Best Cruises to Book on a Tasmania Campervan Road Trip

Tasmania is an island shaped by the sea, and some of its most extraordinary landscapes can only be reached by boat. The cliffs are too sheer to hike, the river too ancient to rush, and the bays too remote for the roads to find. This is why Tassie road trippers who skip the cruises come home with photos of beautiful scenery — while those who booked them come home with stories.

Here are six cruises worth building your itinerary around, from two of Tasmania's most awarded operators. All departure points are listed for self-driving travellers arriving in their own campervan or motorhome.

Tasmania is the most densely wilderness-packed state in Australia. But the roads, for all their beauty, only tell half the story. The island's most dramatic geology — the dolerite sea stacks, the ancient convict coastlines, the towering capes — faces the ocean, not the highway.

A day on the water resets your perspective entirely. You see the scale of what you've been driving past. You understand why European explorers were so overwhelmed when they sailed into Macquarie Harbour. You get the context that a lookout simply cannot give you. Build at least two cruise days into your Tasmanian road trip. You will not regret it.

PENNICOTT WILDERNESS JOURNEYS — pennicottjourneys.com.au  |  Ph: +61 3 6234 4270

The Bruny Island coastline is one of the most dramatic in Australia — wave-carved sea stacks, deep sea caves, kelp forests, towering dolerite cliffs, and a 3-kilometre coastline that gets the full fury of the Southern Ocean with nothing between it and Antarctica. This award-winning cruise takes you right into it.

The standout moments: the Breathing Rock, a coastal formation that spouts water every minute as waves push through an underwater channel — it sounds mechanical, but it's entirely natural. Then there's The Monument, an iconic dolerite sea stack that rises vertically from the water at the southern tip of Bruny Island. Genuinely jaw-dropping.

Wildlife-wise: hundreds of fur seals, dolphins, abundant sea birds, and migrating whales in season. Guides are knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Drive yourself to the Bruny Island Cruises Booking Centre at 1005 Adventure Bay Road, Adventure Bay (Point C). Allow 45 minutes from Hobart to Kettering for the Bruny Island ferry, then 40 minutes from the ferry to Adventure Bay. Check Sealink Bruny Island for current ferry times — your motorhome goes on the ferry too. Adults $190 | Children $115.

This is the one for superlatives. The Tasman Island Cruise travels beneath the highest vertical sea cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere at Cape Pillar — a fact that doesn't quite land until you're sitting on a boat looking up at 300-metre dolerite walls rising from the water like the edge of the world. It's an experience of genuine awe.

The cruise follows the Tasman National Park coastline between Port Arthur and Eaglehawk Neck, passing through waterfalls, deep sea caves, and extraordinary rock formations including the Candlestick and the Totem Pole — two of the most dramatic sea stacks in Australia. The historic Tasman Island Lighthouse, perched impossibly on a clifftop, is another highlight.

Wildlife: hundreds of seals, dolphins, migrating whales in season, and sea birds in their thousands. The guides narrate throughout.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Drive to the Tasman Island Cruises Booking Centre at 6961 Arthur Highway, Port Arthur (Point D) — 100 metres before the Port Arthur Historic Site entrance. Allow 90 minutes from Hobart. Adults $190 | Children $115.

Everyone who visits Tasmania wants to see Wineglass Bay — the perfect arc of white sand framed by the pink granite peaks of the Hazards. Most visitors hike up and over the saddle to see it from above. But the view from the water is something else entirely: you see the full sweep of the bay, the sheer granite cliffs, the hidden sea caves and blowholes, and the open Tasman Sea beyond.

The cruise starts in Coles Bay and works its way through the spectacular Freycinet coastline — dotted with white-sand beaches, through the inner passage of remote Schouten Island — before heading into the Tasman Sea toward the famous bay. Morning tea is served while exploring Great Oyster Bay. Lunch is at anchor with the coastline as your backdrop.

