I almost skipped Tasmania. "It's just the island below Australia," someone said. "Not much to do," they added. I've never been more wrong about a destination based on someone else's opinion.
Tasmania is a 68,000 square kilometer argument against everything you think you know about Australia. No desert. No surf culture. No crowds. Here's what it does have.
At dusk on the Cradle Mountain boardwalk, common wombats emerge from their burrows and graze the buttongrass plains like small, furry bowling balls. They're so accustomed to humans that they'll waddle within arm's reach. You'll also spot Tasmanian pademelons (tiny wallabies) and, if you're lucky, spotted-tail quolls.
The wombat encounter is free with park entry (AUD $25/vehicle). No zoo. No enclosure. Just wombats doing wombat things while you stand there grinning like an idiot.
A private museum carved into sandstone cliffs, built by a mathematical gambling genius, housing everything from ancient Egyptian sarcophagi to a machine called Cloaca Professional that turns food into excrement. It sounds unhinged. It is unhinged. And it's the most talked-about cultural institution in Australia.
AUD $35 entry. Take the MONA ROMA ferry (AUD $25 return) from Hobart waterfront — the arrival by boat is part of the design. Allow 3-4 hours. You'll leave confused, moved, and possibly offended. That's the point.
Bruny Island's Get Shucked oyster farm sells Pacific oysters straight from the water. You sit at outdoor tables overlooking the channel, they hand you a shucking knife, and you eat until you can't. AUD $25 per dozen. The lemon is free.
Combine with Bruny Island Cheese (the C2 is transcendent), a wilderness cruise past sea cliffs and seal colonies (AUD $145), and Cape Bruny Lighthouse. Full day from Hobart — 35-minute ferry from Kettering.
The lookout hike at Freycinet National Park takes 45-60 minutes (steep but manageable). The view of Wineglass Bay — a perfect arc of white sand, turquoise water, and granite headlands — is one of Australia's most photographed landscapes.
But keep going. Walk down to the beach (extra 30 minutes). It's often empty. Swim in water cold enough to make your brain reboot. Have the whole thing to yourself.
Park entry: AUD $25/vehicle. 2.5 hours from Hobart.
Six days, 65 km, from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair through Tasmania's highlands. Ancient rainforest, alpine meadows, glacial lakes, and almost guaranteed wombat encounters every evening. It's the country's premier multi-day hike and it sells out months in advance.
Permit: AUD $200 (October to May). You need to book huts or carry camping gear. It's not easy — 6-8 hours of walking daily, river crossings, and weather that can change from sunshine to snow in an hour. But every person I've met who's done it calls it their best outdoor experience in Australia.
The ruins of Australia's most infamous convict settlement sit on a peninsula 1.5 hours from Hobart. The stone buildings — chapel, prison, hospital — are preserved in a state of elegant decay that makes you feel genuinely uncomfortable about Australia's colonial history.
Entry: AUD $45 including guided tour and harbor cruise. The ghost tour (AUD $30 extra, after dark) is genuinely unsettling — lanterns, stories, empty buildings, and the separate prison where solitary confinement drove men insane.
300+ stalls in Hobart's sandstone warehouse precinct. Scallop pies. Leatherwood honey. Wallaby jerky. Local gin distillers offering samples at 9 AM. Artisan bread that costs what factory bread costs in Sydney.
Free entry. Opens 8:30 AM. The smart people arrive at 8:30. The rest arrive at 10 and wonder why the scallop pie stall has a 30-person queue.
Tasmania's cool climate produces Pinot Noir and sparkling wines that rival parts of Burgundy and Champagne — and I don't say that lightly. The Coal River Valley (30 minutes from Hobart) and Tamar Valley (near Launceston) have cellar doors where tastings are AUD $10-15, often waived with purchase.
Josef Chromy, Bay of Fires Wines, and Pipers Brook are the names. The sparkling from Jansz is, in my opinion, better than most Champagne under $50.
Australia's largest temperate rainforest in the northwest. Moss-draped trees, amber rivers, and fern-filled gorges that look like they're hosting a dinosaur behind the next tree. The Philosopher's Falls walk — 20 minutes each way — leads to a waterfall in a natural amphitheater.
Few tourists come here. Which is exactly right.
Controversial take: Cradle Mountain on a moody, rainy day — clouds caught in the peaks, mist rising from Dove Lake, the boardwalk slippery with moss — is more atmospheric than a clear day. The landscape was built for drama. Let it have some.
Bring a waterproof jacket. Walk the Dove Lake circuit (2 hours). Let the rain hit your face. Feel smug.
A state of 570,000 people producing world-class cheese (Bruny Island, Pyengana, Heidi Farm), oysters, salmon, beef, and berries. The restaurant scene in Hobart — Templo, Franklin, The Agrarian Kitchen — would be impressive in a city ten times the size.
BYO restaurants are common and save money. Pair Tasmania's own Pinot Noir with whatever the kitchen sends out. Budget AUD $60-100/day for excellent eating.
Tasmania is compact. Hobart to Launceston: 2.5 hours. Hobart to Cradle Mountain: 2.5 hours. Hobart to Freycinet: 2.5 hours. Everything is accessible without long drives.
But the drive IS the experience. The roads wind through farmland, past convict-era stone bridges, along coastal cliffs, and through forests where you'll need to brake for wallabies. Rent a car (AUD $50-80/day) — there's no realistic alternative. Just watch for wildlife at dawn and dusk. Wombats on roads are depressingly common.
For Australia's other UNESCO natural wonder, head north to the Great Barrier Reef.
If you're exploring the region, consider adding Cairns to your itinerary.
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