Cosi Costello: My favourite summer holiday spot is Aldinga

Andrew “Cosi” Costello has seen an awful lot of South Australia, so when he says Aldinga is the top spot, he knows what he’s talking about.

I have never felt as connected to my family as I have during our recent stay in Aldinga.

That is why, after showcasing this state’s best places to holiday for more than a decade, Aldinga moves up to first place in my list.

We booked a 10-day stay in a beach house so we could spend Christmas and New Year with my wife Sam and daughters Matilda and Charli-Rose. They say you get 12 summers with your kids before they start being drawn away from you with their own friends. With my girls being 12 and 13 I really try hard to squeeze as much love outta them as I can. so 10 days was perfect.

Aldinga is only 38km from the CBD, so it’s hardly a road trip, but as soon as you get there you feel a million miles away.

Sunset on Aldinga Beach.

The D’Arenberg Cube at McLaren Vale.

The coastline in this area is world class. Port Noarlunga, Moana, Port Willunga, Aldinga, Silver Sands and Sellicks. It reads pretty well, doesn’t it? Add in Maslin Beach and a wink emoji and you really do have a section of coast that is to die for, clothes or no clothes …

Aldinga is located perfectly on the coast but also only a dolphin’s jump inland and you find wineries galore like Serafino, Mollydooker, McCarthy’s Orchard and Down the Rabbit Hole.

We went to Willunga Farmers Market on day 1 and got enough local produce to get us through the Christmas period. When you buy here you are buying direct from the farmers and the money goes straight into their pockets. I loved that.

Dining out was made easy with places like Star of Greece being a no-brainer to watch a south-coast sunset. We did pavlova and strawberries every second day on the beach from Liquid Delights, a husband-and-wife team that serve amazing food from a food truck at cheap prices. They’ve been doing it for more than 15 years and, thanks to my love of their food, their kids are now finishing school at Geelong Grammar.

Whenever I’m on holidays from SAFM, Rebecca Morse really misses me. So she couldn’t help but come and stay a night with her family.

We had lunch at the d’Arenberg Cube, which was just sensational. Everywhere you looked was an Instagram pic waiting to happen.

There’s a massive copper snail in there for sale for a touch over $1m. The Cube is also home to South Australia’s best urinal (as judged by me) and I encourage even the ladies to pop their head in and check it out. After an amazing feed there, and many wines, it was back to the accommodation to watch another great sunset.

But if you asked me about my holiday highlight from Aldinga, my answer’s easy: Horse riding on the beaches.

Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello's daughter riding on Aldinga beach.

My daughter is an avid rider so I researched some places close to our accommodation where I could agist her horse. Every morning for the 10 days we collected our horse Winnie from Davilly Park Horse Stables (only 1km away) and headed to Silver Sands beach. Horses are allowed to ride there until 9am.

This is a wonderful thing, not only for those lucky enough to have a horse, but for the hundreds of people who stopped and watched, or patted, our horse – and the 20 or so others riding and swimming.

I felt so blessed to have this experience with my daughter. After the sixth day of riding on the beach my daughter and I were reflecting on how lucky we were. I told her how, when I was a child, it was my dream to have a horse and do a beach ride but never got to fulfil it.

We decided to invite other South Aussies to join us and bring their kids for a ride. We did one Facebook post asking if any parents would like to bring their kids for a beach ride and 2500 people said yes. We chose 10 kids and took them all for a horse ride among some of the best backdrops you’ll find. It was an amazing morning.

Each day at Aldinga blew us away as we slowly got to know the four kangaroos that would be in our front yard each morning. I would look at them thinking: Are they debating which beach to go to today? Like, seriously, how lucky are we in SA? There are kangaroos in my front yard and I’m a 43 minute drive to the Mall’s Balls!

The thing I loved most of all about Aldinga was the love. Our family fully relaxed and fully connected. Screen time was down and affection was up.

There’s a great statistic that when you are holidaying with loved ones the amount of times you kiss or cuddle increases by 80 per cent. I think this is spot on. On the last night of our Aldinga stay my wife and I hopped into bed. Our phones buzzed and it was a message from our daughters on the Costello family chat group. The words of gratitude in that text are something I’ll remember forever.

Thank you Aldinga for providing us with the holiday we needed. I encourage all South Aussies to head down and get a piece of this paradise.