Things to Do in Hobart with Kids

Hobart doesn’t always make it onto the shortlist for a family holiday, and that’s a genuine oversight. Tasmania’s laid-back capital packs in wildlife encounters, hands-on museums, easy nature walks and a harbour made for wandering, all within a compact, easy-to-navigate city that doesn’t demand hours of driving between attractions.

What makes Hobart particularly good with kids is the pace. Nothing here feels rushed or overly commercial. You can spend a morning patting wombats, an afternoon exploring rockpools, and an evening wandering a harbourside market, all without the queues and crowds you’d find in a bigger city.

Here’s my honest rundown of what’s actually worth doing in Hobart when you’ve got kids in tow, from the obvious highlights to the quieter spots locals love.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🦘 Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary lets kids hand-feed kangaroos and meet rescued wombats and Tasmanian devils.
• ⛰️ kunanyi/Mount Wellington offers an easy scenic drive with sweeping views for the whole family.
• 🧭 Salamanca Market on Saturdays is a fun, low-key morning of food stalls and street performers.
• 🌊 Bellerive Beach and nearby rockpools are great for a calm swim and easy exploring.
• 🏛️ Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has free entry and genuinely engaging exhibits for kids.
• 🚂 Willow Court and old railway trails offer easy family cycling near the city.
• 🐧 Bruny Island day trips combine wildlife, beaches and a scenic ferry ride, if you have a full day to spare.

🦘 Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

About 30 minutes from the city, Bonorong is hands-down the best wildlife experience for kids in the Hobart area. Unlike a lot of wildlife parks, this one is a genuine rescue and rehabilitation centre, so you’re supporting real conservation work while your kids feed free-roaming kangaroos and get up close with wombats, Tasmanian devils and quolls.

Guided tours run throughout the day and are worth joining, since the keepers share genuinely interesting facts that keep even restless kids engaged.

👉 Book Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary tickets on GetYourGuide →

⛰️ kunanyi/Mount Wellington

Towering over the city, this mountain is an easy 30-minute drive from central Hobart, and the summit lookout delivers one of the best views in Tasmania. It’s often noticeably colder and windier up top than in the city, so pack jackets even on a warm day.

🥾 Easy walks for younger kids

The Organ Pipes track offers dramatic dolerite cliffs for older kids up for a proper hike, while the shorter, flatter tracks near the Springs picnic area suit younger children and anyone after a gentler stroll.

🧺 Salamanca Market

Every Saturday, this historic harbourside precinct fills with stalls selling food, crafts and local produce, alongside street performers who reliably capture kids’ attention. It’s free to wander, easy to graze your way through breakfast and lunch, and the surrounding sandstone warehouses make for a genuinely lovely backdrop.

🌊 Beaches and rockpools

Hobart’s beaches won’t compete with tropical Queensland for warmth, but they’re calm, clean and great for a family afternoon.

1. Bellerive Beach. A short ferry or drive from the city, with calm water and plenty of grassed area for a picnic.
2. Kingston Beach. A local favourite with a playground right by the sand, making it easy to keep everyone entertained.
3. Blackmans Bay rockpools. A protected tidal pool that’s ideal for younger children who aren’t strong swimmers yet.

🏛️ Museums and indoor options

Handy for a rainy Tasmanian afternoon, which does happen even in summer, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) offers free entry and a genuinely well-designed natural history section that keeps kids engaged far longer than expected. The Maritime Museum of Tasmania is another solid, low-cost option, particularly for kids curious about ships and the sea.

Note that MONA, Hobart’s world-famous contemporary art museum, has some confronting adult content and isn’t generally recommended for younger children, though older teenagers with an interest in art may find it fascinating.

🚴 Cycling and easy trails

The Intercity Cycleway runs along a flat, mostly car-free path connecting Hobart to nearby suburbs, making it an easy, low-stress ride for families with younger kids on bikes or scooters. Bike hire is available at several points along the route if you didn’t bring your own.

🐧 Bruny Island: a bigger day out

If you have a full day and older kids who travel well, Bruny Island makes a memorable excursion. A scenic car ferry crosses from Kettering, about 40 minutes south of Hobart, and the island itself offers white sand beaches, cheese and oyster tastings, and boat cruises that often spot dolphins, seals and seabirds along the dramatic coastline.

👉 Book a Bruny Island cruise on GetYourGuide →

🧳 Practical tips for families

• 🧥 Pack layers, Tasmania’s weather can shift quickly, even within a single day.
• 🚗 A rental car helps a lot, since the best family attractions like Bonorong and Mount Wellington sit outside the compact city centre.
• 🍽️ Salamanca and the waterfront have plenty of relaxed, family-friendly dining, so you rarely need a reservation.
• ⏱️ Keep days shorter than usual, Hobart’s compact size means you don’t need to over-schedule to see a lot.
• 🎟️ Book Bonorong and Bruny Island in advance during school holidays, as both can fill up.

Hobart with kids turns out to be an easy, rewarding trip: enough wildlife and nature to keep young explorers happy, enough compact convenience to keep parents sane, and none of the exhausting sprawl of a bigger city. It’s a Tasmanian capital that rewards families willing to slow down and actually enjoy the pace.