Two lounge options: the Vista Lounge (standard) or the premium Sky Lounge — adults-only, with morning tea, a local produce lunch and beverages included. The Sky Lounge is one of the best-value splurges on a Tasmanian road trip.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Drive to the Wineglass Bay Cruises Booking Centre, 61 Jetty Road, Coles Bay (Point F). Check in by 9:30am. Freycinet Lodge pick-up also available. Vista Lounge with lunch $210 adults | Sky Lounge $325 adults (adults only).

The 90-minute Cape Raoul cruise is the perfect companion to a visit to the Port Arthur Historic Site — compact enough to slot into a half-day, but punching well above its weight for drama. The cruise follows the Tasman Peninsula coastline to Cape Raoul, passing the historically loaded Point Puer (the world's first juvenile prison) and Isle of the Dead before the scenery gives way to pure geology.

Cape Raoul's dolerite columnar cliffs — 170 million years old, rising 250 metres straight from the water — are extraordinary. Australian and long-nosed fur seals lounge at their base, seemingly unbothered by the scale of what's above them. The white sands of Safety Cove and the tall dunes of Crescent Bay offer a beautiful contrast before the return.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Drive to Port Arthur Historic Site, Port Arthur (Point E). Note: a Port Arthur Historic Site entry ticket is required to access the jetty. The cruise + site entry combo is $190 adults. Cruise only (if already inside the site): $140 adults.

If you're basing yourself in or near Hobart for a night or two, the Iron Pot cruise is a relaxed and beautiful way to see the city from the water. The cruise heads down the River Derwent past Hobart's famous landmarks — Mt Wellington, Wrest Point Casino, the Shot Tower — then out to the Iron Pot Lighthouse, Australia's oldest operational lighthouse, built in 1832.

From there, into Storm Bay — the same waters as the final leg of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race — and around the uninhabited Betsey Island, home to sea caves and a colony of seabirds including the white-bellied sea eagle. It's a smaller, more intimate experience than the big wilderness cruises, and none the worse for it.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Pennicott Wilderness Journeys Booking Centre, Dock Head Building, Franklin Wharf, Hobart (Point A). Check in 15 minutes before departure. Adults $150 | Children $130. Maximum 12–14 guests per vessel — book ahead.

WORLD HERITAGE CRUISES — worldheritagecruises.com.au  |  Strahan, West Coast Tasmania

If the Pennicott cruises are about the wild ocean edge, the Gordon River cruise is about something entirely different — and equally unforgettable. This is a journey deep into the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, one of the largest temperate wilderness areas on Earth and part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Gordon River has been flowing through this rainforest for hundreds of thousands of years. In places, Huon pines line the banks — trees that can live for 3,000 years.

World Heritage Cruises has been running this route for over 125 years — a family operation from Strahan with deep roots in the waterway. Their vessel, the Harbour Master II, is a state-of-the-art catamaran with panoramic windows, two bars, multiple outdoor viewing decks, and enormous comfortable seats. It's a genuinely luxurious way to travel through ancient wilderness.

The morning cruise includes:

• Hells Gates — the narrow harbour entrance where Macquarie Harbour meets the Southern Ocean. Early European sailors dreaded it. On a grey day, you'll understand why.
• Sarah Island — a guided on-shore walk of one of Australia's most brutal convict settlements, operating from 1822. A sobering, fascinating detour into history in the middle of utter wilderness.
• Gordon River Heritage Landing — a boardwalk through ancient rainforest, with Huon pines, celery-top pines, and moss-draped King Billy pines. The tannin-dark water reflects the forest perfectly; the silence is extraordinary.
• Huon Pine sawmill — a glimpse into the timber history of the region.
• Lunch included, featuring Tasmanian produce served on board.

🚗 Self-drive start point: Drive to Strahan Wharf, Strahan. Strahan is on the west coast, approximately 3 hours from Hobart via the Lyell Highway. It's a spectacular drive through the Central Highlands — budget a full travel day. Campervan parking available at Strahan. Book at worldheritagecruises.com.au.

Tasmania's coastal wilderness sits within the traditional Country of the palawa people, the Aboriginal Tasmanians who have cared for this land and its waters for tens of thousands of years. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. DriveNow encourages all travellers to explore Tasmania's extraordinary landscapes responsibly and sustainably.