A Tasmanian travel guide

By Ezmee Wyatt, University of Melbourne, Australia

Visiting Tasmania, a perhaps underrated destination, was one of the highlights of my year in Australia. Indeed, if you like hiking or more nature-orientated holidays, it is a must see – especially if you’re in Melbourne, as it is super connected so the flights / ferries can be really affordable. My friend and I went for a week and planned to hike around some of the National Parks there. Note – if you plan on visiting different areas of the island I would definitely consider hiring a car as the different places can be quite disconnected. We opted for this, and it meant we could be a bit more spontaneous – and we could store some of our stuff in the car which was super helpful (we were camping and didn’t really want to be carrying unnecessary belongings!).

From Melbourne, we opted to fly to Hobart (as this was so much quicker than the ferry for only a tiny bit more money). This is the capital of Tasmania but still a very small, picturesque area, so we spent a day exploring – we went to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery which was definitely worth a visit. We then stocked up on all the food we would need (and be able to cook on a gas stove – which meant lots of rice!) and set off towards a free campsite we had found on the outskirts of Freycinet National Park, where we heading the next day. We had planned to do a three-day, two-night hike around Wineglass Bay, summiting Mount Graham, Mount Freycinet and Mount Atmos. We were blessed with amazing weather, so these three days really stood out as some of the best of the trip – even without the sun, I would say if you could only visit one park in Tasmania, this is the place to go! Indeed, both nights were spent on gorgeous white sand beaches (the first night we were the only people there) where we swam, watched sunsets (and sunrises!) and saw stingrays, wallabies and pademelons (which look like wallabies but are slightly smaller). On the second night there were more people at our campsite; we befriended some of them and had a lovely shared dinner. The sky was also super dark there (minimal light pollution) so the constellations were really visible – Orion is a great one to try and spot because of his distinctive ‘belt’. 

On the third day, after getting back to the car, we drove to another free campsite on the outskirts of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, which we were visiting the following day so that we could climb Cradle Mountain. There were lots of possums at this campsite, which can sound a bit scary at night, but they are relatively harmless – just make sure you leave no food or rubbish outside of your tent as they will take it! Cradle Mountain is another great spot in Tasmania, and is well worth the hype! The National park as a whole was lovely, taking you around huge lakes, and the summit itself was a lot of fun – the last hour or so requires some scrambling so be prepared for that!

The last hike we had planned ended up being inaccessible, so the last few days of our trip after Cradle Mountain were spent at Cockle Creek. This last-minute change of plan turned out to be a really lovely end to our holiday, we did much less hiking and just enjoyed the area, which was beautiful and super quiet!

Tasmania is a somewhat hidden gem in Australia, and is definitely worth a visit! I had a truly amazing time there, and I really appreciated being able to leave the hustle and bustle of Melbourne for a few days.