South Australia is not often included among the top tourist destination in Australia apart from a couple of spots like Kangaroo Island and the underground town of Coober Pedy.
We’re doing the big lap of Australia in a van – as today, March 2026 – and we happened to be in South Australia in January, one of the hottest seasons. Because of multiple heatwaves and recommendations from local people, we decided to avoid the central part and skip the huge salt lakes and desert towns heading north. We then started exploring the peninsulas around Adelaide and we discovered many beautiful and van-friendly spots.
This article is about the peninsulas of South Australia with tips on where to stop and what’s worth driving to.
We spent about 5 weeks in SA divided pretty much like this:
- 1 week along the Fleurieu Peninsula between Adelaide and Cape Jervis
- 1 week on Kangaroo Island (we’re working on an article about Kangaroo Island)
- 1 week in Adelaide (we worked, met some friends, and enjoyed art galleries and museums)
- 3 days on the York Peninsula
- 10 days along the Eyre Peninsula
Fleurieu Peninsula between Adelaide and Cape Jervis
This peninsula is urbanised and and has got beautiful beaches stretching for miles.
Some places we recommend are: Port Noarlunga and South Port Beach; Moana Beach (accessing via the car park opposite Graham Rabbett Reserve, there are public toilets and a nice cold shower); Port Willunga and Silver Sands Beach, both near Aldinga; Normanville and Rapid Bay Beach.
If you’re travelling in a van, you can sleep in any small town along the coast in any car park where it’s not clearly marked “no camping”. We spend three nights in Aldinga and we took advantage of its library/community center – where there is also a free shower – as well as of the shopping center nearby.
On your way to or back from Cape Jervis, you can also spend a night at the HMAS Hobart memorial Lookout, waking up looking at the ocean.
If you want to stay more on the inside, you can explore some vineyards nearby Willunga (great bakery there!) or Franks Pot Reserve (great free campsite there). We also went for lunch in Handorf, which should be a German-like town… not much like it, but food was good!
3 days on the York Peninsula
The York Peninsula is just a long stretch of land full of fields, but at its end there is the beautiful Dhilba Guuranda Innes National Park. We spent a night there at Stenhouse Bay Campground and enjoy a peaceful walk along the jetty and the beach as well as the night sky full of starts.
The following day we left the campsite and drove to explore the National Park a bit more, stopping at Pondalowie Bay Beach. The board walk among the sand dunes is fascinating and the beach is awe-inspiring. We jumped in the water, walk to see the ship wreck and then came back to van.
Our final stop before living the National Park was the Inneston Historic Township. Interesting to know there was a settlement there including a small chalk production. There is also a longer walk starting there but we were a bit tired and decided to go towards a donation-based campsite in Warooka (Warooka Oval).
The following day, after some morning work, we drove to Moonta for lunch. It’s a nice spot along the coast and at low tide is nice to walk on the beach.
Driving to our next stop, a free campsite near the South Flinders Rangers, we said goodbye to the York Peninsula.
It’s worth doing if you have time or want to explore the area, but it’s not unmissable.
10 days along the Eyre Peninsula
The Eyre Peninsula gifted us with some great ocean views and unexpected highlights!
We took it slowly and spent 10 days there, but you can also do a bit less if you don’t have so much time. We drove from Port Augusta to Ceduna, so the itinerary we’re sharing here follows that direction.
- Port Augusta
- Fitzgerald Bay (1 night)
- Port Gibbon Campground (shower)
- Carrow Wells Campground (2 nights)
- Port Lincoln National Park – Fishermans Bay Campground (2 nights)
- Port Lincoln (1 night)
- Coffin Bay National Park
- Coles Point (1 night)
- Greenly Beach Rockpools
- Locks Well Beach
- Elliston Sculpture Cliff Loop
- Walkers Rock Campground (1 night)
- Murphy’s Haystacks
- Streaky Bay (1 night)
- Ceduna (1 night)
From Port August to Port Lincoln
Port Augusta is the kind of place where you stop to get fuel and food, it’s not worth it spending a night there. So, we checked on CamperMate for a free campsite “nearby” and we eventually decided to drive to Fitzgerald Bay. The bay is beautiful and you can park overlooking the water, but it’s not a grat place to swim as the water is too shallow.
