The Tasmania Stay List
Twelve places worth building a road trip around.
Tasmania, Australia
Tasmania is better when you do less of it.
Not because there is less to see. Quite the opposite.
The mistake is trying to collect the island. Hobart. Wineglass Bay. Cradle Mountain. Bay of Fires. A winery. A waterfall. Another lookout. Back in the car.
We prefer another way.
Find a good road. Choose somewhere remarkable to stay. Buy something for dinner on the way there. Light the fire. Open the wine. Stay for two nights instead of one.
Tasmania has become particularly good at this kind of travel. Old fishing shacks, cabins in the bush, converted halls, stone houses, architect-designed hideaways and places sitting alone at the end of roads you probably would not otherwise have taken.
Some are polished. Some deliberately are not.
These are the Tasmania stays we would travel for.
Hobart
Slow BeamWest Hobart
Hobart does not necessarily require a hotel. Slow Beam sits above the city in West Hobart, surrounded by bush but only a short drive from the waterfront. It was created as a home for Australian art and design, with big views across the Derwent and a sense that you have left town considerably further behind than you actually have.
Stay here, shop at Salamanca, book a long lunch, go to Mona and come home early enough to watch the weather move across the river.
WAYPOINT forDesign, art, two people, Hobart without the hotel.
The BarnHobart
A small heritage building rather than a conventional city stay. Old sandstone, timber, exposed structure and contemporary architecture. This is where we would stay if the brief was simple. Walk to dinner. Walk home. Shut the door.
WAYPOINT forTwo nights in Hobart, heritage architecture, food weekends.
Bruny Island
Bruny Island HideawayBruny Island
There is very little here, deliberately. A tiny off-grid cabin that is almost a piece of furniture: timber, a sleeping loft, built-in spaces and large openings to the surrounding landscape. It is the sort of stay that makes sense of Bruny Island. Not somewhere to sleep after a day of sightseeing. Somewhere to arrive with bread, cheese, a bottle of wine and no great reason to leave.
WAYPOINT forArchitecture, complete quiet, couples, switching off.
Sheepwash BayBruny Island
A private coastal property on Bruny Island with two standalone places to stay. The setting is the reason to come. Bush, water, fireplaces and a slower version of island life.
WAYPOINT forCoast, privacy, long mornings, food gathered locally.
The East Coast
Thalia HavenLittle Swanport
This is one of Tasmania's great houses. Thalia Haven sits on its own peninsula overlooking Great Oyster Bay, with private coastline, locally sourced stone, separate bedroom pavilions and sheltered courtyards. It feels closer to an old Mediterranean coastal compound than a traditional holiday house.
Bring people you actually like. Stay a while.
WAYPOINT forGroups, private coastline, milestone trips, doing very little exceptionally well.
Whale Song ShackFalmouth
A shack on the edge of the Tasman Sea. That is largely the point. Whale Song faces directly towards the ocean at Falmouth. There is an outdoor bath, an outdoor shower, a fire and a constantly changing view of the water.
There are more expensive stays in Tasmania and more elaborate ones. Few understand the attraction of the Tasmanian shack quite as well.
This one stays on our list.
WAYPOINT forOcean, winter weekends, couples, the sound of weather.
Aplite HouseFriendly Beaches
Drive north from Freycinet and the landscape starts doing most of the talking. Aplite House sits within private native forest beside Freycinet National Park. It is architect-designed, solar powered and deliberately connected to the surrounding bush rather than imposed on it.
Walk Wineglass Bay in the morning. Find oysters on the way home. Stop.
WAYPOINT forFreycinet, architecture, bush, longer East Coast stays.
The North East
The KeepNorth-east Tasmania
The Keep is difficult to mistake for anything else. A solitary stone building perched high on a rocky outcrop with enormous views across north-east Tasmania and towards the coast. There is an outdoor stone bath and very little nearby to interrupt proceedings.
This is one for winter. Fire going. Bath hot. Weather moving in. Nowhere else you need to be.
WAYPOINT forComplete privacy, couples, winter, the long way around.
The West
The Galahs NestQueenstown
Queenstown should be on more Tasmanian itineraries. Not passed through. Stayed in.
The Galahs Nest is an old hall creatively converted into a two-bedroom home, with the sort of character that makes sense against Queenstown's mining history and extraordinary landscape.
Stay here before taking the road between Queenstown and Strahan, or make Queenstown the destination itself. Walk. Drive. Find a pub. Watch the mountains disappear into weather.
WAYPOINT forWest Coast road trips, friends, history, mountain weather.
Captain's RestLettes Bay, near Strahan
Possibly Tasmania's most recognisable little cabin. Captain's Rest sits metres from Macquarie Harbour in the old Lettes Bay shack settlement. Despite how often it has been photographed, the idea still works.
A small cabin. A quiet bay. The West Coast.
WAYPOINT forTwo people, Strahan, heritage, slow mornings.
The Highlands
Pumphouse PointLake St Clair
Not an Airbnb and deliberately included. The best Tasmania accommodation list should not be restricted by booking platform.
Pumphouse Point occupies a former hydroelectric pumphouse sitting out over Lake St Clair and has become one of Tasmania's defining wilderness stays. This is where we would break a longer road trip. Not simply because the building is interesting. Because Lake St Clair deserves time.
WAYPOINT forWilderness, architecture, a proper road-trip stop.
The North
The Eco CabinDeloraine
The approach back towards northern Tasmania does not need to mean the trip is over. The Eco Cabin is an A-frame retreat near Deloraine, set among an old rural landscape with views towards Quamby Bluff and the Great Western Tiers.
Hot tub. Fire. One last bottle of Tasmanian pinot.
WAYPOINT forNorthern Tasmania, couples, Great Western Tiers, final-night decompression.
The WAYPOINT Tasmania road trip
10 nights. Fewer stops. Better stays.
- Day 1 + 2 / Hobart
Stay Slow Beam. Salamanca, Mona, dinner somewhere small, kunanyi / Mount Wellington if weather behaves. Two nights.
- Day 3 + 4 / Bruny Island
Bruny Island Hideaway or Sheepwash Bay. Oysters, cheese, walk, lighthouse if you feel like it. Otherwise don't. Two nights.
- Day 5 + 6 / East Coast
Thalia Haven for a bigger trip; Whale Song for the shack experience; Aplite for Freycinet access. Pick one. Two nights.
- Day 7 / North East
The Keep. Arrive before dark. Outdoor bath. Nothing booked elsewhere for dinner.
- Day 8 / Northern Tasmania
Launceston and the Tamar Valley, then Deloraine. Stay The Eco Cabin.
- Day 9 / Queenstown
Drive west. Stay The Galahs Nest.
- Day 10 / Strahan
Finish at Captain's Rest, Lettes Bay.
- Add two more nights
Between Strahan and Hobart at Lake St Clair, staying at Pumphouse Point. This turns the itinerary from a road trip into a holiday. There is a difference.
A note on Tasmania
Tasmania rewards curiosity.
The restaurant might be behind an unremarkable door.
The beach might require twenty minutes down a gravel road.
The best bottle of wine might come from a vineyard you had not heard of.
And one of the best places you stay all year might still call itself a shack.
That is what we are looking for with WAYPOINT STAY.
Not accommodation selected because it is expensive.
Not a collection based on star ratings.
Places with character. Good people behind them. A reason for being where they are.
Places that become part of the journey.
The journey. The place. The memory.
Planning something along these lines? Start a conversation.