How much does it cost to rent a car in Adelaide?

Adelaide car rentals cost from around $62 a day. Expect to pay more if picking up a car at the airport. But it is easy to do Adelaide without a car.

The cost of renting a car in Adelaide, South Australia, depends on many factors. Where do you pick it up from? How many days do you need it for? Are you dropping off at the same place? What sort of car do you need?

**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.

Do I need a car in Adelaide?

But before paying for a hire car in Adelaide, first consider whether you need one. Many of Adelaide’s key attractions are within walking distance of each other. The city’s best museums, Adelaide Central Market, TreeClimb Adelaide, the Peel Street restaurants and Adelaide Oval are all walkable.

Public transport in Adelaide is pretty good. You can hop on a tram to Glenelg, where Temptation Sailing runs dolphin-swimming cruises, or head to the beaches further south on the Seaford train.

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.

Adelaide without a car: Day tours

If you’re tackling Adelaide without a car, you can also do day tours to nearby regions that are a little trickier for non-drivers. You can do a tour of the Barossa Valley wineries from Adelaide, or similar in the McLaren Vale. You can also try an Adelaide Hills and Murray River cruise combo or even a day tour to Kangaroo Island.

So, in short, you do not need a car in Adelaide. You might, however, prefer to have one. Particularly if you plan on heading further afield in South Australia to the Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula or Limestone Coast.

Hire car Flinders Ranges South Australia — A hire car enjoys the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions.

Adelaide rental car costs

But how much does it cost to rent a car in Adelaide? Checking with comparison engine Rentalcars six weeks in advance, Australia Travel Questions found a week’s car hire in Adelaide for from $435.

That Adelaide car rental price is for a large car, such as a Toyota Camry. You can pretty much forget about small cars – there’s so little demand for them that they’re more expensive.

That means the cost of renting a car in Adelaide is around $62 a day. There are discounts for a week’s hire, however, so a one day rental costs from around $90.

Expect to pay a bit more for an SUV – that’s $634 for a week or $94 or a day.

Adelaide Airport car rental costs

The cost of renting a car from Adelaide Airport is considerably more expensive. A week’s rental for a medium car such as a Hyundai i30 costs from $594. For an SUV, you’re looking at $792.

It will almost certainly work out cheaper to get a taxi from the airport into Adelaide, then rent a car away from the airport.

Also bear in mind that one-way fees on Australian car hire can be hefty. If you’re driving from Adelaide to Melbourne or Adelaide to Perth, expect a couple of hundred dollars or so to be added to the price.