We left the campsite quite early in the morning and we really needed to have a shower.. So we drove to Port Gibbon Campground as we saw on CamperMate that there were hot showers available for $1/2 minutes. When we arrived there we realised we only had $2 coins, so I started looking for someone to exchange them. The situation was quite deserted, but then I saw a young couple walking towards the toilets. They told us that the hot water was working even without coins and to enjoy our free shower! They also said to always check first, as this is often the case…tip noted!
After another stop at Port Neill, we arrived at our destination: Carrow Wells Campground. It’s 2hr 30min from Fitzgerald Bay and it’s also free. There is plenty of space even if some areas are a bit rocky, no toilets or facilities, and white sand dunes with beach access. Giulia had some morning yoga on the beach as the white sand is quite hard and the view of the ocean very relaxing. We didn’t swim as it didn’t look very safe to do so.
We spent two nights there as we had enough food and water – and we needed some time to work / study; we even had a shower before leaving – our van has one – because we knew we could refill our water tank in Port Lincoln later that day.
Port Lincoln and Lincoln National Park
Port Lincoln is a small town where you can find everything you need: shops, dump station, free drinking water and even efficient mechanics!
We spent one night at Port Lincoln Tourist Park because we had an appointment at the mechanic to check our brake pads early in the morning and Giulia needed a place where she could teach while the van was at the garage – and we also wanted to bake some bread and do some cooking. But you can skip that and spend all your nights at the National Park.
We spent two nights at Fishermans Point Campground and… wow! We loved it! The campground overlooks two beautiful bays with pristine and calm waters. One bay is a bit hidden and you can only access via a small path near site 6; the other one is wide and long and it’s part of a walking trail to get to Donington Beach.
The walk to Donington Beach is not that great as you often walk along the road or on beaches, but the Donington Beach is great for a swim and we also saw some dolphins playing not far from the shore. What we did enjoy was the Fisherman Point Look Hike, which takes you to the opposite side of the peninsula through a beautiful bush and coastal walk.
The rest of Lincoln National Park can be explore with a 4WD; our van is a 2WD so we didn’t go, but we expect to be very beautiful.
From Port Lincoln to Ceduna
We really enjoyed this part of the Eyre Peninsula as well! We decided to stop at Coffin Bay only briefly checking our the National Park and then we moved on to Coles Point, where we stayed for the night at the top of the cliff overlooking Greenly Beach and the wide ocean. The sunset was quite spectacular!
The following day we woke up early to enjoy Greenly beach Rockpools at low tide. Wow! Such a hidden gem of South Australia. The water is cold and crystal clear and there are many colourful carpet sea stars decorating the rock pools.
From there we drove to Lock Well Beach, which is another spectacular beach – its colours look surreal. We stopped there for lunch and then when down the long wooden stairs to walk on the beach and enjoy the view of the cliffs from below. Many people were fishing but nobody succeeded.
The we drove to Elliston and checked out some sculpture along a cliff road. Nothing special, but the view is nice and we saw some people surfing out in the open ocean… apparently that is a great spot for that! We met some Aussie guys who drove from Melbourne just to surf there.
We spent the night at Walkers Rock Campground enjoying a beautiful sunset and a great night sky.
On our way to Streaky Bay, we stopped to see the Murphy’s Haystacks – definitely a must-see! These giant rocks make you imagine how high the ground must have been thousands of years ago and you feel quite small near them.
Our stop at Streaky Bay was pleasant as we talked to some people on the jetty and had a swim, but we also took some time to work and study.
The following day we drove to Ceduna and rest at Shelly Beach Campground. After another stunning sunset, we were ready to drive the Nullarbor!
