One week in Tasmania with a small group tour: Intrepid Australia review
An honest review of my experience with Intrepid Australia on the 6 day Taste of Tasmania Basix tour
I wanted to see the highlights of Tasmania without renting a car and I wanted to be with other budget minded travellers, especially in the remote and wilderness areas for safety, so this 6-day ‘Taste of Tasmania’ tour with Intrepid seemed like a good way to visit the island.
I joined this 1 week tour of Tasmania and had some great experiences like kayaking in the Tarkine rainforest, hiking in Cradle Mountain National Park, relaxing on the beautiful beaches in the Bay of Fires region, seeing wombats and kangaroos and stopping in small towns on a road trip around the island. I took the tour in April 2017 and I paid for it myself, so this is a completely independent review.
You can read a detailed day-by-day summary of all the experiences I had on this tour or jump straight to the end where I share what I liked, what could have been better and my final recommendation.
Quick Overview of the Intrepid Tasmania Tour
Destinations: Hobart, Mount Wellington, Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, Queenstown, Strahan, Corinna Wilderness area, Waratah, Cradle Mountain National Park, Launceston, Bay of Fires, Wineglass Bay and Freycinet National Park, Richmond.
Highlights: Hiking in Cradle Mountain National Park, kayaking in the rainforest region, the red rocks and white sand beaches in the Bay of Fires region and Wineglass Bay.
Who was on the trip: We were a group of about 15 people. About half the group were under 30 budget travellers who had booked the Basix version of the tour and about half the group were aged 40+ who had mostly booked the Original hotel version, but we all travelled together. There were surprisingly quite a few Australians, some retired people, several solo female travellers, a couple from Denmark, a British and a German gap year student, a Argentinian living in New Zealand, a fitness instructor and a travel agent from Adelaide. Around 75% of people on this Intrepid tour were solo travellers.
Who was the guide: We had one guide the entire time on this Intrepid Tasmania tour who also drove the bus. He was Australian and quite experienced in knowing about the outdoors, he was friendly, very professional, and gave good advice about the places we visited and the activities, it seemed like he had guided a number of tours previously.
How did we travel: This Intrepid tour used a mini bus with an attached luggage trailer. There were single seats on one side of the aisle and doubles on the other. People chose their seats every morning when we boarded the bus. Otherwise, we did some walking around a few of the towns but no other transport was used.
Where did we stay: So people on this Intrepid small group tour either booked a version called ‘Basix style’ or ‘Original style’. The Basix people stayed in multi share hostel rooms with bunkbeds or multi share hotel rooms. The Original people stayed in hotel level accommodation. I was on the Basix tour and all the accommodation was fine, very basic but clean and often there was a common area with kitchen and we met other travellers a few times in the hostels.
Recommended Luggage: I think a rolling duffel or backpack would be fine, you just had to bring it from the Intrepid tour bus to the accommodation yourself, but we never went far carrying our bags.
Hobart, Mount Wellington and the Museum of Old and New Art
I always like to arrive a day early in case there is any flight delay, and I flew into Hobart from Melbourne after finishing a tour of the Great Ocean Road with G Adventures the previous day. I stayed in a hostel just down the road from the tour departure point so I could be ready to go on the morning of the tour.
After breakfast in the hostel I met the Intrepid Tasmania group and we loaded everything onto the minibus and attached luggage trailer. The guide introduced himself and explained how everything would work for the next 7 days, as we were a mixed group of people who had booked both the ‘Basix’ and ‘Original’ versions of the Intrepid Taste of Tasmania tour. I was a bit nervous about joining an all ages group because I typically book 18-39 age limited tours, but everyone seemed very friendly and positive.
The first stop was the panoramic lookout point on Mount Wellington, just a short drive away. During the drive, the guide explained some history of the area covering both the European colonisation and the indigenous people of the island who sadly lost a lot of their population in the 1800s. I think it was good that history was mentioned at the beginning and I would encourage you to do some research before your visit to better understand what has happened to the traditional inhabitants of the island.
