Must-see attractions in Tasmania

  • Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park, Tasmania, Australia

    Freycinet National Park

    The East Coast

    Framed by some of the state's finest beaches and rising into spectacular low mountains, Freycinet incorporates the southern end of Freycinet Peninsula,…

  • Wharf at MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art.

    MONA

    Hobart

    Twelve kilometres north of Hobart's city centre, MONA is burrowed into the Triassic sandstone of a peninsula jutting into the Derwent River. Arrayed…

  • Salamanca Place, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Salamanca Place

    Hobart

    This picturesque row of three- and four-storey sandstone warehouses is a classic example of Australian colonial architecture. Dating back to the whaling…

  • Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, with deciduous beech (Fagus) in fall colors, Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tasmania, Australia, Pacific

    Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

    Cradle Country & The West

    Part of the World Heritage–listed Tasmanian Wilderness, this 1614-sq-km national park incorporates the state's most famous mountain (the eponymous Cradle…

  • Rafting on Franklin River

    Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

    Cradle Country & The West

    This World Heritage–listed national park came to prominence when the wild Franklin River was very publicly saved from hydroelectric immersion in the 1980s…

  • Ruins of the Penitentiary at Port Arthur

    Port Arthur Historic Site

    Tasman Peninsula & Port Arthur

    This amazing World Heritage–listed convict site is one of Tasmania’s big-ticket attractions. The dozens of structures here are best understood via guided…

  • Australia, Tasmania, Hobart. Tourists take in the spectaular view of Hobart from the top of Mount Wellington at 1271m.

    Kunanyi/Mt Wellington

    Hobart

    Ribbed with its striking Organ Pipes cliffs, kunanyi/Mt Wellington (1271m) towers over Hobart like a benevolent overlord. The view from the top stretches…

  • Cataract Gorge

    Cataract Gorge

    Launceston

    At magnificent Cataract Gorge, right at the city centre's edge, the bushland, cliffs and ice-cold South Esk River feel a million miles from town. At First…

  • Cascade Brewery (1824), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Cascade Brewery

    Hobart

    Standing in startling, Gothic isolation next to the clean-running Hobart Rivulet, Australia’s oldest brewery (1824) is still pumping out superb beers. The…

  • Battery Point

    Hobart

    Tucked in behind Salamanca Pl, the old maritime village of Battery Point is a tight nest of lanes and 19th-century cottages. Spend an afternoon exploring:…

  • Woolmers Estate

    Tasmania

    Part of the Unesco World Heritage Australian Convict Sites listing, this pastoral estate on the Macquarie River was built by Thomas Archer in 1817 and…

  • Cascades Female Factory Historic Site

    Hobart

    This World Heritage Site was where Hobart’s female convicts were incarcerated and put to work. Around 12,500 women were transported to Tasmania, and at…

  • Marakoopa Cave

    Tasmania

    The name Marakoopa derives from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘handsome’ and this cave well and truly lives up to its moniker, featuring a subterranean world…

  • Tasman National Park

    Tasman Peninsula & Port Arthur

    Tasman National Park embraces the sky-high sea cliffs around Cape Raoul, Cape Hauy, Cape Pillar, Tasman Island and the craggy coast near Eaglehawk Neck…

  • Willie Smith's Apple Shed

    The Southeast

    At Grove, 5km north of Huonville, this barn-like wooden shed is home to Willie Smith's Organic Apple Cider, and functions as a cafe-cum-provedore-cum…

  • Liffey Falls

    Tasmania

    Pouring through Liffey Falls State Reserve, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, is one of Tasmania's most classically beautiful…

  • North Hobart

    Hobart

    Hobart at its most bohemian, the Elizabeth St strip in North Hobart (aka NoHo) is lined with dozens of cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs – enough to keep…

  • Mole Creek Karst National Park

    Tasmania

    This park's major draws are Marakoopa Cave and King Solomons Cave, which can be visited on tours operated by the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service…

