18 Unique Things To Do In The Barossa Valley- Australian Traveller

This article was originally written by Kristie Lau-Adams with updates by Megan Arkinstall.

Shake off dusty morning-after brain with our list of fun things to do in the Barossa Valley that don’t include (too much) wine.

While almost 100 cellar doors, each pouring their own version of the world’s finest liquid gold, are this region’s shining stars, the Barossa Valley also doubles as a playground for gourmands, creatives and outdoorsy types. These 18 things to do in the Barossa Valley will keep your entire group happy – even kids – from art galleries to walking tracks and wellness experiences (with a few sips of wine for good measure).  

1. Natural Perfumery Workshop at Vasse Virgin

Vasse Virgin Workshops — Book in for a Natural Perfumery Workshop at Vasse Virgin. (Image: Josie Withers)

While most Barossans dabble in the art of winemaking, Louis and Edwina Scherini played around with skincare. Striking the perfect blend of sensitivity and luxury through a base of quality extra virgin olive oil, the couple launched a successful product range which eventually broadened to gourmet foods and a couple of stores.

Today, they offer a 60-minute Natural Perfumery Workshop at their Vasse Virgin Soap Factory on Seppeltsfield Road where the team share their know-how in layering scents to find your own winner. Priced at $100 per person, the class includes a 15ml bottle of your creation, plus the detailed recipe to take home with you.

2. Barossa Sculpture Park

Allow a series of arresting marble and granite sculptures to steal your gaze from vineyards – and the bottom of a glass – momentarily. The Barossa Sculpture Park on Mengler Hill Road in Bethany is home to a collection of 17 locally crafted abstract artworks that each glisten against the region’s rugged landscape.

They’re a captivating sight, almost as though they’ve slowly risen from the ground to further beautify the magical region, so visiting even for a few minutes is a surprisingly rewarding thing to do in the Barossa Valley.

The earliest sculptures date back to 1988 and standouts include ‘A Memory of the Keyhole’, reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and ‘Persephone’ complete with a beautiful lounging woman carved atop.

3. Mengler Hill Lookout

While you’re parked in the car park servicing the Sculpture Park, head on up to the Mengler Hill Lookout for sweeping, panoramic views of the Barossa Valley. A popular pit-stop on many of the region’s top-rated wine tours, this vantage point offers the best of the area in just a single glance – rows of vines, rich farmland, 50 shades of greenery and those signature rolling hills. The Sculpture Park is located right at the base of the lookout, so you can double-dip without any hassle.

4. Gardens at Barossa Valley Estate

Glorious scenery can also be spied at Barossa Valley Estate’s rainbow-hued gardens , a soothing, joyful thing to do in the Barossa Valley all on its own. Claiming the title of “Australia’s largest perennial gardens", the space was designed by legendary Australian landscape designer and author Paul Bangay, and it’s utterly delightful.

Whether you’re a lover of landscape artistry or not, there’s no denying the charms of this heavenly design. Throwing an entire colour wheel of shades as the seasons rotate, it’s a photographer’s dream, even if your skills extend as far as social media. It’s also the perfect backdrop to the brand’s contemporary cellar door, and you’ll marvel and meander much longer than you initially plan.

5. Barossa Arts Centre

Time your visit to the region with a performance at the Barossa Arts Centre , located in central Tanunda, a venue that’s also hired out for intimate events such as local school services and forums. Home to a range of regular shows that span musicals, comedy, rock, orchestras, choirs and theatre, the centre offers a constant string of entertainment. Past events have included Elvis Presley tribute nights, country music acts such as Adam Harvey and Beccy Cole, and operatic royalty Marina Prior and David Hobson. Check out the website for ticketing information and dates.

6. Barossa Valley Golf Club

kangaroos on a golf course, Barossa Valley — Meet the resident roos at the Barossa Valley Golf Club.

Grip it and rip it surrounded by the region’s distinct natural beauty at the Barossa Valley Golf Club . This luscious 18-hole golf course is in Nuriootpa, home to a superb range of Barossa Valley accommodation options plus a scattering of the finest wineries, so teeing off in the early morning (as early as 6am on Saturdays) should be nice and convenient.

Its popular competition days are staged every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and visitors are always welcome. Snap up 18 holes for $45 per adult, or just 9 holes for $35, and golf buggies can be hired with prices starting at $30.

