Our Guest Reviewer, Victoria Reynolds, is the very talented and busy mum of two girls aged 3 years and 3 months old.
A family day out in the heart of Adelaide doesn’t get much better than the Royal Adelaide Show. A yearly event that is on for 9 days, it includes fair-ground rides for children (and adult-children!) of all ages, pony-rides, a farmyard nursery, pig-racing, horse-shows, judging programs, dancing, food and wine, technology displays, kids carnival and so much more.
We got there for opening time at 9am to miss the crowds for parking and to get there before the sun got too hot. It was a great idea that we did as it made the whole day run a lot more smoothly without grumpy and hot toddlers and babies in tow.
The fairground rides are a pure delight to any child and are a great place to soak up the atmosphere. The prices are around $6 per ride and there are plenty of facilities for food and drink as well as toilets which are clean and easily accessible with a stroller.
The Learning Centre is a great place for the children to get up close to the farm-yard animals with a chance for children to hold chicks, brush cows, feed lambs, stroke goats and say hello to the piglets. It got really busy in here with so many eager children waiting their turn so I’d suggest heading to this area first before the crowds come.
Technology displays are a fantastic way to introduce children to science and with robots, 3D printers, and many different displays there is something for all the family to be interested in. There are endless stalls selling all items from toys to clothing, pet-food to wine with many companies offering a selection of different food and wine to taste for free – a great way for the adults to have enjoyment whilst the little ones have an ice-cream in the stroller or relax a little between the excitement of the many different attractions.
The pony rides are just $7 each and give a great taster for the experience and for the keen horse-enthusiast there are a number of different horse events on throughout the day from show-jumping to side-saddle. The pet-corner has a huge selection of different breeds of dogs, cats, snakes, birds and just about any pet you can think of.
Show bags range from about $5 to $25 and include all sorts of goodies – it looked as though just about every other family had at least one of them and they seem to be a big hit with the children. A great thing about the Royal Adelaide Show is that the day can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Bring a packed lunch, go on one ride per child and spend lots of time looking around the thousands of displays and animals and it doesn’t have to be that expensive for a fun day out, though of course you could also easily spend hundreds here.
We will be going back again next year for sure – there is so much to see and do here and with great baby changing and feeding facilities along with hundreds of different food options it makes a day out with children hassle and stress free (especially if you get there early). There’s something for all the family to enjoy – a fantastic way to start Spring in Adelaide.
For more information about this year’s Royal Adelaide Show see our post here.
All photos above were taken by Victoria Reynolds 2013.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
