What are the best things to do in the McLaren Vale, South Australia?

The best things to do in the McLaren Vale include McLaren Vale wine tours, bike tours, the Fleurieu Peninsula beaches and walks in the Onkaparinga River National Park.

The McLaren Vale is one of Australia’s most prestigious wine regions, and there is a very good reason for that. A McLaren Vale shiraz is usually big, bold and high quality.

Save your place – book your McLaren Vale wine tour now.

The McLaren Vale lies to the south of Adelaide at the top of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It makes a logical final stop on a Melbourne to Adelaide road trip, but most visitors will be coming in the other direction. Some will be driving to Cape Jervis for the Kangaroo Island ferry, but it’s easy to do a McLaren Vale day tour from Adelaide. And there are several operators to choose from.

Things to do in the McLaren Vale: wine tours

Predictably, wine is the focus of these McLaren Vale tours. Cellar Door Wine Tours offers a full day McLaren Vale wine-tasting tour from Adelaide, stopping at five McLaren Vale wineries.

For slightly more flexibility, Trailhopper runs a hop-on, hop-off McLaren Vale wine tour service. Costing from $89.95 including transfers to and from Adelaide, the bus shuttles between McLaren Vale cellar doors and attractions. Key stops include the Visitor Information Centre, the Chapel Hill Winery and the Red Poles Café and Gallery.

It’s also possible to do a bike tour in the McLaren Vale. Escape Goat’s $159 cycling tour does include winery visits, but there is more of a focus on the region’s natural beauty. The McLaren Vale bike tour starts at the highest point and works its way down past the vineyards. The big downhill roll down Wickham’s Hill is one of the highlights.

McLaren Vale for self-drivers

If exploring under your own steam, the best things to do in the McLaren Vale include walking in the Onkaparinga River National Park. The walks in the national park vary in difficulty, with gentle strolls from Chapel Hill competing with much tougher descents into Onkaparinga Gorge.

Onkaparinga River in Old Noarlunga, McLaren Vale — The best things to do in the McLaren Vale are wine-related. But it’s worth dropping by the Onkaparinga River in Old Noarlunga on the way. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions

It’s also worth stopping at the charming South Australian town of Old Noarlunga, where the curving river cuts through beautifully-kept parklands. Plenty of birds can be found strutting their stuff along the grass.

A little further to the west is the Gulf St Vincent coast, which is lined by a series of fantastic beaches, which continue all the way down the Fleurieu Peninsula. Try four wheel driving or fishing on Sellicks Beach if you want something a little different.

Most interesting McLaren Vale wineries

But, realistically, you’ve come for the wine. There are several McLaren Vale wineries, big and small, to choose from. At the smaller end of the scale, the Inkwell Winery is a fascinating experiment. Here, they try to make wine with as little man-made input as possible. There’s also a three room micro-hotel made out of shipping containers on site.

The d’Arenberg winery is a much bigger affair, but it outflanks the rest of the region on quirk. This is largely due to the d’Arenberg Cube. The five storey cube hosts a series of often psychedelic, multi-sensory experiences inside. It’s designed to get your senses heightened before you taste the wines, but is just as much bizarre fun if you’re not planning to sample.

Elsewhere, Maxwell Wines offers winery tours and a maze while the Woodstock winery has a wildlife sanctuary and Mitolo Wines packs in plenty of Italian flair. Hugh Hamilton Wines, on the other hand, matches wines with chocolates.