Best road trips in Tasmania

Tasmania is the one part of Australia that actually rewards slow travel by car. It’s small enough that you can cross the whole island in a day if you had to, but packed with enough coastline, mountains and rainforest that most visitors end up wishing they’d booked an extra week.

I’ve driven most of the island’s major routes over several trips, from quick long weekends out of Hobart to a proper two-week loop that started and ended in Launceston. What follows are the road trips I keep coming back to, plus the practical details that actually matter once you’re behind the wheel.

None of these routes require a four-wheel drive, and none of them assume you’ve driven in Australia before. They’re built for anyone landing in Hobart or Launceston and wanting to make the most of a rental car.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🌊 East Coast route: Hobart to Bicheno and Freycinet, the easiest and most scenic short trip on the island.
• 🏔️ Overland route: Hobart to Cradle Mountain, for lakes, alpine scenery and one of the best short walks in Australia.
• 🌲 West Coast wilderness loop: rainforest, mining history and genuinely remote roads, best for experienced drivers.
• 🍷 Tamar Valley loop: an easy, wine-focused day trip out of Launceston.
• 🚗 Hire a car with good tyres: many of Tasmania’s best roads are narrow, winding and occasionally gravel.
• 🦘 Avoid driving at dawn and dusk: wildlife strikes are common on rural Tasmanian roads.
• 📅 Aim for shoulder season: late spring and early autumn give you good weather without the summer crowds.

🗺️ Planning your Tasmania road trip route

Most visitors fly into either Hobart or Launceston, and both make sensible starting points. Hobart suits people prioritising the east coast and the south, while Launceston is the better base for the north and the west coast wilderness.

Distances in Tasmania look small on a map and then take much longer than expected in real life. The roads twist constantly, speed limits drop through small towns, and it’s genuinely worth adding thirty percent onto whatever your GPS estimates for driving time.

👉 Book a Hobart to Freycinet Day Tour on GetYourGuide →

🌊 The East Coast route: Hobart to Bicheno and Freycinet

This is the road trip I’d recommend to a first-time visitor with only three or four days. It’s easy driving, the scenery is constant, and you end up at Wineglass Bay, one of the most photographed beaches in the country for good reason.

🏖️ Highlights along the way

The drive north from Hobart hugs the coast for long stretches, passing through small towns that make good excuses to stop.

1. Richmond. A short detour just out of Hobart, home to Australia’s oldest surviving bridge and a genuinely well-preserved Georgian-era village.
2. Spring Bay and Orford. The gateway to Maria Island, worth a stop if you have time for a ferry crossing and a walk among the island’s wombats and wildlife.
3. Bicheno. A working fishing town with a penguin colony you can visit on a guided evening walk, plus excellent, unfussy seafood right on the water.
4. Freycinet National Park. Home to the Wineglass Bay lookout walk, a moderately steep but short climb rewarded with one of the best views in Australia.

🛏️ Where to stop for the night

Coles Bay, right at the entrance to Freycinet, is the obvious base for the Wineglass Bay walk. Book accommodation here well ahead in summer, since options are limited and demand is high.

If Coles Bay is full, Bicheno is a solid backup, twenty-five minutes further north with a wider range of motels and holiday rentals.

🏔️ The Overland route: Hobart to Cradle Mountain

This is the road trip for people who want mountains rather than beaches. Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake form one of the most recognisable landscapes in Australia, and the drive there takes you through the state’s central highlands.

Break the drive at Mole Creek if you like caves, or at Sheffield, a small town that’s leaned hard into a mural-painting theme and is more charming than it sounds.

Once at Cradle Mountain, the Dove Lake Circuit is the walk almost everyone does. It’s a flat, well-maintained 6-kilometre loop that takes around two hours and gives you constantly changing views of the mountain reflected in the lake.

Access to the Dove Lake area is via a shuttle bus during peak periods, since the car park fills quickly. Check the current shuttle times before you arrive so you’re not caught out.

👉 Book a Cradle Mountain Day Tour from Launceston on GetYourGuide →

🌲 The West Coast wilderness loop

This is the road trip for people who’ve already done Tasmania’s greatest hits and want something wilder. The west coast is remote, wet and genuinely dramatic, with a mining history that’s still visible in towns like Queenstown.

Strahan makes a good base, sitting on Macquarie Harbour with access to Gordon River cruises and boat trips out toward Hells Gates. Queenstown itself is worth a stop purely for the stripped, moon-like hills left behind by a century of mining, a stark contrast to the rainforest everywhere else on this route.

The roads here are narrower and more winding than the east coast, with fewer towns and less mobile signal. Fill the tank whenever you see a servo, and don’t assume you’ll find another one soon.

🍷 The Tamar Valley and north

If you’re based in Launceston and only have a day, the Tamar Valley loop is the easiest win on this list. It follows the river north through rolling vineyard country, with cellar doors on both banks.

Tasmania’s cool climate makes it particularly good for sparkling wine and pinot noir, and the Tamar Valley producers are generally smaller and friendlier than the big commercial operations on the mainland.

Loop back through Beaconsfield, home to a mining museum built around the shaft where two miners famously survived a collapse in 2006, or continue further north to the lavender fields near Nabowla if you’re visiting in January when they bloom.

