Tasmania, Australia

State guide with cities, regions, and key information.

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Introduction
Tasmania is Australia's island state — a compact, mountainous island south of the mainland where almost half the land is national park or reserve, and some of the cleanest air and clearest night skies on earth. It packs alpine peaks, white-sand beaches, ancient rainforest and a thriving food-and-art culture into an island you can drive across in a few hours. For travellers it is a nature-and-flavour destination: world-class bushwalking and wildlife, the boundary-pushing MONA art museum outside Hobart, and a cool-climate larder of wine, whisky, oysters and cheese — all at a slower, friendlier pace than the big mainland cities.

Discover Tasmania

Hobart is one of the world's most appealing small capitals — a hilly sandstone city wrapped around a working waterfront beneath Mount Wellington (kunanyi), whose summit road or hike gives a sweeping view over the city and the Derwent. The Saturday Salamanca Market fills a row of restored 1830s warehouses with food, craft and produce, and the harbour serves some of Australia's best fish. The game-changer, though, is MONA — the Museum of Old and New Art, reached by a fast catamaran upriver, a daring, subterranean private museum that mixes ancient antiquities with confronting contemporary art and stages the midwinter Dark Mofo and summer Mona Foma festivals. South of the city, the Tasman Peninsula adds dramatic dolerite sea cliffs, the wildlife cruises of Tasman Island, and the Port Arthur Historic Site, a UNESCO-listed 19th-century convict settlement set in gardens above the water.

Travel Types

Wilderness & Hiking

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, the Overland Track, and the rainforest and wild rivers of the west.

Beaches & Coast

Wineglass Bay at Freycinet, the orange-granite Bay of Fires and the sunny, beachy east coast.

Art & City

Hobart's MONA and Salamanca Market, Mount Wellington, and the Dark Mofo and Mona Foma festivals.

Food, Wine & Whisky

Bruny Island oysters and cheese, Tamar Valley sparkling wine and award-winning single-malt whisky.

Wildlife

Wombats, echidnas and little penguins in the wild, and Tasmanian devils at conservation sanctuaries.

Frequently asked questions

Most visitors fly into Hobart or Launceston from the mainland capitals (around an hour from Melbourne). The Spirit of Tasmania vehicle ferry crosses from Geelong, near Melbourne, to Devonport overnight if you want to bring a car. A car (or campervan) is essential for exploring — public transport between regions is limited, and the island's appeal is the road trip between national parks, beaches and food stops.

A week lets you loop the highlights — Hobart and MONA, the east coast (Freycinet, Bay of Fires) and Cradle Mountain — at a reasonable pace. Ten days to two weeks adds the wild west coast, Bruny Island, the Tamar Valley and the multi-day walks. The island is compact, but the winding roads and the temptation to stop mean you should plan fewer kilometres a day than the map suggests.

Summer (December to February) brings long daylight, warm days and the best conditions for walking and beaches, though it's the busiest. Autumn is crisp and colourful (including the rare deciduous beech 'turning of the fagus' in April). Winter is cold, especially in the highlands, but has its own draws — the midwinter Dark Mofo festival, possible southern-lights (aurora australis) displays, and a quiet, atmospheric landscape.