The ultimate 10 day Tasmania road trip itinerary

Originally published in 2016, updated in 2026 with additional content.

An often-forgotten state on the backpackers route of Australia, Tasmania is fast growing in popularity. When you consider how much visitors rave about the unspoilt countryside, friendly locals and easy-to-navigate landscapes, it’s no surprise why.

While distances look short on the map, roads are winding and almost every coastal road makes you want to pull over. Therefore, it’s well-suited to slow travel and that’s what this article will explore.

If you’re looking for a Tasmania road trip itinerary that doesn’t rush the sights, let’s jump in.

How to get to Tasmania

Flights to Tasmania are incredibly cheap from Sydney and Melbourne – you’ll often find tickets for $30 – $50 one way so this can often be the cheapest and fastest way to reach the island.

Although there is a public bus system in Tasmania, the easiest way by far is to drive. Hiring a car isn’t too expensive and allows you far more freedom to head off the beaten track – literally in our case but more on that another time. We rented a vivid orange Honda from Budget for £130 ($221).

Want to take your own car? The Spirit of Tasmania ferry offers morning and night cruises from Victoria to Devonport. Prices hugely vary: the cheapest rates I saw were around $100 with flash specials sometimes available from $50.

Planning a route for your Tasmania road trip

Planning our route around Tasmania was a little harder than expected. With it being the summer season, lots of budget accommodation was booked up and typically we had left it until the last minute to plan.

Luckily however, it’s pretty easy to drive a circular loop of the island so within a few hours, we had a top notch 10 day itinerary for our Tasmania road trip.

If you’re surgically attached to your phone, prepare yourself. When we visited, Telstra was the only network that has reliable coverage in the more rural areas, so bring a good book!

The ultimate 10 day Tasmania road trip itinerary

Due to the scarcity of accommodation and also to avoid moving each day, we decided to base ourselves in four places.

Day 1 | Hobart

Against the backdrop of Mount Wellington, Tasmania’s capital is tiny yet packs a powerful punch when it comes to food.

Enjoying big, beautiful brunches was a definite highlight of Hobart and get your fix now, as it gets far more rural in the rest of the country. From Machine Laundry Cafe where you can literally get your washing boxed off while enjoying smashed avo, to the teeny Pollen Tea Room, you can spend days cafe hopping in Hobart.

Things to do

There are also tons of day trips you can take from Hobart, should you have a bit of extra time. However, as this itinerary starts and ends in Hobart, we’ll explore those more at the end of this article!

Days 2 – 4 | Bicheno / St Helen’s

We actually stayed in Swansea rather than Bicheno and semi-regretted our decision. While tranquility was absolutely on the cards for our Tasmania road trip itinerary, Swansea is so quiet that a suggested historic tour of the town includes their General Store. The same goes for Cole’s Bay where the town centre is a bistro and convenience store.

While location-wise, it’s a good place to base yourself, it didn’t work too well for our needs. With the wifi down at our guesthouse, we spent way too many hours at the town’s hotspot planning the rest of our trip.

So in summary, that’s why I’ve recommended to stay in nearby Bicheno. There’s a little more going on here, including an adorable baby penguin that lives under a rock! We also stayed in St Helen’s which is also more convenient for supplies and restaurants.

Things to do

With white sand, pink granite mountains and turquoise water, this stretch of the east coast is what most people picture when they think of Tasmania.

Day 5 | Devonport

An additional overnight stop to avoid the long drive from Swansea to Strahan. Devonport is known as the gateway to the Spirit of Tasmania, so if you’re doing a one-way road trip rather than heading all the way around Tasmania, this is where you’d want to end up.

Things to do

Days 6 – 7 | Strahan

The west coast is wild, feels untouched and is even further flung than east. Get ready for some epic hikes and wildlife spotting!

Things to do

Days 8 – 10 | Hobart

When you’re back at Hobart, you can chill in the city or explore the beautiful surroundings – there’s tons to do down here.

We particularly enjoyed a day trip at Port Arthur Historic Site, a former convict settlement with an interesting history. If you’re more interested in exploring the natural wonders of Tasmania, here are some ideas for other great day trips:

Did we stick to the plan?

In the interest of transparency – no we did not.

Sometimes a hectic few weeks travelling gets too much and we ended up stopping our road trip midway to enjoy a stay at a friend’s beautiful St Helens beach house…

Unfortunately, this did mean that we missed Cradle Mountain from our trip which I’d absolutely love to go back and see one day. Instead, we enjoyed some much needed relaxation after a hectic few weeks.

While our plans changed, I’m still confident that our 10 day Tasmania road trip itinerary is ideal for those looking to do a circular loop of all the best sights the island has to offer.

With a mix of white sand beaches, rolling hills and clear lakes, the Tasmanian road trip is all about outdoorsy, relaxed fun.

Laura x

Read more on Tasmania

Hobart: Australia’s underrated brunch destination
Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay
Port Arthur Historic Site

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