The best luxury hotels in Tasmania: a definitive guide for 2026
Risby Cove waterfront suites on Macquarie Harbour, Strahan Tasmania
From the world-famous east coast to the remote wild west, the ten finest places to stay in Tasmania — ranked by a property that knows the island well.
Tasmania does not announce itself. It reveals itself — through dense rainforest and ancient waterways, across wild coastlines shaped by the relentless Southern Ocean, in harbours whose scale only registers once you are standing at the water's edge. It is a destination of unique natural and cultural significance, and the accommodation landscape it has produced reflects that: varied, purposeful, and in the finest examples, inseparable from the extraordinary places in which each property sits.
The island is large and sparsely populated. Its finest properties are spread across it, many located at the edge of World Heritage wilderness, national parks, or remote coastlines that most Australians have never seen. What connects them is a conviction that luxury, here, is defined not by excess but by meaning — by genuine connection to place, by experiences that could not happen anywhere else, and by the privilege of access to some of the most extraordinary landscapes in the southern hemisphere.
This guide covers the ten properties we consider the genuine article. They are listed in the order we would recommend them.
The ten best luxury hotels in Tasmania
1. Saffire Freycinet
East coast — Coles Bay, Freycinet National Park
A luxury coastal sanctuary on Tasmania's east coast, Saffire Freycinet is discreetly positioned overlooking the Hazards Mountains, the Freycinet Peninsula, and the pristine waters of Great Oyster Bay. Twenty luxuriously appointed suites blend seamlessly into the breathtaking natural beauty of their surroundings, designed for privacy and deep immersion in one of Tasmania's most extraordinary landscapes. The guided experiences — from bushwalks to gourmet picnics in remote locations — set the standard for what purposeful, place-based luxury can be. Named Australia's number one resort in the Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards, Saffire's international recognition is well-founded and consistently earned.
Best for: couples seeking an all-inclusive east coast sanctuary with guided nature experiences and privileged access to Freycinet National Park.
2. Risby Cove Boutique Hotel
West coast — Strahan, Macquarie Harbour
Where Saffire occupies the east coast's most celebrated national park, Risby Cove occupies something rarer: the only waterfront address on Macquarie Harbour, at the threshold of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Long loved for its serene setting on this extraordinary harbour, the property has undergone a multi-million-dollar transformation — emerging as a refined, design-led retreat that stays true to its wild west coast soul.
The twelve reimagined suites are meticulous in detail: curated Tasmanian artworks, rare local timber joinery, bioethanol fireplaces, king-sized beds, and generous private decks framing cinematic views of rainforest, harbour, and sky. Guests choose their form of restoration — cedar hot tub suites, infrared sauna suites, freestanding statement baths, or the property's cinematic suite, conceived as a contemporary homage to its former life as a theatre. Floor-to-ceiling double-glazed windows invite the landscape inside, making the ever-changing mood of Macquarie Harbour as present as any designed element. Risby's Restaurant, reintroduced with renewed depth and refinement, celebrates Tasmania's freshest seasonal produce in dishes inspired by land, sea, and story — paired with harbour views and understated elegance. The restaurant's design honours the site's history through meaningful gestures: a Huon pine bar top salvaged from Strahan's original jetty, fire-finished Tasmanian oak tables crafted by local hands, and a deep green interior palette that intensifies the drama of the surrounding rainforest.
What distinguishes Risby Cove within this list is its recently launched Experiences Collection that offer privileged access to this place and its history — encounters that could not happen anywhere else in Australia. Summit to Shaft takes guests by 4WD to the summit of Mount Owen, followed by a three-course crib lunch served underground in the tunnels of an abandoned copper mine. The Piner's Table is a lantern-lit private dinner in an original piners hut from the Risby Brothers sawmill, connecting the evening's meal to the living history of the site. The Fresh Catch Crayfish Experience places guests on a working boat at dawn to haul craypots with a local fisherman before eating the morning's catch at the water's edge. These experiences are entirely unique to the West Coast, and to the community and landscape that surround it. Exclusively available to Risby Cove guests.
