Up in the Adelaide Hills
Stirling and Hahndorf feel a world away from the plains, yet sit around twenty minutes up the freeway. The Stirling Hotel on Mount Barker Road has a bistro and a front bar made for a first meet, and the fires are lit when the Hills turn cold. Cold outside, warm inside. You get the idea.
Down by the gulf
The tram runs from the city to Moseley Square in Glenelg, and Jetty Road is lined with cafés for an unhurried coffee. Further south, the Reef Shack next to the Port Noarlunga jetty does a sundowner with sand between your toes.
The north-east and the foothills
Hope Valley and the Tea Tree Gully suburbs hang off the O-Bahn, which gets you into town in a hurry. Mitcham, on the Belair line, is foothills territory with its own shopping square and a slower pace.