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The best things to do in Launceston and nearby: free gorge walks, family days out, Tamar Valley wine and UNESCO World Heritage estates 20 minutes away.
Northern Tasmania
Launceston sits where the North Esk and South Esk Rivers meet the Tamar, and for a regional city it offers a remarkable amount to see and do. If you’re working out what to do in Launceston, this guide covers the best-known tourist attractions, plenty of free things to do in Launceston, and places a short drive away that deserve a full day of your time. Everything here is within about half an hour of the city. Think gorge walks in the morning, cellar doors by lunch, and World Heritage estates twenty minutes south if you want to slow right down. Whether you’re travelling with kids or looking for things to do in Launceston for adults, here are our picks for 2026.
Best for: free walks, nature lovers, all ages
Location: Cataract Gorge Reserve, 5 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, daylight hours
Cost: Free, chairlift ticketed separately
The city’s signature attraction, and for good reason. Walking trails on both sides of the South Esk River, the world’s longest single-span chairlift, a swimming pool for warmer months, and wallabies and peacocks wandering the reserve like they own the place. Free to walk the gorge; the chairlift is a small add-on. Fifteen to twenty minutes on foot from the CBD.
Best for: families, thrill-seekers
Location: 1 Bridge Road, at the entrance to Cataract Gorge, 5 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, 9.30am to 4pm
Cost: Free to enter the complex, adventures ticketed separately
Penny Royal is part historical playground, part adrenaline park, built into the old quarry cliffs that once powered the city. Entry to the complex is free. The zip lines, cliff walk, cliff jump and other adventures are ticketed separately, and full-day packages let you try the lot. If you’re travelling with kids or a crew of thrill-seekers, it’s easy to fill a whole day here.
Best for: rainy days, culture fans
Location: Art gallery at Royal Park and museum at Inveresk, both in Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, 10am to 4pm
Cost: Free
Australia’s largest regional museum is split across two sites, with the art gallery at Royal Park and the museum at Inveresk. It has strong Tasmanian art and history collections, a planetarium, and rotating exhibitions covering everything from natural science to First Nations culture. Both sites are open daily from 10am to 4pm, and entry is free.
Best for: locally made souvenirs, design lovers
Location: Corner of Brisbane and Tamar Streets, on the edge of City Park, Launceston CBD
Open: Wednesday to Saturday 10am – 3pm, Sunday 10am – 2pm
Cost: Free
Design Tasmania is the place to find a souvenir with a genuine story behind it. Its shop, on the edge of City Park, sells glass, ceramics and timber pieces by Tasmanian makers, including homewares in fragrant Huon pine. The gallery holds a collection dedicated to contemporary wood design.
Best for: kids, free time, picnics
Location: Tamar Street, Launceston CBD
Open: Park open 24 hours. Macaque enclosure 9am to 4.30pm, John Hart Conservatory closes around 4.30pm
Cost: Free
City Park is one of Launceston’s oldest green spaces, laid out in the 1800s and still full of the character of that era, from the cast-iron Jubilee Fountain to the John Hart Conservatory, built in 1932 and filled with seasonal flowers. Its most unexpected residents are a troupe of around 20 Japanese macaques, a gift from Launceston’s sister city of Ikeda in Japan. They’re cold-climate snow monkeys, which makes a Tasmanian winter feel like home, and it’s easy to lose half an hour watching them climb, chase and groom each other. Add a playground, a duck pond and plenty of shady lawn, and it’s a free, easy stop for families and a lovely spot for a picnic. The park itself is open at all hours, but the monkey enclosure and the conservatory close around 4.30pm, so come earlier in the day if you want to see both.
