Hi, my wife and I are looking at touring tassie soon and we were wondering how long we should go for. We are quite flexible when it comes to time so I am interested in hearing how long others have stayed for and whether they left themselves enough time. We are looking at 4-6 weeks….to long? To short?

Hi wanderer51,

We spent all of Feb & March (8 weeks) in Tassie this year. I would say that 4 to 6 weeks is nowhere near enough time if you want to see it all and also spend some time to "smell the Roses" as they say. We were travelling with another couple and they had to be back by 2nd April. For the cost to get there and back on the boat, I would recommend at least 10 to 12 weeks to do it at your own pace and to be able to see it all. My sister and her husband went there last November and came back in early Feb and loved it .

Cheers
Max
OGF

I also recommend three months Wanderer. There is so much to see in this wonderful island and you don’t travel long distances in between like on the mainland. We booked seven weeks and just sampled a selection, with so many more places we would have loved to fit in before we ran out of time. Bro. and s.i.l. spend three months there last winter – tenting Looking at their photos, I was surprised how many different places we had each seen, with some overlaps in key areas. There is a cost of getting across on the Spirit, so make the most of it by taking your time. For us the cost was greater as we came across from Western Australia.

We spent 7 weeks in 09, it was just enough to have a look around most of it. if you are not in a hurry I suggest 10 to 12 weeks.
Frank

Six weeks would be the minimum, in that time you could see most of Tasmania. But it would only be over night stops. Try and spend eight to ten weeks if you can manage it. I am sure you will love it, as most people who go over do.

Spent 2 months early this year and wished we had booked the ferry for 3!
Tried to change the booking but couldn’t get a suitable alternative. Had our two pups with us as well and had no trouble, free-camped all the way.

First off…sorry to take so long to reply.
Many thanks to all for your replies and I must admit that the suggestions of 8-12 weeks took me by surprise Seems like we will have to rethink our timeline. I am retired so it doesn’t really matter to me, but my wife still works on casual basis and may not be able to get 12 weeks off. However I agree that the cost of getting the motorhome across to Tassie and back really rules out a ‘quick’ trip of 4 weeks or so. We were looking at going around late Feb, early March 2014. Not really interested in going later unless we leave it until September….it is cold enough here in Vic.
Once again, thanks for all your replies.

Can you leave earlier Wanderer? We went mid February to 1st of April and mostly had good weather, although nights cooling down during the couple of weeks or so during which we had one frost. My husband had never been in snow so we hoped to get snow while we were there. It snowed the day we got back to the mainland

Unfortunately we probably can’t make it any earlier for various reasons, not the least being that we don’t pick up our new motorhome until some time in September (there goes the bank balance!…still we got a very good trade in for our current one), then we will need to go away for few times to sort it all out. After that there is family stuff (multiple birthdays, etc.), plus hospital appointments for me. After all that Christmas will be jumping out yelling ‘I am here!’ Then following that you have umpteen thousand schoolkids on holidays. So Feb sometime it is!
Not fussed about the cool nights as long as the days are reasonable. As for frost….a couple of months ago we stayed at Green Hill Lake Reserve (Ararat (Vic)) on our way to Alice Springs (yep…Bacchus Marsh to Ararat!…a couple of hours but we were anxious to get started!) and the temp plummeted to -5C overnight!!!!!!!!
Snow??? I haven’t seen, or been in snow since I worked at Mt Cook (NZ) back in 1976 and I have no intention of ever seeing it again! Can’t understand what people see in it.
Thanks very much for your reply.

Hi Wanderer, we missed the beauty of autumn which some travellers say is the best time to go, so rug up at night and see all the beauty. We are not cold at night in a full caravan, so you should be warm in your new motorhome.