20 things that will surprise first-time visitors to Hobart

For all you need to know about this list, skip straight to the last entry. Because it sums up Hobart perfectly: a city you won’t just love, but will instantly want to call your home.

How does this happen? How does a small southern outpost, once the butt of jokes, have such a hold on the Australian population, and indeed that of the wider world?

Read on, and you will understand Hobart is full of surprises.

You will make friends

Give yourself a day, maybe two. Go to the same café a few times. Frequent a few of the same haunts. Pretty soon, you will know people in Hobart. It’s just that sort of place – people are friendly, genuine, nice. Before long, you’ll be calling some of them your mates.

The food is spectacular

Hobart’s fresh produce is unseasonably, unfairly good.Credit: Tourism Tasmania

You’ve probably heard about Tasmania’s reputation for good food, which should mean the quality in Hobart would be unsurprising. And yet even with that knowledge, you will be shocked. The food here is just so good. Unreasonably good. Unfairly good. Every restaurant, every wine bar, every café, every pub, you find yourself thinking: why isn’t this place in my home town? The food is fresh, it’s local, it’s seasonal, it’s treated with skill and respect and deep passion. It doesn’t seem fair.

The pubs are great

Room for a Pony.

Hobart does a truly great pub. From the cosy and the historic, to the open-air and hipster-friendly, this is an excellent city in which to grab a beer and a bite to eat. Preachers is a cracker of a pub. Room for a Pony is all character and charm. The Hope and Anchor is class, as is Boodle Beasley. The Whaler is friendly and fun. You can’t go wrong.

The bars are also excellent

There’s so much great wine in Tasmania, so it makes sense the state’s capital would have a lot of great wine bars. And it does. Check out Institut Polaire, Sonny, Lucinda, IXL, Mary Mary and Rude Boy as a good start.

You may not like Mona

Mona might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but provokes discussion.

Like the food, you’ve no doubt heard of the Museum of Old and New Art. This gallery is one of the key reasons many people visit Hobart. But there’s still a surprise in store: you may not like Mona. In fact, you may not even be supposed to like it. This avant-garde venue is designed to provoke and disturb, and for some visitors it takes things too far.

You need layers – a lot of layers

Newsflash: it’s cold in Hobart. Even if the day starts out warm, it has the potential to turn. And if you’re visiting in winter, you can absolutely expect the mercury to be in hiding. Pack plenty of layers.

It’s very easy to get around

The Hobart suburbs might sprawl, but pretty much everything a visitor could need in the Tassie capital is within walking distance in the CBD. And if it’s not, you can always rent an e-scooter to get you where you need to be.

There are wineries in town

Nick Glaetzer transformed an old ice factory on the edge of Hobart’s CBD into Tasmania’s first urban winery.

You don’t have to go far to find a winery in Hobart, either. There’s one right on the edge of the CBD: Glaetzer-Dixon, a venue inspired by the “urban wineries” of California, a working facility set in an old ice factory. Here, winemaker Nick Glaetzer is pressing, fermenting and ageing some seriously good wine, and much of it is available to taste.

There are two wine regions on your doorstep

If you’re happy to go a little further afield, Tasmania has two high-quality sub-regions for wine production on its doorstep: the Derwent Valley and Coal River Valley. At the former, the likes of Stefano Lubiana and Derwent Estate are only half an hour from the Hobart CBD, while in the latter, Pooley Wines and Frogmore Creek are a similar distance.

Antarctica is just over there

Take a look at the vessels moored at Constitution Dock – there’s a fair chance at least one will be an ice-breaker, a research vessel bound for the Southern Ocean. Because to the south, there’s really nothing until you hit Antarctica. Hobart is proud of its links to polar exploration, and there’s no better spot to understand that than the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum, a recreation of the Antarctic base used by explorer Douglas Mawson.

This is whisky town

The wine is good in Tasmania, we might have mentioned that. The gin is good, too. Still, if there’s one tipple Hobart is really famous for, it’s surely whisky, and there are no shortage of venues featuring some of the finest local drams, from Lark to Sullivans Cove, Old Kempton to Spring Bay.

Salamanca Market is great …

Salamanca Market offers something for everyone.Credit: Tourism Tasmania

Hobart’s most famous market is well worth a visit for those looking for a unique souvenir. Wander the busy walkways near Parliament House on a Saturday and you’ll find stalls selling everything from wooden kitchen tools to art prints to vintage clothes to fresh-shucked oysters.

… but Farm Gate might be even better

Farm Gate Market may not be as famous, but it might be even better than the Salamanca Market.Credit: Chris Crerar/Tourism Tasmania

Here’s the bigger surprise: Hobart has another market, and it’s better. Held on Sunday mornings on Bathurst Street in the CBD, Farm Gate is a farmers’ market where all stalls are manned by the people who grow or make the product on sale. Find everything from organic vegetables to cheese to artisanal gin.

You want to visit in winter

Yes, it’s cold, but there’s so much to do in Hobart in winter. Billed as “off season”, when everything gets a bit wild and weird, winter in the Tassie capital includes Dark Mofo (on pause in 2024), the MONA-curated winter festival, plus Tasmanian Whisky Week, the Winter Light Festival, and more.

There are plenty of ways to escape the cold

Even if there’s no festival on when you visit in winter, there are ways to keep warm: visit the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, try the Queen Victoria Museum, call in for a whisky tasting at the Lark Distillery cellar door, or tuck into a counter meal by the fire at The Whaler.

You can get in touch with Indigenous culture

There’s a misconception that Indigenous culture was destroyed in Tasmania, when in fact it’s alive and well, and visitors to Hobart can easily learn about palawa experiences. One of the most popular is takara nipaluna, a 90-minute walking tour led by palawa and warlpiri woman Nunami Sculthorpe-Green, who tells Hobart’s story from a First Peoples’ perspective.

You can climb kunanyi/Mount Wellington

You can drive to the top of Mount Wellington but for a real challenge try hiking it.Credit: iStock

You can drive to the top of Hobart’s famous peak, if all you’re chasing is views. They’re spectacular, too. However, if you’re up for a proper walk it’s possible to lace up your boots in the CBD and stride it out, all 21 kilometres, over four or five hours, to the summit. There are other walks on offer too, including the rugged Organ Pipes Track (2.5 kilometres).

There’s more adventure to be had

This might be a city, but Hobartians love a little outdoor adventure: from here you can go mountain-biking, kayaking, fishing, hiking and sailing.

There are some excellent day trips

From Hobart, Tassie is your oyster – literally, if you visit the oyster farms north of the city. Other day trips include Huon Valley (45 minutes away), Coal River Valley (30 minutes), Port Arthur (a bit over an hour), Hasting Caves and Hartz Mountains National Park (both 1½ hours away).

You will want to move here

Here’s the biggest surprise. You are probably anticipating a good time in Hobart. You think you’ll eat well, see a few sights, meet some people. But what you don’t realise is that Tasmania, and Hobart in particular, has a way of grabbing people and just not letting go. Give it a week and you’ll be checking the real estate listings and planning your move.