{"id":26676,"date":"2018-04-20T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures?p=26676&preview=true&preview_id=26676"},"modified":"2025-03-21T02:50:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:50:24","slug":"tasmania-group-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/tasmania-group-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like to explore Tasmania on a small group tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Outback Yarns<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are nicer down here,\u201d said the lady sitting next to me, restless infant in tow. She looked pretty pleased to be coming home. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Our plane from Melbourne had just landed in Hobart<\/a>, and her teary son was threatening to erupt anew. \u201cI know I\u2019m biased, because I\u2019m from here,\u201d she added with a smile, \u201cbut it\u2019s true.\u201d Biased as she may have been, she had the kind of easy, open way about her that I associated more with people from the bush than from a capital city. If she was any indicator of Tasmania\u2019s general affability, I was off to pretty good start.<\/p>\n

EXPLORE TASMANIA NOW ON A SMALL GROUP ADVENTURE WITH INTREPID<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"TravellersLater that day, when I was tucking into the best parmigiana of my life, accompanied by a pint of some Boags or Cascade variety they don\u2019t even sell in Victoria (cheers, Republic Bar in North Hobart), another rumour was beginning to appear true. I have eaten more pub meals in Victoria than I would like to admit \u2013 an estimated one third of them, for better or worse, being parmas \u2013 but this one\u2026 Was it the love that went into it, or evidence of the state-wide ban on genetically modified food? It could also have been mere beginner\u2019s luck. But the predictably gracious response of the chef, when I barked my appraisal into the kitchen, seemed to suggest the former.<\/p>\n

\"TasmanianIt was both my first time in Tasmania and my first time on a group tour. So on the eve of commencing Intrepid\u2019s highly regarded Taste of Tasmania trip, the other question on my mind was: Is group travel worth it<\/a>? Half the fun of travel, for me, is the quiet inspiration and revelation that comes on trains and in buses and taxis, which sometimes only the combination of solitude, streaming landscapes and music can unlock. I love people, but I also like travelling independently \u2013 to rejuvenate and recharge, to see the world through new eyes in the way a good novel makes you do. What could a tour guide and a bunch of random travellers possibly show me that I couldn\u2019t otherwise find myself? And will there be enough time to chill out and contemplate it all?<\/p>\n

RELATED: DON\u2019T LEAVE AUSTRALIA WITHOUT VISITING TASMANIA. HERE\u2019S WHY.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"KayakingThe first thing I appreciated, though, was how quickly camaraderie developed in the group. Many of the 17 \u2018random\u2019 people I met soon became pals with whom I shared in-jokes and made-up slang. The diversity of the group, both in background and age, made it more interesting than I had considered. There was an Ethiopian-American theatregoer from Atlanta, a young Hong Konger on a spontaneous getaway, a retired English lawyer, a boisterous bunch of millennials from Sydney, two Bavarian backpackers, a Slovenian psychologist. And soon their stories started flowing. Drinking with strangers in Aussie pubs in the middle of nowhere will have that effect.<\/p>\n

\"AThen there was the leader \u2013 a thirty-something lad from Launceston named Leith who, despite his rugged demeanour and dry humour, could go down the nerdiest of rabbit holes on the vegetation of his home state with the passion of a botanist. Just when I starting looking for signs that he might<\/em> have been going through the motions and would rather have been talking about his upcoming snowboard trip in Japan (how sick must he be of telling people how expensive Huon Pine is, week after week!), the two of us fell in step on the Cradle Mountain hike and I was treated to an impromptu dissertation on the local fauna. The hero of which was the Tasmanian waratah.<\/p>\n

RELATED: YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"ExploringBut the most powerful revelation came in the form of \u2013 call me old fashioned \u2013 a beach. I had been to Bondi for the first time in my life that same month, and Wineglass Bay blew that \u2013 along with every East Coast strip I\u2019ve seen \u2013 out of the water. To be fair, the weather was on our side, and four people instead of four hundred makes a difference. In the travel writing racket, it\u2019s hard to find new superlatives for beaches, but this one made me want to change careers.<\/p>\n