If you’re looking to keep your kids on the right track this holidays, or even on a weekend or after school during term time, then getting out on the bike is a good start. It’s amazing what a WHEELIE good time you can have when you’re out on a family bike ride, and in Adelaide we have so many great options for kid-friendly bike rides.
We’ve found some of Adelaide’s best kid-friendly bike tracks for families to get you started.
Linear Park Bike Track
This might just be one of the prettiest bike tracks in Adelaide, and is perfect for families, kids and parents.
The Linear Park bike track is both safe and quiet, away from the traffic, which means less stress for parents with no dicey road crossings or driveways to worry about.
The best part is that throughout the trail you’ll find plenty of playgrounds you can stop at, so the kids get a rest from pedalling and you can take a sit down too!
You might also find yourself riding behind the Adelaide Zoo (see if you can hear the Lions roaring or the Siamangs calling!) and you can even stop off and try the paddle boats near the Festival Theatre.
For a map of the full Linear Park Bike Track:
southaustraliantrails.com/trails/river-torrens-linear-park-trail
Location: Henley Beach to Athelstone
Shepherds Hill Recreation Park
Take a 20 minute drive South of Adelaide and you’ll find Shepherds Hill Recreation Park at Saint Marys.
There’s a great BMX track here with a jumps area offering fun for kids of all ages, but be aware that it is rated as an intermediate ride, so keep an eye on any little ones. You might like to get started with a few laps of the pump track and kids’ zone obstacles at the Ayliffe Road end.
At Shepherds Hill there are a few mountain bike trails mapped out, they’re all shared use trails so keep in mind that bikes need to give way to pedestrians and horses (yes, it’s a horse riding trail too!)
This is a great spot for beginners, with options from easy through to intermediate and advanced. Even though it’s a small park, Shepherds Hill contains 16 kilometres of mountain bike trails, including family-friendly loops, short but tough cross-country loops, and fun intermediate downhill runs.
Location: Ayliffes Road, St Marys
Encounter Bikeway
There’s nothing quite like the scenic views of the Encounter Bikeway, and riding with the kids along the coast with the sea breeze in your hair.
Located on the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula, approximately one hours drive from Adelaide, the Encounter Bikeway is an on-road and shared trail that links the four coastal towns between Victor Harbor and Goolwa, via the coastal towns of Port Elliot and Middleton.
The Encounter Bikeway is the perfect place for a family bike ride with the kids. The full track is almost 30km but obviously you can pick and choose which section you ride, lest the kids find themselves suffering from exhaustion and starvation along the way!
Download a copy of the Encounter Bikeway Brochure:
Location: Start/Finish – Rosetta Head, Victor Harbor
Eagle Mountain Bike Park
Eagle Mountain Bike Park offers 22km of bike trail options for children and beginners to adults and advanced riders. Depending on how skilled you are, there’s even a skills park for the very seasoned cyclists among us.
Eagle Mountain Bike Park is the perfect place to explore a family bike ride, and it’s only 12km from the city of Adelaide, up the freeway, so you’ll only have to listen to “are we there yet” for about fifteen minutes, give or take, depending on where in Adelaide you’re coming from!
Whether it’s a sunny weekend or the school holidays, Eagle Mountain Bike Park is the perfect place for the whole family to enjoy a bike ride together in Adelaide.
Location: Mount Barker Road, Leadwood Gardens
Kurranga Park BMX Track
This is inner city BMX heaven for the kiddies, located on the corner of Unley Road and Greenhill Road, not far from the Adelaide CBD.
Kurranga has options for even the littlest riders who are still on their balance bikes, to the slightly more adventurous, with three levels of BMX pump tracks, from very easy to ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY KIDDING ME, for the serious BMX-ers.
These pump tracks are regularly maintained by the City Dirt Crew, a volunteer group who are committed to stacking, sculpting and shaping dirt jump trails in the heart of Adelaide, who request that riders follow simple trail etiquette.
Location: Corner Unley Road and Greenhill Road
O’Halloran Hill Recreation Park
O’Halloran Hill Recreation Park can be found about 25 minutes South of Adelaide, and offers 8km of mountain bike trails suitable for all abilities, with trails graded from easy, through to intermediate and advanced.
There are four easy trails, best suited to kids and family bike riding, which are generally free of obstacles and with gentler hills, as well as a selection of intermediate and advanced graded trails for more experienced riders.
Download a map of O’Halloran Hill Recreation Park:
Location: Majors Road, O’Halloran Hill
