Things To Do In The Barossa Valley

Join a Barossa wine tour

First things first. The main reason people love to visit the Barossa is because of the wine, especially the famous Barossa Shiraz. It’s not a surprise that the most popular thing to do in Barossa Valley is to join a wine tour. 

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding exactly how you’d like to see the wineries! Whether it’s by car in a small group, by e-bike, on a segway or on foot is completely up to your preference. You can even fly to more remote wineries by helicopter, combining wine tasting with a scenic flight over the Barossa Valley!

Learn how to blend wines like a pro

Have you ever wondered why a Cabernet - Merlot wine blend tastes so fantastic and what ratio of which varietal is needed to give the wine the best taste it can get? You can learn this and much more from a Master Blender at Jacobs Creek winery. Get a glimpse into the life of a winemaker and create your very own signature blend of wine. You can even take home your creation as a souvenir in a personalised bottle!

Drink wine from your birth year

Do you know what your birth year tasted like? After a tour of Seppeltsfield’s Cenntenial Cellar, you will. In 1878, a barrel of that year’s best vintage has been stored in a designated wine cellar with instructions not to touch said barrel for 100 years. Every year, a new barrel has been added to the collection and once the cellar opened to the public, it was (and still is) the only winery in the world where you can taste wine that’s older than most of its visitors. Definitely a bucket list experience for every wine lover and one of the most impressive things to do in the Barossa Valley!

Eat your way through the Barossa

With this many amazing wineries in the Barossa, it’s no surprise the food is just as fantastic and plentiful! Many of the restaurants in the Barossa Valley are part of the vineyards but you can also find bakeries and cafes in the villages serving food from locally-grown produce. From a piece of mouth-watering cake right up to multi-course meals at a fine-dining locale, you can find everything to your heart’s (and stomach’s) content.

Barossa Farmers Market

Every Saturday morning from 7.30am to 11.30am, the Barossa Farmers Market in Angaston is abuzz with the sound of market vendors promoting their fresh produce. At the market, you can find everything you need to cook up a storm or prepare a picnic in the vineyards. Choose from an abundant selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs, cured meats, speciality bread, cheeses, stunning pastries, honey, olives and much more. Consider your final selection over a delicious meal at the Breakfast Bar. They’ll look after you should you get hungry while shopping.

Become a master at gin distilling

If you’re more of a gin than wine lover, you will love this offer! At Durand Distillery, you’ll make your very own gin from A to Z! With the help of the gin master, you create your very own gin recipe. Enjoy a 3-course meal while the copper still works its magic on your chosen botanicals. After lunch, you put the finishing touches on your gin by mixing the pure alcohol with water to make it drinkable, creating your label and, finally, bottling your very own gin to take home.

Lyndoch Lavender Farm

Lavender farms have become an absolute favourite on social media. Nothing expresses summer like the purple of the flowers against the dark blue sky and someone walking through the fields in a bright, flowy dress. 

Lavender fields have been around for much longer than their recent hype, though. Lyndoch Lavender Farm, for example, has welcomed visitors for almost 30 years already! At the family-operated business, you can not only wander through the lavender fields and take pictures but you can also buy lush lavender (skin) products. And their cafe serves lavender scones, lavender biscuits and lavender ice cream in addition to the more traditional cafe fare.

Barossa Valley Chocolate Company

If chocolate is your forte, you have to visit the Barossa Valley Chocolate Company! With over 250 chocolate products on sale, you are sure to discover more than one favourite. The cafe on site serves amazing hot chocolates where you stir your choice of choc block into the hot milk. Or if you’re up for a tasting, you can learn how to pair chocolate with wine. Try five different wines with five different chocolates and feel how wonderfully these two flavours interact.

The Barossa Valley Chocolate Company also has non-alcoholic pairings for designated drivers and kids.

Barossa Valley Cheese Company

At the Barossa Valley Cheese Company, it’s all about cheese! The cheese shop has 19 different artisan kinds of cheese for you to try, all of which are produced in-house. From mild Camemberts and Bries to more savoury cheese sorts. If you like cheese, you’ll probably love them all!

At the cheese store, you can sample different cheeses and pair them with wine, beer and even tea varieties! The Cheese & Wine Trail makes for an even more immersive experience. Equipped with a delicious cheese hamper and a map, you make your way through the wineries on a self-guided tour. Grab yourself a glass of wine, sit down in the grass between the vines and enjoy a cheesy picnic wherever you feel like it.

Vasse Virgin Olive Oil

Olive oils come in all sorts of tastes and flavours. As with many natural products, multiple elements factored in during production decide whether a product is cheap(er) or expensive. This also applies to olive oil. Just like wine, beer, cheese or chocolate, olive oil has many different flavours and qualities.

At Vasse Virgin, located on Seppeltsfield Road, you can learn how to detect these flavours and how to identify if an oil is faulty. You’ll also understand a lot better which olive oil to use for cooking, which one is for salads and other dishes. You’ll have a newfound appreciation for olive oil after this class.

Sunrise Balloon Flight

Imagine yourself floating silently through the air while the sun rises and bathes the misty vineyards and the valley below you in a purple, then golden light. This is hot air ballooning in the Barossa. 

After meeting your ballooning crew very early in the morning, they’ll bring you to your take-off point. You can help the team to inflate the giant balloon or just relax and watch. Around sunrise, it’s time to board the balloon’s basket and you’ll go up up and away. Hot air ballooning is a peaceful and simultaneously exhilarating experience as the ‘flight route’ relies completely on the direction of the wind that day. Don’t worry, though, you’re in the safe hands of the experienced pilot as well as the ground crew following your balloon to pick you up again.

The Barossa sunrise balloon flight lasts for about an hour before you gently land in a field. Back at the base, you’re treated to an exquisite breakfast and a glass of bubbly. 

Do you have more questions about the Barossa? Click to read our Barossa Valley visitor guide. 

Keen to find more culinary experiences in Australia? We can help with that!

• 5 Day Adelaide Short Break
• 15 Days South Australia Self Drive Tour
• 7 Days The Very Best of South Australian Luxury

You can find all our South Australia self-drive itineraries, ready to book. Alternatively, if you would like to create your own self-drive itinerary then simply chat to our First Light Travel specialists about our bespoke packages.