Best for: history lovers, architecture, a free hour
Location: Starting at the Town Hall, Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, self-paced. Guided tours by arrangement
Cost: Free for the audio walks, guided tours ticketed
Launceston is a city of beautifully preserved 19th-century streetscapes, and the easiest way to take them in is to look up as you walk. The Launceston Historical Society has created free, self-paced audio walks you can download to your phone through the Cya On The Road app. One follows historic Cameron Street for about an hour, from the Town Hall to the Brisbane Street Mall, narrated by a familiar local voice. Around the city centre, look out for the 1864 Town Hall and the Post Office clock tower on Civic Square, Albert Hall, which opened in 1891, and the Old Umbrella Shop on George Street, a rare intact Victorian shopfront now run by the National Trust. For a deeper dive, Wallaby Walkabout Tours runs two-hour guided history walks with local and Tasmanian Aboriginal historian Geoff McLean, including a look inside some of the city’s significant heritage buildings.
Best for: kids, outdoor play, a free morning
Location: Invermay Road, Invermay, 5 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, daylight hours
Cost: Free
This reclaimed industrial precinct in Invermay is now Tasmania’s largest children’s playground. Highlights include the Sky Walk and the Confluence Net, and there’s plenty of open space along the river for little legs to run. It’s a genuine hit with kids, and it’s free.
Best for: art lovers, something unexpected, a free browse
Location: Johnstone and Wilmot building, Cimitiere Street, Launceston CBD
Open: Hours vary, check before visiting
Cost: Free on the ground floor, upper floor ticketed
This gallery is tucked into the 1842 Johnstone and Wilmot building on Cimitiere Street, one of the city’s most historically significant sites. It holds Australia’s largest collection of Salvador Dalí’s works on paper, with more than 200 pieces on display at a time and exhibitions rotating seasonally. The lower floor, Melting Clocks, is free to enter, with donations welcome. The upper floor, Labyrinth of Dreams, holds the rarer original works and is ticketed.
Best for: car enthusiasts, rainy days, families
Location: 84 Lindsay Street, Invermay, 5 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily 9am to 5pm, 10am to 4pm June to August. Closed Christmas Day
Cost: $20 adult, $9 child under 16, $50 family
You don’t need to know a carburettor from a camshaft to enjoy this one. Just a few minutes from the CBD in Invermay, the museum displays around 120 classic cars, motorcycles and pieces of motoring memorabilia. The collection changes regularly, so there’s usually something new even for return visitors. It’s all on one level with full disability access, and it sits right across the road from Riverbend Park, so it’s easy to pair with a morning at the playground. Tickets are $20 for adults, $9 for children under 16 and $50 for families, and it’s open daily.
Best for: foodies, local produce
Location: 71 Cimitiere Street car park, Launceston CBD
Open: Saturdays, 8.30am to 12.30pm
Cost: Free to enter
Every Saturday from 8.30am to 12.30pm, an inner-city car park on Cimitiere Street becomes an award-winning farmers’ market. Everything on sale is grown, made or brewed in Tasmania by the stallholders themselves, so you’re buying cheese, charcuterie, berries, bread and cider straight from the people who produced them. Grab a locally roasted coffee, graze your way around, and pack a picnic for the day ahead.
Best for: couples, wine lovers, long lunches
Location: Cellar doors from Relbia, 15 minutes south of Launceston, and Legana, 20 minutes north
Open: Varies by cellar door, most daily 10am to 5pm
Cost: Tasting fees from $15, often waived with a purchase
Launceston sits at the head of the Tamar Valley, and the Tamar Valley Wine Route, the longest-established wine touring route in Tasmania, links more than 30 cellar doors across the region. The first tastings are close to town, with the vineyards of Relbia about 15 minutes south and cellar doors starting around 20 minutes north towards Legana. The valley is best known for its sparkling wine, chardonnay and pinot noir, and many of the wineries are family-owned, so the person pouring your tasting is often the one who made the wine. Josef Chromy at Relbia makes an easy first stop, with tastings in an 1880s homestead overlooking a lake and vineyard, and a hatted restaurant for a long lunch.
Most cellar doors charge a modest tasting fee, and booking ahead is wise on weekends. If you plan to taste your way along the route, a local wine tour means nobody has to drive.
