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Hobart, Australia - Things to Do in Hobart

Things to Do in Hobart

Hobart, Australia - Complete Travel Guide

Hobart curls around a deep-water harbour where the air bites with salt and the masts of Constitution Dock creak like old bones. The city lies under the bulk of kunanyi/Mount Wellington, its summit striped with snow even when spring sun pours onto the waterfront cafés. Georgian sandstone warehouses shoulder against glass-fronted galleries, and the smell of woodsmoke from small-batch whisky bars mingles with the yeasty breath of Cascade Brewery drifting down from South Hobart. You can stride from the old battery at the peninsula's tip to the Saturday farmers' market in ten minutes. Yet one block might still hide a 19th-century pub, a stripped-back gin distillery, and a laneway where stencil art flakes from brick. The southern light slants across the Derwent River, turning it pewter at dusk and firing tin roofs salmon-pink at dawn. Antarctic supply ships still draw a welcome party on the docks, and you may find yourself raising a Cascade Pale Ale at a deckhand's wake in a bar that reeks of brine and beer.

Top Things to Do in Hobart

Salamanca Market

Every Saturday, Salamanca Place's 1830s sandstone blocks ring with buskers' guitars and the slap of leather sandals. You bite into a just-pulled cheddar croissant from a Piper's Brook stall while the sharp perfume of Tasmanian lavender oil drifts over from the next trestle.

Booking Tip: Arrive by 08:30 before the cruise-ship crowds and the bakery queues. No tickets needed, just bring a tote bag and a willingness to jostle gently.

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kunanyi/Mount Wellington summit

The 21 km drive from the city centre climbs through stringybark forest until you burst above the tree line and the wind slices with a knife-edge chill. On a clear day the view south rolls over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and the hum of the organ-pipe dolerite columns feels almost geological.

Booking Tip: If you're renting a car, pick a morning after overnight rain when the summit is less likely to be cloud-capped; otherwise, the shuttle bus runs year-round but sells out on cruise days.

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MONA ferry and museum

The camouflaged ferry from Brooke Street Pier stinks of diesel and Moorilla wine as it chugs upriver. Inside the museum you spiral down sandstone that smells faintly of ozone while facing a wall of porcelain vulvas or a machine that digests books.

Booking Tip: Book the 10:00 sailing mid-week to dodge hen-party hordes. The museum entry is bundled with the ferry ticket, so ignore resale sites.

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Battery Point sculpture walk

Dolerite cobbles warm your soles as you weave past 1840s cottages where clipper-ship captains once lived. The scent of climbing roses wrestles with toast drifting from a tiny café in a former corner store that still wears its original pressed-tin ceiling.

Booking Tip: Start at 07:30 with a takeaway flat white from Jackman & McRoss before the bakery runs out of almond croissants. The walk is self-guided and free.

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Cascade Female Factory night tour

Lantern light wavers across crumbling sandstone yards where the colony's convict women once whispered. An actor-guide's voice cracks with cold and emotion while you chew damper drizzled with bitter molasses, a ration-day relic.

Booking Tip: Bring a wind-proof jacket even in summer. The after-dark tours run only Friday and Saturday and cap at 25 people, so reserve when you book accommodation.

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Getting There

Hobart Airport sits 17 km north-east of the city. The SkyBus shuttle drops at Brooke Street Pier in 20 minutes and departs within ten minutes of each domestic arrival. No rail line reaches the island, so mainland visitors fly from Melbourne (75 minutes) or Sydney (105 minutes). The overnight Spirit of Tasmania car ferry docks 12 km north in Devonport, from where a rental car and a 3½-hour drive down the Heritage Highway roll you into Hobart past fields of poppies and roadside honesty-boxes selling free-range eggs.

Getting Around

The city centre is a 1½-km grid you can cross on foot in 15 minutes, though the hill up to the hospital will torch your calves. A GreenCard tap-on bus covers the metro area. Fares are distance-based and top out around the cost of a coffee. Bike hire is possible but expect thigh-testing climbs unless you stick to the flat foreshore path to Sandy Bay. Parking meters run Monday to Friday and swallow coins faster than you'd expect, so if you're day-tripping to Bruny or the Huon, collect your hire car only when you leave town.

Where to Stay

Waterfront warehouses-turned-hotels around Salamanca with briny dawn air and gull cries

Battery Point heritage terraces where floorboards creak and you'll share a lane with cats that own the street

North Hobart's restaurant strip for late-night gelato and live-music spill

Sandy Bay if you want harbour beaches five minutes from campus pubs

West Hobart for hilltop porches looking straight at the mountain

New Town for local bakeries and a fifteen-minute riverside jog into town

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Food & Dining

Hobart's kitchens draw on the island's cool-climate produce, so you'll find wallaby prosciutto at Templo on Patrick Street, and Pinot Noir by the glass that tastes like mulberries and forest floor. In North Hobart, a 1950s milk bar now plates Sri Lankan hoppers while the smell of Ethiopian berbere drifts from an adjacent café; both are mid-range and BYO. Down at the docks, a floating punts oyster bar slurps with the tide, and a laneway off Salamanca hides a candle-lit spot that smokes its own trout over cherry wood. Expect to pay backpacker-friendly prices for excellent fish-and-chips at the wharf, or splurge on a seven-course truffle dinner that still costs less than a Sydney degustation.

When to Visit

Late summer (February) gives you the warmest seawater and the lowest chance of mountain cloud, though the MONA FOMA festival drives hotel prices up. Autumn (March-April) means clear mornings, russet orchards in the Huon, and cheaper rooms once the cruise ships thin out. Winter is raw - sideways rain and 4 pm dusk - but truffle hunts and whisky-den cosiness reward those who pack merino. Spring can still hurl sleet at you on the mountain even while city gardens explode with lilac, so bring a wind-shell and expectations of four seasons in a day.

Insider Tips

If the mountain is closed by snow, drive 40 minutes to the summit of kunanyi via the Pinnacle Road for sunset. Locals do it with a thermos and Tim Tams.
Order a 'minimum chips' at any waterfront van and you'll still get a paper parcel the size of a rugby ball.
Check the back of your supermarket receipt: two-for-one Cascade Brewery tour vouchers are printed there, so it's worth digging through the self-checkout bin.

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