Tasmania, take your bow — 2024 has been your year. In a state defined by quality and calm, the best places to stay in Tasmania are up there with the world’s finest. Take for example The Tasman in Hobart, which has featured on The World’s Best 50 Hotels list two years in a row. Or Saffire Freycinet, which has been an international chart-topper since its 2010 start. You get the idea — for such a small island, there is no shortage of luxury hotels in Tasmania.
From the rugged north where tiny Stillwater Seven stands proudly as an independent passion project to the pristine east coast with its pinots and Piermont Retreat, Tasmania accommodation adopts an embraceable form.
As always, the bush walking is still epic and the air still crisp, but Tasmania now welcomes a crowd that comes for eating and drinking, too. If that describes you, here are the best luxury Tasmania hotels to book.
The best places to stay in Tasmania for your next 2024 holiday
- Piermont Retreat (here’s why)
- Saffire Freycinet (here’s why)
- The Tasman (here’s why)
Best for: Best place to stay in Tasmania for raw luxury on the east coast.
In Swansea, on its own scallop of Great Oyster Bay, Piermont Retreat is the home of rugged luxury. Accommodation runs the gamut from rammed earth one-bedroom cottages to architectural three-bedroom pavilions, all with log fires and the kind of interiors you can’t help but take photos of. The tennis court, pool and bicycles keep groups occupied while Homestead Restaurant (on-site) offers up some on the best Mediterranean dining on the coast.
Reasons to stay:
- Pasta nights at Homestead Restaurant
- Self-contained accommodation for couples or groups
- Tennis court and bikes for leisure activities
Best for: Best Tasmania accommodation for a luxury lodge experience
Launched in 2010, Saffire Freycinet is already an icon. The monumental architecture by Robert Morris-Nunn, and his partner Peter Walker meets a national park setting so stunning, it feels AI generated (hello Wineglass Bay). Go anywhere great on the east coast and you’ll be informed about the chef, sommelier, baker or host trained at this bar-raising lodge. Dining is led by Toby Raley (The Fat Duck and Quay), who calls on Tasmania’s waters and paddocks and Saffire’s own kitchen garden. Accommodation in the 16 suites and four private pavilions is all-inclusive and all-premium, which stretches to the artisanal treats in the minibar and drinks in the lounge.
Reasons to stay:
- Luxury from touch down at The Saffire Airport Lounge in Hobart
- Complimentary experiences, including beekeeping and oyster shucking at a marine farm
- Payot facials at Spa Saffire
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Best for: Best luxury hotel in the heart of Hobart.
Australia’s only outpost of Marriot’s Luxury Collection brand, The Tasman, opened in December 2021 and sets a dazzling standard in Hobart’s beating heart. A total of 152 rooms and suites, some with baths and some with working fireplaces, are all an exercise in express placemaking. Moo Brew and Lark Distillery fill the minibars and amenities from Beauty and the Bees and Grown Alchemist line the bathroom vanities while original Georgian-era vaulted doors retrace Hobart’s history. Downstairs, chef Massimo Mele serves exceptional Italian at Peppina.
Reasons to stay:
- Prime location among Hobart’s best bars and restaurants
- On-site fitness center
- Chauffeured airport transfers
Best for: Best place to stay in Tasmania for dining in Launceston.
There are just seven rooms at Stillwater. Seven sublimely appointed, luxuriously tended to rooms. Each one upholds the quality experienced in chef-owner Craig Will’s dining room, Stillwater Restaurant. This, of course, would be the first reason to stay. Book in to in this restored 1830s flour mill to turn a stellar meal into a stellar night. Framed by stone walls, timber beams, and Tamar River views, time in the room is wound right down thanks to an in-room locavore breakfast and a minibar filled with Tasmanian delights. Or kick back in the lounge where premixed cocktails and a parade of treats from the kitchen abound.
Reasons to stay:
- Enjoying one more Tamar Valley red in the world-class Stillwater Restaurant
- Room Seven has a dog-friendly courtyard
- Self-service bar in the communal sitting area
Best for: Best place to stay in Tasmania for an isolated island encounter.
On the rugged coastline of Tasmania’s King Island, surrounded by the Bass Strait, two chic one-bedroom lodges sit separately but together in quiet, perspective-shifting luxury. If this prospect already sounds like heaven, ready yourself for regular chef takeovers where a top chef will be in residence to cook private dinners for Kittawa Lodge guests, who hire the property exclusively. Outside of these takeovers, couples that like to cook together will bond over gourmet provisions. Baked treats and picnics can also be enjoyed at each guest’s fancy – by a secluded beach, on a grassy knoll, or in front of a roaring fire.
Reasons to stay:
- Absolute privacy in the wild
- A concrete bath with a view
- Fully equipped kitchen with coffee pod machine
Best for: Best accommodation Tasmania has to offer for picture-perfect views.
Ever dreamt of a night suspended over a lake, with stillness all around? Are you inspired by the postcard-worthy shots from this divine stay? Us too. The place to experience such quiet luxury in Tasmania is Pumphouse Point, an adults-only retreat on Lake St Clair with 19 rooms within a reclaimed 1930s Hydro-Electric station. The hotel spans two iconic industrial buildings: The Pumphouse, over the water, and The Shorehouse, over the land. Days at this luxury Tasmania hotel are spent riding e-bikes and rowing boats. Then, perhaps, a visit to one of the help-yourself bars before settling in for a farm-to-table affair over shared tables in the Shorehouse dining room.
Reasons to stay:
- Dining, including dinners at Shorehouse, is all part of the experience
- Massages available
- Bikes and boats included
Best for: Best Tasmania hotel right on the water in Hobart
The contemporary monument that is the MACq 01 Hotel, which opened in 2017, is sited on an 1820s causeway by the original IXL Jam factory (now Henry Jones Art Hotel). This is a modern hotel that embraces the history it was built on. Coming inside, the story begins at Evolve Spirits Bar, where bartenders pour fine whiskies and inventive cocktails, surrounded by fossils and artefacts. Then, in the lounge, around a roaring fire, Hobart’s Indigenous history unfolds amid art and design by descendants of the first Tasmanians. Keep moving to the Old Wharf Restaurant to take in found objects from Hobart’s industrial era, many dug up on-site. At The Story Bar, old newspapers share headlines from the 20th century in a tribute to Tasmania’s egalitarian watering holes. The guest accommodation is just as expressive. Every door to the 114 rooms exhibits one of Hobart’s unique characters, each with a story to tell. The rooms are all kitted out with robes, games and a minibar of Tasmanian treats. Still, an upgrade to the Premium Waterfront Suites with rooftop terraces and pinch-me views is worth the splurge.
Reasons to stay:
- Watch the ferries float past from a rooftop terrace
- Buffet and a la carte breakfast at Old Wharf Restaurant
- Waterfront location in Hobart’s centre
