Launceston is the second city that I’ve visited in Tasmania after visiting Hobart a couple of years ago. After visiting Hobart, I knew that I wanted to explore Tasmania some more which is exactly why my partner and I booked a long weekend getaway to Tasmania, flying into Launceston this year.
Long-weekend getaways is something that we’ve tried to do more this past year.
If you’re looking to travel more while working full-time, utilising long-weekend getaways is a great way to travel more throughout the year, without taking much time off work. If you would like to learn more tips when it comes to traveling more with a full-time job, check out my post all about Traveling More with a Full-Time Job.
After visiting Hobart, I was honestly pretty surprised with Tasmania. It was definitely not what I initially thought and during my first Tasmanian trip, I discovered that Tasmania is absolutely stunning.
Launceston was our first and last stop on our Long-Weekend Tasmanian Road Trip. Along with Tasmania, Launceston also surprised me with it’s built up town center, old-historic beautiful buildings, and a plethora of things to do, see and eat.
We had a wonderful time in Launceston and with Jetstar having direct flights really affordably, nows the perfect time to visit. Launceston is available on a direct flight from Sydney or if you’re in Tasmania, it’s only about 2.5 hours from Hobart.
Regardless of where you start off, Launceston is definitely worth the visit.
Where to Stay
City Park Grand Hotel
The City Park Grand Hotel was a last-minute reservation, but we were overall really happy with our stay. The accommodations were definitely affordable, spacious, and in a pretty good location in downtown Launceston. There was also free parking on site which was definitely handy and the staff was incredibly friendly and allowed us to check-in early. All things making our stay at City Park Grand Hotel really enjoyable.
With its location, we were easily able to walk to dinner, to the Launceston Harvest Markets Saturday morning and explore Launceston throughout the day.
With the booking, it was actually cheaper for us to book the family room which had a queen bed and a single bed. Although the single bed wasn’t necessary for us, the room itself was incredibly spacious with a kitchenette, modern bathroom, large closet, desk, and couch and tv area.
Especially for the price, we were happy with our stay at City Park Grand Hotel.
Where Not to Stay
I hate putting negative reviews of places on my blog as I try to keep it as positive, but honest on Our Wandering Mind. Our Wandering Mind is a space when you can get trusted advice and with my travel guides especially that not only includes things that you should do but also what you shouldn’t do when visiting an area.
Mercure Launceston
Unfortunately, with providing my audience with the most honest reviews, it means telling you about places that you should skip out or avoid during your travels and that includes the Mercure Launceston. It’s not that the Mecure was necessarily all that bad, but it definitely wasn’t great and for all the other options for a similar price range, I think you can do much better than staying there.
We found that the room was incredibly claustrophobic, something that normally doesn’t bother my partner or me normally, but we both felt the same way when staying in Mercure Launceston. The way the building is laid out, we were located right next to a walkway where we felt like we didn’t have any privacy and could never have our blinds open. We also had construction going on right next to our room as they were doing renovations at the hotel. Mercure does provide earplugs due to them knowing it’s going to be noisy, but regardless of the noise, the hotel room felt a little dark, small and dingy. All that being said, is that the location of the Mercure Launceston is pretty nice, right across from City Park and the breakfast was decent enough and convenient which we decided to add on to our stay to grab a bite to eat before our flight.
If you’re looking to stay somewhere in Launceston, I’d recommend checking out places like City Park Grand Hotel which was essentially the same price for a lot more space.
Cataract Gorge Reserve
One of the first places we decided to explore when arriving in Launceston was the Cataract Gorge Reserve. Located only a 15-minute drive from the Town Centre, The Cataract Gorge offers a number of different hikes and trails around the South Esk River.
The Gorge is not only a beautiful place to go for a walk, but it’s a great place to bring the family. With the world’s longest single-span chairlift, a swimming pool, restaurant, cafe, gardens, and a suspension bridge, you can easily spend the whole day at the Cataract Gorge Reserve.
Grindelwald Swiss Village
Located just outside of Launceston in the Tamar Valley is the Grindelwald Swiss Village.
Grindelwald Swiss Village instantly transports you into Switzerland with its Swiss-style village with wide eaves, flower boxes, window shutters and balconies.
Grindelwald was established in the 1980s and offers a unique development that has brought tourists from all over.
The village itself is relatively small but definitely worth visiting. There’s some boutique shops, clothing stores, hairdresser, day spa, and activities for the kids like mini-golf, canoeing on the lake, and jumping on the world’s longest bouncing pillow.
There are also a few restaurants and cafes in Grindelwald. We opted to get some coffee from the Sweet Café which has a wide variety of pastries and pies that looked amazing. If planning to visit Grindelwald, I would definitely come hungry so you can spend time in the village and enjoy a restaurant in the village center.
Launceston Harvest Market
Launceston Markets are held every Saturday from 8:30 – 12:30 PM and are the locals favorite Saturday morning outing.
Located only a minute walk from City Park Grand Hotel, the Launceston Markets is the perfect way to spend your Saturday morning.
After walking around the Launceston Harvest Markets for a while, we decided to get some breakfast at a local farm stall which was delicious. I really love getting local food at farmers’ markets. It allows you not only to try something different but really support the local farmers and businesses in the area.
At the Harvest Market, you’re not only able to meet the locals, but enjoy Tasmania’s freshest seasonal produce, ethically raised meat, free from artificial hormones, organic produce and dairy, along with delicious locally roasted coffee.
