Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Perfect if you are looking for outdoor activities |
| Disadvantages: |
Not as perfect if you are looking for night life |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I went to Tasmania a couple of years ago and since I wrote a diary during my travels I decided to share my experience.
I flew to Lauceston from Melbourne while a couple of friends came across with the ferry so that we could take the car with us.
I do not know much about tranport in Tasmania but if you can choose , get a rental car and drive aroud yourself because the petrol is cheap in Oz and this state is so small compared to Queensland or the Northern Territory and in a week you can see quite a bit.
Day 1
We drove to Swansea and from there we got to the real attractions: Freycenet Park and Coles Bay which are in the East Coast. There you can choose to do different walks, long or short, depending on what you are up for. We walked for 6 miles through the best scenery I have ever seen: rolling hills, perfectly blue sea, white beaches, kangoroos hopping around with their joeys.
The silence topped it all up, it was better that what I thought paradise could be.
On the way back to the place we were staying we stopped to two of the hundreds of wine farm that you can find scattered around
Tasmania. There we had a few glasses of wine and got tipsy listening to the waiter that knew virtually everything about degustation.
Day 2
We drove to Richmond on the A3 and saw more white beaches and green hills. I don't know exactly where but on the road there we saw one of the funniest bridges I have ever seen. The "Spiky Bridge" so named because of all the spikes it has, was built by Irish and English convists in 1840 but nobody knows why the spikes were made.
Once we got to Richmond we visited the oldest catholic church in Tasmania, Saint John's built in1837. We have many better churches in Europe but at the end nobody goes to Tasmania to see the architecture. Another highlight there was the prison build by the convicts again.....
On the way to Port Arthur we stopped and see the rock formations of "The tassellated Pavement", "The Blowhole", "Devil's Kitchen" and "Tasman Arch". If you ever go there they are worth having a look at and there are signs that guide you to them ( no need to walk).
At Porth Arthur we went and saw the ruins of the prisonthat was build in 1830 as a convict timber station. It is very impressive and you get a strange vibe, because of all the sufferings. At night we went and did the ghost tour that costed us the beauty of 14 $. I did not enjoy the tour at all because was all about stories of people that saw ghosts there and not about the ghost themselves. If I was you I would go to the pub and have a steak and a Coopers' instead.
Day 4
We finally reache Hobart the second eldest city in Oz and strolled around. The buildings are very colourful there making the city very cute and the restaurants are lovely. We went and saw the Parliament and left.
We drove three hours to Queenstown a city that grew around mining. The place is spectacular since it feels like being in a western movie with lots of cowboys and saloons. Unluckily the sorrounding mountains are completely bare because of the mining and it is a big shame considering there was a forest there once . We had a fantastic steak there but unluckily like everywhere in Tasmania no night life.
Day 5
We went to the Lactos Cheese Tasting Place in Burnie where we had the widest variety of cheeses for free. How good is that???
Finally we drove along the coast back to Lauceston to catch my plane.
The people there are quite friendly but not as much as in other parts of Oz. The food is very good, the place is fantastic and not expensive at all.
I think is more of a family holiday place or an extreme outdoor activities place ( I read you can kayak from one side to the other of Tasmania). Certainly not the place for party animals.
Anyhow I was 25 when I went and I had lots of fun without drinking or clubbing for a full week.
