Pristine beaches, soaring sea cliffs, unique rock formations and lush green forests, plus a historic world heritage listed prison site – that is Tasman Peninsula.
Located at the south eastern end of Tasmania, Tasman Peninsula is just a 90-minute drive from Hobart.
This picturesque route alternates between land and water, via bridges, of course. First comes the Tasman bridge – to reach Rosny Park and Rosny hill lookout. This is worth a short stop to get views over the bay.
Further onwards, the A3 (Tasman Highway) crosses another bay to reach the Midway point and Sorrell. From there, the northern most tip of Tasman Peninsula is just a short drive away.
Tip: If you plan to stay for 4-5 days in the peninsula, we suggest that you stock up some groceries and fill gas at Sorrell, where you will find the big Woolworth’s supermarket chain and large gas stations. After this point, there are only a few small groceries and gas stations in the peninsula.
A stay of 4 days would be ideal to cover most of the places. However, if you are planning to do really long hikes, do set aside a week to allow for the bad weather issues here – many rainy and windy days!
Here are two maps showing the best places worth visiting in the Tasman Peninsula and the drive from Hobart as well.
PORT ARTHUR HISTORIC SITE
Port Arthur is a World Heritage listed prison site in Tasmania. It is a national award-winning popular tourist attraction.
What made this an ideal prison is its isolation from the rest of Tasmania, only accessible across a very narrow neck of land which was easy to guard.
The property spans over 40 hectares and has about 30 historic buildings. Port Arthur showcases Tasmania’s early convict history with cruises, guided tours and interactive experiences.
It is worth a full day trip with a lot to see:
- A guided cruise that takes you to the small islands in the bay, each having its unique convict history.
- Several walking tours through beautiful gardens and restored buildings.
- An 1830 Restaurant and bar for some great food and drinks.
- The Port Arthur Gallery, with displays and interactive exhibitions explaining both the history and importance of this site.
- The Ghost Tour, which will take you by lantern light around one of the most haunted locations in Australia, over the course of 1.5 hours
The atmosphere, beautiful settings and stories are fascinating.
The introductory tour in the main entrance, followed by the boat cruise tour, were well worth the time. The boat stops at several places, and the guide points out notable spots on islands and provides brief backgrounds of the places.
A lot of walking is involved as the property is huge and there are slopes and steps too. The gardens are very beautiful with orange and yellow colour oak trees.
Another way to get the best views of the sea cliffs is to jump onboard a ‘Wilderness cruise’ – booking at Port Arthur. Be prepared to get fully drenched if the weather turns nasty!
EAGLEHAWK NECK
Eaglehawk Neck is truly the scenic gateway to the Tasman Peninsula. It is a narrow isthmus of land near some of the most dramatic coastlines.
Here you will see rugged coastlines, huge sea cliffs, turquoise waters and clean beaches.
A perfect place for nature lovers and photographers.
TASMAN ARCH
We were totally blown away by this giant rocky archway created by erosion of wind and waves.
Just a short walk from the parking lot will take you to the Tasman arch – an awesome natural arch, with trees and vegetation on the top, and turquoise waters below.
We found a kind of mystery tree with wrinkles on its branches! (image above)
DEVIL’S KITCHEN
About a half hour walk from the Tasman Arch, is the Devil’s Kitchen lookout.
This 60 metres deep Devil’s Kitchen was also formed by erosion of wind and waves.
When you gaze down the giant sea cliffs at the foams and bubbles of the waters below, you can truly see the fury of the great southern ocean as huge swells crash into the base of tall cliffs. It’s a spectacular sight!
Photography is not easy here as we had to stoop down quite a bit to get the views due to wild plants and vegetation.
THE BLOWHOLE
Another natural wonder caused by erosion over many years.
There is the viewpoint from the walking track to see this awesome sight of water forcibly pushing through a crack to form the blowhole and crashing into the huge boulders.
TESSELLATED PAVEMENT
Here is a totally rare geological formation!
Located at a short walk from the car park opposite the Lufra Hotel is this pavement formed by unique geological formations.
The patterns on the rock are interesting – caused by cracking due to movements in Earth’s crust. There are different patterns on the pavement rock near the edge of the water and a bit further from the water. Many years of erosion has carved loaf-like formations near the edge of water and concave pan-like tiles further.
There are signposts explaining its geological significance, but you can just wander around the rocks to get the best experience.
Sunset and sunrise bring out the natural colours of this pavement.
This place is a hit with visitors and we saw that many groups had come with blankets and mats to just sit and enjoy the sunset. There is a popular mobile van café called Cubed Espresso bar with coffee, tea and cakes with outdoor seating.
REMARKABLE CAVE
Another impressive natural phenomenon!
Situated south of the peninsula, it is a short walk from the car park along a metal boardwalk to the Remarkable cave. There are about 115 steps – well maintained and easy to do.
The waves break just below the viewing point.
It is truly a spectacular location, and even if you do not want to go down to the cave, there is another viewing platform offering great views of the rough waves on steep cliffs. It gets very windy here, and often rainy as well, which can get a bit uncomfortable.
The best time to go is at low tide so that the cave and views below can be explored comfortably.
Walks and Hikes
The peninsula in general has great walking and hiking opportunities including bushwalks. Lime Bay, Lagoon bay, Fortescue bay are popular with visitors.
Apart from these, there are challenging hikes on Cape Raoul and others like ‘three capes track’ that are 3-day long hikes. This would be a perfect place for adventurous hikers.
White Beach
This is a great choice for a base in Tasman Peninsula. We based ourselves in a nice Airbnb accommodation here and the views of the sea were outstanding! The beaches are totally clean and pristine.
