Hobart tasmania

Any suggestions for tours NOT through the ship. Any tour operator recommendations??

Thanks in advance

We toured with Murray of http://www.murraysdayout.com.au

He did a great job.

Our Roll Call has an excursion booked in Hobart with Eye See Personalized Tours. You can

contact Judy at eyesee@netscape.net.au for more information. They have been great to work with.

We just toured Hobart with Judy Livingston, owner/operator of Eye See Personalized Tours, http://www.eyeseetasmania.com.au/

We highly recommend her and her company!

We were in Hobart for the day with Celebrity Solstice. We were keen on seeing Port Arthur as we are very interested in the convict history of Australia and we of course wanted to see as much of everything else as possible during our limited time on shore - always the rub of cruising, so little time in ports of call, but it is better than no time at all!

Judy offers many varied itineraries for her tours. Our mini coach held approximately 12 people. Tasmania is much larger than I realized, about the size of my home state, Massachusetts - which until I began my research, I hadn't actually grasped! Judy filled the drive time with good stories, information about the local economy and the history, as well as plenty of humor. She engaged the other guests, so that we all got to know each other. After our excellent tour of Port Arthur, she provided a refreshing elegant picnic lunch - all of the food was either homemade or homegrown - quite lovely! We then went to the Bonorong Animal Sanctuary, which provided us with excellent indigenous animal encounters including the best viewing of Tasmanian Devils of our entire B2B cruise. Judy got us back to Solstice in plenty of time before departure, and even gave each of her guests a "goody bag" including a book about ghosts at Port Arthur, as a remembrance of our wonderful day together. I still have to read the book! We highly recommend this tour company for a great day in Hobart.

We just toured Hobart with Judy Livingston, owner/operator of Eye See Personalized Tours, http://www.eyeseetasmania.com.au/

We highly recommend her and her company!

We were in Hobart for the day with Celebrity Solstice. We were keen on seeing Port Arthur as we are very interested in the convict history of Australia and we of course wanted to see as much of everything else as possible during our limited time on shore - always the rub of cruising, so little time in ports of call, but it is better than no time at all!

Judy offers many varied itineraries for her tours. Our mini coach held approximately 12 people. Tasmania is much larger than I realized, about the size of my home state, Massachusetts - which until I began my research, I hadn't actually grasped! Judy filled the drive time with good stories, information about the local economy and the history, as well as plenty of humor. She engaged the other guests, so that we all got to know each other. After our excellent tour of Port Arthur, she provided a refreshing elegant picnic lunch - all of the food was either homemade or homegrown - quite lovely! We then went to the Bonorong Animal Sanctuary, which provided us with excellent indigenous animal encounters including the best viewing of Tasmanian Devils of our entire B2B cruise. Judy got us back to Solstice in plenty of time before departure, and even gave each of her guests a "goody bag" including a book about ghosts at Port Arthur, as a remembrance of our wonderful day together. I still have to read the book! We highly recommend this tour company for a great day in Hobart.

I'm happy that you had a wonderful day in Tasmania. Was your tour to Port Arthur and Bonorong rushed? as the two localities are almost in opposite directions with Port Arthur being quite a long drive in itself. Most of us would not do both in one day.

There are lots of wonderful places to visit on the way to and around Port Arthur and Port Arthur itself deserves at least 4 hours by itself. On an overnight stay you can also do Ghost Tours.

Bonorong Park is a great place to visit but i would have spent all day in and around Port Arthur area ( including the wild coastline). There are many other wildlife places in other Australia ports to achieve visiting both.

These are just my thoughts don't get me wrong. Nice to know that you were more than satisfied with Judy.

HI, Cassamanda - agreed, about so many things to see, so little time to see them on a shore excursion! That is certainly the down side of cruising, but as I have said many times, better to see things only briefly than not to have seen them at all - and I don't put my chances at returning to Tasmania as very high, sadly! There was a lot of driving, but I knew there would be, and we are actually quite used to that - ie, as I'm sure you have personally experienced, Rome is over an hour's drive from Civitavecchia - but Judy, as good tour operators do, filled the time with lively banter and informative data. Sadly, the bush fires had just passed through, so we saw a LOT of devastation, which Judy told us all about. Fires were in fact still raging in parts of the state, and we saw lots of smoke - very sad, oh so tragic, but definitely provided lots to talk about on the long ride, you get my point. I was very keen on seeing Port Arthur due to my interest in the convict roots of the nation - though the tour was not rushed, would we have loved more time, absolutely, but we knew that was not possible. And as far as Bonorong went, that was a very fun counterpoint to the serious "downer" aspect of Port Arthur. We went to many animal sanctuaries on our month long B2B cruise, but the best Tazzie Devil interaction occurred here, bar none. And the baby wombats, oh!!, that happened nowhere else but here! The baby wombats had been found wandering alone on the main road - their mothers having died in the bush fires - and they were being raised in the homes of foster parents at night, and brought to the sanctuary during the day. It was so special to meet one of the foster parents, with the baby wombat - the baby was so adorable, treating the foster mother HUMAN, as an actual wombat, too cute for words!

