EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Up to nine hundred people arrive in Devonport at 8.30am each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning on the Spirit of Tasmania   Bass Strait ferry (tel 13 2010), which docks at the terminal in East Devonport, just across the Mersey River from the city centre. As the boat has its own tourist information and booking centre, a small interpretive centre and even national park rangers dispensing advice in summer, you might well have made all your arrangements on board before arriving. If not, there are company representatives in the terminal, and you can buy bus passes and tickets here. Most passengers head immediately for the waiting Tasmanian Redline Coaches express buses (Mon, Wed & Fri 10.30am, Tues & Thurs 9.10am) to Launceston ($15.70) and Hobart ($38.10). Other bus routes leave from the depots in town. If you decide to stay, you can get to the city centre by walking north for a short distance to the bottom of Murray Street, where the ferry Torquay crosses the river (every 15-30min Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 8.30am-5pm, no service Sun; $2, bikes 50¢).

Southern Australia Airlines, Kendell and Aus-Air fly from the mainland into Devonport Airport , 10km east of the city. Taxis into Devonport cost about $12, and Fox Coaches (tel 0418 142 692; $5) operate a shuttle bus connecting with all flights, dropping and picking up as far out as the youth hostel. It also picks up at the Tasmanian Travel and Information Centre , at 5 Best St (daily 9am-5pm; Sat & Sun information only; tel 03/6424 4466, ttic@dcc.tas.gov.au ). Staff here can book accommodation, tours and travel, and sell all types of bus passes. For maps, bushwalking tips and local knowledge of the area visit the Backpackers Barn , 10-12 Edward St (daily 9am-6pm; tel 03/6424 3628), which specializes in the planning of itineraries, runs tours and rents equipment for bushwalkers and backpackers; it also offers travellers a day-room, showers ($2) and lockers ($1 per day). The excellent Allgoods, at 10 Rooke St (closed Sun), rents out gear too.