Amazing Tasmania with a Touch of Melbourne

Separated from Australia by the Bass Strait, Tasmania long ago seceded—not politically, but geologically—from the island continent. It is a world apart, a world we’ll get nicely acquainted with on this two-week Custom Trip, which includes wine tasting in the famous Barossa Valley outside of Adelaide and a visit to a wild scenic treasure almost on Sydney’s doorstep.

After a couple of nights in Sydney, one of the world’s most hospitable, comfortable, and interesting metropolises, we fly south to Hobart, capital of that world apart. After a little city sightseeing, we take a short ferry ride to Bruny Island, where we’ll stay at the Inala Cottage, a charming little hostelry located in a private wildlife reserve and a welcome retreat after a day exploring Bruny’s remarkable and lovely range of scenery (and in the evening, a night tour in peaceful search of the island’s nocturnal natives, including wallabies, possums, and exotic local marsupials called quolls). Back on the Tasmanian mainland, we spend a couple of days in and around Freycinet National Park, a scenic blowout that includes, among much else, the beach at Wineglass Bay, which the readers of Condé Nast Traveler recently voted one of the World’s Top Ten Beaches. We round out our Tasmanian days with a visit to Cradle Mountain, a natural masterpiece and a world-class botanical bonanza.

We return to the main mainland (i.e., fabled Oz) with a flight north to Adelaide and the Barossa Valley wine district, where, ensconced in the lovely Louise, an idyllic vineyard retreat, we’ll tour wineries with an astute local guide and sup luxuriously in this famed mecca of viticulture. And to top off an eventful and varietal trip, we fly back to Sydney and make the short drive to the Lilanfels, a five-star Orient Express hotel set on two acres of manicured gardens in the midst of the Greater Blue Mountain World Heritage Site, a wild land of booming beauty.