Mount Lofty Botanic Garden

High in the Adelaide Hills, where the cool, wet climate suits plants that struggle on the plains below, the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden falls down a steep valley of exotic and cool-temperate collections. Rhododendrons and magnolias blaze in spring, the deciduous trees turn in autumn, and a chain of ponds and a fern gully thread the slope. Paths are steep in places but reward the climb with valley views and, in season, some of the best autumn colour in the state. Free to enter and often wrapped in hill mist, it is a garden for every season but most theatrical in April and October.