Appreciate your comments and very informative for others to read. Your experiences were very unique. Tasmania is a beautiful place - hopefully you will come back to Australia one day.

Another suggestion which no doubt won't appeal to everyone but might to a few and is worth putting in a thread on Hobart.

That is to visit MONA which is the art gallery up the Derwent River. http://www.mona.net.au/ The Gallery itself is sensational, reminiscent of the Getty in LA in terms of its impact on the visitor. The contents are an amazing mix of new and old.

It also has a pricey but very good restaurant called The Source where you can taste the best of Tasmanian cuisine and wines and have a laid back lunch.

It is also an easy ferry trip from the Harbour, very close to the cruise terminal and will make a memorable day for those into modern and ancient art. The ferry should be pre-booked as should the restaurant. We recently had 10 days in Tasmania and this was the highlight, amongst many.

Hobart Tour-3/29/13 RCCL-Leaves Perth-3/22/13

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Hello,

Six seats open for Hobart tour (March 29th, 2013). Heather will pick us up in a van at the dock. The itinerary is as follows: Pick-up 11 AM, return to ship at about 6 PM, you pay for your own lunch

Russell Falls

The country side as we drive

Mt Field which is west of Hobart (90 minutes)

Bonorong-$20 AU dollars if we have 10 people, otherwise $24/person

Richmond

Hobart City tour and harbor views

Charges: $80 AU dollars for tour plus $24 AU dollars for Bonorong-Highest Expected highest total for tour: $104 AU dollars.

Kathryn 22

We just toured Hobart with Judy Livingston, owner/operator of Eye See Personalized Tours, http://www.eyeseetasmania.com.au/

We highly recommend her and her company!

We were in Hobart for the day with Celebrity Solstice. We were keen on seeing Port Arthur as we are very interested in the convict history of Australia and we of course wanted to see as much of everything else as possible during our limited time on shore - always the rub of cruising, so little time in ports of call, but it is better than no time at all!

Judy offers many varied itineraries for her tours. Our mini coach held approximately 12 people. Tasmania is much larger than I realized, about the size of my home state, Massachusetts - which until I began my research, I hadn't actually grasped! Judy filled the drive time with good stories, information about the local economy and the history, as well as plenty of humor. She engaged the other guests, so that we all got to know each other. After our excellent tour of Port Arthur, she provided a refreshing elegant picnic lunch - all of the food was either homemade or homegrown - quite lovely! We then went to the Bonorong Animal Sanctuary, which provided us with excellent indigenous animal encounters including the best viewing of Tasmanian Devils of our entire B2B cruise. Judy got us back to Solstice in plenty of time before departure, and even gave each of her guests a "goody bag" including a book about ghosts at Port Arthur, as a remembrance of our wonderful day together. I still have to read the book! We highly recommend this tour company for a great day in Hobart.

We just did a tour with eye see tours also....wonderful day....you cant go wrong!

Any suggestions for tours NOT through the ship. Any tour operator recommendations??

 

Thanks in advance

We toured Mt Field, Bonorong Sanctuary and Pooleys Estate Winery with Sandie of EyeSee Personalized Tours in February. I booked a tour for 6 and Judy added 4 more people. The Van was very comfortable, Sandie was a hoot- she loves what she does and it shows. We had an absolutely amazing day, even though at the last moment we asked her to include a winery. Judy provided an excellent lunch and the winery she chose for us was amazing. Too bad they do not export to the US. Bonorong is not to be missed....

Highly recommend them- they were top notch!!!

Contact Judy at eyesee@netspace.net.au. She is wonderful to work with!!!

Hope this helps you.

Bobbysgirl:):)

Our Roll Call has an excursion booked in Hobart with Eye See Personalized Tours. You can contact Judy at eyesee@netscape.net.au for more information. They have been great to work with.

As noted in the live/blog below, we got off of the Celebrity Solstice in February, doing lots including one day in Hobart where we did a private tour for our Central Ohio group of 14 that included Port Arthur, a short stop in Richmond and the Wildlife Park. Because of our size and timing, we used BOTH Judy and Murray. Lots in one day, but it worked very well. Great experience and scenic area. Both were super wonderful. Interesting history at Port Arthur. See more below on the full live/blog report, including lots of pictures from these various stops in Tasmania, etc.

Also, the Wall Street Journal this week had a nice story on Tasmania. The headline was: "Tasmania, the Next Foodie Destination". The sub-head included: "Australian island produces flavorful fruits and heritage. And now it has chefs who make local ingredients shine".

