An eclectic list of experiences – including visiting Mount Gambier’s Umpherston Sinkhole and swimming with sea lions at Port Lincoln – have made the top 10 of a new South Australian bucket list.
Sunken garden: the Umpherston Sinkhole. Photo: Moshe Reuveni / flickr
The list has been compiled by national travel website Experience Oz and seeks to highlight some of the state’s most iconic attractions and best experiences for domestic and international visitors.
Topping the full list of 100 experiences is the Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island, renowned for its Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch natural rock formations, as well as being home to a colony of long-nosed fur seals.
Other natural attractions also feature highly, with Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges National Park taking second spot, and Head of Bight – considered one of the state’s best whale-watching sites – coming third.
Rounding out the top 10 are: tour the Barossa Valley; see an event at Adelaide Oval; swim with sea lions at Port Lincoln; walk some of the Heysen Trail; explore the German heritage at Hahndorf; enter Umpherston Sinkhole (a sunken garden created after the collapse of a limestone cave), and see the wildlife at Monarto Zoo.
A spokesperson for Experience Oz told InDaily the list was compiled from information gained through regular customer feedback and polling, as well as staff recommendations. Both free and paid experiences have been included, with the company also aiming to give regional attractions “their due”.
While South Australians may take issue with some inclusions – and the “top 100 things to do before you die” description of the list – it does provide inspiration to explore the diversity of experiences the state has to offer and to look beyond the CBD.
Well-known city attractions such as the Art Gallery of SA, South Australian Museum, Adelaide Botanic Gardens and Adelaide Central Market feature alongside places such as Blue Lake (a crater lake on the Limestone Coast), historic Martindale Hall in the Clare Valley and the Wilkadene Woolshed Brewery in the Riverland.
In acknowledgement of Adelaide’s burgeoning small bar scene, people are even urged to “drink at a laneway bar”.
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“With several years’ worth of data and feedback on hand – and in response to persistent questions about how to find new things to do in Australia – we put together the bucket list so that even locals of South Australia will find a special part of the state they’ve never visited before,” says Experience Oz digital manager Matt Hobbs.
Experience Oz’s full South Australia top 100 bucket list: