How to Visit the Clare Valley in 2026: No Gate, Two Start Points, One Good Day

You have found the valley on a map and you want to know how a visit works. The answers are simpler than they look, once you know that there is nothing to buy at a gate. What you choose instead is where your day starts, who drives, and how much of it you spend at cellar doors. This guide covers each in turn, then sets out the Clare Valley guided tours so you can pick one.

Clare Valley quick facts

Fares and hours as of September 2026; check them again before you travel. The Clare Valley Wine, Food and Tourism Centre's address and hours are listed with the tour pickup points.

What you pay for when there is no ticket

Nobody sells a ticket to the Clare Valley, so "Clare Valley tickets" really means one of two things. On a guided day you pay for your seat, and on every guided day tour here the scheduled tastings and lunch are inside that fare. If you go on your own, you pay for your transport and for each tasting as you go. Visiting the Clare Valley sets the costs side by side.

If you plan your own tastings, book the popular ones. Clare Valley Tourism advises booking ahead at Pikes Wines, a couple of days ahead at Kilikanoon, and calling Sussex Squire for a full tasting. The Clare Valley wineries page has the cellar doors the tours visit and the ones along the trail.

Getting there from Adelaide

By car, head north on Port Wakefield Road onto the Northern Expressway, then turn left onto the Horrocks Highway just after the Gawler bypass. Clare Valley Tourism times the drive at around 90 minutes, and the South Australian Tourism Commission at around two hours, so plan on something in between. The valley is also about an hour from the Barossa.

Without a car, you have three choices. A coach runs from Adelaide to Clare; Peninsula Coaches publishes the timetable. Clare Valley Aerodrome, on RM Williams Way 14 km north of Clare, is 10 minutes from the wine region, and pickups can be arranged from it. Or you let a tour collect you: the Wine Escape picks up at hotels in Adelaide city and Glenelg. Getting to the Clare Valley has the route step by step.

Getting around once you arrive

This is the part that shapes your day. The cellar doors are spread along the valley from Auburn to Clare, and no bus links them. You have four ways to move between them:

• Your own car. The easiest way to get around, but the driver cannot join the tastings, so agree who drives before you set off.
• A bike. The Riesling Trail runs 33 km from Auburn to Barinia, past around 30 cellar doors. Hire in Clare or Auburn, including e-bikes and tandems.
• A taxi. Clare Valley Taxis can bring you back at the end of a ride.
• A guided day. Your guide drives, books the tastings and brings you home.

How long to allow

The South Australian Tourism Commission suggests two to three days. That gives you one day with a guide at the cellar doors and one on the trail, with time left for a village or a walk. If you only have a day, choose how you want to spend it:

A night or two in the valley buys you the most time among the vines, because none of your day goes on the highway. The Clare Valley map shows the towns, from Auburn to Clare, and where each tour starts.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the seasons the South Australian Tourism Commission recommends for cycling, walking and cellar doors. Summer is hot: January averages a high of 30.5 °C at Clare. July is cool, at 13.0 °C, with about ten rain days. Parks and the Tourism Centre close on Catastrophic Fire Danger days, so check the fire rating in summer.

Two festivals shape the calendar. The Clare Valley Gourmet Festival runs from 14 to 17 May 2027 and fills beds early. The Festival of the Lamb is held each September, around the spring equinox. Clare Valley weather has every month and every festival date.

Every way to see the valley with a guide

Here is how the guided days line up, starting with the ones that begin in the valley:

• The local guide's shared day. The scenic wine tour with local stories collects you in one of seven valley towns for six hours, five guests at most, from $174 per person. The same guide's six-and-a-half-hour version takes up to six.
• Your group only. The private day for four costs $535 for up to four people, starting at Sevenhill Cellars.
• From Adelaide. The Clare Valley Wine Escape runs eight hours from your city or Glenelg hotel, from $341 per person.
• Three days. The Flinders Ranges and Clare Valley tour adds the outback, from $643 per person.

If you are staying in the city, the Clare Valley tours from Adelaide page weighs the long day against the three, and every card shows its own cancellation terms.

Close by, and worth the detour

Spring Gully Conservation Park, near Clare, has a seasonal waterfall that drops 18 m after rain and the only red stringybarks protected in any South Australian reserve. Burra, north of the valley, sells a Heritage Passport that opens its heritage sites. Bungaree Station, founded in 1841, offers a private tour of the farm. Things to do in the Clare Valley covers each, and the Riesling Trail, town by town covers the ride.

Three ways to put a Clare Valley day together

Clare Valley Wine Tour. Local Guide, Clare Valley pickup, & lunch

Six and a half hours from your Clare Valley accommodation, six guests at most, with a charcuterie lunch and the scheduled tastings in the fare.

From $177 per person

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Clare Valley Wine Escape

Eight hours from your Adelaide or Glenelg hotel to Auburn, Taylors, O'Leary Walker, Hill River and Pikes, with tastings and lunch in the fare.

From $341 per person

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All Inclusive 3 Day 4WD Flinders Ranges and Clare Valley Tour

Three days from Adelaide with two nights in Hawker, Wilpena Pound with an Adnyamathanha guide, and the Clare Valley on the way north and back.

From $643 per person

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