Tasmania, Australia’s Secret Island

In organising my trip to Tasmania I knew the journey was going to take hours. Thirty-three of them, in fact.

A late Friday night flight from London’s Heathrow to Tasmania via Bangkok and Sydney, combined with a nine hour time difference meant that I arrived just in time for lunch on Sunday. Yes, I missed Saturday out completely spending it instead 35,000 feet in the air somewhere between Iran and Cambodia.

But is the long journey is worth all the hassle?

Tasmania is Australia’s only island state, located 150 miles off the south east coast of Victoria – head any further south and your next stop will be Antarctica. Easily accessible by plane or boat from Australia’s mainland, Tassie (as the friendly locals like to call it), is most famous for it’s untouched landscapes and unique wildlife.

Me, walking Tasmania's untouched countryside

While wildlife was on my agenda – I wasn’t visiting purely for this; I also wanted to find out more about another, far less documented side to Tasmania. I’d heard that there was a newly emerging side to the island, an up-and-coming modernity that was materialising in many an exciting form.

From boutique hotels and chic nightspots, to modern art and a fashion conscious youth, I’d been promised that I’d find it all down south in Tasmania, and I was on a mission to uncover it.

I chose to begin my stay in what is widely accepted as Tasmania’s most luxurious hotel, Saffire. With its grand opening just days before my visit I was keen to find out why it claims to be the island’s only true 5* accommodation.

Overlooking the Hazards Mountain range, Saffire can make one extraordinary claim. Through its huge glass-windowed inside, you can see the quarry that provided the foyer of New York’s Empire State Building with its famously decorative red granite. What’s more, the on-site spa actually uses this red granite as stones in their hot stone massage, along with a moisturiser infused with real sapphire dust.

The Hazards Mountain Range

So far, so good.

Almost everything at Saffire is included in the hotel’s nightly rate allowing you to indulge in a welcoming massage, or to learn how to make your perfect cocktail with a lesson from the resident mixologist at no extra cost. Both a splendid way to spend an afternoon, I might add.

Tasmanian hotels are a real focus point for 21st century development and with an island so varied, I found a few that would happily fit into the trendy New York or London scene.

Once the setting for a Vogue fashion shoot, you’ll find Avalon Costal Retreat in the Rocky Hills area, and with views overlooking Oyster Bay, it’s not hard to see why the fashion giant chose this incredible location.

Looking out from Avalon Coastal Retreat

Over in Hobart, Tasmania’s capital city, you’ll not only find one-of-a-kind accommodation such as the Henry Jones Art Hotel, but you’ll also find a great base to explore the city’s nightlife. Hobart overlooks a rather famous harbour that is home to the Sydney – Hobart yacht race in December (Australia’s summer time) and as such the city has become a hub for trendy bars and fashionable nightclubs.

For a good evening out in Hobart, start with a visit to Cargo. Hobart’s most original pizza restaurant, here you’ll find a hugely varied menu including a delicious duck hoi sin sauce, or a rather unique apple crumble pizza. Come evening, Cargo transforms into one of the city’s best loved cocktail bars serving a huge range of colourful drinks that will rival any you’ve seen in the Sex and the City series.

Other popular evening spots include The Alley Cat Bar with resident DJs, or the Telegraph Hotel, an art deco building that is just teeming with people come sundown.

Hobart Harbour, the centre for nightlife

If you’re anything like me, then drinks with friends often leads onto the need to dance the night away, and I’ve uncovered a gem of a nightclub. Ivory is Hobart’s newest addition to the club scene and is as trendy as trendy gets. Painted in black and decorated with chandeliers and zebra print sofas, the tables quickly fill up with groups of party-goers sipping champagne. At around midnight the tables are pulled swiftly out of view to reveal a DJ playing some of the moment’s hottest tunes to a packed dancefloor. Here is where you’ll find the fashion-lovers that I was promised. Wear anything less than a dress and heels, or a designer suit, and you’ll soon feel out of place.

The landscape and wildlife in Tasmania are like nowhere else on earth; the natural habitat varies from mountain ranges throughout, to beaches in the south, and rainforest in the west – each of which hide inconceivable views that only become visible when walking the bush and sightseeing by foot.

Thanks to Warner Brothers we’ve all heard of the Tasmanian Devil, but this is the only place in the world where you might see a real life Devil in the wild and be shocked at how different they are to the creature you’ve imagined. Tasmania is also exclusively home to the Tasmanian Pademelon and Betong, as well as a long list of flora.

Tasmanian Devils - I love them!

So, if it’s chic bars and cutting edge design that you’re after then of course you’ll find it in Australia’s southernmost state, but if it’s traditional hiking and countryside sight seeing that you want from your holiday, then Tasmania is perhaps one of the world’s best places to indulge.

Personally, I’d do a bit of both.

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I travelled to Tasmania with Austravel who provide holidays to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Find out more at the Discover Tasmania website