Joining a Great Walk is a dynamic, intimate and personalised way to experience a walking holiday.
Guests who join our walks enjoy the wilderness in style, sharing companionship during the day and comfortable accommodation at night. Group sizes are small with a maximum of 10 guests and 2 local expert guides.
The accommodation varies across the seven walks with guests staying in huts, lodges, elegant standing camps or tented sites.
Similarly the level of strenuousness varies between walks and details of each walk can be found by visiting their homepages through this website (click on The Great Walks page to quickly compare each walks length and accommodation type).
The guides on the Great Walks are often thought of as their most outstanding asset. Walking independently can be very enjoyable but you can miss out on so much of the “inside information” along the way. Through the guides’ interpretation you can learn about the flora, fauna and local history. And rather than carrying and cooking all your food, what is more relaxing than sitting back at the end of the day while your guides or lodge hosts cook up a 3 course feast which can be enjoyed with a glass of fine Tasmanian wine.
Guides are selected for their warm personalities, enthusiasm for guiding and their passion for Tasmania. Guests often say that the exceptional guides will be one of the strongest memories they will take home from the walk.
Getting to Tasmania
Tasmania is an island off the southern coast of Australia. For this reason the only ways to get to Tasmania is by aircraft or ferry.
FLYING TO TASMANIA
The two most serviced airports in Tasmania are Launceston and Hobart. From Melbourne, the nearest mainland capital city, either airport is a little over an hour’s flight. The following airlines have scheduled services to Tasmania;
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA – fly to Launceston and Hobart from Melbourne and Sydney (Virgin Blue became Virgin Australia in May 2011).
JETSTAR – Jetstar operates low-cost services from Melbourne and Sydney to Hobart and Launceston. Jetstar is Qantas’s budget airline.
QANTAS – Qantas flies daily into Hobart from Melbourne and Sydney, and daily into Launceston from Melbourne. Another Qantas subsidiary, Qantaslink, flies into Devonport.
REGIONAL EXPRESS – referred to as Rex, Regional Express operates daily services to Burnie and King Island from Melbourne.
VISITING TASMANIA BY FERRY
An enjoyable way to travel to Tasmania is by ferry.
SPIRIT OF TASMANIA Departing from the Port of Melbourne, and arriving in Devonport, the Spirit of Tasmania provides an opportunity for you to bring your vehicle to Tasmania. The overnight journey is approximately 10 hours.
About Tasmania
Tasmania is an island 240 kilometres south of the Australian mainland. It is famous for its natural beauty. At 68,000 square kilometres Tasmania is less than one–third the area of Victoria and is comparable in size with the Republic of Ireland, West Virginia (USA) and Hokkaido (Japan).
Tasmania also has a thriving art scene, an exciting food and wine culture and a fascinating indigenous and colonial history. You can easily spend a week or more touring around Tasmania after the walk visiting vibrant places such as the MONA art gallery and Salamanca Markets in Hobart, exploring the World Heritage convict sites, choosing wonderful fresh produce and eating at the many restaurants.
Over 30% of the island state is protected as reserves and being geographically and genetically isolated from mainland Australia it has many species found nowhere else on earth. Tasmania has 19 Nationals Parks and has more variation in landscape over short distances than any other part of Australia. The Great Walks of Tasmania showcase the most pristine and stunning landscapes that Tasmania has to offer;
The Walls of Jerusalem National Park is an alpine wilderness and it forms part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Stands of pure pencil pine forest and alpine vegetation are set high on a plateau of dolerite peaks and glacial moraines, tarns and lakes. This beautiful environment is very fragile. This remote park is not accessible by road.
Situated in central western Tasmania, Cradle Mountain – Lake St. Clair National Park is one of the most famous of Tasmania’s sublime National Parks. Its rugged mountain peaks and alpine moorlands offer some of the finest scenery and bushwalking opportunities in Australia.
Part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, South West National Park is unlike any other in Australia. Over six hundred thousand hectares of inspiring and remote wilderness make this the largest National Park in the state. It’s a varied region of wild rivers, jagged mountain ranges, rolling button grass plains and silent green rainforest.
The spectacular red granite peaks of Freycinet Peninsula and the sugar soft white sandy beaches offer magnificent scenery and a wide range of habitats for many types of flora and fauna. The Freycinet National Park also includes the Friendly Beaches and Schouten Island. Wineglass Bay is without doubt the jewel in the crown on the Freycinet Peninsula.
The Bay of Fires is a stunning region of white beaches, blue water and granite splashed with orange lichen. The bay was named by Captain Tobias Furneaux in 1773 in response to the many Aboriginal fires he saw burning on its shore. People visiting the area today often conclude that the name refers to the fire-like orange lichen covering the giant granite boulders.
Maria Island, which lies just off the east coast of Tasmania, is rich in natural beauty and history. From its first inhabitants – the Tyreddeme Aborigines, to the early whalers and sealers. The island was also a penal colony during the convict era and a stronghold for the varied enterprises of Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi.
