What are the best museums in Adelaide?

The best museums in Adelaide are the Migration Museum, Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum. All loiter amid the grand architecture and heritage buildings of North Terrace.

North Terrace in Adelaide is fabulous. It reminds a little of South Kensington in London, due to its Victorian-era grand architecture and status as a museum hub.

Top Adelaide hotel recommendations

For the beach: Oaks Glenelg Plaza Pier Suites. For families: Big4 West Beach. Most fun: Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets. For setting: Oval Hotel. For heritage: Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury.

Best museums in Adelaide: Migration Museum

Just tucked in behind North Terrace is the Migration Museum. It’s only small, but it offers a superb insight into how Australia has evolved. This is a country founded and shaped by people from all over the world.

Anywhere else, the museum alone would do the trick. But in Adelaide the square the museum sits in is a large, creative monument. Plaques from various ethnic communities – covering everywhere from Estonia to the Philippines – dot the walls. Nearby, a brickwork mosaic sprawls across the ground. Most of the bricks bear a name. Each belongs to a different immigrant who moved to South Australia at some point. It’s fascinating to stroll across, knowing that each name is the beginning of a different story.

Pick your perfect Adelaide day trips

Barossa Valley tours: 1. Wine-tasting with lunch 🍷. 2. Food and wine tour. 3. Small group wine tour with exclusive VIP tastings.
Kangaroo Island in a day – including sea lions 🦭, koalas 🐨and national parks.
Adelaide Hills tours: 1. Sights plus Murray River lunch cruise combo. 2. Small group cheese, chocolate & wine tour with Hahndorf German village.
McLaren Vale tours: 1. Small group wine tour with lunch. 2. Hop-on hop-off wineries tour 🍷. 3. Food and wine indulgence tour, including the gloriously weird d’Arenberg Cube.
Victor Harbor and southern highlights tour – including the Granite Island horse-drawn tram.

By the side is a statue depicting a family of recent arrivals, and it tops of Settlement Square nicely. Yet the square isn’t exactly prominent – it’s tucked away between North Terrace and the Torrens River. Again, this is quite indicative – there is public art all over the city.

For a better understanding of the Aboriginal perspective of the world, head into the South Australian Museum. The Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery is genuinely superb. It covers everything from bush foods and spears to the fruits, grasses and resins traditional used for medicine. The links between Aboriginal art and storytelling are also explored. The sticks used to draw in the sand are to illustrate tales, and this is where the origins of the familiar dot paintings and snake drawings lie.

**15 fabulous Adelaide experiences to supercharge your visit**

DOLPHINS 🐬: Swim with wild dolphins, kayak with the resident bottlenose pod or watch them on a dolphin cruise.
FOOD AND WINE 🍷: Indulge on Adelaide food tour including Adelaide Central Market. Or try a wine discovery tour with tastings at the National Wine Centre. Or the ultimate Penfolds Magill Estate experience with full estate tour & Grange tasting.
WILDLIFE 🐨: Spot koalas on a guided Morialta nature hike. Or walk from Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty with entrance to Cleland Wildlife Park.
CRUISES ⛵: Watch the sun set on a twilight coastal cruise, get to know the city on a Torrens River cruise or take a high tea cruise aboard the Popeye.
SPORT 🏏: Dare to take on the Adelaide Oval Roofclimb or enter the fabled scoreboard on the behind-the-scenes stadium tour.
ACTION 🚵‍♂️: Descend Mount Lofty on a downhill mountain bike tour or kayak along the Torrens River.

Best Museums in Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia has a more European slant – both in terms of works by European masters such as Rodin and paintings done by early settlers. Many of the paintings fall into the history bracket as much as the art one. Landscapes are documented, while works such as “Adelaide 1851” by JA Gilfillan show how dramatically the city has changed in 150 years. Others show stockmen trying to corral sheep or the start of major explorations of the continent; the stories are as fascinating as the brush strokes.

Combined, the three museums give a compelling view of Australian history. If you want cultural nourishment in Adelaide to add to climbing the Adelaide Oval, bushwalking with koalas, mountain bike tours from Mt Lofty and Glenelg dolphin cruises, head to North Terrace.