Radelaide

[exceladdict]

A short work trip to Adelaide for a conference means the opportunity to review my favourite airline, try out a new hotel chain and set foot in a city I've never previously visited. Yay!


I'm actually quite inexperienced at travelling in the Eastern States of Australia, so hopefully a couple of little TRs like this will appear in the future. Hopefully this is useful in some way to someone planning a trip to the city of churches.


ITINERARY: PER-ADL-PER, QF Y, 4A and 15C on B737-8


ACCOM: Mercure Grosvenor Hotel Adelaide, 125 North Terrace (an Accor Family property)


Review will also include anecdotes, restaurants and sights along the way.


1: QF590 PER-ADL, 2:36, 4A (Y) B737-8 VH-VYJ (streaming IFE)


Rolled out of bed, surprisingly well-packed and ready for a Swan Taxis App-booked cab that arrived perfectly on time (early morning is the one time I haven't tested Uber, and before a flight is not a good time to test new transport arrangements). The app has some horrible reviews, but the taxi arrived on time, and I was on my way.

PER DOM T4 is looking run down as always but the slightly-less-dense-than-before sea of hi-vis made the airport feel less small. Up to the QP (only QF SG), and I immediately took the stairs down to what used to be the downstairs lounge. Doh. It shows that I not only haven't flown QFd for a while, but I have also failed to pay attention.


Back up and in and an embarassing look at the lounge attendant and it was time for a coffee, which with one fewer machine on rotation took a while, but was decent.


A toasted sandwich and OJ later and it was time to board, which I received a push notification to advise had been moved a whole minute earlier to 6.29am. Wonder if that was necessary.

I was unable to change seat within 3 hours of take off via the app, so had to visit the service desk to check I still had an empty seat next to me - and I did. Wonderful. Over to board and there was no line, until I got on the aerobridge, where there was a large line. There were also broad leaf newspapers still on complimentary offer - I can't understand who still thinks that these are a good idea on small planes (for anyone other than the reader, that is).


On boarding the CSM offered to hang my jacket which was kind, as I otherwise could have been awkwardly stuck with it (I was carrying it though, as it was 42 degrees in PER today).


Seated in 4A, which was surprisingly spacious, and I can understand why it was taken by someone higher than SG on my return flight. Shadow in 4B.



Pushed back perfectly on time and took off towards the north east and over the hills, with a very gentle turn to the east as opposed to the normal 60 second bank. It was then a lovely smooth flight until we reached ADL.




Service was nice but uneventful, I declined breakfast due to lack of hunger and got some work done. There was a baby seated behind me which was a little noisy but not too bad, except when it was kicking my seat. Other than that, a pleasant flight until approach to ADL, which seemed strangely low despite cross winds, which created a bit of up and down upon landing.


On landing I grabbed out the laptop to send an email before I went straight to a meeting, but my laptop battery died while outlook was determined to 'work offline'. So, I was looking for a power point in ADL but all the 'business zones' were taken, so I thought I'd try my luck at the QP - asked to duck in for 5 minutes to charge my battery, and with nothing more than a glance at my boarding pass the kind lounge agent let me in.




I liked ADL immediately.


Out of the QP and it was a reasonable walk to get a taxi but there were plenty available. Overall the ADL airport seemed nice, and the outside area in particularly seemed relatively new. Happy so far.

 

[exceladdict]

Taxi took me to my destination and then I thought I'd do the right thing and save the company money by catching a train back to the city - and stressed myself out on multiple fronts. Firstly, there was only one train platform, despite their being two tracks - very unlike Perth where there's a platform for each direction.


Secondly, there were no ticket machines at the station, and on boarding I could only see these funny small things near the door that only seemed to take coins. Lost and confused, I asked someone nearby to change a fiver and was promptly embarassed and pointed to the other end of the carriage where the actual ticket machine lay. At least I did end up with a ticket.


Arrived at Adelaide station and made my way over North Terrace to my hotel, which was very closeby. Nearby, as well as the station, are the convention centre, Adelaide Oval, among other things.






Checked in by a friendly rep but thanks to a 'no status match' policy, I was using the regular desk my first time at an Accor property, not this one.




Went into my first room and it unfortunately smelled like cigarettes. I took some photos for reference - it was nice enough, but I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke.

 

[exceladdict]

One third floor corridor also didn't seem to be very well planned, thoroughfare wise. I promise you this is not a joke.








The other corridor was pole-less but you could see that the Ibis Styles was made up only of a whole bunch of rooms down the back.

 

[exceladdict]

Back down to the lobby, re-roomed and down to the second floor, and the room is a lot more pleasant smelling - and also bigger.








After that, it was off to dinner, at Parlamento - a local italian place - the 8th best restaurant in Adelaide, according to tripadvisor.

 

[exceladdict]

It was pleasant to get free bread, which is rare in Australia.







I had the signature dish - which was a nice creamy-tomato-based chicken and capsicum pasta - and then had a little stroll.


The city of churches seems to be continuing down the interesting architecture route.


Winding up at the end of the stroll I grabbed an ice cream from 'Movenpick' which I hadn't heard of before but enjoyed.




I also noticed a place called "Hair Machine". An interesting choice of business name.

 

[exceladdict]

Back at the hotel it was interesting the lobby was via stairs - not very convenient really for anyone that's travelling with a bag (read: almost all travellers).


The night's sleep and day one of the conference was good. After that, a colleague had strongly recommended Gauchos, an Argentinian restaurant, which I checked out, about a 10-15 minute walk from North Terrace.


The steak and fries were ok, however it was a small serving. Probably not worth the $42 it cost, to be honest, the price/value equation was a little disappointing.




On the way back to the hotel I saw a sign for Free Beer:



Or on closer inspection, "Free Wifi, Great Beer".