Best for: birdwatchers, accessible walks, free entry
Location: West Tamar Highway, 10 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, daylight hours
Cost: Free
Ten minutes north of the city, an easy boardwalk winds through tall reeds and over the mudflats of the Tamar to a small island with picnic tables and views down the valley towards Ben Lomond. Around 60 bird species have been recorded here, including black swans, egrets and the occasional white-bellied sea eagle, and there’s a bird hide about 500 metres along the way. The boardwalk and interpretation centre are wheelchair accessible, entry is free, and it’s a peaceful spot for an early morning or a picnic dinner as the sun goes down.
Best for: relaxed sightseeing, all ages
Location: Home Point Cruise Terminal, 15 minutes’ walk from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, departure times vary seasonally
Cost: Cruises ticketed, check current pricing
The Tamar River is Australia’s longest navigable tidal estuary, and seeing it from the water shows you a side of Launceston you won’t get on foot. Tamar River Cruises departs daily from Home Point, an easy walk from the city centre. The 50-minute Cataract Gorge cruise passes the old seaport and Kings Wharf before gliding into the gorge beneath the cliffs the walking trails sit above. With more time, the longer afternoon and lunch cruises head down the river past vineyards and historic buildings, with local wine and cheese on board and a good chance of spotting sea eagles, black swans and pelicans along the way. Booking is recommended.
Best for: history lovers, gardens, a day trip from Launceston
Location: Longford, Tasmania, 20 minutes from Launceston CBD and 15 minutes from Launceston Airport
Open: Woolmers daily from 8am, last entry 4pm, closes 6pm. Brickendon Tuesday to Sunday, 9.30am to 5pm October to April and 10am to 4pm May to September.
Cost: One combined ticket covers both estates: $49 adult, $45 concession, $10 child, $99 family.
Twenty minutes south of the city near Longford, Tasmania, two neighbouring estates make one of the easiest day trips from Launceston. Brickendon Estate and Woolmers Estate form a UNESCO World Heritage Site within the Australian Convict Sites listing, where convict men and women gained skills, earned freedom and often chose to stay. It’s the convict story they don’t tell you about.
What stays with people is how little has been staged. Woolmers House is the home six generations of the Archer family lived in from 1817 to 1994, and their furniture, photographs and everyday clutter are still where they left them. Outside, 18 original buildings stand across the estate, from the Wool Shed of around 1820 to the 1847 Servants’ Kitchen, where you can stop for something to eat. Unshackled: The Assignment Story Exhibition brings the convict men and women who worked here into focus. Then the expansive Rose Garden opens up, 1.53 hectares with more than 3,000 roses in around 350 varieties. Visit between October and February and you’ll smell it before you reach it.
Cross the Macquarie River on the suspension bridge and the 2.8km Convict Farm Walk brings you into Brickendon on the other side. Behind its English hedgerows sits an 1820s farm village that has barely changed, with a chapel, a blacksmith’s shop, a cookhouse and timber barns still standing where convict tradesmen built them. Seven generations of Archers have lived here, and the family still farms the land, which gives the whole place an unhurried, lived-in feel. Kids can help feed the animals, there are heritage gardens and an arboretum to wander, and the river frontage is popular with anyone who’s packed a fishing rod.
Best for: market lovers, heritage streetscapes
Location: Evandale, 20 minutes south of Launceston CBD
Open: Village always accessible, market Sundays from 8am
Cost: Free
Evandale is a National Trust-classified Georgian village about 20 minutes south of the city, and it’s at its liveliest on a Sunday. The weekly market fills with fresh produce, homemade crafts, food vans and second-hand books, with pony rides for the kids. Afterwards, stroll past beautifully preserved 19th-century buildings, browse the antique shops, and stop for lunch at the Clarendon Arms Hotel, which has stood on the main street since 1847. Visit in February and you’ll catch the National Penny Farthing Championships racing through the village streets. It sits on the same side of the city as Longford, so it’s easy to combine with a visit to Brickendon and Woolmers.
