Adelaide/City and North Adelaide

City and North Adelaide is the central business district of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. When using the term City alone – it generally does not include North Adelaide, but the "City of Adelaide" would include North Adelaide.

The City has several names. Unlike the other four major cities, very few call the city centre the CBD colloquially, and city centre is more common. However, City is the more common name used, both colloquially, officially and is what you'd encounter on highway signage [in Adelaide].

By train
The Adelaide Metro suburban train system has four main lines radiating at the northern edge of the City, with two additional branch lines. Long-distance trains stop at a separate station east of the City that is not connected to the suburban railway network.

When travelling from the north:


 * The Outer Harbor Line, which comes up from the Le Fevre Peninsula in the northwest of the city via Port Adelaide and Glanville.
 * The Gawler Line, from Gawler Central in the north, through Ovingham, Mawson Lakes, Salisbury and Elizabeth.

When travelling from the south:


 * The electrified Seaford Line, which extends from Seaford in the far south of the city, via the beachside suburb of Brighton and Noarlunga Centre.
 * The picturesque Belair Line which extends from Belair in the Adelaide foothills through Blackwood and the inner southeastern suburbs of the city. The Belair line is useful when coming from Belair National Park.

By car
There are no freeways/expressways leading into the city and North Adelaide. Adelaide's freeways only reach the outer suburbs, and you will need to drive to regular roads to get into the city.
 * From Adelaide Hills, take the M1 South-East Freeway down the hills and then continue on Glen Osmond Rd and into the city.
 * From the southern suburbs such as McLaren Vale, head north on A13 Main North Road until the M2 Southern Expressway interchange. Once you're at the interchange, exit and head on the entire expressway up north until St. Marys. Once at St. Marys, continue on A2 South Road, until R1 (Ring Road 1) which loops around the city and North Adelaide
 * From Gawler, take the M2 Northern Expressway and North-South Motorway down to the city
 * From Port Adelaide, take the A9 Port River Expressway and then exit onto M2 North-South Motorway and head down south to the city.

Museums and galleries




Sport

 * AFL, the peak league for professional Australian Rules Football. Home games for the local teams the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power are played at Adelaide Oval in North Adelaide. Getting tickets shouldn't be a problem - check out the AFL website for more details.
 * SANFL, the state Aussie Rules league, has 5 games per weekend at a number of locations throughout the city and suburbs. Norwood Oval, home of the Redlegs, is situated on the Parade in Norwood which is home to a variety of restaurant, café and pub options for after the game.
 * SANFL, the state Aussie Rules league, has 5 games per weekend at a number of locations throughout the city and suburbs. Norwood Oval, home of the Redlegs, is situated on the Parade in Norwood which is home to a variety of restaurant, café and pub options for after the game.

Events
One of the best times of the year to visit is during Mad March, when a multitude of festivals and events are held. These include the Adelaide Fringe, the Clipsal 500 Car race, the Adelaide Festival, WOMADdelaide and the Adelaide Cup horseracing carnival.

Eat


While it may come as a surprise for some, Adelaide too caters to virtually most tastes and price range. The city has one of the largest number of restaurants and cafes per person in Australia and most of the best are in the city or North Adelaide.


 * Gouger Street, Chinatown and the Central Market precinct is a multicultural food and wine paradise. Best known in Adelaide for good quality Asian food at a reasonable price, Gouger Street attracts a wide range of clientele from lawyers and public servants from the adjacent courts and State government precinct to new migrants. Chinatown and Gouger St is the hub of Chinese cuisine and culture in Adelaide and there are a wide range of Chinese restaurants along the strip. Other Asian cuisines are also featured including Thai, Vietnamese and Indian. On the northern side of Gouger St, the Adelaide Central Market has a great range of hawker style food stalls as well as a few older European cafes. The last decade has also seen the emergence of high-end dining on Gouger St, with a number of more expensive options joining the long standing and locally famed Argentinian restaurant, Gaucho's.
 * Rundle Street and the East End is the traditional hub of Italian and Greek cuisine in Adelaide, but there are also newer Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants. Like Gouger St, it has options across the spectrum of budgets, with the western end of the street closer to Adelaide University catering more to the budget end while the eastern end is more upmarket. The East End laneways off of Rundle Street have a range of smaller, quirkier cafes - Ebenezer Place, Bent Street and Union Street all have a few alternative options.
 * Waymouth Street and Pirie Street have emerged as new eating destinations over the last decade, particularly for an upmarket lunch. Waymouth Street, on the western side of King William Street, has a range of high end cafes, bistros and bars, while Pirie Street has a few new cafes.
 * Hindley Street is best known for its bars and nightlife, but has a range of multicultural food options, particularly Middle Eastern and Asian. The Leigh Street and Bank Street laneways have also emerged as dining destinations in their own right.
 * Hutt Street is smaller scale and offers a small variety of upmarket restaurants that please most tastes, and also has a wide variety of gourmet shops and supermarkets.
 * The South West Corner of the City's square mile, south of the Gouger Street precinct, is more residential but includes some of Adelaide's most interesting dining experiences sprinkled among the heritage homes and apartments.
 * An eclectic mix of small restaurants and cafes make Melbourne Street an interesting place to eat.
 * The variety of take-aways, pubs, cafes, bakeries and restaurants that line most of O'Connell Street means you won't be wanting. A local speciality to try is the AB, a dish consisted of shredded yiros meat on top of hot chips and topped with chilli sauce, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce and garlic sauce, of which there are two shops that claim to have invented the dish; The Blue & White Cafe and North Adelaide Burger Bar.

Budget
There are a lot of budget eateries in Adelaide. They don't usually look like much from the outside but most have something going for them - the reason that they are still in business. It pays to look through menus plastered onto doors. Cheap eats should be anywhere from $8–14 for a main, and no more.



Drink
There are pubs and bars dotted all around the City, but a few districts are worth singling out. Rundle Street and its neighbouring area known simply as "The East End" have a number of popular pubs. Hindley St used to be notorious as the seedy home of Adelaide's strip clubs and bikie bars, but it, and "The West End" have undergone a renaissance. The eastern end of Hindley Street is more mainstream, whereas the western end, west of Morphett Street has a few trendier and more alternative venues. The seedy places are still there, but so too is a university campus and a number of trendy bars and clubs. Also important are Gouger Street and its many restaurants but with an increasing number of bars and pubs. O'Connell Street is home to a few of North Adelaide's popular pubs.

There are also many bars in the suburbs of Adelaide which usually are busier on Thursday and Friday evenings. Quite a lot of the locals will go to the hotels in the suburbs on Thursday and Friday evenings, and go into the City on Saturday evenings.

Pubs
As a rule, pubs seem to be located in hotels.



Budget
There is a choice of backpacker accommodation around the central bus station.



Mid-range






Connect
There are Telstra payphones throughout the city and North Adelaide, and 5G connection is generally the standard in this area. Free public Wi-Fi can be found at any library, and is not too hard to find.