Tasmania Itinerary: The Perfect 7-Day Road Trip

Last updated: September 2026

We spent ten weeks in Tasmania and didn’t see everything we wanted to. So let’s be honest with each other from the start: seven days is not enough time to see Tasmania.

It is, however, exactly how long most people go. One week of annual leave, one ferry booking, one car. And seven days is enough to enjoy a trip that you will talk about for years. As long as you accept the one rule that makes or breaks any Tasmania itinerary.

Pick a side, and drive a loop. The mistake almost everyone makes is trying to fit the West Coast, the East Coast, Cradle Mountain, Hobart and the Tasman Peninsula into a week. The island looks small on a map. But it’s not. And the roads are slower than the distances suggest. People end up spending their holiday behind the wheel and seeing the best parts of Tasmania through their windscreen.

Below you’ll find the loop we would drive if we had seven days and had to choose. It starts and ends in Devonport, where the ferry arrives, so it works whether you are bringing your own setup or picking up a hire car at the port. There’s an East Coast version underneath it if beaches matter more than wilderness, and a section at the end on what to add if you can stretch to ten or fourteen days.

➤ If you’re heading to Tasmania, start with our complete guide to Camping Tasmania, which includes information on park passes, fees, the ferry, and when to go.

A few of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it helps keep these guides free.

The 7-day Tasmania itinerary Summary

About 1,125 km over seven days, or a bit over two hours of driving a day on average. That is a comfortable pace with room in it.

Getting there: The Spirit of Tasmania

If you’re bringing your own car, caravan, campervan or camper trailer, the Spirit of Tasmania is the only way across. It sails between Geelong (not Melbourne) and Devonport on Tasmania’s north coast. The crossing takes somewhere around 11 hours.

The ferry changes completely on 31 October 2026, and day sailings are ending!

Spirit of Tasmania I and II make their final crossings in late October 2026. From 31 October, the two new ships, Spirit of Tasmania IV and V, take over. They’re much bigger, with far more room for caravans, motorhomes and tall vehicles, and better pet facilities.

There’s no paying passenger service between 23 and 30 October 2026 while crews are trained and the new ships are tested. If you were planning to cross that week, you can’t.

And day sailings are being discontinued. The operator has put this down to the increase in freight and passenger capacity on the new vessels.

Booking the ferry

• Book at least six months ahead for summer.
• Measure your vehicle: The standard height limit is 2.1 metres.
• Book the ferry before anything else.
• Pack a bag for the crossing. You can’t go back down to your vehicle once you sail. Water bottle (there’s a refill station), snacks, chargers, a warm layer and anything you take for motion sickness.

There’s a restaurant, bars, a cinema, a shop and an information centre on board, so you won’t starve. But 11 hours is a long time.

Flying instead

You can fly into Hobart, Launceston or Devonport and hire a campervan there. This costs roughly $55 to $120 per day, depending on the season and size; you must book well in advance during summer because Tasmania has a small fleet. For a trip of about 10 days or less, flying and hiring often work out cheaper than two ferry fares. For anything longer, or if you already have a setup you love, take your own. This Tasmania itinerary works either way; you just start at the airport you land in.

7-Day Tasmania Itinerary – Day by Day

Day 1: Devonport to Cradle Mountain

85 km | About 1 hour 25 minutes

You will come off the ferry into Devonport with a strong urge to start driving. Resist it for twenty minutes. Stock up before you leave town. Devonport has full-sized supermarkets, and it’s the cheapest ship you will get for the next three days. There is no supermarket at Cradle Mountain, and prices on the West Coast are what you would expect at the end of a long road.

Then head south through Sheffield, the town of murals, where every second wall is painted, and the backdrop is Mount Roland. It is a genuinely good half-hour stop, and it is on your way.

Cradle Mountain is the first thing that will probably stop you. Dove Lake is incredible and is the photograph everyone has seen of Tasmania. And it looks exactly like that in real life.

How Cradle Mountain access works

You cannot drive your own vehicle to Dove Lake during shuttle hours. Private vehicle access into that part of the park is not permitted while the shuttle is running, and there are only nine parking spaces at Dove Lake for outside those hours.

You park at the Visitor Centre and take the shuttle in. Shuttle hours are seasonal, running roughly 8:30 am to 4 pm in winter and 8 am to 5:30 pm in summer.

The Cradle Mountain Day Icon Pass is $30.70 per adult, $12.30 per child or $73.75 for a family. And it includes the shuttle. It’s a separate pass from your standard parks pass, which does not cover Cradle Mountain.

What to walk on your first afternoon, depending on wha the ferry has left for you:

If you only do one, do the Dove Lake Circuit. It goes all the way around the lake; it’s mostly boardwalk, and it gives you the mountain from every angle, including the Boatshed, which is the other photograph everybody has seen. 2 to 3 hours and worth every minute.