🗓️ Best time of year to visit with kids

Hobart’s seasons shift more noticeably than mainland Australian cities, which is worth factoring into a family trip. Summer, December to February, offers the warmest weather and the longest daylight hours, ideal for beach days and outdoor exploring, though it’s also the busiest and most expensive time to visit. Autumn brings mild temperatures and beautiful colour through the surrounding hills, while spring offers similarly comfortable conditions with blooming gardens around the city. Winter is genuinely cold by Australian standards, better suited to museum visits and cosy days than outdoor adventures, though Mount Wellington occasionally gets a light dusting of snow, a novelty many mainland kids find genuinely exciting.

🏨 Where to stay with a family

Self-contained apartments in the city centre or along the waterfront tend to suit families best, offering more space and kitchen facilities than a standard hotel room. Battery Point and Sandy Bay are popular family-friendly neighbourhoods within easy walking or short driving distance of the main attractions, while suburbs like Sandy Bay and Kingston offer a quieter base close to Kingston Beach if a calmer pace suits your family better than staying right in the city centre.

🚗 Getting around Hobart as a family

A rental car makes the most sense for families visiting Hobart, since several of the best kid-friendly attractions, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Mount Wellington and Kingston Beach, sit outside the compact city centre. Within the city itself, most attractions are an easy walk or short bus ride apart, and the compact scale of Hobart means you’re rarely more than 20 minutes from wherever you need to be, a genuine relief compared to navigating a larger mainland capital with young kids in tow.

👉 Book a Hobart family day tour on GetYourGuide →

🍽️ Family-friendly dining

Hobart’s food scene is generally relaxed and welcoming to families, with Salamanca and the waterfront precinct offering plenty of casual options that don’t require a reservation. Fish and chips by the water is something of a Hobart tradition, best enjoyed sitting on the docks watching the fishing boats come in. Several cafes around Battery Point and North Hobart cater well to families, with high chairs and kids’ menus widely available even at more upscale spots.

🌊 More beach options beyond Bellerive

Beyond the beaches already covered, a couple of other spots are worth knowing about for a family day out. Nutgrove Beach in Sandy Bay offers calm water and a grassy foreshore popular with local families, while Seven Mile Beach, a little further from the city near the airport, has a long stretch of sand that rarely feels crowded even on a warm weekend.

🦎 More wildlife encounters beyond Bonorong

While Bonorong is the standout wildlife experience near Hobart, a couple of other options are worth adding to the list. The Tasmania Zoo, a little further afield, offers a broader range of animals including big cats and reptiles alongside native species. Closer to the city, Cascades Female Factory and other heritage sites occasionally run family-oriented programs that combine history with hands-on activities, a nice change of pace from purely wildlife-focused outings.

🎒 Packing tips for a Hobart family trip

• 🧥 Layers, always, Tasmania’s weather can shift from sunny to drizzling within the same afternoon.
• 🥾 Comfortable walking shoes for kids, given how much of Hobart is best explored on foot.
• 🧴 Sunscreen even on cloudy days, Tasmania’s UV levels can still catch visitors out.
• 🎒 A day pack for snacks and water, useful given how spread out some of the family attractions are.
• 📷 A camera for the wildlife encounters, Bonorong in particular offers genuinely great photo opportunities.

👉 Book a Tasmania family tour on GetYourGuide →

🗺️ A sample two day family itinerary

For a well-paced two day visit, start with a morning at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, followed by lunch and an afternoon exploring Salamanca Market or the waterfront depending on the day of the week. Day two could combine a scenic drive up kunanyi/Mount Wellington in the morning with an afternoon at Bellerive or Kingston Beach, finishing with fish and chips by the water as the sun goes down. This pace covers the highlights without over-scheduling young travellers who tire more easily than adults expect.

🌦️ Rainy day backup plans

Hobart’s weather can turn without much warning, so it pays to have a few indoor options in your back pocket. The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is free to enter and has interactive exhibits that hold younger kids’ attention far better than a typical museum. MONA, while better known for its adult-oriented art, also runs family-friendly sessions and has an outdoor area kids enjoy when the weather cooperates. For a rainy afternoon that still burns off energy, an indoor trampoline park or the local aquatic centre are solid fallback options many Hobart families rely on.

🚌 Getting to attractions without a car

Not every family visiting Hobart has a hire car, and thankfully the city’s Metro bus network reaches most of the attractions covered here, including Salamanca, the waterfront and Sandy Bay. For destinations further out like Bonorong or Richmond, a small-group day tour is often more convenient than public transport with young kids in tow, since it removes the logistics of timetables and transfers entirely.

1. Book wildlife and nature experiences in the morning when kids have the most energy and animals are more active.
2. Leave markets and waterfront wandering for early afternoon, when the pace can be more relaxed.
3. Save indoor museums for late afternoon or a rainy day, since they work regardless of weather.

Following roughly this order tends to keep energy levels matched to the activity, which makes for a noticeably smoother day with young children than trying to fit everything in without a plan.

💡 Final tips before you go

Hobart rewards families who slow down rather than rush between sights. Booking accommodation close to the waterfront or Battery Point cuts down on transit time with tired kids, and building at least one unstructured afternoon into your itinerary gives everyone room to recharge. Most of the attractions above are within a 30 minute drive of the city centre, so a compact base makes day trips like Richmond or Bonorong far less tiring for younger travellers.

Whichever season you visit, Hobart’s mix of wildlife, waterfront, and easy day trips makes it one of the more relaxed Australian cities to explore with children, with far shorter distances between highlights than you’ll find on the mainland.