Is Port Arthur worth visiting, and how do you get there from Hobart?
Yes, and it is the most affecting place in Australia. A convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, an hour and a half from Hobart, with the buildings still standing. Three day trips go there, all with pick-up from your accommodation, from $165.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
Port Arthur was a penal settlement for forty-seven years and is now the best-preserved convict site in the country. It is not a museum with a few foundations — the buildings are still there, in a setting so pretty it makes the history harder rather than easier.
Why go
- The buildings are standing. The penitentiary, the church, the separate prison — you walk through them rather than read about them.
- The setting does the work. It sits on a harbour surrounded by gardens, and the gap between how it looks and what happened there is the whole experience.
- The Isle of the Dead in the harbour, where more than a thousand people are buried.
- The Tasman Peninsula itself — sea cliffs, blowholes and some of the tallest coastal cliffs in the southern hemisphere, which the trips take in on the way.
The three day trips
| Day trip | What else is in it | Effort | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Day Port Arthur & Lavender Farm | A lavender farm — the gentlest version of the day | 2 of 5 | $165 |
| 1 Day Port Arthur Tour | The Tasman Peninsula coastline, in a 4WD mini bus | 3 of 5 | $169 |
| 1 Day Port Arthur & Tasmania Devil | **A Tasmanian devil sanctuary** — the pick if you have children | 2 of 5 | $189 |
All include transfers from your Hobart accommodation. Prices update on their own.
Getting there
- About ninety minutes from Hobart by road, so it is comfortably a day trip and not much more.
- You do not need a car — every trip above collects you from where you are staying and brings you back.
- No public transport worth relying on, which is why the day trips exist.
Worth knowing before you go
- Give it time. The site is large and the trips build in several hours there rather than an hour.
- It is also a memorial. A massacre took place here in 1996 and there is a memorial garden on the site. The guides handle it properly and visitors are asked to as well.
- Pair it with Bruny Island over two days if you are basing yourself in Hobart — they are opposite ends of the same short drive and nothing like each other.
The trips
People also ask
- What are the best day trips from Hobart?
- How many days do you need in Hobart?
- Is Tasmania worth visiting?
- Tasmania itinerary — 5, 6 or 7 days
Where this comes from. Each operator's own itinerary, pick-up and effort rating, as held on that trip's page here. Prices are the current from price and update on their own.