Crowne Plaza Hotel and Botanical Gardens, Adelaide, South Australia.

Crowne Plaza Hotel,
Adelaide, South Australia

My partner, Enigma, and I finally managed our two day getaway in Adelaide staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, ideally located not far from the central shopping district, arts precinct, and cafe strip.

I say 'finally' because we initially booked this getaway in November of 2020 and watched it disappear on the morning we were meant to leave as SA went into a hard lockdown due to a COVID19 outbreak. Frustratingly the lockdown turned out to be unnecessary thanks to a not entirely accurate reporting on the movements of one positive case.

However the damage to our trip was done. Lock down was lifted two days later but we had to reschedule our stay for January. Thankfully the Crowne Plaza was able to honor the same discount prices we had initially booked for, bringing the stay within our budget for two nights.

Service at the hotel has been good. This is the first hotel we've stayed at with a street level concierge, who explains where to park, gave us our parking pass, and organised having our bags taken up to our room. He also directed us to the tenth floor where reception actually is, along with the restaurant, bar, and outdoor pool area.

Our room was on the twentieth floor, about halfway up what I think is about a forty story tower building (I'm guessing the floors further up are possibly penthouse apartments).

Our room. King size bed
and great view.

We were a little disappointed by our room - described as a 'King premium' because of the king size bed - the hotel's website showed a much lighter, more spacious looking room with two floor to ceiling picture windows.

If that's what you're looking for then you need to request a corner room. Unfortunately these were booked out, and it seemed like our choice of room was determined at check in, because the reception staff gave as several options for rooms on arrival.

Despite that our room, with just the one floor to ceiling picture window, did have a spectacular view of the city looking out to the Mount Lofty Ranges in the distance.  Beyond that (and the king size bed) it was pretty standard with all the basics you would expect for two people. Though strangely, only one chair at the small table.

Our first night we bought burgers from the nearby Yankee Burger Bar restaurant, just up the road, and bought them back to the hotel. They were very good. I had a cheeseburger that was definitely better than your average fast food cheeseburger.

Breakfast was included with our booking (usually $50 per person). Definitely a good range of food for both hot and cold breakfasts with no limit on number of servings you can go back for. Though, if you're paying full price you'll probably want large servings of everything to feel like you've gotten value for money. I'm not that into big cooked breakfasts but Enigma does enjoy them when on holiday.

Bust of Carolus Linnaeus
"Father of Systematic Botany",
Botanical Gardens, Adelaide.

Botanical Gardens

We spent our morning wandering around the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, a short walk from the hotel.

While the gardens aren't huge in terms of how long it takes to do a lap around the main path (my estimate would be approximately twenty minutes at an  average walking pace), the layout, featuring many smaller winding paths with lots to discover, makes the park feel large.

Among the park's sites are the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion and the Bicentennial Conservatory.

In the Waterlily Pavilion I took the opportunity to try out some mini camera lens attachments I have for my phone with varying results.

Amazon Waterlily Pavilion, Botanical Gardens.

The Bicentennial Conservatory is a fairly substantial greenhouse shaped like a kind of large dome/half shell like thing. Inside is a two level walk way tropical rainforest. I didn't really take many photos here but the sign outside, reminding people to social distance, gave me some pause for thought...

Grey or Red kangaroo
do you think?

Are they referring to a grey kangaroo or a red kangaroo? Either way it was an 'only in Australia' type sign.

The park also boasts several choices of places to eat. We chose the Simpson Cafe, which is generally the cheapest option, but still excellent food in a shady, outdoor setting overlooking one of the lakes.

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The rest of our two day escape I didn't really document but if you're curious, on day two we went to see a new Eric Bana movie, The Dry (click the link for my review).

The cinema was at Glenelg, so we spent the rest of the day there so we could have fish and chips on the beach. Unfortunately the fish and chips we bought were the worst we'd ever had, from a place we'd bought them from previously the last time we were in the area.

Glenelg Wheel on the foreshore.

All the chips seemed like bottom of the fryer crispy, not even 'nice' crispy, and the fish batter wasn't properly cooked. We couldn't finish it.

We did end that day back at the hotel with a nice hot chocolate in the bar, overlooking an amazing evening view of the city.

Checking out, after our second night, we headed to Largs Bay for lunch at Queenies (highly recommend this place for breakfast since that's all they really serve) and ice cream on the beach before making our way home.