Looking for fun, affordable ways to keep the kids entertained? You’re in the right place! Adelaide is packed with free things to do with kids—from nature-packed adventures and epic playgrounds to cultural spots and seaside strolls. Whether you’re a local family or visiting on a budget, these ideas will help you discover the best free kid-friendly activities in Adelaide that won’t cost a cent but will make memories worth a fortune. So grab the kids, pack some snacks, and start ticking these off your list!
Go for a Bike Ride
Our family LOVES the SAPOL Road Safety Centre or take a look at our list of family friendly bike tracks, trails and paths.
Our bigger kids enjoy Eagle Mountain biking park or take the whole family along the beach paths, to a National park like Belair or Shepherd’s Hill or find your own way with these riding maps. (Just make sure you supervise your kids well and check them out first to make sure they are suitable for their age and ability!)
Visit a Playground
We are so lucky here in Adelaide to have some of the best playgrounds in the country. Whether you’re after a nature playground, adventure playground for older kids, fully fenced playground suitable for toddlers, an inclusive playground with accessible equipment for all or just a little quiet playground close to where you live make sure to check our huge playground map
Free Events
Museums, shopping centres, councils and community centers are just a few of the places who host FREE and FUN programs, activities and events that won’t break the bank. There’s FREE sports, arts and crafts, science, nature play activities, workshops, family days and more. Find a FREE events here
Visit the SA Museum
The South Australian Museum is a wonderful place for kids (and adults) of any age to visit. There’s so much to explore, learn and discover and the exhibitions are always informative, often interactive and sometimes we feel the need to visit the same exhibition more than once because they are THAT good! Keep an eye on our website for the special events they host too!
Follow the Bunyip Trail
Located between the playground and cafe at Bonython Park, The Bunyip Trail follows the story of The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek with interactive storyboards & activities for the kids to do along the way. The Trail officially starts on the eastern side of the footbridge beside the small weir & is a 500m return trail. Walking SA suggests it will take around 1hr, but that will definitely depend on the speed of your kids! The track is pram friendly but can be bumpy in parts, so go with care. We suggest downloading the Activity Booklet from the Walking SA website before you leave home to get the most out of the trail.
Storybook Trail at Carrick Hill
And if storybook trails are your thing, there’s another one located at Carrick Hill. Setting out along a sandy track that weaves past ponds and through groves of trees, you can discover Frog on a Log, Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, Billy Goats Gruff, Quidditch Tree, The Secret Garden and others.
Carrick Hill is open 10.00am-4.30pm Wednesday-Sunday and is FREE!
MOD
MOD. is a place for kids who love hands on, interaction and all things STEM!
There’s a mix of diverse and sensory activities catering for a wide range of ages, knowledge and capabilities. These are spaces for doing, not just seeing and best of all it’s TOTALLY FREE!
click here for more info
Try Geocaching
Geocaching is like a high tech treausre hunt and can be done by all ages, fitness levels and skills. To start out head to Geocaching Australia to find local caches and consider one of the geocaching mobile phone apps like this one for the iPhone to help transform your mobile phone into treasure hunt central! (or do what we did last weekend and just write out a list of things to find in a treasure hunt and spend a few hours at a park – my son loved finding ‘a jar of water’ and ‘a jar of wind’?!?!)
START at the Art
Start at the Gallery is an exciting introduction to art for children aged 3-12 and their families. Held on the first Sunday of every month, Start is a free family-fun day and includes art activities, tours, live performances and entertainment.
Each monthly event is themed around current exhibitions or the general collection. Start is held on the first Sunday of each month, 11am–3pm. Events are free and no bookings are necessary.
Kids Code Cracker Trail at BVCC
The Barossa Valley Chocolate Company offers a free Kids Code Cracker Activity, allowing children to find clues and crack the code around the property. It’s a free, interactive activity where children can search for clues around the BVCC property and solve a code puzzle
Neo at AGSA
And for older kids at AGSA check out Neo.
Neo is a parent-free zone just for teens. Art, live music, performances, food and more.
Held six times a year, Neo is a free after-hours event for young people aged 13-17 years. Programmed by the Neo Ambassadors, Neo is a parent-free zone where young people can kick back and hang out with friends, jump into creative labs, tune into live music and explore the latest exhibitions at AGSA. Across its annual program, Neo hosts two large-scale ‘Teen Takeover’ events which take place across the whole gallery, in addition to focused events which activate the latest temporary exhibition and collection spaces.