There’s also a strict heat policy so when the mercury hits 41 degrees, the club shuts its doors to ensure guest safety, so your experience should be comfortable (albeit dotted with the odd visit from a local kangaroo) every time.

7. Beyond Wellness

Soothe yourself with a scenic yoga session at Beyond Wellness. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Turning your Barossa adventure into a wellness makeover is easy, too, thanks to the team at Beyond Wellness . Whether you’re after a scenic yoga session, sunrise hiking or a multi-day health retreat, they’ll have you at your sparkling best before you toast to the new you with a bottle of shiraz.

Family experiences are also available, such as Forest Foraging and a Family Adventure, which includes activities such as bushwalking and kayaking, all aimed at fostering bonds and exploration with your family.

Wellness retreats are held across the Barossa, from Seppeltsfield Estate to Kingsford The Barossa, and include the perfect balance between nourishing your body with exercise and mindful activities and enjoying some beautiful wine and food, for which the region is known.

8. Barossa Bike Hire

Bike Hire Jacobs Creek Barossa — Cycle to some of Barossa’s top wineries. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Keen to tackle Barossa on a set of wheels? Barossa Bike Hire not only has a wide range of e-bikes, helping you see the best of the area without breaking a sweat, but it also offers tours for every kind of cyclist.

The six-hour ‘Barista, Brewer, Wine Cycle Tour’ runs Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and circles 20 kilometres of the northern end of the region through Nuriootpa, home to some of the Barossa Valley’s best foodie experiences including Maggie Beer’s farm and her daughter’s The Farm Eatery restaurant.

It includes coffee, thank goodness, three cellar-door wine tastings and lunch. The ultra-romantic, self-guided ‘Sunset and Sparkles Cycle Tour’ is also available. Its three-hour itinerary kicks off with a care package of local sparkling wine before winding through many of the Barossa’s busiest towns along mostly flat terrain.

9. Barossa Valley Chocolate Company

Delight the kids in tow, plus your own inner child, with a visit to the famous Barossa Valley Chocolate Company , a must-experience for sweet tooths of all ages. The multi-award-winning team handcrafts more than 250 delicious creations from locally sourced ingredients, blending them with high-quality Aussie and Belgian chocolate.

But there’s so much more than the stash of goodies you’ll take home. Offering irresistible chocolate pairings with wine or cheese, plus a cafe serving up lunch on a beautiful waterfront deck and an ice creamery, this culinary hot spot ticks a lot of boxes.

10. Seppeltsfield Road Distillers

Switch out the vino for some excellent gin at Seppeltsfield Road Distillers , a mover and shaker on the Barossa scene. Not only are the spirits themselves exceptional, with the brand’s ‘Barossa Shiraz Gin’ a standout among critics, but the space itself is also relaxed and full of good times.

Take a seat in an alcove amongst the venue’s outdoor multi-level deck or sink into a comfy chair on the lush lawn. If it’s miserable out, the indoor space is equally inviting as clever cocktails roll out around you. Make it a day to remember by grabbing a gin flight to sample the best in stock, and pair it with one of their small and simple, yet sensational, charcuterie platters.

11. Lyndoch Lavender Farm and Cafe

While the on-site cafe is one of the best Barossa Valley destinations for an epic lunch of lavender-infused treats, Lyndoch Lavender Farm and Cafe is worth a journey to inspect the grounds alone. More than two hectares of the pretty purple blooms spread right across the landscape, as does the odd sprinkling of herbs including sage, basil and rosemary.

You can learn more about the working farm on one of their tours, available within groups or as self-guided expeditions. Scones, plus tea and coffee are also included, but the real take-home will be one of their outstanding lavender cookies. Consider us lavender converts.

12. Barossa Valley winery cellar doors

We held off as long as we could. While the Barossa Valley’s wonderful cellar doors are obviously primely positioned for a day of wine tasting, plenty of the Barossa Valley’s finest cellar doors offer an incredible amount more.

Frequented by the region’s best-rated winery tours, the likes of Yalumba, which offers a tour of its personal cooperage, the only winery cooperage in the country, and Jacob’s Creek, which offers table tennis and gourmet group picnics on its picture-perfect lawn, deserve quality time to be explored in full.

