State of South Australia Travel Forum

Hi,

In July I would like to travel form Adelaide to Alice Spings by public transport. In between I was thinking about visiting Barossa Valley, Wilpena Pound and Coober Pedy. I have two questions about this:

- Can these destinations easily be reached by public transport (if yes, which service?) or is it better to skip?
- How long should I stay at these locations? Are there many interesting things to see and do?

Thanks in advance!

Mark

There are a couple of backpacker tours that do this trip. I would suggest that you might think about doing one of these as doing this trip by public transport wouldn't be that much fun.
On this trip there is also Uluru(Ayres Rock) and Kings Canyon areas.These should not be missed.
Doing this by public transport would be a hassle ( I think) as bus timetables would be a bit of a pain to put together from one area to another.

This is one tour that I found..
http://www.touristaustralia.com/online/tao.cgi?ct=tours&md=second&id=104

It visits all areas and not a bad price for the days. They seem to stop at all the great sites. Also doing it this way you will learn a bit more about each area.

This is just one trip I found when I googled *backpacker trips from Adelaide to Alice Springs* I know there are heaps more, but you can browse and see.
You could also google Backpacker accommodation in Adelaide, a lot of these sites also advertise backapcker trips to where you want to go.

Have a great trip.

Hi Mark,

I can't help you with the public transport side of your question but the places you have selected to visit are all fantastic. The Barossa Valley and Clare Valley are fantastic and the wine there superb. Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges is well worth a visit and the Pound walk is also very good. I do believe Coober Pedy will be unlike any place you have visited before.

How long to stay in each place? Well, it really depends on the individual. You could lose yourself for days just doing the wineries. I think we had two, maybe three nights in Wilpena and probably about 5 days at Coober Pedy. There are some interesting sites nearby at Coober Pedy, particularly The Breakaways, where the movie Mad Max was filmed. It is a spectacular lunar type landscape. We also drove to nearby Andamooka - which is, which is, actually really hard to describe but the characters who live there must have a fierce passion for opal mining.

I hope you can find a way to get to these places Mark, as they are all different and unique to each other but each an essence of Australia.

There are Day Trips to the Barossa that takes you to Wineries and for lunch, the South Australian Tourist office would be able to help with bookings - I think this office is on the corner of King William Street and North terrace.

Check the map for the road to Alice Springs from Adelaide as it used to pass through Coober Pedy so no need to make a special trip. This was many years ago when I went there. Coober Pedy is about 1000km north of Adelaide so not worth the long drive just to go there unless travelling onwards.
Wilpena Pound is in the Flinders Ranges, again the South Australian Tourist office will have tours on offer. Public transport in South Australia is poor other than in the city. There are buses(not the day trips I already mentioned) to the Barossa but they simply drop you off in a town and you would have no way of finding the wineries, which are generally outside the townships. The Barossa is an hour,s drive north of Adelaide.