Among the WSJ story highlights were: "Australia's only island state is often overlooked in favor of splashy sights like Sydney or the outback. Tasmania is countrified and slow-paced; accepted wisdom likens it to Britain in the 1950s. Certainly, it has a throwbackish charm, with low buildings and wide-open spaces. One facet of life here, though, is a distinct departure from ration-strapped postwar England: the food. Imagine slabs of perfectly marbled steak from traditional cattle breeds, stone fruits picked from local orchards, sweet wild scallops plucked out of clean, ice-cold waters. Tony Scherer, who raises heirloom vegetables in Tasmania, sees stronger parallels between the island today and California in the 1970s. The focus is generally on quality rather than quantity."

WINE?: "The island's 200 vineyards produced less than 1% of Australia's total wine output by volume in 2013; Tasmanian vintages, however, comprised at least a quarter of the country's 'A' grade wines. In the seafood industry adheres to the Japanese practice of ike jime. The point is to catch and kill fish as quickly and painlessly as possible, thereby preventing stress hormones from tainting the flesh. It was challenging to lure even the most die-hard foodies to this garden of eating. 'Tasmania was widely known for having the best produce in the nation, but the worst chefs,' explained local food writer Matthew Evans. That changed with the establishment of new farm-to-table restaurants and cooking schools around the state."

Our time during our cruise stop in Hobart was limited, but we got a small sample of food there. Very good. Need to go back. Not sure all can check this article as the Journal has a pay wall on some stories. I'm a regular subscriber. Let me know if you need more details on this story from the WSJ.

Full story at:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579480040563522048?mg=reno64-wsj

Continue to enjoy the Duke and Duchess touring in Australia. Plus, the cute young prince. HAPPY EASTER!!

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Just back from doing a 14-day Celebrity Solstice, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure on this ship and getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for much more information and lots of wonderful pictures on these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 53,374 views for this fun posting.

Following up on the foodie post, The Taste of Tasmania Festival will be held in Hobart from 12/28/14- 1/3/15. If you are lucky enough to be in port on one of those days, it it one of the best food and wine festivals I've ever attended. We were there this past year on 12/31. It is a brief and pleasant walk from the port and will give you the chance to sample excellent food and wine at reasonable prices. Wallaby burritos, possum confit, curried scallop pie ,outstanding licorice ice cream and lovely wines. It was one of the highlights of my cruise. BTW, the port lecturer on our ship said nothing would be going on at the Festival during the day of 12/31 as they would be preparing for New Year's Eve. She was so wrong!

http://www.underdownunder.com.au We used this company and went for a week trip around Tasmania. Fantastic time. They do day tours as well.

There is a red bus that goes around which is pretty good. Hop on hop off from Hobart major sites

My husband and I are planning a private tour with Judy, however we need at least 2 more people to join us. Please post here if you are interested. We will start off the morning at Salamanca Place/Market, then the plan is to go to Mt Wellington, Bonorong Wildlife Park, and hopefully Field National Park, Russell Falls, Horeshoe Falls before returning to ship. We are on the Celebrity January 5th cruise from Sydney. Thanks!!

My husband and I are planning a private tour with Judy, however we need at least 2 more people to join us. Please post here if you are interested. We will start off the morning at Salamanca Place/Market, then the plan is to go to Mt Wellington, Bonorong Wildlife Park, and hopefully Field National Park, Russell Falls, Horeshoe Falls before returning to ship. We are on the Celebrity January 5th cruise from Sydney. Thanks!!

Hi VBmama,

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

You will have more luck finding someone if you post on the Roll Call for your cruise.You can find it by clicking on this link

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2102873&page=8

You can chat to folk who will be on your cruise and also register for the Celebrity Meet and Greet Connections.

Good luck and have a great cruise.:)

Last month we toured with Heather Henry of showyoutasmania. She was very responsive and accommodating from the first email. We had a full day visiting Russell Falls at Mt. Field National Park, Bonorong Wildlife Park, lunch at Salmon Ponds & Gardens, Richmond Historic Village and a driving tour of Battery Point. I would definitely recommend booking her for your tour. We had a total of ten people all of who joined us from our roll call.

Hobart is a very easy city to navigate and drive around. We've been there twice on ships and both times have hired a car and done our own thing. Avis (rental car company) is a short walk from the dock. If you're interested in doing this book a car via their website before you get there, we saw many people turned away because they ran out of cars.

Another suggestion which no doubt won't appeal to everyone but might to a few and is worth putting in a thread on Hobart.

 

That is to visit MONA which is the art gallery up the Derwent River. http://www.mona.net.au/ The Gallery itself is sensational, reminiscent of the Getty in LA in terms of its impact on the visitor. The contents are an amazing mix of new and old.

 

It also has a pricey but very good restaurant called The Source where you can taste the best of Tasmanian cuisine and wines and have a laid back lunch.

 

It is also an easy ferry trip from the Harbour, very close to the cruise terminal and will make a memorable day for those into modern and ancient art. The ferry should be pre-booked as should the restaurant. We recently had 10 days in Tasmania and this was the highlight, amongst many.

i am planning on doing this but would never think to prebook a ferry or lunch. thanks!