Driving Yourself on Kangaroo Island

You can take your own car to Kangaroo Island on the SeaLink ferry from Cape Jervis, from A$99 one way for a vehicle up to 5 m (SeaLink, checked November 2026). Cape Jervis is 108 km by road from Adelaide, and on the island the drive from the ferry at Penneshaw to Admirals Arch by way of Seal Bay is about 185 km each way (routed). Over two or three days that is a good way to see the island; as a single day from Adelaide it is a very long drive.

The short answer

Drive yourself if you have a car, two days or more, and want the beaches, lookouts and wildlife stops that the day tours pass by. You pay the ferry for the car and each passenger, and the park fees at the gate. Do not plan to drive it all in one day from Adelaide: the routed drive times alone come to close to 8 hours behind the wheel (Adelaide to Cape Jervis and back, Penneshaw to Admirals Arch by way of Seal Bay and back), plus the ferry both ways, before you stop anywhere. Without a car, the day from Adelaide weighs the coach and ferry instead.

The car ferry

SeaLink’s fares page shows one-way fares from A$99 for a car, campervan or motorhome up to 5 m, A$112 from 5.1 m to 5.9 m and A$144 over 6 m, plus foot-passenger fares from A$49 an adult and A$25.50 a child aged 3 to 14 (checked November 2026). SeaLink adds that variable pricing may apply by demand and time of travel, and SeaLink adds a temporary fuel surcharge of A$5 per passenger and A$14 per vehicle each way to new bookings, not to resident or freight fares (SeaLink, checked November 2026). A new vessel, Wanggami, entered service on 27 October 2026 and SeaLink expects a new timetable in November 2026, so check sailing times when you book. The ferry has the full fare table.

How far everything is

Routed drive times, without traffic or stops.

Kingscote sits more centrally than Penneshaw: from there Seal Bay is 57 km and Remarkable Rocks 117 km. Seal Bay is open 9am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm (NPWS), so a day that starts at the ferry should reach Seal Bay first and Flinders Chase after, or split the two over two days.

The park fees you pay at the gate

NPWS compare-prices page and Seal Bay prices page, checked November 2026. A family is 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children. Flinders Chase entry also covers the Cape Borda Lightstation self-guided tour.

NPWS’s own Flinders Chase park page shows other figures in two places; the table above takes the fees from its compare-prices page, which lists every fee side by side.

Does the Kangaroo Island Tour Pass pay?

The Tour Pass, A$95.00 for an adult, covers 12 months of Flinders Chase entry plus Seal Bay, Cape Borda, the Cape Willoughby Lightstation tour and the Kelly Hill Caves tour, and it is sold in person only: at the Flinders Chase and Seal Bay visitor centres, the Cape Willoughby information centre and the NPWS office in Kingscote. On the fees above, one adult who visits all five with two-day Flinders Chase entry pays A$94.30 separately (A$20.70 + A$22.40 + A$31.00 + A$20.20), which is about the same as the pass; NPWS also lists a A$6.20 adult site entry fee at Cape Willoughby beside the lightstation tour. Visiting Seal Bay and Flinders Chase only comes to A$35.60 with one-day entry, well under it. NPWS says as much: if you plan only a couple of parks, individual fees may be cheaper. The pass also covers the guided beach tour at Seal Bay, listed at A$44.00 an adult, but NPWS paused beach access from 17 August 2026 because of bird flu (as of November 2026).