The Harvest Markets not only have tons to choose from, but it’s food that’ll make you feel good knowing you’re enjoying healthy, organic produce and supporting the local community.
Along with delicious food, there’s fresh produce, bread, pastries, flowers, and other knick-knacks. Although the market wasn’t the largest Farmer’s Market I’ve been to, there was definitely a great selection of stands and clearly well-loved by the community.
Take in the History
Launceston is full of beautiful historic buildings. The best way I found to explore the town and all of its history is simply just walking around Launceston. There are extremely grand historic buildings like Launceston Town Hall, the Customs House, Launceston Post Office, and then tons of historic churches, and smaller buildings that are definitely worth your time.
Walking around a town I’m visiting, is one of my favorite ways to explore, and walking around Launceston, you’ll be greeted by so much history and architecture detail that walking around is a must.
Visit Monkeys in City Park
Yep! You heard that right! In the center of Launceston in City Park, there are real monkeys in the Japanese Macaque Monkey Enclosure. Along with the Monkey Enclosure, there’s the John Hart Conservatory, a duck pond, a ‘senses’ garden, monuments, and tons of bbq areas, city park train and a playground, making it the perfect place for a picnic.
The City Park was conveniently located right across from our accommodations at the Mercure, so we spent the afternoon taking in the beautiful flowers in the John Hart Conservatory and walking around the path through the park.
Shopping
Launceston is definitely one of the larger areas of Tasmania. That being said, Launceston is still decently small. However, if you’re looking to do some shopping, Launceston is the place to go with plenty of little boutiques and some name-brand stores in the Launceston town center that you can find in just about any Australian mall.
You could easily spend a day exploring all the shops in Launceston.
Where to Eat
Samuel Pepys Cafe
One of my favorite places that we ate in Launceston was actually the first place we ate at, Samuel Pepys Cafe. After landing at 9 in the morning, we wanted to find a cafe to have breakfast. Located on George Street, the Samuel Pepys Cafe caught our eye while wandering the street and we had a delicious breakfast there.
Not only was the food super delicious and filling, but the staff was incredibly nice.
During our Launceston trip, I was actually really sick and essentially didn’t have a voice. After we finished our meal, I asked the barista for some hot water for my Lemsip to take with me. Instead of just getting me hot water, he made my Lemsip for me, added some honey to help coat my throat and also gave me this natural shot to take to help me feel better and I immediately did. Regardless if you’re sick or not, the staff at Samuel Pepys clearly just goes above and beyond with their hospitality and service so I definitely recommend stopping by there in Launceston.
Bento York Street
If you’re looking for something to warm you up, Bento is the perfect place for some Udon or a sushi roll or two. We had Bento for dinner one night and we really enjoyed it. It was more of a takeaway style place, but the food was affordable and delicious and clearly popular as it was incredibly busy when we went.
The Prickly Cactus
If you’re craving Happy Hour specials, The Prickly Cactus is a great place to visit. The Prickly Cactus offers a wide range of Mexican Style dishes like nachos, burritos, and offer Fishbowl Margaritas. When we went, they had the Fishbowl Margaritas on special, but now it looks like they’ve changed their Happy Hour to food and a drink for $20. We ordered some nachos and two fishbowl margaritas to split. The margaritas were so big, we couldn’t even finish one of them.
Needless to say, you definitely get your money’s worth with the margaritas!
Day Trips
Tasmania is a relatively a small area and it’ll only take a little over 24 hours driving straight around the whole state.
Because of that, you can see a lot of Tasmania in a short amount of time.
We started and ended our four day Tasmania Road trip from Launceston and everything was relatively close, making it the perfect home base for traveling around the state.
Freycinet National Park is definitely one of the favorite places we visited in Tasmania and is only located a couple of hours away from Launceston. If you’re looking to do some day trips from Launceston, Freycinet is definitely a must.
If you’re looking for possible day trips you can take from Launceston, you can check out my blog post on our Wineglass Bay Cruises in Freycinet National Park and my review of NRMA St. Helens Waterfront Park in St. Helens.
How to Get Around
Walk
Launceston is definitely a very walkable town. We tended to just leave our car at our hotel and walk when exploring the area. Although for places like the Swiss Village and the Cataract Gorge, you’ll need a car, other than that, walking around is definitely the best way to explore Launceston.
Rental Car
We rented a car for our Tasmania Trip. As I mentioned, we did a road trip around Tasmania, so a rental car was a must. We rented with Europcar which we were pretty happy with. It definitely wasn’t the cheapest option, but I started to realize that rental cars can be pretty tricky to book.
We found that the cheaper options when it came to rental cards held a really large deposit on your credit card (ie like $1000) which we were not interested in doing. We also always do pretty much the highest insurance coverage possible, because we’d rather pay $100 more on our rental car than $8,000 later if an accident or damage or any kind was to happen.
After shopping around for a bit, we decided on Europcar which we found had a pretty fair insurance policy and had a more reasonable card hold of a couple of hundred dollars vs the one thousand the budget rentals had.
When it comes to renting a car in Launceston, it’s not really too necessary if you’re planning on staying right in the town center. However, if you’re looking to do any day trips or any attractions outside of the Town Centre, you’d definitely want a car. To avoid parking fees, I would recommend, making sure your hotel has free parking and park and leave your car there while you explore the town or take advantage of places like Woolworths Parking Garage where they free parking for a couple hours which we did a few times as well.
Launceston was a great first stop on our Tasmania Road Trip earlier this year. Make subscribe to stay up-to-date for my Tasmania Four Day Road Trip post coming soon along with my other travel content.