I was very curious about the next stop, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) because unlike many museums, it is not publicly funded so the man who owns the art collection can buy and display whatever he wants. Entrance tickets were included with the Intrepid tour and we had a few hours to look around the collection, which includes a very wide range of styles and lots of eye catching and fun pieces.
I have been to ALOT of museums and I found this one to be particularly memorable in terms of both the architecture, the collections, and the overall experience. Most of us just had lunch at the museum café. I also managed to leave my phone in the café, so I only had an iPod for the whole week which was incredibly frustrating to not have phone and internet service when everyone else did for the rest of the tour.
Central Highlands Visitor Centre and Thousand Lakes Wilderness Lodge
In the early afternoon, we continued the drive out to the countryside, stopping at the ‘Central Highlands Visitor Centre’ to learn about the history of Scottish settlers in the area and see some historic buildings. There was also a stop in the town of Bothwell for a short grocery store and bakery stop in case anyone needed snacks or supplies. There was another quick stop at a water reservoir area, I think just to give people a chance to stretch their legs.
Our first night was at the ‘Thousand Lakes Wilderness Lodge’ which really is in the middle of nowhere in central Tasmania. It was a beautiful isolated setting, and there was no wi-fi during our visit but most people still got cell phone signal. Dinner was included and we all ate together, I got vegetarian lasagne.
There was a big main common area with books, magazines and games, people mostly just socialized in that area in the evening and the lodge owner brought out a ‘travel size didgeridoo’ at one point which was something I had never seen before. The Basix travellers got triple share rooms and the Original travellers got their own rooms I believe. It was a very relaxed evening as there was nowhere else to go from the lodge.
Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, and Queenstown
Breakfast was included at the lodge and we quickly re packed the minibus to start the drive to the next stop at Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. Having a smaller bus and small 15 person group size made it easy to get going in the morning, not like packing a 50 person coach like some tours in Europe.
At the park, the guide explained which trails were suitable for which activity levels and I joined some of the other budget backpacker girls on a fairly easy walk around the lake area for about two hours. We later walked as a group up to a high lookout point which was about 20 minutes from the parking lot and we did a quick 20 minute walk called the Nelson Falls Track as well this morning to see the first of many waterfalls in Tasmania.
We stopped briefly in Queenstown, the largest town in Western Tasmania, for lunch, this was independent free time, and I just got a sandwich and soup, and was finally able to connect to WIFI for a few minutes to arrange retrieving my phone upon return to Hobart.
Strahan
The drive continued through the western part of Tasmania, and it is so beautiful and remote, with dramatic hills and landscapes, it reminded of some parts of Scotland. On our way to the town of Strahan for the night, we stopped at the Henty Dunes national reserve beach area right on the coast. I thought it was fascinating that there is effectively nothing between this coast and Antarctica. We took some nice pictures of the whole Intrepid Tasmania group and just had fun running around the beach.
The accommodation in Strahan was hotel for the Original people and a hostel camping area for the Basix travellers. The Intrepid bus dropped those who were interested in the centre of town for free time to have dinner at a pub and see a play called ‘The Ship That Never Was.’ I was unsure about the play because it seemed like maybe it was aimed more at families and children because it has a lot of audience interactive parts and it was about pirates, but I really enjoyed it, and it incorporates elements of Tasmanian history, it is apparently also Australia’s longest running play !
I decided to walk back to the campground after the play, and with no phone or WIFI and trying to remember the instructions from the tour leader, I got extremely lost and genuinely thought I would not find the group again. However, I did make it back as the town of Strahan is just not that big, and I met up with some of the other Basix girls and we played Jenga in the hostel common room with some Spanish people struggling to cook spaghetti because they had no sauce. I enjoyed that this Intrepid tour felt very much like we were having a backpacker road trip experience.
Hogarth Falls, Tarkine Region, Kayaking in Corinna
The next morning started with a short drive to a smaller waterfall called Hogarth Falls, located just outside of Strahan which was an easy walk and took less than an hour.
On the way to the wilderness lodge for kayaking, we stopped at a vintage decorated café called the ‘Pitstop Café’ in a little town called Zeehan and I got some iced coffee, I enjoyed activities like this, it really felt like being on a road trip adventure with some friends.
