Gift experiences, Adelaide: 15 top Christmas & birthday presents

Great gift experiences in Adelaide include private wine tours, high tea cruises and swimming with dolphins. Find the perfect Christmas or birthday present with these 15 ideas…

If you’re looking for a birthday or Christmas gift experience in Adelaide, South Australia, there’s no shortage of options. The following activities have been picked out as good options both for local Adelaide residents and visiting tourists.

All prices listed below were correct at the time of writing.

Gift experiences, Adelaide: Wine tours

Perhaps the obvious choice for an Adelaide gift experience is a wine tasting day tour to the Barossa Valley. A full day trip with several wine tastings at multiple wineries costs from $159. BOOK HERE.

You can put a food slant on the whole Barossa wine experience with a tour that also visits the Maggie Beer Farm. These tours also cost $159. BOOK HERE.

Another way of going beyond the wine is a Barossa Valley tour that also stops at a distillery and brewery for gin and beer tasting. Again, expect to pay $159. BOOK HERE.

For a more personalised, exclusive experience, a private wine tour is the way to go. Guides on these Barossa Valley private tours tailor the visited wineries to your tastes. The price is ostensibly much higher at from $598, but that’s the price for the whole group, rather than per person. BOOK HERE.

If you’d prefer to go south, there are also wine and food tours in the McLaren Vale. The best of these pay a visit to the somewhat psychedelic d’Arenberg Cube. These small group tours cost from $195. BOOK HERE.

There’s also the option of doing the McLaren Vale in a luxury vehicle on a private tour. These tours cost from $196 per person. BOOK HERE.

The third wine region around Adelaide is the Adelaide Hills. Full day winery-hopping tours here cost from $189. BOOK HERE.

Another twist on the wine tour is a visit to the Penfolds Magill Estate. Here, an estate tour, plus a tasting of Australia’s most revered wine – Penfold’s Grange – costs $150. BOOK HERE.

Gift experiences, Adelaide: Food tours

If you’re more into food than wine, then you can take a two hour foodie walking tour around some of Adelaide’s best boutique food stores and market stalls. Even residents tend to end up making a new discovery, and the tours cost from $85. BOOK HERE.

Another food-based treat is having high tea while cruising down the Torrens River. These high tea cruises on the Popeye cost $95. BOOK HERE.

Wildlife gift experiences, Adelaide

Adelaide gift experiences for wildlife-lovers include a kayaking tour in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary. These paddling tours see you glide through the mangroves, getting wonderfully close to the dolphins that call the area home. The trips cost from $72. BOOK HERE.

If you’d prefer a boat to do the hard work, then there are also dolphin-watching cruises in Holdfast Bay. These cruises depart from Glenelg Marina and cost from $78. BOOK HERE.

If you want to get in the water and swim with the dolphins, it costs from $130. BOOK HERE.

Active gift experiences in Adelaide

For the more adventurous birthday boy or girl, a mountain bike descent of Mount Lofty is a good option. These Adelaide bike tours start at the top of Mount Lofty, heading along bushland tracks and descending into the city. Bikes are provided, and the half day trips cost from $129. BOOK HERE.

You can also test your head for heights at the Adelaide Oval, where the Roofclimb experience sees visitors clipped on with harnesses as they walk all over the stadium roof. This Adelaide gift experience costs from $109. BOOK HERE.