebbiolo.

Despite the region’s natural advantages – which vary from estate to estate, as each site embodies unique terroir depending on its position in relation to the Great Dividing Range, soil make-up and altitude – the Macedon Ranges has remained something of an insider’s secret. Unlike Victoria’s Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula, you won’t find large tour buses here and there’s no mass marketing drawing crowds.

Many of the 40-odd wineries are family-run operations with modest yields, meaning the wineries maintain a personal touch (if you visit a cellar door, you’ll likely chat to the owner or winemaker themselves) and a tight sales circle that often doesn’t go far beyond said cellar door. And that’s part of the charm.

Though wines from the Macedon Ranges are just starting to gain more widespread recognition in Australia, the first vines were planted in the 1860s, with a handful of operators then setting up business in the 1970s and ’80s. The industry surged again in the 1990s and early 2000s with the entry of wineries, such as Mount Towrong, which has an Italian slant in both its wine and food offering, and Curly Flat, now one of the largest estates.

Meet the new generation of local winemakers

the Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. — The Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Then, within the last 15 years, a new crop of vignerons like Andrew Wood at Kyneton Ridge Estate, whose vineyard in 2024 was the first in the Macedon Ranges to be certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia; Geoff Plahn and Samantha Reid at Paramoor, who have an impressive cellar door with a roaring fire and studded leather couches in an old Clydesdale barn; and Ollie Rapson and Renata Morello at Lyons Will, who rapidly expanded a small vineyard to focus on top-shelf riesling, gamay, pinot noir and chardonnay, have taken ownership of local estates.

Going back to the early days, Llew Knight’s family was one of the pioneers of the 1970s, replacing sheep with vines at Granite Hills when the wool industry dwindled. Knight is proud of the fact that all their wines are made with grapes from their estate, including a light, peppery shiraz (some Macedon wineries purchase fruit from nearby warmer areas, such as Heathcote, particularly to make shiraz) and a European-style grüner veltliner. And, as many other wineries in the region do, he relies on natural acid for balance, rather than an additive, which is often required in warmer regions. “It’s all about understanding and respecting your climate to get the best out of your wines,” he says.

farm animals atKyneton Ridge Estate — Curious residents at Kyneton Ridge Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Throughout the Macedon Ranges, there’s a growing focus on sustainability and natural and low-intervention wines, with producers, such as Brian Martin at Hunter Gatherer making waves in regenerative viticulture. Martin previously worked in senior roles at Australia’s largest sparkling winemaking facility, and now applies that expertise and his own nous to natural, hands‑off, wild-fermented wines, including pét‑nat, riesling and pinot noir. “Wild fermentation brings more complexity,” he says. “Instead of introducing one species of yeast, you can have thousands and they add different characteristics to the wine.”

the vineyard at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The estate’s vineyard, where cool-climate grapes are grown. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Most producers also focus on nurturing their grapes in-field and prune and pick by hand, thus avoiding the introduction of impurities and the need to meddle too much in the winery. “The better the quality of the fruit, the less you have to interfere with the natural winemaking process,” says Wood.

Given the small yields, there’s also little room for error, meaning producers place immense focus on quality. “You’re never going to compete in the middle [in a small region] – you’ve got to aim for the top,” says Curly Flat owner Jeni Kolkka. “Big wineries try to do things as fast as possible, but we’re in no rush,” adds Troy Walsh, owner and winemaker at Attwoods. “We don’t use commercial yeasts; everything is hand-harvested and everything is bottled here, so we bottle only when we’re ready, not when a big truck arrives.” That’s why, when you do see a Macedon Ranges product on a restaurant wine list, it’s usually towards the pointy end.

Come for the wine, stay for the food

pouring sauce onto a dish at Lake HouseDaylesford — Dining at Lake House Daylesford is a treat. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

If wine is the quiet achiever of the Macedon Ranges, then food is its not-so-secret weapon. In fact, the area has more hatted restaurants than any other region in Victoria. A pioneer of the area’s gourmet food movement is region cheerleader Alla Wolf-Tasker, culinary icon and founder of Daylesford’s Lake House.

For more than three decades, Wolf-Tasker has championed local producers and helped define what regional fine dining can look like in Australia. Her influence is palpable, not just in the two-hatted Lake House kitchen, but in the broader ethos of the region’s dining scene, as a wave of high-quality restaurants have followed her lead to become true destination diners.

the Midnight Starling restaurant in Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The hatted Midnight Starling restaurant is located in Kyneton. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

It’s easy to eat well, whether at other hatted restaurants, such as Midnight Starling in the quaint town of Kyneton, or at the wineries themselves, like Le Bouchon at Attwoods, where Walsh is inspired by his time working in France in both his food offering and winemaking.

The beauty of dining and wine touring in the Macedon Ranges is that it feels intimate and unhurried. You’re likely to meet the winemaker, hear about the trials of the latest vintage firsthand, and taste wines that never make it to city shelves. And that’s worth getting out of the city for – even if it is just an hour down the road.

Delicate dishes on the menu at Midnight Starling. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

the accommodation at Cleveland Estate, Macedon Ranges — Stay at the Cleveland Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Soak up vineyard views from Cleveland Estate near Lancefield, embrace retro charm at Kyneton Springs Motel or indulge in lakeside luxury at the Lake House.

Eating there

Enjoy a four-course menu at the one-hatted Surly Goat in Hepburn Springs, Japanese-inspired fare at Kuzu in Woodend or unpretentious fine dining at Mount Monument, which also has a sculpture park.

Drinking there

wine tasting at PassingClouds Winery, Macedon Ranges — A tasting at Passing Clouds Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Settle in for a tasting at Boomtown in Castlemaine, sample local drops at the cosy Woodend Cellar & Bar or wine-hop around the many cellar doors, such as Passing Clouds.

the Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar signage — Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Playing there

a scenic river in Castlemaine — Idyllic scenes at Castlemaine. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Wander through the seasonal splendour of Forest Glade Gardens, hike to the summit of Hanging Rock, or stroll around the tranquil Sanatorium Lake.

purple flowers hanging from a tree — Purple flowers hanging from a tree. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

The best Adelaide accommodation for every budget