Where to stay

There’s no free camping at Cradle Mountain. Discovery Parks Cradle Mountain is the closest campground to the Visitor Centre and has powered sites and cabins. If you would rather camp for free and drive in, Tullah is about 45 minutes south-west and makes a reasonable base, but it does mean backtracking and extra fuel.

➤ Book your Cradle Mountain accommodation here.

Day 2: Cradle Mountain to Strahan

145 km | About 2 hours 20 minutes

Today you leave the alpine country and drop into the strangest, wildest part of Tasmania. This is the region most seven-day Tasmania itineraries skip, and skipping it is a mistake.

The drive down through Tullah and Rosebery is all button grass plains, mining towns and mountains that look like nothing else in Australia. Zeehan is worth a stop for the West Coast Heritage Centre if mining history interests you at all. If you have time up your sleeve, the detour out to Granville Harbour is one of the best free camps on the island. Remote beachside camping with the sun going down over the water.

➤ If you’re keen on exploring more of the west coast, check out our 7-day West Coast Tasmania itinerary.

Strahan sits on Macquarie Harbour, which is six times the size of Sydney Harbour, and it’s the best base for everything on this coast.

Things to do in Strahan

• Ocean Beach at sunset: 40 km of unbroken sand and the longest beach in Tasmania, facing straight into the Southern Ocean with nothing between you and Argentina.
• Hogarth Falls: An easy 40-minute return walk from the middle of town through rainforest.
• The Gordon River Cruise: It’s the main reason people come to Strahan
• The West Coast Wilderness Railway to Queenstown

Where to Stay?

Macquarie Heads sits at the mouth of the harbour, and it’s the obvious choice. It’s not a free camp; it’s $35 per vehicle per night. It’s a caravan park price, so if you want the facilities, choose a caravan park in town. Find the right place to stay in Strahan here.

➤ Full details and the rest of the West Coast camps are in our West Coast Tasmania Camping Guide.

Day 3: Strahan to Hobart

300 km | About 4 hours 15 minutes

The longest drive of the week, and the best. Don’t rush it. Leave early, and treat the drive itself as the activity today.

The 99 Bends and Queenstown

Forty minutes out of Strahan, the road climbs into Queenstown over what everybody calls the 99 Bends, and it’s genuinely one of the great drives in Australia. The hills around Queenstown were stripped bare by a century of copper smelting, and they are still mostly bare. Bright orange, grey and pink, folding away in every direction. It looks a bit like Mars. It’s unsettling and completely unforgettable, and if you can, stop at the lookout on the way down.

Queenstown itself is a proper working town with a gravel football oval and some excellent old pub architecture. Fuel up here.

Lake St Clair and the Derwent Valley

From Queenstown, the Lyell Highway runs east through the middle of Tasmania. Lake St Clair at Derwent Bridge is Australia’s deepest lake and the southern end of the Overland Track. Worth an hour and a short walk even if you are not hiking it. A few hundred metres up the road, The Wall in the Wilderness is a hundred-metre wood carving of the region’s history that people either find astonishing or cannot see the point of.

Then the road drops down the Derwent Valley through hop fields and oast houses into Hobart.

If you would rather break the drive, Lake Burbury Camp Ground sits just east of Queenstown at $18 per night and is one of the prettiest spots on the route. It turns Day 3 into two easy days rather than one long one. Worth doing if you have time to spend 8 days.

Day 4: Hobart

Hobart is small enough to walk and interesting enough that you could give it three days. Here’s what we would do when we’re there:

Where to stay?

Hobart is the one night of this trip where a caravan park or a nice hotel makes sense. Free camping near the city is limited, and you will want to be close enough to walk to dinner and enjoy ‘city-life’ to the fullest.

→ Find your ideal place to stay in Hobart.

OPTIONAL: Bruny Island

Bruny Island is a short vehicle ferry from Kettering, 35 minutes south of Hobart, and it’s one of the best things to do in Tasmania. White wallabies, the Neck, cheese, oysters and off-grid beach camping. It does not fit in seven days… And we’re not going to pretend it does. Bruny deserves a minimum of three days, and it’s the first thing we would add if you had more time.

➤ Read our full guide to Bruny Island with a 4-day itinerary included.

Day 5: Hobart to the Tasman Peninsula

95 km | About 1 hour 15 minutes

Leave Hobart after breakfast, shop at Sorell on the way through. It’s your last full-sized supermarket. Aim to be at Eaglehawk Neck my mid-morning.

The Tasman Peninsula was our favourite region in Tasmania, and it’s only an hour from Hobart. Most people drive down, see Port Arthur, and drive back the same day. Stay for the night instead.

Where to stay?

Fortescue Bay. 12 km of gravel off the highway, 2WD accessible, and at the end of it, white sand, clear water and $13 per night for two people, plus a parks pass. Book between October and April.