Best for: travellers seeking genuine connection to the west coast — its wilderness, its history, its extraordinary food — at the highest available standard. Two nights minimum recommended; three to five allows the place to unfold properly.
3. The Tasman, a Luxury Collection Hotel
Capital city — Hobart waterfront
The Tasman brought a new standard of city luxury to Hobart when it opened in 2021, occupying three connected heritage buildings — the oldest dating to 1847 — adjacent to Salamanca Place and Sullivan's Cove. The 152 rooms are striking, combining Georgian and Art Deco architectural heritage with contemporary interiors designed by Melbourne's Hecker Guthrie. The Peppina restaurant is among Hobart's best dining rooms. For travellers arriving from interstate who need a serious city hotel before heading into the wilderness, The Tasman is the answer.
Best for: guests who want a full five-star city hotel experience in the heart of the Hobart waterfront precinct.
4. Kittawa Lodge
King Island — off the north-west coast
On a 96-acre coastal property on King Island, Kittawa Lodge has been named Australia's number one resort and second-best in Australasia in the Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards. Three lodges — two one-bedroom and one two-bedroom retreat — are architecturally designed around a seamless connection between interior and coastline: floor-to-ceiling glazing, French-designed fireplaces, handmade concrete baths, and panoramic views across a landscape shaped by ancient grassy sand dunes. The food is central to the experience — meals are included, and the kitchen's celebration of King Island's world-class dairy, beef, and seafood means that eating at Kittawa is as important as sleeping there. Entirely off-grid. King Island is 30 minutes from Melbourne by air — the closest equivalent to a genuine remote island escape available from the mainland.
Best for: guests seeking complete seclusion, award-winning food, and a landscape that rewards those who make the effort to reach it.
North — Launceston, Tamar River
Seven suites in a heritage flour mill on the banks of the Tamar River, in the heritage heart of Launceston — a city underrated by most Tasmanian itineraries. The rooms are intimate and well-designed; the property's principal asset is the Stillwater restaurant on the ground floor, which has been one of Tasmania's most respected dining rooms for over two decades, focusing on top Tasmanian produce in a setting of considerable elegance. Stillwater Seven is the right choice for a Launceston overnight before heading west toward the highlands and the coast.
Best for: guests who want Launceston's finest restaurant directly beneath their room, in a property with genuine character and a strong sense of place.
6. MACq 01
Capital city — Hobart waterfront
MACq 01 takes a storytelling approach to hotel design — each of the 114 rooms is themed around an individual Tasmanian historical character, with original artworks and objects throughout. The result is a hotel that functions as a kind of immersive cultural encounter with the island's past, housed in a striking building on the Hobart waterfront with glittering metal roofing and floor-to-ceiling harbour views. The Evolve Spirits Bar, showcasing Tasmanian distillers in an almost cabinet-of-curiosities setting, is among Hobart's best. The Old Wharf restaurant celebrates local producers and seasonal Tasmanian ingredients.
Best for: travellers who want a distinctive Hobart experience with cultural and historical depth, and privileged access to the island's finest spirits collection.
7. Satellite Island
South — D'Entrecasteaux Channel, near Bruny Island
An entire private island in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, 90 minutes south of Hobart, exclusively yours for the duration of your stay. The 34-hectare island — accessible only by boat from Bruny Island — accommodates up to eight guests across a three-bedroom Summer House, a two-bedroom Boathouse on the water's edge, and a luxury bell tent. Sea eagles overhead, wild oysters shucked from the rocks, kayaks, fishing rods, a well-stocked spirits cabinet, and a working veggie patch. A high-profile Tasmanian chef can be arranged to cook on the island. The owners describe the quiet as astonishing, and it is reason enough to come. It is less a hotel than an experience of absolute, private connection to a Tasmanian wilderness landscape.
Best for: groups of family or friends seeking something genuinely unlike any other accommodation experience in Australia.
