Maria Island East Coast 3-Day Tassie Road Trip

The famous 176-kilometre Great Eastern Drive that tracks down Tasmania’s eastern coast could take you weeks over a lifetime. This three-day road trip is a sizzle reel of its highlights. Ticking off wine, wombats and the natural wonders of Maria Island, here’s how to pack some of Tasmania’s best experiences into three perfectly paced days.

Fly to: Hobart
Best for: Couples and families
Length of trip: Three days

Day one

Track the Tasman Highway northeast from Hobart, stopping off at the Tasmanian Bushland Garden en route. Unpack at Twamley Farm in Buckland, your base for a couple of nights, where you can sleep in the converted two-storey stable or glamp. Take it slow on an afternoon at Darlington, a pretty vineyard with excellent seafood-friendly riesling, before dinner with the locals at Ye Olde Buckland Inn.

Day two

Leave the car in Triabunna and hop a ferry for a daytrip to Maria Island, where pademelons, kangaroos and wombats roam free. It was a convict settlement from the 1820s – don’t miss the Darlington Probation Station. There’s no food or drink on the island so you’ll need lunch supplies like a gourmet picnic hamper from Twamley. Walk or bike the moderate 4.5-kilometre track to the miraculous Painted Cliffs – where swirling sandstone has been carved out by the rise and fall of the ocean – and finish the day back on Triabunna Wharf with locally caught fish and chips.

Day three

Survey the wider wonders of Maria Island from the water and also spot the fur seal colony of Ile des Phoques (French for Island of Seals) on a tour with East Coast Cruises. Back on dry land, toast a day gloriously spent with a wine-and-Tassie-cheese tasting at Boomer Creek Vineyard.