Best for: something made in Tasmania, industrial history, a rainy afternoon
Location: 45 Waverley Road, 10 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Hours vary, check before visiting
Cost: Free to enter the Mill Store, guided tours ticketed
On the banks of Distillery Creek, ten minutes from the CBD, Waverley Mills has been turning Tasmanian wool into blankets, throws and scarves since 1874. It’s Australia’s oldest continuously operating woollen mill and the last of its kind in the country, still carding, spinning, weaving and finishing everything on the one site. The guided tour takes you through a working textile factory, following wool from raw fibre to finished cloth, with heritage machinery running alongside modern equipment. It ends in the Mill Store, where you can buy the results. The mill was also one of the first industrial sites in Australia to use hydroelectric power, back in 1889.
Best for: families, mini golf, a quirky afternoon
Location: Grindelwald, 15 minutes north of Launceston CBD
Open: Village always accessible, resort activities daily
Cost: Free to visit the village, activities ticketed separately
Fifteen minutes north of Launceston, you’ll find a little piece of Switzerland in the Tamar Valley. Grindelwald was built from 1980 around a lake, with every house in Swiss chalet style, complete with shutters, balconies and flower boxes. At the Tamar Valley Resort in the heart of the village, families can take on the 18-hole mini golf course, hire a paddle boat or canoe on the lake, and let the kids loose on the giant bouncing pillow. Finish with lunch at the lakeside bistro or a treat from the bakery café.
Best for: thrill-seekers, families, nature lovers
Location: Underwood, 20 minutes north-east of Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, bookings essential
Cost: Tours ticketed, check current pricing
About 20 minutes north-east of the city at Underwood, the forest canopy of Hollybank becomes a playground. The guided zipline tour takes around two and a half hours and sends you across six ziplines totalling almost a kilometre, up to 50 metres above the forest floor, with the longest stretching 400 metres over the river below. Anyone aged three and up can join, with younger riders flying tandem. If you’d rather stay closer to the ground, there are also Segway tours, a ropes course and mountain bike trails. Booking is essential.
Best for: scenic drives, short walks
Location: Notley Fern Gorge, 30 minutes north-west of Launceston CBD. Brady’s Lookout, West Tamar Highway, 20 minutes from Launceston CBD
Open: Daily, daylight hours
Cost: Free
Both spots are tied to Matthew Brady, the 1820s bushranger whose gang is said to have hidden in these hills. At Notley Fern Gorge, half an hour’s drive north-west of Launceston, a 1.5km loop of about 45 minutes winds through ferns and moss beneath towering eucalypts, past the hollowed-out Brady’s Tree. If the full loop feels like too much, the tree is only about five minutes from the car park. Brady’s Lookout, beside the West Tamar Highway, has a short, sharp climb to wide views over the Tamar Valley and a grassy picnic area below. Both are free.
“Woolmers really is the jewel in the crown of heritage properties in Australia, a must see.”
Most visitors looking for accommodation in Launceston book a hotel in town and drive out to the sights. There’s another option twenty minutes south.
Woolmers Estate has convict-built cottages available as self-contained accommodation, twenty minutes from the city. These aren’t replicas. They’re the original cottages, restored and now among the more unusual places to stay in Tasmania. Rates start from $250 per night and include Devonshire tea and a continental breakfast, which makes it a bed and breakfast in the most literal sense.
Then the day visitors leave. Guests have after-hours access to the estate, so the grounds are yours in the evening. Walk the Rose Garden in the last of the light, wander between the original buildings with nobody else around, and wake up already inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
For couples, it’s quiet and genuinely unique accommodation. For families, it’s cottage space and room to run rather than a hotel room, and better value than family accommodation near Launceston usually gets. For anyone after accommodation near Launceston as a base, Longford, Evandale and the Heritage Highway are all on the doorstep, the city is twenty minutes north, and the airport is fifteen minutes away. If you’re giving each estate the full day it deserves, staying here saves you the drive twice over.
Last grounds entry: 4pm
Grounds close: 6:30pm
20 minutes from Launceston
17 minutes from Launceston Airport
FREE entry when bringing interstate or overseas guests
