In short
Hobart is Australia's second-oldest capital and its southernmost. It sits between an estuary, the Derwent, and a 1,271-metre mountain, kunanyi / Mount Wellington, which gives it its weather and its light.
Salamanca Place and its nineteenth-century sandstone warehouses line the harbour. Battery Point, just above, is the preserved colonial quarter, with its lanes and Kelly's Steps. North Hobart holds the restaurants and the independent cinema.
Arriving and getting around
MONA is reached by ferry from Brooke Street Pier — twenty-five minutes on the Derwent. The Museum of Old and New Art, underground and provocative, is why many travellers come to Tasmania at all.
Beware a common confusion: the Spirit of Tasmania ferry from Geelong arrives at Devonport, on the north coast, more than three hours' drive from Hobart. Hobart has no sea link to the mainland.
The airport is seventeen kilometres out. The rest of Tasmania — Freycinet, Cradle Mountain, the east coast — needs a car.
What it really costs
Hobart has become expensive for its size: tourist demand and the short-term rental market have tightened housing. Booking late in summer costs.
The Salamanca Market, on Saturday morning, is the local institution: produce, crafts and street food, winter and summer alike.
When to come
Summer (December–February) is short, bright and the only workable window for the south-west walks.
Dark Mofo, around the winter solstice in June, is a nocturnal festival that fills the city at the coldest point of the year — and resembles nothing else.
What nobody tells you
The summit of kunanyi is reachable by road and is regularly fifteen degrees colder than the city, with wind. Going up in a t-shirt is the classic mistake; snow falls there even in summer.
Hobart is the home port of Australian and French Antarctic expeditions. Mawson's Huts Replica Museum, on the waterfront, tells that story nobody comes looking for.
Bruny Island, an hour's drive plus a ferry, packs cheese, oysters and cliffs into a single day.