There is an Tasman Ex-Service club here that serves great food and take outs too. Their menu includes popular Australian delicacies including chicken parmigiana, Tasmanian fresh grilled salmon, steak and lot of salads.
Nubeena is another popular place with accommodation options.
Driving northwest of the Peninsula
Though this is not a popular destination for visitors, we drove up to explore what was there.
We found picturesque points mainly at Parsons Bay, Norfolk Bay, Premaydena, also known as Impression bay, and Saltwater River.
We had a lovely long drive with stops in interesting places for photo-ops.
These are totally remote areas but the main roads are quite good. We wanted to check out the Lime Bay nature reserve and Slope Point, but it had unsealed muddy roads as with many remote areas in Tasmania. We had to turn back as we did not have a 4WD and there were hardly any people to help if we had any car trouble!
Our stay in this beautiful part of Tasmania ended too soon. We drove back towards Hobart at the end of our 5 days here and further south towards the ‘Southern Edge’ region of Tasmania for more adventures!
Looks like a beautiful place. The Tasman Arch reminds me a bit of some sights you can see on the Oregon coast here in the US.
The unique tree is a scribbly gum. One of the many varieties of gum trees found only in Australia. You certainly explored much of the natural beauty and history of this area of Tassie.
It looks like we will have to plan a longer visit to the Tasman Peninsula when we finally get to Tasmania. The prison might not draw us although the ruins do look fascinating. But the beaches, cliffs and rock formations definitely will. Love the fun names of some of the great outdoor places to stop. Who could pass on stopping at the Devil’s Kitchen? Certainly lots of places that show the power of nature to change the landscape. Great to know that the roads are still quite good in the remote areas.
As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have expected these old structures in Australia – interesting. What I would have expected, though, are those amazing sceneries! Those layered cliffs are simply so impressive! I haven’t been to Australia yet – it’s really far from Europe, albeit, come to think of it, it’s far from basically everywhere – but it’s certainly a place I would like to go with someone since I’m not driving and I think you don’t get the real vibe if you don’t go on a road trip, am I right?!
Such a gorgeous place! And that Tasman Arch! ❤️
I’d love to drag my camera along to photograph there! Thank you for sharing your own photos! I enjoyed your post! 👍🏼
Ah! I’ve long wanted to visit Tasmania, and it looks so beautiful. The coastline is gorgeous! I’m really interested in Port Arthur as a prison site would be really intriguing to visit. I hope to go on a road trip there some day!
I like that when visiting the Tasman peninsula you can try a lot of different experiences, from historical visits to natural landscapes. The Port Arthur sounds like a very interesting place to see and learn more about the first prisons here. It’s interesting how the site was chose because if it’s difficult access to the mainland, which was easy to guard. That actually makes a lot of sense. The Tessellated pavement looks very intriguing as well. At first, I thought it was a salt flat, but then I understood that it’s a unique geological formation. I can imagine that at sunset those colours shine, and that’s why it is such a popular place for people to go there at this time of the day.
Tasmania is high on my to-visit list when I get to Australia. It always seem wild and rough to me – and I would love to be taking pictures as you are. The Remarkable cave is my biggest takeaway from this information filled blog post, I am adding it to my list for Tasmania besides all the other that you have mentioned above.
Such a beautiful place, thanks for sharing! That arch must be the biggest one I have seen, it looks amazing! I have seen so many arches like that but they all have been much smaller. Blowholes are also very interesting. We just went to see one in Hawaii. I would love to experience Tasmania someday.
Who knew a prison could be so beautiful? The Tasman Peninsula definitely has a lot to offer from the beautiful beaches to the unique arches and caves. Looks like an incredible place to explore!
Tasmania has been on my wish list for such a long time. The Tasman Peninsula has some pretty exciting rock formations for sure: The Tasman Arch and the steep rocky walls of the cave look so stunning. I love destinations that offer historical sites and natural wonders – so I would definitely spend some time on the Tasman Peninsula.
What beautiful photos! I hope to be back in Australia soon to be able to explore Tassie.
I have wanted to visit Tasmania for a while for the wildlife and the scenery, but you just got me excited about the geology too. The Tasman Arch is spectacular and woooow the Tessellated pavement is so interesting. I’ve never seen anything like that (and I’m always on the look out for cool rocks!)
The Tasman Peninsula is simply stunning! There are no words to describe its breathtaking natural beauty. Every area of the Tasman Peninsula radiates awe and tranquility, from the rocky coastline with its spectacular cliffs and sea stacks to the beautiful beaches and crystal-clear waters.
The Tasman Arch is truly amazing! It is really a must-visit when in the area. I also like the Remarkable Cave and can imagine the sound of waves when hitting the cliffs. Tessellated pavement also caught my attention. I think it’s because I like nature art more than manmade art. It looks like you have five great days in the Tasman Peninsula!
The Tasman Peninsula has lot of attractions to explore as a stunningly beautiful destination along the Australian coast. Port Arthur historic site is amazing with its interactive exhibits and pristine beaches, stunning sea cliffs and unique rock formations.The Ghost tour sounds an awesome way to explore the haunted locations and so does the Wilderness Cruise to explore the rugged shoes and beaches. The rock formations in the Tasman Peninsula like the Tasman arch, Blowhole,Devil’s kitchen and Tessellated pavement are mind-blowing natural creations and worth capturing in lens.
The Cubed Espresso bar is a beautiful cafe to enjoy snacking in the outdoors.
Great photos! And what a stunning and rugged place. Reminds me a little of New Zealand 🙂
Hi Layla, Thanks! I would compare it to the Southland – the southernmost New Zealand. A lot of similarities there!:-)