Tasmania's Capital
Things to Do
in Hobart
Australia's second-oldest city — sandstone & mountain, art & oysters.
Hobart's Unmissable Centrepiece
MONA — Museum of Old & New Art
Berriedale, Hobart · Must-Visit
MONA — where art meets the uncanny
Built into the sandstone cliffs of a peninsula 12 km north of Hobart's CBD, MONA is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the most extraordinary museum experiences on earth. David Walsh's collection occupies four underground levels carved directly into ancient rock — ancient Macedonian coins displayed next to works that will unsettle you for days. There are no wall labels; you navigate by phone app (the 'O'), choosing your own reaction to each work. Plan for a full day, stay for dinner, and consider the ferry back under a Hobart sunset.
Saturday Mornings Since 1972
Salamanca Place & The Market
Salamanca Place · Every Saturday
Salamanca Market
Every Saturday from 8:30am to 3:00pm, Hobart's Georgian waterfront precinct fills with over 300 stallholders. It is one of Australia's great weekly rituals — local farmers selling produce you can't find anywhere else on the continent, Tasmanian cheese and smoked fish, hand-thrown pottery, leatherwork, live folk music, and the particular Hobart atmosphere of a city that takes its Saturday seriously. Arrive before 10am for the full experience; avoid the last hour. The surrounding Salamanca restaurants and bars stay busy all day.
Salamanca Arts Centre
The Georgian sandstone warehouses that line Salamanca Place were built in the 1830s–40s for whaling and trading. Today they house art galleries, theatres, studios, and cafés. The Salamanca Arts Centre complex runs across several buildings — walk through and find emerging Tasmanian artists alongside established names.
Kelly's Steps
The original stone staircase carved directly into the cliff face connecting Salamanca Place to Battery Point above — built in 1839 by merchant James Kelly. A five-minute walk that transitions you between two entirely different eras of Hobart, and a favourite subject for photographers at golden hour.
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
Australia's oldest museum — a sprawling Victorian complex at the top of Salamanca Place, adjacent to the waterfront. Outstanding collections of Tasmanian Aboriginal history, natural history, colonial art, and a significant First Nations collection. Free, and often overlooked in the rush to MONA. Don't overlook it.
The Mountain That Watches Over Hobart
kunanyi / Mount Wellington
1,271 metres above sea level
kunanyi — the pinnacle of Hobart
kunanyi/Mount Wellington dominates the Hobart skyline — a dolerite massif rising to 1,271 metres just 13 km from the city centre. The summit is accessible by a sealed road (and by a network of walking tracks from the suburb of Fern Tree), offering a 360-degree panorama from the Derwent Valley to the Southern Ocean on a clear day. Snow is possible any time of year; pack accordingly. Aboriginal Tasmanians called the mountain kunanyi, and it has been a constant presence in Hobart's story since the city's founding.
The Derwent & the Old City
Waterfront & Historic Hobart
Hobart's working waterfront is among the most authentic and beautiful in Australia — fishermen's catches sold dockside, tall ships moored at Sullivan's Cove, and Georgian sandstone everywhere you look.
Battery Point
Australia's best-preserved Georgian village — a web of cobbled lanes, colonial cottages, and sailor's pubs perched on the hill above Salamanca. Walk past Arthur's Circus (a ring of Georgian cottages around a village green, unchanged since 1847), find the Shipwright's Arms Hotel (Tasmania's oldest pub), and explore Hampden Road's antique shops and cafés. Everything is within a 20-minute walk of the Salamanca waterfront below.
Constitution Dock & Sullivan's Cove
The heart of Hobart's waterfront — where the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race finishes each Boxing Day and wooden fishing trawlers unload beside yachts from around the world. Buy fish and chips from the floating fish punts (a Hobart institution), walk Elizabeth Quay, and watch the hydrofoil MONA Roma ferry depart up the Derwent. The Princes Wharf shed now houses excellent bars and restaurants.
Arthur's Circus
The centrepiece of Battery Point — a perfect Georgian circle of cottages built around a village green that has looked essentially the same since 1847. Walk the circumference and peer through the gates; it is one of the finest examples of planned colonial-era housing in Australia and feels entirely removed from the 21st century.
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
Established in 1818, Australia's second-oldest botanical gardens occupy a beautiful riverside site on the Queens Domain, a short walk from the CBD. The conifer collection, Japanese garden, and sub-Antarctic plant house are highlights. Free entry; the café overlooks the Derwent River.
Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
One of the world's great ocean races finishes at Constitution Dock each Boxing Day (26 December). The docks fill with supermaxis and ocean racers from around the world, the pubs overflow, and Hobart puts on one of its finest annual shows. Even outside race week, the docks are fascinating.
Restaurants, Whisky & Wine
Food & Drink in Hobart
Hobart's food scene is quietly one of Australia's best — built on extraordinary local ingredients, world-class producers, and a small-city density of serious talent. Expect to eat better than anywhere your expectations prepared you for.
Cascade Brewery
Australia's oldest operating brewery (1824) — a Gothic sandstone landmark at the foot of kunanyi. Tours run daily; the heritage buildings, working brew house, and garden are compelling even for non-beer drinkers.
Lark Distillery
The distillery that started Tasmania's world-renowned single malt whisky industry. Lark's tasting room in the CBD is the easiest whisky bar in Hobart — choose from multiple expressions and understand why Tasmanian whisky has beaten Scotland's best at international competitions.
