Tasmania: Should You Rent a Car?

Let me give you some good news first. You don’t have to rent a car in Tasmania. There are certainly ways around it. If staying in Hobart, the public transit is quite good and inexpensive. There are also shuttle, tour, and excursion options for exploring many of the state’s attractions. In my Hobart Guide and Tasmania Day Trips Guide, I list how to get to places without a car. But you might want to rent a car for at least part of your trip. This quick guide covers the why, the how, the when, and all the tips I wish someone had told me before our travels! You can jump ahead in this post with the links below.

• Should You Rent a Car in Tasmania?
• Driving in Tasmania: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
• Tips for Driving on the Left Side of the Road
• Tips for Renting a Car on Tasmania

Should You Rent a Car in Tasmania?

Hobart is a city. It’s not a big city, but it does have some of the good transportation amenities you can get within a city. Outside of Hobart, and the much smaller northern city of Launceston, your transportation options quickly reduce to shuttle and tour bus companies. This can be just fine, but it is limiting.

Renting a car allowed us to go where we wanted, when we wanted, and to get to more remote spots. The tours typically hit the most touristy spots, and don’t allow for roaming. Also, many of the shuttles or excursions require you to meet up before 7am, and follow strict timelines and itineraries. The idea of an early morning alarm followed by someone else’s schedule (sans spontaneous stops) really isn’t enjoyable to us. If you feel the same way, renting a car for at least part of your trip could be worth it.

On Tasmania, I recommend either staying in the Hobart area and enjoy excursions from the city, or traveling from place to place around the island. We were quite happy with staying in Hobart. It’s a pleasant small city with many of its own sites, plus a dozen or more good day trips less than two hours away. Launceston, the biggest city in the North, isn’t as close as you might think to most of the major travel highlights in Northern Tasmania. It makes a good stop over if you are touring the island, but not a stellar base for a lot of day trips.

There are actually shuttle services and tours that will transport you from place to place if you want to travel the island and not drive, but they aren’t plentiful. A car rental will make exploring and park hopping easier, particularly if you want to visit the northern half of Tasmania.

Driving in Tasmania: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It’s hard to anticipate how easy the actual “travel” part of travel will be. Travelers and tourism boards don’t usually take pictures of the roads, and Google street view only tells part of the story. Here are some things to expect.

The Good

Most of Tasmania is rural, some of it is rugged. But the roads are quite well maintained, even the dirt ones. There are large peaceful expanses of driving, but often fun detours to take with empty beaches, peaceful hiking trails, small distilleries or wineries, and farm stores. And you can get to the far reaches of the state by car, where it sometimes feels like you’re discovering new land. Plus, parking is rarely an issue in Tasmania. Check in advance with your lodging, but for the most part, there is plenty of free parking at parks, beaches, tourist sites, in neighborhoods, and even some free garages in the little downtown core of Hobart.

The Bad

Car rentals on Tasmania can be expensive. We really shopped around and grabbed deals as they popped up. But we were there for a while and had time. You might not have that luxury if on vacation for a short time. I would compare shuttle prices for any day trips you want to take with the car rental prices before pulling the trigger. Also, we’re American. Driving on the left side of the road is definitely foreign to us. We were terrified, and rightfully so. Once you leave the city, the roads in Tasmania are narrow, two lane, and quite fast (winding areas with 100 km/h speed limits were pretty common). The main arteries are paved, but as you branch off, you’ll hit many dirt roads. As mentioned, these are usually maintained, but they often become quite narrow.

The Ugly

I have to address the one negative shock we had in Tasmania: road kill. It was excessive and depressing. We did a lot of hiking, went to a sanctuary, hit up various gardens, and yet, we still saw far more deceased animals than living ones during our time on Tasmania.  As mentioned, the speed limits are fast. There are a few areas with low nighttime speed limits to help minimize the problem. But in most areas, cars are simply going too fast to stop. Please avoid driving between dusk and dawn, and don’t feel like you need to drive at or near the speed limit. Many people drive slower.