The next morning I started with a coffee at a nice corner shop, forgive the terrible phone photos, but it looked cool.

 

[exceladdict]

And one more:


Lunch at the conference was good.




The taxi to the airport at approximately 4pm was quite quick and pleasant, I had a nice conversation with the cabbie. The walk from the taxi rank to the airport was decent and having an exit row seat booked I went straight through security, where there was no line, to the Qantas club to complete my check in.

2: QF595 ADL-PER, 3:30, 13C (Y) B737-8 VH-VXC (Streaming IFE)


Checking in there I asked whether 4a, c, d or f might have freed up after the seat on the flight to Adelaide was good. Unfortunately only b or e were free, so I chose not to fill someone's shadow and stayed with 13c. The reason I say 'take someone's shadow' is it was hardly a full flight, and on check in online, 4b was unavailable


The ADL Qantas club is nice but is very similar to the Perth club in that it's a basic all day menu, I will say the staff were very friendly there though. Some sausage rolls, a coffee and jelly beans later I sat down to do a tiny bit of work before heading over to the plane.



I had another push notification to let me know that boarding commenced a minute early.




On seating, 13a was taken but I seemed to have a shadow of my own in 13b. Of course, after seating, you're constantly dreading a subsequent boarder sitting next to you, and there were plenty of slow boarders on this flight. Luckily however they continued to walk past and in the end all 4 middle of exit row seats were free.


Took off to the south and then turned around to head north and then west.


After take off a friendly FA (who will receive a written compliment) offered to hang my jacket, and mission impossible 4 started playing on another q-streaming IFE 738. Another FA walked past with activity packs, looking for children to hand them to. I have to hand it to Qantas, while I never flew as a child so don't know if this is standard, I think it's a good idea.


On the flight over I snuck in to the front of plane bathroom but in this instance the front was occupied so I sulked to the back - and I'm assuming this was a refurbed one, because the bathroom was tiny! I mean it did worked, but I can see why there was a question about it being a tad too small!


This was my first "opportunity" to try a QF Y boxed meal and to be honest, it was kind of exactly what I expected it to be. One benefit is it was definitely less "sweaty" than the traditional plastic bowl / alfoil lid combo, and the sauce on my chicken rice combo was nice, a little spicy. Probably one of the nicest meals I've had in Y, despite the fact that eating out of a cardboard box is not really expected on a full service airline.




Not too long after the meal service additional drinks and then Lindor chocolates came around for all pax, a nice touch.


A little later in the flight I was feeling thirsty but the queue at the back was quite packed, so I thought to try my luck in the J cabin for some water. The FA there, possibly the CSM, was extremely friendly so I asked and she confirmed that it was one of the refurbed 737s, before we joked about the size of the rear toilets.


She kindly poured me some water in a cup, as bottled water had run out, and I stretched my legs for a couple of minutes before returning to my seat.


Captain said we were running about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, always welcome when you're arriving home. We approached Perth from the south, and hit a tiny bit of bumpiness as we moved through the clouds. We then surprisingly banked left and flew almost directly west for a time before I realised "duh, you're probably actually going to land from the east". We then unsurprisingly flew over the hills, braked, sped up, braked, and landed relatively bumpily. There was quite a loud noise - possibly a skid - from the right wing, but I'm guessing that's just another black mark on the runway.


Altogether a good flight - thanks once again to RedRoo and the team for getting me home safely.

 

[GarrettM]

Movenpick is pretty good. We first found it in Cairns. But we've sinced moved on to Messina, sadly not available in WA.

Adelaide is a nice little place, where everything IS close to everything else. But it's definitely the kind of place you head to for a reason. And once that reason is achieved, you get out.

 

[RooFlyer]

All good, thanks.

You should have ordered the goat leg at Gaucho's (been my favourite restaurant in the city ever since I lived there, many moons ago). It covers a large plate!

I stayed at the Mercure not long ago, and wasn't impressed - didn't come across those strategically placed pillars, though. Obviously a re-design that looked better on paper than it did in practice! I'm next door at the Accor Grosvenor, next time.

 

[exceladdict]

You should have ordered the goat leg at Gaucho's (been my favourite restaurant in the city ever since I lived there, many moons ago). It covers a large plate!

I stayed at the Mercure not long ago, and wasn't impressed - didn't come across those strategically placed pillars, though. Obviously a re-design that looked better on paper than it did in practice! I'm next door at the Accor Grosvenor, next time.

Hopefully work will bring me back within the year. I had a feeling I'd ordered the wrong thing (though it was a waiter recommendation) and I'll be keen on that Goat Leg!

 

[Abdul_A350]

Africola is my #1 recommendation for Adelaide food. I also enjoy Gaucho's and just grazing at the market.

 

[VPS]

Adelaide is a nice little place, where everything IS close to everything else. But it's definitely the kind of place you head to for a reason. And once that reason is achieved, you get out.

a bit harsh - some of us like Adelaide just the way it is - mind you it would be a lot nicer if summers were getting cooler instead of hotter

 

[GarrettM]

a bit harsh - some of us like Adelaide just the way it is - mind you it would be a lot nicer if summers were getting cooler instead of hotter

Oh I am sure if I lived there I would feel different. After all people say the same about Perth, which is not really all that attractive visually in my opinion, but there aren't too many places I'd prefer to live.
There's nothing at all WRONG with Adelaide - if you ignore all the crazy murder stories - it's just not the same as a Sydney or Melbourne as far as getting out of WA goes.

 

[soundawake]

I've tried every Argentinean place in the city several times - and I've come to the conclusion that the Gauchos that I once revered is overpriced. The best Argentinean place for my money is Sosta in Rundle St. Absolutely wonderful and delicious food. Go there once and you'll never set foot in Gauchos again.