What are the quirkiest tours and activities in South Australia?

From hot air ballooning flights in the Barossa Valley to swimming with sea lions at Baird Bay – 30 quirky tours and activities in South Australia for visitors who want something a bit different.

Many visitors to South Australia don’t get too far beyond seeing Adelaide’s heritage buildings, tasting Haigh’s chocolate and sampling wines in the Barossa Valley. But widen your horizons a little, and there are several weird and wonderful things to do in South Australia. Australia Travel Questions has covered a fair few of them on the site, too.

Here are a few suggestions for unusual tours and activities in South Australia. Why not add some of them to your Australian holiday itinerary next time you fly into Adelaide?

Quirky tours and activities in South Australia: The hotlist

1. Go snorkelling in the Kilsby Sinkhole near Mount Gambier.
2. Try hot air ballooning in the Barossa Valley.
3. Enjoy a show home tour at one of the underground houses in Coober Pedy.
4. Take the horse-drawn tram to Granite Island in Victor Harbor.
5. Take a scenic flight over Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest salt lake.
6. Go swimming with sea lions at Baird Bay.
7. Spot southern right whales from the clifftop lookout at Head of Bight.
8. Explore inside the ocean-carved Tantanoola Caves near Mount Gambier.
9. Play the world’s longest golf course – the Nullarbor Links – across the Nullarbor.
10. Meet emus on the beach in the Coffin Bay National Park.
11. Stay in a shipping container hotel at a McLaren Vale winery.
12. Go horse riding on the beach at Normanville on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
13. Reset your watch in Border Village, where one of the world’s strangest time zones kicks in.
14. See the enormous collection of windmills in Penong.
15. Climb all over one of Australia’s favourite sporting arenas on the Adelaide Oval Roofclimb. Cowards can do a normal Adelaide Oval walking tour instead.
16. Get a photo of the Halfway Across Australia sign in Kimba.
17. See enormous scale silo art in South Australia’s country towns.
18. Watch the dredging machines at the Mouth of the Murray River.
19. Swim with dolphins from Glenelg, Adelaide.
20. Tour the Coffin Bay oyster sheds on the Eyre Peninsula
21. Get thoroughly weirded out at the psychedelic d’Arenberg Cube in the McLaren Vale.
22. Go on a tour of the gigantic Whyalla steelworks.
23. Do a shark cage dive at the Neptune Islands from Port Lincoln.
24. Pose for a photo by the dazzling Lake Hart salt lake in the South Australian outback.
25. See weapons and missiles on display outside a school in once-secret military town Woomera.
26. Pair chocolates with wines on a tasting experience at the Barossa Valley Chocolate Company.
27. Drive across the Lake MacDonnell pink lake near Penong.
28. Climb down into Mount Gambier’s Umpherston Sinkhole to see the bizarre Sunken Garden.
29. Go behind the scenes at a winery, then tackle a maze at Maxwell Wines in the McLaren Vale.
30. Learn about 65,000-year-old giant wombats at the Red Banks Conservation Park near Burra.

Unusual tours and activities in other Australian states

Quirky experiences in Victoria.

Fun but unusual activities in Queensland.