After another 2 hours of driving, the bus was loaded onto a small river ferry to cross the Pieman River to reach to the lodge with kayak rentals. This area is called the Tarkine Region is home to the largest temperate rainforest area in Australia and it feels very isolated like you are really out in nature and off the tourist trail. I believe the kayak rental place was called ‘Corinna Wilderness Experience.’
We went kayaking for about an hour and then split off into smaller groups to go hiking for about an hour afterwards. I thought it was nice to go walking with some of the other girls and get to know people better, one person was a travel agent, a yoga teacher, and a someone on their way to a gap year in New Zealand.
Everyone mostly had lunch at the lodge, just fries (hot chips) and ‘savoury pies’ which is a common lunch dish in Australia and New Zealand. There were also some random kangaroos around the lodge area, so we were trying to get some pictures of those as well.
Philosopher Falls and Waratah
During the later afternoon drive to the next accommodation in a town called Waratah, we stopped briefly for another waterfall hike (I think I may have seen every waterfall in Tasmania by the end of this tour). This one was called ‘Philosopher Falls’ and is a short 45 minute walk with some steep stairs at the end and it goes through more of the same Tarkine region rainforest.
Upon arrival in Waratah, we checked into a very vintage style hotel that literally felt like going back in time to the 1970s, the Basix people were in smaller shared rooms and there was a hostel style common room kitchen area. It happened to be Easter weekend and the hotel provided an included dinner that night, most people had fish and rice and myself and the other vegetarian had a meat substitute meatloaf, this was probably the most disappointing meal of the tour. I felt like the included dinners were hit or miss on this tour, I generally preferred buying my own food, but they did accomodate me as a vegetarian which I appreciated.
After dinner, several of us went walking around the small town to try and spot a platypus in the local lake but never saw one. Otherwise, that evening we all just hung out in the hotel bar and area having some beers and ciders. There was a pool table, darts and someone had a travel set of checkers, people on the tour were quite inclusive across the age ranges, and I enjoyed talking to everyone on the tour.
The hotel was so vintage that there was only a men’s restroom available in the bar area because when it was built, I don’t think women were allowed inside ! This was probably one of the most random places I have ever spent an Easter weekend, it truly felt like we had gone back in time in Waratah.
Cradle Mountain National Park
We had breakfast at the hotel like usual then started another short drive to one of the more famous destinations in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain National Park. There is a beautiful clear lake with a mountain peak in the background and several hiking and walking trails of varying degrees of difficulty. It’s one of those places that looks the same in the pictures as it does in real life.
Some bus tours just drop people off near the little cabin lookout area called the ‘Dove Lake Boatshed’ just to take pictures then get back on the bus, but we had the whole morning to walk around the lake and on part of the boardwalk trails on the Overland Track. I liked that this Intrepid Tasmania tour gave us reasonable amounts of time to actually experience the different stops along the way. A few of the other Basix girls and I just had a picnic for lunch within the park.
What was nice about this tour, is that we would often split off into smaller groups after getting directions from the guide, so you wouldn’t be stuck with a faster or slower hiking group and it was made clear where, and what time to meet to return to the bus.
Tour Tip: This Intrepid tour was heavily focused on outdoor activities, make sure to bring proper walking shoes, a rain jacket, and athletic or comfortable outdoor clothing since there is so much walking and hiking and no need for fancy or dress up outfits.
Trowunna Wildlife Rescue and Launceston
In the afternoon, we started the 2 hour drive to Launceston for the evening, with a stop at the Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary for about an hour. It is a privately owned wildlife refuge where they had many kangaroos and a wombat named Wobbles, you could buy little packages of snacks for the animals, and I also got ice cream for myself. There are animal keepers/guides around who give presentations about various animals and we learned about the Tasmanian Devil. I thought this was a good way to learn about the animals of Tasmania without bothering them in the wild. I had seen some kangaroos on a tour of the Outback previously but this experience provided a lot more interesting facts and info.