  • Clarendon

    Tasmania

    This 1838 mansion on the banks of the South Esk River, built for wealthy wool grower and merchant James Cox, is a Georgian gem that looks like it’s…

  • Bass & Flinders Centre

    Tasmania

    Undoubtedly the highlight of a visit to George Town, this small museum in a former cinema houses a red-sailed, full-size replica of the Norfolk, the sloop…

  • Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

    Hobart & Around

    In spacious enclosures ringed around a large grassy area, Forester kangaroos lounge about like beach-goers at this impressive wildlife park – its name…

  • Highfield Historic Site

    Tasmania

    Built in 1835 for the chief agent of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, this homestead, poised 2km north of town, is an exceptional example of domestic…

  • Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery

    Hobart

    Incorporating Tasmania's oldest surviving public building, the Commissariat Store (1808), TMAG features Aboriginal and colonial relics and an excellent…

  • Southwest National Park

    Cradle Country & The West

    One of the planet’s last great isolated wilderness areas, this 6000-plus-sq-km national park, Tasmania’s largest, is home to some of the island's last…

  • Salamanca Arts Centre

    Hobart

    The nonprofit Salamanca Arts Centre has been here since 1977 and occupies seven Salamanca warehouses. It's home to dozens of arts organisations and…

  • Channel Heritage Centre

    The Southeast

    This fabulous community-owned museum on the roadside just south of central Margate is well worth a stop. A series of intimate, passionately curated…

  • Devil’s Corner

    The East Coast

    Wine comes with a wide-screen view at this cutting-edge cellar door (eyesore or delight? You decide) overlooking Moulting Lagoon and the Hazards mountains…

  • Platypus House

    Tasmania

    Cute Platypus House puts the world’s only two monotremes – the platypus and the echidna – on display for your viewing pleasure. Platypuses (including…

  • Bass Strait Maritime Centre

    Tasmania

    Housed in the former harbour master’s residence (c 1920), this small but impressive museum is home to displays about the maritime history of Bass Strait…

  • Sullivans Cove Distillery

    Hobart & Around

    Remarkable things come from this unremarkable-looking tin shed. Sullivans Cove has managed to produce the world's best single-malt whisky and the best…

  • Hartz Mountains National Park

    The Southeast

    A favourite southern national park for its proximity to Hobart, 80km away, and the relative ease of reaching its vast alpine views, Hartz Mountains forms…

  • Remarkable Cave

    Tasman Peninsula & Port Arthur

    About 7km south of Port Arthur is Remarkable Cave, a long tunnel eroded from the base of a collapsed gully, under a cliff and out to sea. The waves surge…

  • Queen Victoria Museum

    Launceston

    Inside the restored and reinvented Inveresk railway yards, QVMAG has the usual assembly of dinosaurs and stuffed animals, but they sit alongside historic…

  • Burnie Regional Museum

    Tasmania

    The centrepiece of this absorbing museum is the lovingly crafted Federation St, a re-creation of a 1900 Burnie streetscape, including blacksmith's forge…

  • King George V Park

    Tasmania

    Hidden behind Main St's shops (access is via an asphalt path), this park has plenty of trees and lawn, a children's playground, public toilets, picnic…

  • Queen Victoria Art Gallery

    Launceston

    Colonial paintings, including works by John Glover, are the pride of the collection at this art gallery in a meticulously restored 19th-century building…

  • Friendly Beaches

    The East Coast

    Take a break from all those curvy little bays further down the peninsula and wander the sands of this windswept ocean beach, signposted from the main road…

  • Spiky Bridge

    The East Coast

    About 7km south of Swansea is the rather amazing Spiky Bridge, built by convicts in the early 1840s using thousands of local fieldstones (yes, they're…

  • St Columba Falls

    The East Coast

    Further into the Pyengana Valley from the cheese factory and the pub you'll find St Columba Falls, Tasmania's highest. Here the South George River takes a…

  • Blowhole

    The East Coast

    One of those rare blowholes that still plies its trade, even on fairly benign days, with geysers of white water surging up through a crack in the coastal…