Self drive holiday in Tasmania by Tasmanian Odyssey

A tailor made self drive holiday to Tasmania, our 'Meet the Locals' holiday gives you the opportunity to experience the island, its islanders and wildlife from a true local perspective, staying in characterful and quirky accommodation ranging from B&Bs with platypus in the stream to luxury beach houses, convict built cottages and wildlife hideaways. With a population of just 500,000 on an island the size of Switzerland, Tasmania is Australia’s only island state, and possibly the most breathtakingly beautiful island on our planet. Quite literally the land that got away, and one of our last great wilderness frontiers, Tasmania became a life raft for birds, animals, trees and plants found nowhere else on earth when the land bridge that separated it from mainland Australia flooded some 12000 years ago. Over 45% of this island is protected after decades of bitter controversy and battles with mankind. Vast swathes of land are impenetrable, and some of it only accessible or known to a few local guides and experts. During your Tasmanian Odyssey you will enjoy coastal, mountain and rainforest landscapes that are completely unique including the highest flowering trees on earth, the highest cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere, the deepest lakes in Australia and some of the last truly wild rivers on our planet – not to mention some wonderful and quite bizarre mammals. Its history has been shaped over hundreds of millions of years and most recently by the Aboriginals, by French explorers and early settlers; by the extraordinary years of transportation from the other side of the world to what was then regarded as the most brutal island on earth - Van Diemen’s Land; by whalers, and most recently environmentalists whose bid to save this beautiful land changed the face of Australian politics and started the world’s first Green Party- and indeed the eco-tourism movement as we know it today.