Hobart is near the bottom of Tasmania, that little island underneath Australia that I doubt many people even know it exists.

If you do happen to make your way there one day, you’ll probably fly into either Launceston or Hobart (the capital city). If you do fly into Hobart, 2 days (I think) is sufficient to see the highlights.

This itinerary is based on having a hire car as Tasmania is best seen with the flexibility of choosing your own driving route & times.

If you don’t have a hire car and you’re only visiting Hobart, there are plenty of day trips with bus transport (I usually use Viator to book day tours when travelling – no I’m not sponsored). I’ve included a list of half day and full day trip options at the end of this post.

This was days 1 & 2 of my 10 day Tasmania itinerary. See the full itinerary here.

Tip: Thanks to Google’s advice, I sat on the right side of the plane which had a great view coming into Hobart

Day 1 – Hobart

This itinerary excludes arrival & departure days. I.e. 2 day itinerary + arrival + departure day = 4 days. Depending on your flight times, you may be able to squeeze in 2 half day trips on the arrival and departure days.

Salamanca Markets

The Salamanca Markets only occur on Saturdays and are mostly finished by 1 – 2pm so be sure to visit in the morning.

There’s a variety of stalls: clothing, soaps, leather wallets and belts, sweet including crepes, ice cream, fudge as well as savoury food.

Yep… someone was selling wooden bows… And someone actually bought one….

Tip: choose a hotel that’s within walking distance of the CBD. Otherwise you’ll have to park somewhere that allows all day parking (most of the CBD seemed to have paid or time restricted parking). I stayed at the St Ives Apartment which was a good location.

Wander along the waterfront

After the markets, walk along the the waterfront, see the old buildings and Constitution Dock where the boats for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race come in.

There’s not much happening in Hobart itself if you’re chasing winter clothes there’s a few shops for that and otherwise the usual department stores e.g. Target that you can find everywhere else in Australia.

Depending on how early you got to the Salamanca Markets, you may have time to wander around Battery Point for an hour or 2 which has plenty of historical buildings.

Then head up to Mount Wellington. Make sure you rug up – it gets freezing cold up there (and snows as early as April!)

Mount Wellington

Head up there at dusk to catch the sun set

Night

Head back along the waterfront and eat at one of the many seafood places right on the water.

Don’t forget gelato for dessert! They have a boat converted into a gelato shop so you can literally eat your gelato on the water.

Day 2 – Hobart Surrounds

For breakfast, I recommend trying a scallop pie from Banjo’s Bakery. There’s plenty of these bakeries scattered around Hobart including one at Salamanca which I went to so I could see what it looks like without all the market stalls. They open quite early so you can grab some breakfast then do a day trip out of town.

Also at Salamanca is the Tassal salmon shop – obviously not a must… but it is unique to Tasmania!

You have a few options for day 2:

Full day trip options from Hobart:

Port Arthur (see my itinerary here)
Bruny Island

Half Day options

Tahune airwalk (note that unfortunately this is closed until late 2019 due to bushfires)
MONA
Richmond (historical town with a sweet shop and gelato shop – need I say more?! Read more here)

If you’re prepared to do some driving, I recommend Port Arthur & the Tasman Peninsula. If your’re intending to stay longer on the island and see more than just Hobart, then I wouldn’t do a day trip to Port Arthur. It’s somewhat on the way to other places on the typical Tasmania road trip route, so I recommend staying a night somewhere around Port Arthur. You don’t need long at Port Arthur it’s a lot smaller than the tourist brochures make it seem – 3 hours tops would be enough. However, there are plenty of other places to stop in this area of Tasmania – the Tasman Arch, Blowhole, Tessellated Pavement and the Unzoo which has Tasmanian Devils (if you aren’t going to Devils at Cradle). See my Port Arthur & surrounds itinerary here.

If you prefer to go at a slower pace with less driving, and didn’t quite get to everything on day 1, then I recommend finishing looking around Hobart before heading to Richmond with a stop at the Rosny Hill lookout on your way back into town.

The Rosny Hill lookout (is just past the Tasman Bridge – there’s lots of turnoffs onto and off that bridge so put the navigation on your phone!