Cheap Car Hire Hobart Airport

A huge number of animals, birds and reptiles call Tasmania home, and at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary they can live peacefully in their natural surroundings while keen wildlife-watchers observe them at a distance. Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary is located about 30 minutes north of Hobart, an easy drive via rental car, and the team there are extremely hands-on and passionate about the work they do. With multiple feedings and educational talks throughout the day, there’s loads to learn and plenty to see, so make sure you check out the day’s itinerary when you arrive.

Adults and children alike wil fall in love with Bonorong. It’s much more than a typical animal park, with a keen focus on Australian wildlife, and it makes for an outing you simply won’t get at a regular park or zoo. What really sets the sanctuary apart from other wildlife experiences are the exciting night tours on offer. Pre-bookings are vital, and there’s an additional cost involved, but it’s an experience like no other.

Many of Australia’s most fascinating creatures are nocturnal, so these tours offer an unparalelled opportunity to observe them in their natural and most active state. Tasmanian Devils, mischevious and playful, come alive at night and the adorable sugar gliders are always a hit. There’s nothing quite as exciting as glowing eyes and strange noises in the night, and with a dedicated guide to explain what’s going on you’ll be much more knowledgeable about the nation’s favourite creatures by the end of the evening.

Whether you’re coming for a day trip, a night trip, or a bit of both, Bonorong will give you something to remember.

Voted among the Top 100 Greatest Trips in the World, Bruny Island lets you get up close and personal with coastal Tasmanian wilderness — on land, underwater, and in the air. Chartered cruises allow you to see playful seals and dolphins, impossibly huge albatrosses, and sometimes even whales. Depending on the time of year whale sightings can be quite common, and it’s a truly magnificent experience to see one surface, spray water high in the air and flick a distinctive curved tail before diving to the depths once more.

As you journey across the surrounding ocean, you’ll quickly notice that the coast looks all but untouched by human activity despite the continuing popularity of the island as a tourist destination. The area is carefully maintained, and it shows everywhere you look. The rocky seashores are just as alive as the sea, and rock formations jut out of the water to create a visually striking backdrop.

For an island, Bruny is big — nearly 100 kilometres long, in fact — meaning that there’s a range of on-shore attractions to keep visitors occupied should their attention stray from the feathered, furred and finned occupants of the island. There’s an art gallery at Dennes Point, an iconic lighthouse, and even a number of accommodation options if you end up keen to extend your stay (you wouldn’t be the first!)

Bruny Island is accessible via vehicle ferry, so taking your rental car is a possibility depending on your car hire insurance agreement. The Bruny Island Ferry departs from Kettering, which is around 40 minutes drive south of Hobart, and the sea journey takes approximately 20 minutes.

Port Arthur serves as one of Australia’s most famous and important historic sites, and it’s also a popular tourist destination for a number of very good reasons. This isn’t your average museum — Port Arthur delivers immersive experiences that really take you into the lives of Australia’s early convict settlers. It’s located approximately 100 kilometres south-east of Hobart, and while there are a number of transport options available it’s hassle-free and great value for money to take a rental car.

The settlement started out back in 1830 as a small timber station but quickly became a vital hub in the industrial and early penal systems of Australia. Convicts were sent from Britain for crimes that seem trivial today. One in five prisoners were women, and there were large numbers of children transported along with their parents. The justice system of the time was utterly without mercy where recidivist offenders were concerned — hence the sad stories of men and women being banished for stealing food.

The walls of Port Arthur have seen innumerable examples of human suffering, and the tour guides work hard to paint a vivid picture of the harsh conditions prisoners were routinely subjected to. The Isle of the Dead tour, one of many on offer, centres on the many convicts and prison staff who never returned home and were buried on an island set aside as a cemetery. Life was hard, both for the men and women who laboured there as punishment and those who supervised them and kept the settlement running.

It’s unsurprising, given all the troubling history attached to the area, that Port Arthur Historic Site has a reputation as one of the most haunted places in the country. If you’re feeling brave you can take a Ghost Tour of the facility as darkness falls, where black-cloaked tour guides tell true tales of the site’s past, complete with unexplained occurrences and frightening phenomena. There are mysteries aplenty, and there’s a good chance you’ll be just as baffled by what you hear as the convicts, guards and settlers that passed on the original stories.

Take it all in — then head home with a new appreciation for the little luxuries you enjoy in life today!

Hobart’s oldest suburbs are located in Battery Point, accessible by driving to Salamanca and taking a brief jaunt down the 175-year-old Kelly’s Steps. As you’d expect, the area has a lot of history. The name comes from the battery of guns placed on the southern side of the point to serve as coastal defences in 1818, and there’s also been a penal colony and Royal Navy base there in Australia’s early settler years.

By the 1830s, the area was full of cottages, Georgian styled homes, and sandstone mansions, many of which are still around today. The houses on Arthur’s Circus housed the town officers and harbour garrison, and Kelly’s Steps were developed by James Kelly to connect the upper and lower areas. This allowed those who did the hard and often dirty work of running the port to live in the wholesome, attractive neighbourhood that overlooked it. The area remains affluent, conservative and safe even today — walking around, you’ll really get the feeling that you’ve stepped back in time 100 years.

When you’re ready to return to reality, end the day’s touring with a meal at one of Hobart’s many fine dining restaurants, or colonial-style pubs.