Green Hills, Splashing Waves And Exotic Wines - Welcome To Adelaide, Australia

Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth largest city in Australia, with a population of over 1.1 million. Named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for the only freely-settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide's founding fathers, designed the city and chose its location close to the River Torrens. Inspired by William Penn, Light's design set out Adelaide in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parkland.

Spring and autumn bring out the magnificent wild flowers and you can combine other highlights of South Australia while avoiding extremes of weather. Winter (June to August) can get a bit cold and soggy and, as Adelaide can be pretty damn hot in summer (December to February), if you don't have access to a pool or air-conditioner you might find it unpleasant.

If you're a festival buff you really shouldn't miss the three-week Adelaide Festival of the Arts, held in late February or early March on even-numbered years. The main school holiday period is from mid-December to late January, with fortnight holidays also occurring early to mid-April; late June to mid-July; and late September to mid-October. As South Australian families take to the road (and air) en masse at these times, many places are booked out, prices rise and things become a little hectic, particularly over Christmas and Easter.

How to go?

Being centrally located on the Australian mainland, Adelaide forms a strategic transport hub for east-west and north-south routes. The city itself has a limited public transport system, which is managed by and known as the Adelaide Metro. The Adelaide Metro consists of a contracted bus system including the O-Bahn Busway, metropolitan railways, and the Adelaide-Glenelg Tram.

Road transport in Adelaide has historically been comparatively easier than many of the other Australian cities, with a well-defined city layout and wide multiple-lane roads from the beginning of its development. Historically, Adelaide was known as a "twenty-minute city", with commuters having being able to travel from metropolitan outskirts to the city proper in roughly twenty minutes. However, these roads are now inadequate to cope with Adelaide's growing road traffic.