Wander the Botanic Gardens
There’s so much to explore in the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens so make sure you grab a map at the entrance so you don’t miss anything. At the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, The Bicentennial Conservatory is the largest single span glasshouse in the Southern Hemisphere and home to a number of endangered rainforest plants. In the international rose garden you’ll find thousands of rose species and don’t forget to visit the wisteria arbour when it’s in bloom!
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens is an absolute must see in Autumn where kids will love playing in the thousands of colourful autumn leaves that paint the gardens over the Autumn months.
Adelaide Botanic Garden info here
Mt Lofty Botanic Garden info here
Visit the Adelaide Central Markets
In all honesty I can’t imagine a visit to the central markets being *completely* free since I’ve never been without buying something. But assuming everyone needs fresh fruit and veg then you’re not spending any *extra* money – just going somewhere different to buy it. The Markets are a great place to take the kids to see, smell and taste all the great produce and in the holidays you can take part in their school holiday activities like face painting, cooking classes or an edible treasure hunt (costs involved in some of these).
Free Pools and Water Play
When the weather heats up head to one of the FREE pool or water feature areas – Splash Town in Moonta is epic! Glenelg’s Mosely Square water fountains are fun for a splash or the Henley Square water showers.
Click here for our list of free places to have a splash on a hot day.
Japanese Himeji Gardens
The gorgeous Japanese Himeji Gardens are located on the Eastern side of Glen Osmond Road and South Terrace intersection. This little oasis in the Southern Parklands is a wonderful place to get away from the hustle and bustle of ‘normal life’. With a lovely water feature that is home to large goldfish, ducks and turtles, there is also a waterfall under the trees too. click here for more info
Whale Watching
In winter, a great option is Whale Watching -there are plenty of sightings and the Victor Harbor area makes a great day out for families between May and October.
Visit your local library
Libraries are no longer daggy old places with people shushing you. These days libraries have kids nooks, toy libraries, programs for babies, toddlers, kids & teens, free internet, dvds to borrow, oh yeah and BOOKS! All for ZERO DOLLARS! Head along when you’re next looking to kill a few hours & you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Click here to find out more about some of our favourite libraries.
SA Rocks
SA Rocks is a nature play based free activity that anyone can join in with. A giant game of hide and seek, for kids and adults alike! We love it because it’s free to play, great for all ages and IDEAL for the school holidays!
Want to find a rock? – Jump on the SA Rocks Facebook page and search for your suburb name, or local park name, to see if anything has been hidden there recently – just use the search bar at the top of the group page.
Want to paint a rock? – Easy! All it takes is a little bit of creativity, decorate a rock, a coat of sealant and your good to go.
Free Tour at Haigh’s
Haigh’s free guided tours operate during store trading hours, Monday to Saturday, except for public holidays.
The free guided viewing tour includes learning about the history of Haigh’s and how they make premium quality chocolate from cocoa beans sourced from plantations around the world. Also included is an opportunity to view our team of confectioners hard at work using their artisan skills to create and hand finish this award winning chocolate. And yes! There’s tastings!
For more information including how to book click here
Check out your local Shopping Centre
So many shopping centres put on some great activities, not only in school holidays, but also on weekends – often especially if there is a new store opening. We recommend following your local centre on Facebook to keep up with what’s on offer. Some of our favourites our Churchill Centre, Port Adelaide Plaza and Northpark Shopping Centre!
You can also find FREE shopping centre activities in our school holiday guides.
Image: Churchill Centre.
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So we know that lots of families have kids ranging from toddler to teens so we've tried to find some great playgrounds we think your older kids will enjoy, while still offering some play space for younger children. For those of you with only older children, these playground spaces are still great and you just get the added bonus of sitting down instead of chasing a toddler around trying to put their hat on! [wpgmza id="138"]
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It can sometimes be hard to find activities, programs and things to do that are suitable, or "cool enough" for older kids, but they're out there believe us! We've rounded up what we think are the best ideas and places to visit for older kids in Adelaide over the school holidays! There are some free options as well as places you will need to book ahead - so grab your teen and start planning!
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OK yes we are all original Adelaide Hills girls so we MAY be just a little bit bias BUT if you haven’t been up the hill for a while we definitely think you should put it on the “to do” list.