Fish Punts at Franklin Wharf
Floating fish-and-chip boats moored at Constitution Dock sell the freshest fish in Hobart — bought from the trawlers moored alongside. A Hobart institution: eat on the dock with the working harbour as your backdrop. Atlantic salmon, flathead, and scallops are highlights.
Coal River Valley
Tasmania's premier wine region begins just 25 minutes from the Hobart CBD — Domaine A, Frogmore Creek, and Pooley Wines produce exceptional cool-climate Pinot Noir and Riesling. A half-day cellar door circuit is one of Hobart's finest outings.
Where to Explore
Hobart's Neighbourhoods
Beyond the City
Day Trips from Hobart
Hobart's location at the intersection of the Derwent, the Huon Valley, and the Tasman Peninsula makes it the perfect base for day trips across southern Tasmania.
Bruny Island
Drive 45 minutes south to Kettering and take the 15-minute car ferry to Bruny Island for a full day of little penguins, white wallabies, sea eagles, and legendary food. The Bruny Island Cheese Co., oyster farm, and smoked salmon are the gastronomic highlights of any Tasmania trip. The dramatic southern tip — The Neck — is a narrow isthmus connecting North and South Bruny, with a 286-step lookout and penguin colony.
Port Arthur
One hour and twenty minutes east of Hobart via the Arthur Highway — the world's most intact convict settlement. The 40-hectare historic precinct encompasses the Penitentiary, Model Prison, hospital, and church ruins. Allow at least four hours; take the included harbour cruise. The evening ghost tour is one of Australia's most atmospheric heritage experiences. The Tasman Peninsula's coastal scenery en route is remarkable.
Huon Valley
Drive south through Australia's apple country — the Huon Valley is a landscape of orchards, ancient trees, and waterways leading to the wild south. Stop at the Fat Pig Farm (bookings essential), Willie Smith's Apple Shed cider bar, and drive out to Hastings Caves for a thermal pool and dolomite limestone caverns. Continue to Geeveston as the gateway to the Tahune AirWalk over the Huon River forest.
Hobart's Cultural Calendar
Annual Events
MONA's summer festival of music and art — an eclectic, boundary-ignoring programme across Hobart venues. One of Australia's finest summer cultural events.
MONA's winter solstice festival — bonfires, provocative art, immersive theatre, the Nude Solstice Swim, and music programming that has no equal in the Southern Hemisphere.
One of the world's great ocean yacht races finishes at Constitution Dock on Boxing Day. The docks and pubs of Hobart fill with sailors and spectators from around the world.
The Huon Valley opens its farms and orchards through autumn — cider festivals, farm gate produce, and a landscape turned amber and red by the season's change.
Suggested Plans
How to Spend Your Days
Hobart rewards unhurried exploration. These itineraries assume you have a hire car or can use Metro Tasmania buses for the waterfront.
Need to Know
Getting Around Hobart
Getting to Hobart
- Hobart Airport is 17 km east of the CBD — no direct train; use SkyBus or hire car
- Flights: ~1 hr from Melbourne, ~2.5 hr from Sydney, ~3 hr from Brisbane
- Spirit of Tasmania ferry lands at Devonport (3 hrs north) — drive to Hobart in ~2.5 hr
- Budget airlines (Jetstar, Rex) often have competitive fares; book early for summer
Getting Around the City
- Hobart CBD, Salamanca, and Battery Point are entirely walkable on foot
- Metro Tasmania buses cover most suburbs; the waterfront is well-served
- MONA Roma ferry: Brooke St Pier → MONA, daily from 9:30 am
- Uber and taxis operate city-wide; no tram or light rail network
- Hire car is strongly recommended for day trips and kunanyi
When to Visit
- Summer (Dec–Feb): long days, busy, book 3–6 months ahead for MONA weekends
- Autumn (Mar–May): ideal weather, golden light, quieter — best overall season
- Winter (Jun–Aug): Dark Mofo festival, aurora australis, cold but magical
- Spring (Sep–Nov): wildflowers, warming temperatures, fewer crowds than summer
- Salamanca Market runs every Saturday year-round regardless of weather
Common Questions
Hobart FAQs
Three to four days covers Hobart's highlights without rushing. If you arrive on a Friday, you can hit Salamanca Market on Saturday morning, spend a full day at MONA, hike or drive kunanyi/Mount Wellington, and use the fourth day for a Bruny Island or Port Arthur day trip. If you want the Coal River Valley wineries and the Huon Valley, add an extra day each.
MONA is not just worth visiting — it is one of the most genuinely extraordinary museum experiences in the world. The collection ranges from ancient Egyptian mummies to deeply confronting contemporary installations across four underground floors carved into sandstone. Arrive by the MONA Roma ferry from Brooke St Pier — the 25-minute crossing on a fully licensed hydrofoil is itself part of the experience. Plan for a full day minimum; download the 'O' app before you arrive.
Salamanca Market runs every Saturday from 8:30am to 3:00pm along Salamanca Place — continuously since 1972. Over 300 stalls sell fresh Tasmanian produce, artisan cheese, smoked fish, hand-thrown pottery, leatherwork, jewellery, vintage clothing, and street food. Live music plays across multiple stages. The best produce stalls sell out by midday, so arrive early. It is free to enter and is one of Australia's genuinely great weekly markets.
Dark Mofo is MONA's annual winter solstice festival held each June in Hobart. It celebrates the longest night of the year with a programme of provocative contemporary art installations across the city, immersive theatre, giant bonfire rituals, world-class music performances, and the infamous Nude Solstice Swim in the Derwent River. It has become one of Australia's most talked-about and genuinely unmissable cultural events — book accommodation many months in advance if you want to attend.