➤ If you’re heading this direction, check out our complete Tasman Peninsula Guide where we cover the best hikes, campgrounds and things to do.

Day 6: Tasman Peninsula to Freycinet

230 km | About 3 hours

Start the day with Cape Hauy if you can possibly manage it. It’s a 4-hour return walk that starts from Fortescue Bay campground, and it is our favourite walk in Tasmania. A long staircase through the heath and out onto a 300-metre cliff above the Totem Pole. If you leave camp at 7 am, you can walk it and still be at Freycinet before dinner. If four hours is too much, Canoe Bay is two hours return and has a shipwreck at the end.

Then north up the East Coast on the Great Eastern Drive, through Orford and Swansea with the Hazards across the water for most of the last hour. Kate’s Berry Farm just south of Swansea does some great ice cream and is a well-earned stop.

Freycinet National Park is the postcard. Pink granite peaks, white sand, water the colour of a swimming pool. Probably the most spectacular views in the whole of Australia. Hike or join the Wineglass Bay Tour for a more relaxed experience.

Freycinet Camping needs planning

Richardsons Beach, Honeymoon Bay and Ranger Creek are inside the national park and are booked by ballot for the summer peak, with entries opening months ahead. You can’t just turn up over Christmas.

Outside the ballot period, they are first-come, first-served and fill early. If you miss out, Friendly Beaches is 26 km north and free with a parks pass, and Coles Bay has caravan parks. Find the accommodation in Coles Bay that suits you best here.

➤ Full details in our East Coast Camping Guide.

Day 7: Freycinet to Devonport

Drive back across the middle of the island, through Campbell Town and up the Midland Highway. It’s an easy drive and you have most of the day, so use it.

A few stops worth making:

• Ross: just off the highway, has the convict-built Ross Bridge from 1836 and a bakery claiming to have the best vanilla slice in Tasmania.
• Launceston is worth two hours for Cataract Gorge alone. A river gorge with a chairlift and a swimming pool inside the city limits, and it’s free.
• Bay of Fires: if your sailing is overnight and you left early, the detour to the Bay of Fires adds about three hours of driving, and is the most beautiful stretch of coast in Tasmania.

Be at the ferry terminal when they tell you. They close 45 minutes before departure time. And they don’t wait…

The East Coast Version: 7 Days for beaches instead of Wilderness

If white sand matters more to you, drive this instead. Same length, same start and finish, but a completely different week.

Maria Island

Maria Island is the one to protect in this version. A short ferry from Triabunna, no cars on the island, convict ruins, the Painted Cliffs, and a guaranteed wombat. A full day feels short. You can walk or hire a bike, though there are more hills than you’d expect and walking is often the better call.

10 to 14 Tasmania Itinerary

If you have longer, don’t drive further. Go deeper. Here’s what we would add:

Ten days is the minimum we would actually go. The seven-day loop above, plus Bruny Island. 14 days lets you do the whole coast, the loop, Bruny and the East Coast at a proper pace.

What a 7-day Tasmania road trip costs

Rough figures, for two adults camping, not counting the ferry.

Buy the two-month holiday pass, not daily passes. This Tasmanian itinerary takes you into Tasman National Park, Freycinet and Lake St Clair, and two daily passes already cost more.

The best time to do this trip

Whatever month you go, pack for cold. The four-seasons-in-a-day line is not a cliché in Tasmania. We experienced it multiple times. Bring something waterproof, windproof, a warm mid-layer, and proper walking shoes.

Driving in Tasmania

Driving in Tasmania is not like anywhere else in Australia. Here’s what we found:

• The distance lie: roads are narrow, winding and slower than the map suggests.
• Do not drive at dawn, dusk or after dark if you can avoid it. Tasmania has so much wildlife, and most of it is nocturnal and suicidal… We’ve never seen as much roadkill as we did in Tasmania.
• Fuel up where you can: especially on the West Coast.
• Gravel roads are normal here. Most of them are 2WD accessible in dry conditions. If you rent a car, check your hire agreement. Many hire cars are not insured on unsealed roads.
• Carry cash anyway. Some honesty boxes and small-town shops still want it, even as most campgrounds have moved to card.

Tasmania Road Trip Map

Every stop, campground, walk and fuel on this itinerary is pinned on our free Tasmania Map.

Free Tasmania map — camps, national parks and the stops worth making Send it to me →

Before you go

We spent ten weeks in Tasmania and left with a list of places we didn’t get to. Mainly due to weather conditions. You’ll leave with a list too…

Don’t spend your week trying to beat that. Drive the loop, stop when something looks good, enjoy some downtime, and be flexible when the weather changes.

Happy Travels!

Plan your trip to Tasmania

If you’re planning a camping trip to Tasmania, start with our complete guide to Camping Tasmania. For more detailed guides, check out:

Tasmania Itinerary FAQs

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