We drove through some fairly isolated areas and what I think were mining camps on the way into Launceston. Tasmania really has parts that are quite remote and it feels very different from the rest of Australia, I am happy I chose to leave the mainland and get a different perspective and contrast after doing three other tours through the Outback, Great Ocean Road and East Coast in Australia.
In Launceston, we were separated with the Original people in a hotel and the Basix people again in a hostel which was six share bunkbed rooms. We were free to get our own dinner and I went with a British boy and a German girl who wanted to try Domino’s pizza for some reason, so we shared that to save money. We also picked up some supplies at Woolworth’s to make some drinks together at the hostel before going out for the evening since it was a Saturday night in Launceston, which is the second biggest city in Tasmania after Hobart.
Everyone from the hostel went out together and met up with the hotel people at a bar later and went to a few different places. I wish we had a bit of time during the day to see Launceston, but we were gone pretty early the next morning. I walked home with three of the other girls around 1am, so we all made sure people got home safe.
A minor disagreement occurred between two people sharing a hotel room when someone came home a bit late from the bar and made a bit of noise. That was literally the only conflict we had the entire time, I though the whole group got along quite well for the most part despite the wide age range.
Pyengana Dairy Farm, St. Columba Falls and St Helen’s
I was pretty tired this morning, everyone still made it to the bus on time and we started the drive east to a family run farm called Pyengana Dairy, which produces all kinds of cheeses, milk and ice cream. I got an iced coffee here and we had a look around at the cows and sampled some cheese.
I liked that this Intrepid Tasmania tour stopped by local businesses, and not just service stations and tourist stops. During the longer drives, sometimes I would just sleep with a miniature memory foam pillow I bring on most trips, sometimes people on the bus would talk and obviously people spent a lot of time on their phones. I obviously couldn’t because I left my iPhone in Hobart on the first day.
Anyway, about fifteen minutes more down the road, we stopped for (you guessed it ) another waterfall, called St. Columba Falls, which is one of the highest in Tasmania and was about a 30 minute return walk from the parking lot. Another hour down the road, we stopped in the town of St Helen’s for lunch, and most of us just got grocery store food or fish and chips take out, which was good for those of us on a budget, this tour definitely didn’t encourage fancy restaurants or over spending.
Bay of Fires and Bicheno
If you’ve ever done some research on visiting Tasmania, you have almost certainly seen a picture of the Bay of Fires region because it is just so beautiful. It was another 40 minutes or so north up the coast from St. Helen’s and the bus was able to park right near the beach in the campground area and we just had free time to take pictures and climb on the rocks and enjoy the beach. Don’t forget your camera here, it is so beautiful with the blue water, white sand and red-orange rocks which are coloured by a type of lichen. This was one of the highlights of the trip and a must see in Tasmania.
We stayed in a town called Bicheno for a night, and it was a pretty relaxed Sunday evening after the big night out in Launceston the day before. The Basix people were again in multi share hostel bunkbeds and the Original people were in another hotel/guesthouse place.
Some people signed up for a penguin viewing optional activity which was reported back as disappointing. Most of the Basix people just made just made grocery store food at the hostel to save money, and I helped some German tourists revive their digital camera through my computer. I went for a walk around town by myself as well to see the sunset, as much as I enjoyed being social on this tour, sometimes you need a break to be by yourself for a bit.
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park and Cape Tourville Lighthouse
The east coast of Tasmania has several stunning beaches, and this morning we were on our way about 2 hours south down the coast to experience Wineglass Bay within Freycinet National Park. To reach the beach itself there was a fair number of stairs down after walking up to a high lookout over the half-moon shaped beach and the entire walk return was around 6 km and took 2 hours. Some of the group walked together, some people went ahead, but we all met up on the beach and no one got left behind, I could definitely feel I was not in great shape after travelling for more than 2 months and I felt the effect of all those stairs !
Afterwards, we drove just 15 minutes down the road to the Cape Tourville Lighthouse, which is the eastern most point in Tasmania and some of the older women randomly got interviewed by a travel magazine about older independent women travellers and got to be in a photoshoot, which seemed kind of fun !
