Adelaide in summer is H-O-T, but that doesn’t stop our kids from wanting to get out and about to their favourite playgrounds. A shaded playground is always a winner in our books, and shade or lack of, is one of the main topics of conversation whenever we post a playground review. So to make it easy to find a spot with lots of natural shade from trees, or great shade sails over the play area we’ve put together a list of our top picks for shaded playgrounds in Adelaide and regional South Australia.
Have we missed one? We’d love to know about it in the comments below.
Below are what we think are THE BEST shaded playgrounds you’ll find in Adelaide (in no particular order) To find out more about these playgrounds or to find one in your area scroll down.
- Wigley Reserve Glenelg
- Apex Park Hawthorndene
- Largs Bay Ice Cream Playground
- Mitcham Reserve
- Sherry Park Mylor
- Keith Stephenson Park
- Marshmallow Park
- Bonython Park
- Meadows Playground
- Quentin Kenihan Accessible Playground
- Orphanage Park Millswood
- Morialta Adventure Playground
Wigley Reserve Playground Glenelg
Find it at: Wigley Reserve, Genelg The incredible upgrade at Wigley Reserve at Glenelg is an outstanding attraction for an already pretty awesome area. Sometimes fantastic photos do a far better job at telling a story and this is absolutely one of those occasions….
Hawthorndene Apex Park
Find it at: Watahuna Avenue, Hawthorndene This park is a beautiful leafy, shady spot and great for kids of all ages really. Heaps of space to spread out, play ball games and run around AND it’s fully fenced! Yahoo! The playground features areas for the little people,…
Jervois Street Reserve Playground South Plympton
Find it at: 43 Jervois Street, South Plympton Jervois Street Playground in South Plympton is up there with Morialta and Glenunga as one of our favourite playgrounds in Adelaide. Some of the Jervois Street Reserve highlights are: Fully fenced junior playground with…
Heron Way Reserve, Hallett Cove
Find it at: Heron Way, Hallett Cove This is a great playground with amazing views over the ocean. The reserve includes a 5-way swing, tunnel slide, water and sand play, nature play, fitness equipment, shade sales, toilet, seating, shelter and BBQ facilities. The…
Kesmond Reserve
Find it at: Everard Avenue, Keswick We stumbled across this fab little fully fenced playground and found out later that was upgraded in 2024. As it stands this place is a fantastic local facility, with a shaded modern playground full of unique climbing areas for the…
Largs Bay Foreshore Ice Cream Playground
Find it at: Esplanade Largs Bay The Largs Bay foreshore play space redevelopment in 2024 brought to life an amazing concept which feels like came straight from the imagination of us as kids! This one is a very popular site with local and visiting families and the new…
Aldridge Ave Reserve, Plympton Park
Find it at: Aldridge Avenue, Plympton Park Located in Plympton Park Aldridge Ave Reserve is a great little local playground and suitable for the nearby community or if you happen to be in the area. The playground suits toddler and early school age kids but also has 2…
Mitcham Reserve
Find it at: Corner Old Belair Road and Norman Walk, Mitcham This ripper was upgraded in December 2018 and we absolutely love it! The new playground updates are a credit to Nature Play Design and the City of Mitcham with a great mix of the nature play elements…
Kapinka Reserve Riverlea
Find it at: Kapinka Parade, Riverlea Opened in April 2024 in the heart of the enormous Riverlea development in Adelaide’s north, this fantastic playground offers something for all ages. It doesn’t have toilets and isn’t fully fenced, however is tucked in the suburbia…
Sherry Park Reserve, Mylor
Find it at: 325 Strathalbyn Rd, Mylor Located near the Mylor Oval, Sherry Park boasts an exciting interactive playground with slides, climbing sections and swings, a ninja obstacle course, and a bike track! We particularly love the stopwatch ninja course with it’s…
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Find it at: Corner Cedar Avenue and Croydon Avenue, West Croydon Renamed after local legend Eileen Harris, and with an upgrade in 2024 this shaded playground is fabulous for the under 10s. Spacious and with plenty of quality equipment for the kids to climb and challenge themselves on, it also features shade sails and natural shade from surrounding trees. No toilets or BBQs at this one, but definitely a quality suburban playground.
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Find it at: South Parklands, Lightsview A fabulous adventure playground has been added to the Lightsview development, which is well worth the trip! Opened in April 2021, the nature play themed park includes water play, a huge number of logs and balancing beams to test out kids and parents alike! Throw in a climbing hill with slide, a basketball court, sand play area, in-ground trampolines, swings and even more slides, we love this park for older kids. For the parents there are a couple of BBQs and some under cover bench seats and tables. The nearby wetlands are sensational and really add to the relaxing vibe of the park, and we absolutely loved the little board walk path between the ponds. Toilets have now been built (new since the park opening) but there's not a lot of shade and parking can be tricky so be prepared you might have to walk a little way to get here. NB: Toddlers might be better at the Lightsview Toddler Playground as this area is unfenced and quite big and with the wetlands nearby it can be a bit hard with little ones.
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Find it at: Ashley Street Torrensville Ashley Street Playground is a medium sized playground more suited to locals to the area. I probably wouldn't drive too far to specifically go to this park, but if you live in the Western suburbs it's a nice option for a playdate for something different. The playground area is fully fenced which is great, and there are also enough bench seats to go around. It's really annoying when a playground only has one bench seat for all the Mums and Dads to squish on 🙂 The equipment includes a spiral slide, monkey bars, climbing wall and ropes, swings and a liberty swing. What we liked about this playground Really nicely shaded with a big shade sail stretching over the whole thing Fully fenced! Yay no run aways Clean and tidy BBQ was right next door and nice and clean Tennis courts right next to it Liberty Swing Clean and tidy What we thought could be better The toilets were a bit dim. Not very grassy, if you want to watch the kids playing you have to sit on one of the bench seats or on the rubber floor Street parking is available, but there's…
