Woodside: Cheese, Chocolate, Cycling and Art

Woodside brings cheese, chocolate, cycling and art together in a clearly defined town profile. This mix is appealing when choosing holiday accommodation if you don’t want your trip to revolve around just one theme: practical cheese-making courses, a look at chocolate production, a cycling connection, a monthly market and a work on the Hills Sculpture Trail sit side by side. Which of these experiences will influence your plans depends on whether you’d rather take part yourself, observe production processes or organise your days around an event or cycling route.

Cheese and chocolate in production

Woodside Cheese Wrights offers two different ways to enjoy cheese: the company runs practical cheese-making courses, and the Cellar Door offers a varied selection of cheeses. This lets you decide whether you’re interested in the making process itself or more in the cheese selection. Course times and availability may change, so check the latest information before making a course a firm part of your plans. If you’re including the Cellar Door selection in your travel plans, check the current opening details in advance.

Melba's Chocolate And Confectionery Factory is an operating tourism factory in a heritage-listed complex of buildings in Woodside. Visitors can observe production processes in five rooms: the “Chocolate Room”, “Depositing Room”, “Packing Room”, “Panning Room” and “Toffee Room”. The names give the chocolate theme different spaces to explore, while watching the production process is the common thread. Together with a hands-on cheese-making course, this creates a clear contrast between taking part and observing. For travellers who pay close attention to this kind of experience when choosing an outing, these are two distinct reasons to include Woodside in their plans.

Cycling connection and market day

The Amy Gillett Bikeway runs from Woodside to Mount Torrens and can be ridden by bicycle. Woodside and Mount Torrens are therefore two clear reference points for planning your route. There is also the Woodside BMX Track, also known as “Woody Trails”. The two cycling options are different: the bikeway connects Woodside with Mount Torrens, while Woody Trails refers to the BMX track in Woodside. This lets you weigh up whether a cycling connection between two places or the local track is more central to your travel plans.

The Country Market follows a different planning schedule: it takes place in Woodside on the third Saturday of each month. As the schedule may change, check the date before your trip. Unlike the bikeway, which describes a connection, the market ties your plans to a specific point in the month. If the market is an important reason for your visit, coordinate your travel dates with the current schedule.

Art on the Hills Sculpture Trail

Woodside is part of the Hills Sculpture Trail and the location of “Co-Existence”, a marble sculpture by Italian sculptor Francesco Panceri. For travellers interested in sculpture, this is a specific art connection within the sculpture trail: a named marble work located in Woodside. Art thus adds another option alongside courses, production processes and cycling, offering another point of interest when choosing where to stay.

When looking for holiday accommodation in Woodside, it is especially useful to consider the timing of activities: check course availability and the market day against your travel dates; the bikeway and Sculpture Trail, by contrast, offer thematic reasons to choose the area. You can first decide whether a fixed event or a particular interest is what draws you to Woodside, before shaping your holiday accommodation search around it.

Discover more destinations: Basket Range, Oakbank, Kersbrook, Uraidla, Stirling, Forreston, Gumeracha, Birdwood.

For the broader travel overview: Adelaide Hills Council.