The Spirit of Tasmania
A great way to get to Tasmania to start your holiday. The Spirit takes approximately ten hours to cross Bass Strait, travelling between Melbourne in Victoria and Devonport in the north of Tasmania. There are now two "Spirits" doing this trip, so you can travel any day of the week. Make sure you book in advance, though, as it is very popular. On our trip to Tasmania at the end of 1998 we travelled both ways on "The Spirit" and enjoyed it very much. We took our vehicle with us on the ship as well. This made packing easy as we packed everything (except what we needed for one night on board ship) into our car.
There is now a third "Spirit" which travels direct from Sydney to Devonport twice a week. This will make it much easier for people starting their Tasmanian adventure from Sydney.
Australia's two major airlines, Virgin Blue and Qantas, both run domestic flights from any mainland capital city to Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania. The only direct flights are from Melbourne and Sydney.
Qantas also provides direct flights from Melbourne to some smaller Tasmanian towns through its Qantas Link companies.
Once in Tasmania Tasair and Par-Avion Airlines provide a number of scenic flights from Hobart, including flights over the wilderness areas. Tasair also provides charter flights, and a service from Devonport to King Island.
This is definitely a wonderful way for a family to see Tasmania! We have hired a motorhome on two separate holidays, once when our children were four, eight, and eleven years old, and again when they were eight,twelve, and fifteen years old. Each time we had the largest twin cab super motorhome (six berth) so there was plenty of room. Autorent-Hertz have a range of campervans and mobile homes to suit everyone. They are fully equipped with everything you need, including linen. There is even a microwave oven and a colour TV! All you need to take are your clothes and food.
Autorent-Hertz is a Tasmanian owned company (part of the international Hertz Rent-a-CAr group) and they will have your motorhome or campervan ready for you when you arrive in Tasmania.