Tips for Driving on the Left Side of the Road

If you’re from the Americas, Continental Europe, or a number of other countries, then you’re used to driving on the right side of the road. In Australia, the driver sits on the right side of the car and drives the car on the left hand side of the road. This can cause some issues that you might not anticipate. Here are my tips for making the switch without too much stress:

• Rent a Car with Lane Assist: We didn’t do this the first time and it was STRESSFUL. The second time we just happened to get a car with lane assist, and never went back. Use the lane assist to find your bearings when you hit an area without any traffic around. Some only work above certain speed limits, so keep that in mind when driving slower. They also don’t help when merging, switching lanes, or exiting, so you still need to get comfortable with your positioning in the lanes. Which brings me to the next point.
• Stop Pulling Left: Yes, you are pulling too far to the left. As you get away from the main highway, the roads often lack an outside line and shoulder. They usually have a lip that can cause you to abruptly fall off the road. It’s not fun, trust me. If you are used to driving on the right, you will naturally feel uncomfortable hugging the center line, so you will drive too far to the left. This is where lane assist can help you find your place.
• Use a Navigator: Always use a navigator map and make sure it is turned up so you can hear it well. It’s exceedingly important that you are always quite focused on the road if you’ve never driven on the opposite side.
• Use Your Live Navigator (if you have one): Tony was quite irritated with me when I kept saying he was pulling too far to the left. That is, until he fell off the lip on the road once. It was fine, but startling. We worked together after that, which helped him assimilate more quickly.
• Drive Slower: As mentioned, the speed limits can be a little ridiculous in Tasmania. Tony thought he was supposed to drive near the speed limit at first, which was scary for both of us. He slowed way down, and it ended up being just fine. The rural roads aren’t very busy, so we never had a train of cars behind us. And there are spots to pull out if a faster driver comes along.
• Practice in Town: The highways can be a little scary, but the most mishaps tend to happen in town, with turns, one-way roads, etc. Slow a little more than you usually would before doing things like turning or switching lanes. It’s essential that you get maneuvering and directions right, so try to avoid any situations of hurry or panic. Remember, you’re traveling, there’s no rush!

Note: The above tips also work – in reverse – if you are from the U.K., Australia, or Japan and are visiting mainland Europe or the Americas.

Tips for Renting a Car on Tasmania

We were in Tasmania for a month, and rented a car for a total of seven days. It was easy to rent a car for just one day, which made day tripping on a whim easy. Don’t feel like you need to rent a car for the whole time. Here is some information to help your planning.

• Airport Options: There is a special bus called SkyBus that goes from the airport to Hobart city (city buses do not service the airport). There are also ride share apps, like Uber, and taxis waiting in the pick up area. We used a taxi when we landed, since we rented cars just for day trips. There are a few car rental places on airport and just off airport if you want too hit the ground running and save money on the airport transfer. At the end of our trip, we rented for several days from YesDrive, and it worked out great. They are a tiny company just off airport that will shuttle you to the airport.
• City Options: There are a few car rental places in Hobart city, which makes day trips easy. They aren’t always cheap, but are convenient. And you can often find deals online. We rented cars from Budget and SIXT and had great experiences with both companies. We didn’t end up renting from Lo-Cost Auto Rent (they also own Drive Car Rental), but their staff was insanely kind and helpful. They seemed like a very reputable company, and they get great reviews.
• Use Booking Sites: Metasearch engines, like Kayak.com, are great for finding deals on short notice. Since we opted to rent just for excursions, we watched the prices on different sites and booked when good deals came up.
• Ask About Travel Restrictions: Some have restrictions on where you can take the car. A couple agencies don’t allow you to take their rental cars to Bruny Island. Others specify maintained roads only. The tricky part is, a lot of the roads are actually dirt roads with some loose gravel. We weren’t sure if that counted. But they told us, if it’s on the map, it’s okay. And there are a lot of major dirt roads actually on the main map.
• Consider the Car You Need: We worried mostly about ensuring we had lane assist. But you might feel more comfortable with a higher profile car on the dirt roads. The companies often recommend an SUV if you are heading to Bruny Island or the national parks. But, we only had an SUV rental once, and were fine with all of the other cars.

Ready to Go?

See my Hobart Guide and Tasmania Travel Post to help plan the rest of your trip! Both posts include information on how to get to each site with or without a car.