eg5301

Hello Everyone..

We are planning a trip to Tasmania and in need of suggestions on budget accomodation and activities.
This is our layout for the trip, including places that we plan to go to at each destination.

Day 1
Hobart to Port Arthur
-Salamanca Market
-Mt Wellington

Day 2
Port Arthur to Bicheno (through Orford)
-Mt Freycinet

Day 3
Bicheno to Launceston (through St Mary, St Helen & Scottsdale)
-King's Bridge

Day 4
Launceston to Stanley (through Deloraine, Devenport & Burnie)

Day 5
stanley to Cradle Mt

Day 6
Cradle Mt to Strahan (through Tulah & Rosebery)
-Montezuma Falls
-Queenstown

If you have any suggestions on the route to take or additional places to go to do not hessitate to share with us.
p/s: how much petrol cost per litter in tasmania..

rgds.

DownUnder

Tasmania has some wonderful bed & Breakfast accommodation so I suggest you check this site http://www.tasmanianbedandbreakfast.com/ otherwise www.wotif.com will also give you some ideas. Petrol in Australia is hovering around $1.35 -$1.50 per litre as it depends a lot on the price of a barrel of of oil or wether some shiek has sneezed in the Middle East or even if someone is cold in New York !!!

oliverandharry

Assume you know that to catch the Salamanca market your Day 1 must be a Saturday. Not to be missed if you can! Day 2 will be a lot of driving. The rest looks good - I have done almost your whole route and loved it. Hope you do not mean you intend to stay in Queenstown - there is really not much there. Strahan to Hobart is a minimum 5 hour drive so you would need to stop sooner than that. You are missing the Huon Valley - that is a shame.

afterall

Can't help thinking that's a lot of moving around.

I'd be pushed to do what you want to do on Day 1. Then on day 2 you plan on visiting the Port Arthur site and Freycinet and landing up in Bicheno.

With respect there's not a lot of point in going to Freycinet, or Stanley, or Cradle Mountain, or Strachan if you're going to arrive in the evening and drive out next morning.

All you'll have time to do is find somewhere to eat, sleep, get up and drive on.

Well, maybe that's what you want. But each of these places is on the radar because of what there is to do when you're there. Walk to Wineglass Bay; walk in Cradle Mt NP; walk either up or down to the Knob in Stanley (both if you are seriously fit!); go see the Franklin River/Ocean Beach/Sarah Island convict site from Strahan.


Far, far too much for 7 days.

re budget accommo - check out the YHA.

www.yha.com.au

Happy travels.

Melnq8

There's an intersting mine tour in Queenstown, if that does anything for you (we liked it).

eg5301

Hello Again.

Apprieciate 4 all respons..
.DownUnder - tahnx for the feul.
.oliverandharry - Thanx for remain of beautiful saturday salamanca.
.afterall - a big hand to u thanx again.
.Melnq8 - mine tour... intersting.thanx.

To afterall..How would it be if i got about a week to explore tasmania?

rgds

afterall

eg,

All I an say is that Tasmania is bigger than it looks. In a week you don't have time to do all that, so something has to give. For me the highlights were Freycinet, Stanley, Maria Island and Mt Field NP.

I went planning on staying eight days, and found myself phoning the ferry company twice to put the date of departure back. Granted I travel slowly and for the first week used public transport to get from Devonport to Strachan to Hobart and Mt Field; then did a couple of day trips to the far south and the wild SW middle. I had the pass so I used it. Then I did the car hire thing.

If I were doing it again in the time you've got and the places you say you interested in. Assuming you arrive early in Hobart.

Day 1. have a look around Hobart, Mt Wellington, drive to Port Arthur.

Day 2. Port Arthur. Drive to Coles Bay for Freycinet.

Day 3. Freycinet. Drive to Launceston.

Day 4. To Cradle Mountain.

Day 5. Cradle Mt and to Strahan.

Dar 6. Strahan.

Day 7. Return to Hobart.

I'd still find that rushed. But ..

Or skip Port Arthur and include Stanley.

Cheers.

Melnq8

Hi eg5301 -

I just looked at my trip report from our first trip to Tassie in 2004. We had a similar itinerary, but we did it over 16 days. Then we went back a second time for another two weeks, because there's just so much to see and do.

Agree with other posters that it's too much moving around in such a short time. You've not left yourself any time to really see the areas you're visiting. You'll be spending most of your time in the car.

Cradle Mountain was a highlight for us - the wildlife is fantastic (and mostly nocturnal). One night just will not do it justice, especially if you want to take any walks.