🚗 Practical road trip tips

1. Book your rental car early. Tasmania’s fleet is smaller than the mainland states, and prices climb fast during school holidays and summer.
2. Drive to conditions, not the speed limit. Many of the scenic roads are narrower and windier than mainland equivalents, even when the posted limit suggests otherwise.
3. Watch for wildlife at dawn and dusk. Tasmania has a genuinely high rate of wildlife strikes on rural roads, particularly involving wallabies and possums.
4. Carry cash for small towns. Some cafés and servos in the more remote stretches still don’t take card payments reliably.
5. Fuel up more often than you think you need to. Servos can be sixty or more kilometres apart on the west coast route.
6. Pack for four seasons in one day. Tasmanian weather changes fast, especially near Cradle Mountain and the west coast.

🏕️ Where to stay along the way

Accommodation in Tasmania skews toward smaller, independently run places rather than big hotel chains, which is part of the island’s charm but also means you need to book ahead in peak season.

• 🏨 Hobart: a good base at the start or end of your trip, with the widest range of hotels and the most restaurant choice.
• 🏖️ Coles Bay or Bicheno: essential if you’re doing the east coast route and want to be close to Freycinet.
• 🏔️ Cradle Mountain village: limited but atmospheric lodges right at the park entrance, worth the premium for an early start on the Dove Lake walk.
• ⛵ Strahan: the obvious base for the west coast, with harbour-view options and easy access to river cruises.

🐨 Wildlife you might spot along the way

Tasmania has a wildlife density that surprises most first-time visitors, and a road trip is one of the best ways to see it, provided you’re careful about when and where you drive.

Wombats are common around Cradle Mountain and Narawntapu National Park, often grazing in open paddocks right beside the road in the late afternoon. Pademelons and Bennett’s wallabies turn up almost everywhere once the sun starts to drop, which is exactly why dawn and dusk driving deserves extra caution.

Along the east coast, keep an eye out for sea eagles circling above the cliffs near Freycinet, and if you’re doing an evening walk in Bicheno, the little penguin colony there is one of the most reliable places in the state to see penguins coming ashore after dark.

• 🦡 Wombats: most active at dawn and dusk, commonly seen in open grassland near Cradle Mountain.
• 🦘 Wallabies and pademelons: found almost island-wide, especially along quieter rural roads at night.
• 🐧 Little penguins: best seen on a guided evening walk in Bicheno or at Low Head near Launceston.
• 🦅 Sea eagles and wedge-tailed eagles: often spotted riding thermals above coastal cliffs and highland plateaus.

🍴 Food and cellar doors worth the detour

Tasmania punches well above its weight for food, and a lot of the best of it is only findable if you’re driving rather than flying between cities.

🧀 Farm gates and small producers

Keep an eye out for roadside honesty-box stalls selling cherries, berries and apples, particularly along the Huon Valley south of Hobart and around the Tamar Valley. These are usually cheaper and fresher than anything you’ll find in a supermarket, and buying from them supports the small growers who keep these regions running.

Bruny Island, a short ferry ride from the Huon Valley, deserves at least half a day on its own. It’s home to a cheese company, an oyster farm and a whisky distillery, all within a short drive of each other, and makes an easy detour if your east coast route starts from Hobart.

🦪 Seafood straight off the boat

Coastal towns like Bicheno, Triabunna and Strahan all have seafood that’s been caught that morning rather than trucked in. Ordering the local catch rather than a mainland-imported option is almost always the better call in these towns.

👉 Book a Bruny Island Food and Wine Tour on GetYourGuide →

🎒 Packing list for a Tasmania road trip

What you pack matters more here than on a typical mainland road trip, mostly because the weather changes faster and the distances between towns are longer.

• 🧥 Layers, including a proper waterproof jacket: even summer days can turn cold and wet with little warning, especially near Cradle Mountain.
• 👟 Sturdy walking shoes: most of the best lookouts, including Wineglass Bay and Dove Lake, involve at least some uneven track.
• 🔋 A physical map or offline maps downloaded in advance: mobile coverage drops out completely on parts of the west coast.
• 🍫 Snacks and water: servos and cafés can be far apart, particularly between Queenstown and Strahan.
• 📷 A camera with a spare battery: cold mountain air drains batteries faster than you’d expect.

🛣️ How many days you actually need

If you’re short on time, the east coast route alone works well as a three or four day trip out of Hobart. Combining it with Cradle Mountain pushes you closer to a week, and adding the west coast wilderness loop on top of that is really a ten to fourteen day proposition once you factor in the slower, longer driving days.

Trying to squeeze all four routes into under a week is the single most common mistake I see people make with Tasmania. The island looks small on paper, but the roads are slow, and rushing defeats the entire point of driving rather than flying between cities.

📅 Best time of year for a Tasmania road trip

Late spring through early autumn, roughly November to April, gives you the most reliable weather and the longest daylight hours for driving. Summer is busiest, so if you can manage it, aim for shoulder months either side.

Winter road trips are possible and the island is beautiful under frost, but expect shorter days, colder mountain roads, and some higher routes near Cradle Mountain that can occasionally close after snow.

👉 Book a Wineglass Bay and Freycinet Cruise on GetYourGuide →

Whichever route you choose, give yourself more time than you think you need. Tasmania is a small island that somehow always takes longer to cross than the map suggests, and that’s exactly why the road trips are worth doing properly rather than rushing.