13. Barossa Valley Ballooning’s hot air balloons

a hot air balloon over the Barossa Valley — Admire the landscape from up above in a hot air balloon over the Barossa. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

What better way to soak in the region’s most spectacular vistas than in a gentle-moving, hour-long hot air balloon ride at sunrise, courtesy of Barossa Valley Ballooning ? Meeting you at the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort in Rowland Flat around an hour before the sun commences its ascent, the expert team will have you sensationally soaring before landing you safely back at the resort. There, you’ll be treated to a champagne breakfast with a generous side of views out across the Barossa Ranges. A morning for the ages, it’s priced at $395 per person.

14. Small Batch Wine Tours

a tasting platter at Small Batch Wine Tours, Barossa Valley — Don’t miss out on indulgent tastings with Small Batch Wine Tours. (Image: Duy Dash)

With more than 90 cellar doors across the Barossa Valley, it can be overwhelming to know which to visit. Small Batch Wine Tours is like your private wine concierge, opening doors to bespoke cellar doors that you may otherwise overlook in Australia’s most famous wine region, as well as neighbouring McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills.

There’s a premium shared group tour and a private flexible tour option, both of which include wine tastings and lunch. Oenophiles should consider the Barossa Shiraz Subregion Tour on which you’ll learn about and taste some of the region’s most rare and collective shirazes. If you’re more interested in the iconic heavyweights that put Barossa Valley wine on the world map – Penfolds and Henschke – book the Ultimate Barossa Wine Tour, which is the only tour that has access to tastings of both Penfold’s Grange and Henschke’s Hill of Grace in one day.

15. Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park

western grey kangaroos at Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park — Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park is a lush haven for western grey kangaroos. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Stretch your legs with a visit to Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park , just 12 kilometres south-east of Tanunda and home to two walking tracks. The 4.7-kilometre Wallowa Hike leads to a lookout at the top of a granite rock outcrop for panoramic views of the Barossa ranges and the valley floor below.

While the shorter two-kilometre Stringybark Hike is a flat and easy walk through dense stringybark forest, perfect for families to do together. Watch for western grey kangaroos and native birds such as honeyeaters, tree-creepers, rosellas and lorikeets.

16. Third Space Float & Wellness Studio

a look inside Third Space Float & Wellness Studio — Spend a wellness weekend with friends at Third Space Float & Wellness Studio.

The Barossa is known for its delectable food and wine offerings. But when it’s time for a break from the indulgence, focus on your body and mind at Third Space Float & Wellness Studio .

Located within Tanunda, this studio offers naturopathy, massage, reiki, kinesiology and a float studio, where you can completely switch off and experience weightlessness. It’s a calming space to zen out after a few days of cellar-door-hopping.

17. Wonderground

This immersive contemporary art gallery and cellar door is worth seeking out if you’re an art and wine lover.

Located at the new Mirus Vineyards in Marananga, the Wondergound gallery is housed within an old farmhouse and comprises five rooms of art, showcasing both local and interstate artists. You’re welcome to enjoy a glass of wine as you browse the artworks and linger longer at the cellar door, which has views of the rolling vineyards of Seppeltsfield and Marananga.

There are plenty of experiences to be had, too, with twice-weekly yoga classes, bespoke art workshops and platters available to purchase and enjoy on the lawns, terrace or by the fire pit in the cooler months.

18. Barossa Bowland

the bowling centre at Barossa Bowland — Gear up for a memorable bowl time. (Image: Barossa Bowland)

Adults can’t have all the fun. Families can offset the energy of their little ones between winery visits at Barossa Bowland , which has dinosaur-themed mini golf, a maze and dinosaur walk, and a ten-pin bowling centre.

The 18-hole mini golf features giant prehistoric creatures such as T-rex and triceratops, while the good old-fashioned ten-pin bowling arcade is the perfect activity for rainy days (or simply when you’ve had your fill of vino).

This article was originally written by Kristie Lau-Adams with updates by Megan Arkinstall.

Need somewhere to stay? Discover the best accommodation in the Barossa Valley

Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd . In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park — The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd — Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles . I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain — Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail , Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

“There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

wildflowers in Grampians National Park — Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola — Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region ? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

dining at Pomonal Estate — Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

Salingers of Great Western — Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

Kookaburras on a tree — Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity .

Playing there

abseiling down Hollow Mountain — Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors . Visit Wama , Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium .

Eating there

steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate . Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock , can’t be beat.

Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park — The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe . Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines , Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines .

two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.

18 fun things to do in the Barossa Valley