Top 5 Things to Do in Adelaide

We're a little biased about Adelaide — it's home, and we get to perform here every weekend. But ask any of us where to send a visitor (or how to fix a flat Saturday), and the same handful of places come up again and again. Here are five we'd happily do ourselves this week.

1. Spend a slow morning at the Adelaide Botanic Garden

Fifty hectares of green right in the middle of the city, and it's free. Make for the Palm House, the Bicentennial Conservatory, and the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion — then find a patch of lawn and do absolutely nothing for an hour. It's the best cheap date in town. botanicgardens.sa.gov.au

2. Eat your way through the Adelaide Central Market

One of the biggest fresh-produce markets in the Southern Hemisphere, and the best way to understand how this city eats. Cheese, pastries, spices, dumplings, fruit you'll want to photograph — go hungry, and go early on a Saturday when it's properly buzzing. adelaidecentralmarket.com.au

3. Climb the roof of the Adelaide Oval

If you've got a head for heights, the RoofClimb gives you a 360° view over the CBD, the River Torrens, and out to the coast. The twilight climb is the one to book — you get the city switching its lights on underneath you. roofclimb.com.au

4. Take the tram to Glenelg Beach

Jump on the tram in the city and twenty-odd minutes later you're at the sea. Glenelg is all jetty-road shopping, dolphin cruises, beachfront pubs and an ice-cream-at-sunset kind of evening. Easy, cheap, and a genuine change of pace from the CBD.

5. Finish the night with close-up magic in the CBD

This is the part we know best. The Adelaide Magic Theatre is the city's only dedicated close-up magic venue — a tiny room above The Lost Dice board-game café at 111 King William St, where award-winning Fringe performers do the kind of magic that happens an arm's length from your face. Expect comedy, sleight of hand, a fair bit of audience involvement, and a few moments you'll be arguing about in the car on the way home. It's the perfect cap to a day in Adelaide, whether you're on a date, out with mates, or showing visitors something they can't get anywhere else.

Five things, one easy day: garden in the morning, market for lunch, a climb or the beach in the afternoon, and magic to send you home grinning. That's our Adelaide.