Hobart is Tasmania’s capital and is an intriguing blend of heritage and lifestyle. The city offers the best of a capital city: good theatre, restaurants, galleries, shopping and services without the usual problems of crowding, traffic and alienation. Hobart preserved the best of its history in the warm sandstone buildings, busy working harbour and dark green forested hills.

Take a harbour cruise or drive to the summit of Mt Nelson or Mt Wellington. Suburbs hug the Derwent River, city buildings cluster around the docks and the estuary broadens into Storm Bay and the distant sea. Hobart is an ideal base for your southern Tasmanian journeys - explore farther afield, then return to relax, unwind and rejuvenate.

South of Hobart is the Huon Valley, D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island. You follow the Channel past apple, cherry, plum and apricot orchards, vineyards; oyster racks, salmon pens; and dense forests to the edge of Australia, where the road ends on the border of the World Heritage Area at Cockle Creek.

One of the most memorable routes from Hobart to the Huon is on the coast road through Taroona, where the world’s oldest round shot tower stands. Further on, there are superb sea views of Storm Bay and Bruny Island. On the shores of the Channel south of Kingston is the little port of Kettering and the car ferry to Bruny.

Heart of the apple country is Huonville, on the willow-lined banks of the Huon River. Its dark waters rise far inland in the Southwest National Park. As the waters approach the sea, they flow quietly by the river town of Franklin where boat builders learn the traditional skills of shaping local timbers. Further south is the forest town of Geeveston, the gateway to the Tahune Airwalk and the Hartz Mountain National Park.

South again to Southport, Dover and the hidden dolomite caverns of Hastings and Lune River. At last the road winds down the shores of Recherche Bay to Cockle.

East of Hobart is Sorell and the Tasman Peninsula. Along the Peninsula you can sample the region’s superb cool-climate wines, and savour some of the local specialties - octopus, oysters, quail and venison. Overlooking the waters of a quiet bay is Australia’s most significant historic site at Port Arthur. The peninsula is an appealing destination for swimming, surfing, fishing, kayaking, diving, bushwalking, camping and touring.

North of Hobart takes you along the broad Derwent River, through historic villages, beside hopfields and orchards, and past Mt Field National Park. The historic town of New Norfolk was settled by convicts and is a great place to explore the Oast House Museum and market. Beyond the historic farming settlements of Hamilton and Ouse, the highway climbs towards the Central Plateau. Here the world changes to the stark beauty of sweeping valleys and Australia’s deepest high altitude lake - Lake St Clair.