Tassie Tourists Come and Go
While We Stay and Play

Tassie has a remarkable supply of fantastic places to visit.
Ever read the spiels in the glossy international travel
brochures promoting the usual tourist routes?

Sure, those zones are fabulous,
but what you can't imagine until you actually
get here is all the other towns and highlights in between.

If you take a map of Tasmania and really study it - as we constantly study the one we have pinned to our wall - you start to notice all the places that don't rate a mention in the trail guides. (Although to be fair, there are so many places of interest in these touring maps already, like the one for the Huon trail, that it would be difficult to cover everything without producing an encyclopaedia.) But back to the original point...

International Travel Capsule, Ross Tasmania

You can get to Launceston an hour after departing the ferry in Devonport, true. And you can drive from Hobart to Launceston in two-and-a-half hours along the Midlands Highway, that's also true. But do you know what happens if you deviate from these main roads? You get to see gorgeous towns with a fascinating past, notice scenery that deserves seeking out and meet people that love and know their patch.

Ross, central township on the map of Tasmania

This is the probably the same anywhere you spend holiday time, but in such a small island state like Tassie, tourists really do stick to the main road and drive straight past some of the jewels literally just over the hill and off to the side a bit. Or if they do arrive at a town they might only seek out the main attraction, rather than soak up the surrounding atmosphere. Take Geeveston in the south of the state for example. This is the gateway town to both the Tahune Forest Reserve and Hartz Mountains National Park - but we had lots of fun in the actual town before even venturing into the hills.

The Apple Isle has been blessed with a heritage worth protecting, and luckily that seems to be the case - Port Arthur is a prime example. Rather than at the expense of all things natural and historic, this Australian state is a champion for international travel with unique places on offer in quiet, tucked-away corners. Where else but Tassie could you walk on the beach judged the hottest travel destination in the world, and be the only people in sight? We did just that, and have the photos to prove it (but no t-shirt because there weren't any shops there to sell us one!). We have pinpointed the Bay of Fires on our wall map of Tasmania, that's for sure.

Binalong Bay Beach: Treasure on the Map of Tasmania

International travel hottest destination: Bay of Fires, East Coast of Tasmania

Even more important though, is the opportunity we have to share these experiences and explain why we love Tassie so much.  It's not that other places don't have their own benefits - of course they do!

But each and every day we remind ourselves just how
lucky we are to have fluked this lifestyle.