Tasmania Travel Guide

Tasmania is the part of Australia that Australians recommend to each other, which is usually the strongest signal there is. It sits far enough south to need layers in months when the mainland does not, and at about 26,400 square miles it is compact enough to see properly in under a week, which almost nothing else in this country is.

Two cities anchor it. Hobart holds the south, built around a working harbor beneath Mount Wellington, with the Salamanca market on Saturdays and MONA reached by ferry up the Derwent. Launceston holds the north, sitting at the head of the Tamar Valley with a river gorge inside the city limits. Cradle Mountain sits inland between them and is what most people build the trip around, while the east coast, with Freycinet and the Bay of Fires, runs down the other side.

The thing visitors most consistently get wrong here is packing. This is not mainland weather, clear days at Cradle Mountain are the minority, and snow is possible in any month including January. Build in a spare day if the mountain is the centerpiece of your trip. Below are the guides for the drive between the two cities and for the walks worth building a day around.