Kate’s Berry Farm, Spikey Bridge and Richmond
We had to start the drive back down south to Hobart, and we stopped along the way at another local business called ‘Kate’s Berry Farm’ which is famous for the café on site and gift shop which has all kinds of chocolates, jams, cooking supplies and other locally produced food related gifts. The lady running the shop had quite a personality and I ended up with a lot of lavender ice cream and some pepper and chocolates to bring home.
Travel Tip: Buy presents at the very end of a trip not at the beginning, so you don't carry them around for weeks or months.
There was a short stop nearby to see the historical ‘Spiky Bridge’ which is, as the name suggests, an unusually designed bridge made of spiky rocks built by convict labour in the 1800s.
The final stop another hour down the road was the town of Richmond, which is famous for the Richmond Bridge, which is apparently the oldest one in Australia. It is a cute tourist town with historic sandstone buildings, and lots of little antique shops. I had a look around, and one of the older ladies arranged for us to all sign a card and put some money in it for the tour leader, who was leaving on a trip to Asia for a few months after the tour, so we thought cash was more helpful than any kind of other gift.
The Intrepid Tasmania tour ended upon arrival back in Hobart around dinnertime, back at the same hostel where we started, and some people left immediately for the airport, but most of us met up for one last dinner out at an Asian restaurant.
I also got an Uber back to the MONA museum and finally retrieved my iPhone, which thankfully had been found by a security guard shortly after I lost it. I booked a one day tour of Port Arthur with another company the next day and that filled my final day in Tasmania after a week on the island with Intrepid.
Final Recommendation for the Intrepid Tasmania Tour
What I liked: There were so many positive aspects of this Intrepid Tasmania tour. I thought the small group size allowed us to move around easily, and not be stuck waiting a long time for packing or boarding the bus. The guide was very professional and obviously experienced with wilderness activities and had accurate information about all the places we visited. I liked the mix of experiences we had on the island, though mostly focused on nature, we visited beaches, rainforests, towns, a museum, historic sites, lookouts, waterfalls and more. I felt like I got to experience a range of locations and activities and I felt like I genuinely learned about Tasmania on this tour.
I didn’t feel like we were just doing ‘tourist stops’ we actually had time to explore places even though it was still a fast paced tour. I thought the driving was broken up well with little hikes and stops at different local businesses and nature areas, it never felt like we were just driving all day. The transportation on the bus was fine, the accommodation was as described for the Basix tour, with multi share hostel rooms and I did not feel unsafe at any time on this tour.
What could have better: I found the system of having two different tour ‘styles’ travelling together was sometimes a bit disruptive and broke up the group a bit. It wasn’t a huge issue, but I think sometimes the people in the ‘Original’ group felt a bit left out when the majority of the group would continue on to stay in a hostel. It wasn’t clear to me at the time of booking that people on the tour would have booked different experiences. However, it wasn’t a big deal to make plans to meet up for dinner or activities with people in the hotel group and some people may prefer having that break from the larger group.
I also thought the included food on this tour was very average, we had no memorable meals, but they did fully accommodate me as a vegetarian and I think the more remote parts of Tasmania aren’t exactly culinary destinations, so I can understand that.
The only destination where I felt like we didn’t have quite enough time was Launceston, we arrived just before dinner on a Saturday night so any attractions in the city were already closed and we left early the next morning, I would have liked just 2-3 hours to look around.
Final Recommendation: I really thought this was a great experience to get an overview of the island of Tasmania in about a week, led by a professional and qualified guide. I think this would be suitable for someone in any age range as long as you are reasonably social and active and enjoy outdoor activities since there was a fair bit of walking and hiking.
This wouldn’t be suitable for someone looking for a luxury experience, or anyone looking for a ‘party’ style backpacker tour or someone who wants to visit big cities. I enjoyed having a few hours to explore several of the National Parks, but if you wanted to spend a long time at any of the parks this might not be suitable.
Overall, I thought this Intrepid Australia Taste of Tasmania tour provided the service and experience it advertised, and was a great way to easily visit so many beautiful and memorable nature and outdoor destinations in Tasmania, while being on a fun and social road trip around the island.
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