- Length of Stay
Tasmania might look small in comparison to the rest of Australia, however, it is such a big island and you need TIME to travel around. Some examples of travel times between some of the popular destinations are as follows:
- Hobart to Bruny Island – 1hr 30min (including the ferry ride from Kettering on the mainland to Bruny Island)
- Hobart to Port Arthur – 1hr 30min
- Hobart to Bicheno – 2hr 30min
- Hobart to Wineglass Bay – 2hr 50min
- Hobart to Bay of Fires – 3hr 40min to 4hr
- Hobart to Cradle Mountain – 3hr 50min to 4hr 10min
- Hobart to Launceston – 2hr 20min to 2hr 50min
- Bridestowe Lavender Estate – 3hr 5min
- Bay of Fires to Bridestowe Lavender Estate – 2hr 10min
- Bay of Fires to Derby – 1hr 20min
- Bay of Fires to Cradle Mountain – 4hr 10min
- Launceston to Devonport – 1hr 20min
- Launceston to Bay of Fires – 2hr 40min – 3hr
You get the gist. Basically, when you are planning your trip and where you want to go, make sure you allow for enough travel time, but also enough time to actually enjoy the place and not have to rush around. Ideally 14 + days would be perfect to explore Tassie with some ease and time to spare to enjoy each of the places you want to visit. Of course, the more time you have the more relaxed your itinerary can be and alternatively, the less time you have, the quicker you will have to be depending on where and what you want to see.
Top Tip: If you are able to spare at least 2 to 3 days in each location/area that would be perfect. Of course, if you have more that would be even better. If you are dealing with less time, but want to see lots, 1 day would be okay, but you will definitely find yourself rushing around and will be under time constraints to get from one place to another. Personally, if I had less time, I would choose to visit less places so that I am able to truly appreciate and enjoy the places I visit.
2. Car Hire
BOOK IN ADVANCE – as soon as you know you are going really. Due to a number of contributing factors, car hire in Tasmania is more expensive than in other cities. Especially during any of the holidays/public holidays. So make sure you book in advance. Do not make the mistake I did, as I was frantically searching for car hire a week out from our trip. For all your planners, I’m sorry for stressing you out by writing this, but I am a bit of a last minute booker and this did not help as prices had gotten sky high by the time I wanted to book. Also, I made the mistake to keep putting it off in the hope that prices would go down, they did not. In fact, it was showing that less and less % of cars were available for the dates we wanted to travel. So, when you find the best deal you can as soon as you can, book it.
I was really LUCKY as I continued to search and search and did not give up from finding the best deal and we did. So this is my GIFT to you – the details of the company that we booked through – why is it so special you ask? Because they literally saved us hundreds of dollars on the booking.
Details of Travel Company I used to book my Car Hire is called TasVacations
TasVacations – Tasmania’s Travel Company
93 Salamanca Place, Hobart Tasmania 7000 | PO Box 18, Battery Point Tasmania 7004
P 1300 827 822 | P 61 3 6234 4666 | www.tasvacations.com
Office Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday to Friday
Please please please do not see the car hire prices as a downside. They are not. I do not mean to discourage anyone from travel to Tasmania. No, in fact I 100% encourage it! If you have not been to Tasmania I cannot recommend it enough. The price of car
3. Roads
The roads are well kept in Tasmania – especially along the highways, cities and towns. The highways vary between two lanes in each direction and one lane in each direction. Where you find roads with one way in each direction, they offer overtaking lanes every few km.
The roads in some sections are quite winding and narrow so please drive carefully and cautiously. Please also take extra precautions when it is wet or if you are driving during the night as some of the turns/bends are really sharp/steep and with scary drops on the other side.
4. Phone Service
We all had Optus SIM cards when we visited Tasmania and our phone and internet connection outside of Hobart and any of the cities and towns we went through/visited was quite spotty. If you can I would try getting a Telstra SIM as we think the general service throughout Tasmania would have been better.
5. Weather
If you are able to – be flexible. During my time in Tasmania, which was during the summer I realised the weather can be very temperamental. One moment it is nice and sunny, the next it is raining, then it is not and then it feels like the wind will blow you away.
One thing we were constantly trying to do is to chase the good weather.
So, if at all possible. Definitely try to book your trip by checking what the weather will be like in advance. Of course, this is not a full proof plan and such decisions sometimes need to be made on the spot. So if you have any flexibility at all, for example, will be travelling around in a camwpervan or it is during the off peak season and you are able to rebook for different dates with the place you are staying, this may be something you want to consider for some of the following reasons:
- you want to take memorable photos and do not want constant grey skies.
- you will not be able to enjoy the location if it is pouring rain – for example – we went to Bay of Fires and it was bucketing down cats and dogs…so instead we checked the weather radar and saw that we would have better luck at the Bridestowe Lavender Estate (given, it was still rainy when we got there we did have some moments of no rain, blue skies and even some sun shining through the clouds).
- hike to Mount Amos – if it starts raining/sprinkling at all – you WILL NOT be able to do the climb. It is already a very difficult and challenging climb and any rain will make it near to impossible to get up or back down as there is a lot of bouldering and the rocks can get quite slippery.
- visiting Maria Island – it is mainly for hiking and treks and if you have not organised accomodation prior to going you can get stuck in the rain. Cars are not allowed on this island – you can opt to walk or hire a bike to get around.
6. Clothing
I went during the summer and ended up having to visit the Kathmandu store the day after we arrived to pick up winter jackets. As I mentioned above, the weather can be all over the place – I am not sure if I was just unlucky for the week I was there, but it we were experiencing all four seasons in one day lol. Make sure to take clothes for the season, but also pack something warm, especially for the nights – just in case. My recommendation based on my experience is that for the Autumn to Spring months you pack more warm clothes than anything else.
Top Tips:
– Shoes – bring comfy shoes for walking. If you have hiking boots, definitely bring those along if you have the space.
– Raincoats can come in handy.
The seasons are as follows:
Spring – September to November
Summer – December to February
Autumn – March to May
Winter – June to August
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