Sightseeing in Adelaide (with kids), part 1

Adelaide is a great city to visit with kids - aside from spotless beaches there is just the right combination of kid-focused venues and events reachable by public transportation, both indoor and outdoor: museums, galleries, walks, green spaces and parks. An endless row of festivals, celebrations, and parades gives you a feeling of an eternal holiday!

MUSEUMS

The museum staff member
helps with the microscope

1. South Austalian Museum - a free 4-floor natural history museum on North Terrace has combined rich and concentrated exhibits on huge range of subjects including Australia's history, Aborriginal cultures, animal world, minerals, Arctic expeditions, etc. The hands-on expoloration room and a full-size giant squid were the Nomads' favorite.

2. Migration Museum tells stories of migrants who came to Adelaide from all over the world, from the first English ship in 1836 to the most recent immigrants from Afganistan. Interactive displays, computer screens, personal stories, and hands-on storyboards have made poignant stories of migration interesting and approachable to kids.

The Immigrants sculpture in the courtyard of the Migrants Museum

King Henry VIII by Holbein
is in the museum's
permanent collection

3. Art Gallery of South Australia houses a good collection of art that includes works of Rodin, Van Dyck, Brueghel and Bosch.

We caught two interesting temporary exhibits - The Desert Country, an internationally acclaimed Australian desert painting movement and The Feast of Trimalchio, an avant-garde  large-scale digital video installation of Petronius’s epic poem from the Satyricon for a twenty-first century audience filled with erotic and gastonomic fantasies, created by 6 Russian artists.

A snapshot of The Feast of Trimalchio

The museum draws immense crowds of kids every first Sun of the month for Arts' Kids at the Gallery when it  introduces children to arts, music, and the museum's collection through themed events.

Arts' Kids at the Museum

4. Tandanya Indigenous Cultural Institute presents history and culture of Aboriginal (Kaurna) people of South Australia. A free demonstration of didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument, was the most interesting part for the kids.