We also enjoyed Stanley, particularly the walk up to the Nut - fabulous views.

Strahan didn't really appeal to us. We felt our time could have been better spent elsewhere. We found Queenstown rather depressing - we went there as a day trip from Strahan for the mine tour, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to visit Queenstown.

I have two detailed trip reports from our Tassie visits posted here on Fodor's - let me know if you're interested and I'll post the links. I also have some online photos I could drag up if you'd like.

Good luck with your planning. Tassie is a great place to visit.

JC01

I agree with the others that Tasmania a great place to visit. I have just returned from Australia and spent 6 days in Tasmania. There is so much to see and do there that you cannot possibly see everything in a week, so decide what interest you, i.e. walking, food and wine, history etc. The drawback is that there is a LOT of driving to do, long roads that are winding along,breathtaking scenery. Regarding budget accomodation you might want to buy the Rough Guide to Australia which has listings of medium and cheap ( including backpacker hostels) accomodation all over Australia. I travel with both books actually: Rough Guide and Fodors guide as the two together arethe perfect combination. Also, at the airport you can pick up a lot of free leaflets and brochures on Tasmania's B&B accomodations. I was very impressed how much marketing and very nice quality brochures are available for tourists.

jefegold

Hi, my girlfriend and I are planning to spend 4 or 5 days only in Tassie in early March. We like to hike, but we're not really into roughing it. We know that we'll visit the Salamanca market in Hobart, as well as Port Arthur. It's the rest of the trip that we haven't finalized. It's not much time and we want to see as much as we can without being rushed. We have been looking into Cradle Mountain and the Gordon River cruise. We're not sure there's time to do both, so if you could recommend one over the other, or something else entirely, please let us know. THANKS!!

Jef

Susan7

There are some suggestions from Lizzie on the Hobart area on this link.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=3

Treepol

jefegold,

I'm afraid you don't have much time to cover those places in Tasmania.

The Salamanca Market is on Saturdays so you would need to co-ordinate your arrival and departure to accommodate this activity.

Its about a 2 hour drive Hobart to Port Arthur, longer with stops at the Sorell Fruit Farm for a light lunch maybe, the views over Pirates Bay and Eagle Hawk Neck.

There are some great walks on Tasman Peninsula to places like Shipstern Bluff and Cape Huay, Cape Raoul that would combine well with Port Arthur.

I think its a long drive from Port Arthur to Strahan or Cradle and you may get more 'bang for your buck' by doing East Coast activities rather than Strahan and Cradle. Maria Island is great for walking and wildlife as is Freycinet.

I have posted some comments on Strahan activities on this thread,
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35176857

Happy planning,


Pol.

jefegold

Thanks for your input, all. This is the itinerary my girlfriend was working on.:

Tue 3/3: Fly into Launceston morning, get car from airport & drive to Cradle mountain arrive afternoon, do some small hikes, night at Cradle Mountain

Wed 3/4: morning hikes at Cradle mountain, leave around 5pm evening drive to Strahan stay overnight

Thu 3/5: Take Gordon river cruise (morning), drive to Hobart, stay Hobart overnight

Fri 3/6: Drive to Port Arthur, Day & night tour in Port Arthur then back to Hobart for night

Sat 3/7: Day in Hobart & market - fly back to Melbourne evening.


Is this itinerary doable given the time allotted (enabling us enough time to enjoy the scenery) at each place?

Is it worth visiting both Gordon River (cruise) AND Cradle mountain OR is one better than the other?

Any suggestions will be of enormous help. We're struggling with visiting Cradle Mountain or taking a Gordon River Cruise. Also, any other recommendations (which may be of interest) will be greatly appreciated.

LizzyF

RE; driving from Strahan to Port Arthur and then doing a day tour and night tour - it would take about 7 - 8 hours to drive from Strahan to Port Arthur so I doubt you would have much time for a tour during the day or feel like one for that matter.
I think you either do Cradle Mountain or Strahan/Gordon River

jefegold

thanks. We thought it would take about 4 to 5 hours from Strahan to hobart, where we would spend the night. Does that seem wrong?

oliverandharry

Strahan to Hobart about 4-5 hours. We did it in winter and stopped in Derwent Bridge for lunch (about the only place to stop.) Gordon River cruise was absolutely worth it - we loved it.

jefegold

thanks all. this is great help

LizzyF

Its about 5 hours from Strahan to Hobart then another 1.5 - 2 hrs to Port Arthur. Assuming you would need a stop or two during that time it would take a good 7 - 8 hours.