8. Ship Inn Stanley
North-west — Stanley, beneath the Nut
A heritage-listed inn dating to 1849 in the historic fishing village of Stanley, nestled beneath the imposing Nut — the sheer-sided volcanic bluff that defines the town's silhouette. Seven individually styled suites and two apartments, each themed around a character or episode from Stanley's layered history: merchant sailors, colonial English gentry, agricultural hardship, and the birthplace of Australia's only Tasmanian-born Prime Minister. The restoration has been done with evident care — bespoke joinery, rich linens, historical artefacts, and a communal guest lounge in the original 1900s Billiard Hall. The property offers a gateway to the Tarkine wilderness and the wild north-west coast, which most Tasmanian itineraries miss entirely. Multi-award-winning.
Best for: history-minded travellers seeking a genuinely characterful boutique inn and a meaningful connection to one of Tasmania's most overlooked regions.
9. Henry Jones Art Hotel
Capital city — Hobart waterfront
Widely regarded as Australia's first art hotel, the Henry Jones occupies a converted IXL jam factory and series of 1820s warehouses on Sullivan's Cove. The 56 rooms carry the character of the original industrial structures — wooden beams, exposed stone, harbour views — and the art programme is taken seriously: significant works by Tasmanian artists throughout, and a gallery that runs independently of the hotel function. The Henry Jones feels genuinely inhabited by its place in a way that newer city properties rarely achieve. The speakeasy-style bar is one of Hobart's best.
Best for: travellers who value art, heritage, and a deep sense of place over the polished predictability of a chain hotel.
10. The Keep
North-east — Blue Tier, Goulds Country
A three-storey stone tower perched on a 650-metre rocky outcrop in the Blue Tier forest of north-east Tasmania, with 360-degree views across the coastline and Bass Strait, available exclusively to one couple at a time. The outdoor bath — a single piece of granite carved into the escarpment, sheltered by boulders — is one of the most extraordinary bathing experiences in Australia. The interior is French linen, botanical wallpaper, Tasmanian-made furniture, and fireplaces. At $1,500 per night all-inclusive, it is priced at the level its experience warrants. Listed on Airbnb but operating at a standard well beyond the platform's typical association. Thirty kilometres from St Helens; accessible only in a vehicle with good clearance.
Best for: couples seeking complete solitude and a deep, unmediated encounter with one of Tasmania's most dramatic and seldom-visited landscapes.
How to plan a luxury Tasmania itinerary
The most rewarding Tasmanian trip is usually one that combines two or three of these properties rather than spending the entire visit in one place. A natural sequence for a week or more: arrive in Hobart (The Tasman or Macq 01), move east to Freycinet (Saffire), then onto Stillwater Seven in Launceston, and take the drive through Cradle Mountain or the Central Highlands — one of Tasmania's great journeys in itself — and arrive on the west coast. We recommend a minimum of two nights at Risby Cove in Strahan; three to five allows the west coast to unfold at the pace it deserves. Those wanting to go deeper will find our west coast itinerary guide a useful starting point.
For King Island, Satellite Island, and The Keep, these are destination stays in their own right — the accommodation is the journey. They combine well with a Hobart base at either end.
What all ten properties share is a commitment to something the best experiential luxury always delivers: a genuine sense of place, and the privilege of access to landscapes and stories that most travellers never reach. In Tasmania — where those landscapes are among the most extraordinary in the southern hemisphere — that is not a modest ambition. These ten properties meet it.
For those looking to combine the best of north and west in a single journey, Risby Cove has partnered with Stillwater Seven in Launceston on a curated six-night itinerary called the Wild Wild Rest — available May to September 2026 and bookable by enquiry through Stillwater Seven at stay@stillwater.net.au
Risby Cove — twelve suites on Macquarie Harbour, at the threshold of Tasmania's World Heritage wilderness. Award-winning dining, and a bespoke collection of guest experiences available nowhere else in the world. Plan your stay at risbycove.com.au