Yes—reversing it works well. The clean six-night route becomes: **Hobart 3 nights → Port Arthur 1 night → Bicheno 2 nights → fly from Launceston** It’s actually a nicer rhythm: city and scheduled attractions first, then increasingly scenic countryside. | Date | Overnight | Main focus | |---|---|---| | Sat 15 Aug | Hobart | Salamanca Market and waterfront | | Sun 16 Aug | Hobart | Bruny Island food trip | | Mon 17 Aug | Hobart | MONA | | Tue 18 Aug | Port Arthur | Richmond, cheese and Tasman Peninsula | | Wed 19 Aug | Bicheno | Port Arthur or wilderness cruise, then east coast | | Thu 20 Aug | Bicheno | Freycinet and penguins | | Fri 21 Aug | — | Bicheno → Launceston → Sydney | ## Saturday 15 August — Salamanca and Hobart Fly Sydney → Hobart early enough to land by approximately 10:30am. Collect the Evry car contactlessly and drive into town. Salamanca Market runs until 3pm, so an early flight should leave a useful two to three hours there. Have lunch from the market stalls, explore Salamanca Place and walk through Battery Point. Later options: - Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery if the weather is poor. - Brooke Street Pier and the waterfront. - A relaxed dinner at Bar Wa, Peppina or Landscape. - Pre-dinner drinks at Institut Polaire or Luc. Stay in central Hobart for three nights. I’d favour somewhere around Salamanca, the waterfront or the CBD—you won’t need the car much while in town. ## Sunday 16 August — Bruny Island food day Take the EV across on the Kettering ferry. This is your main cheese-and-produce day. A comfortable sequence: 1. Bruny Island Cheese Co for cheese, sourdough and beer. 2. Get Shucked for oysters for Erika. 3. The Neck lookout. 4. Adventure Bay. 5. Grass Point walk if the weather is decent. 6. Honey, chocolate or another cheese stop on the way back. For more scenery and excitement, substitute the afternoon stops with the three-hour Bruny Island wilderness cruise. In August it could be spectacular but cold and rough; I’d make this weather-dependent. Return to the same Hobart hotel. Charge overnight or use a Hobart public charger before leaving the city. ## Monday 17 August — MONA and Hobart evening Leave the car parked and take the MONA ferry from Brooke Street Pier. Book approximately: - 9:15am or 10:15am ferry outward. - 4pm or 5pm ferry back. Allow the full day rather than treating MONA as a two-hour museum visit. Lunch choices include Faro for the complete experience or one of the more casual onsite venues. This is also your best night for a special Hobart dinner because you won’t be packing up or driving early that evening. Good branches: - Fico for a tasting-menu splurge. - Landscape for excellent meat alongside seafood options. - Sonny for a smaller, wine-oriented dinner. - Aloft for waterfront dining, subject to the current set menu working for both of you. ## Tuesday 18 August — Hobart → Richmond → Port Arthur Check out and begin the road-trip portion. Drive first to Richmond, approximately 30 minutes from Hobart. Visit: - Wicked Cheese for tastings and purchases. - Richmond Bridge and the historic centre. - Pooley Wines if you want a cellar-door stop. - Richmond Bakery or another casual village lunch. Then continue toward the Tasman Peninsula. On the way, choose a couple of Eaglehawk Neck stops according to the current closure situation and weather: - Pirates Bay lookout. - Tessellated Pavement. - Waterfall Bay. - Short coastal viewpoints around Eaglehawk Neck. Stay at Stewarts Bay Lodge for the attractive setting and convenient charging, or Port Arthur Motor Inn for sharper value and immediate historic-site access. Because it’s Tuesday, the Port Arthur ghost tour still won’t operate. Have a quiet dinner and an early night. ## Wednesday 19 August — Port Arthur → Bicheno You have three sensible morning options. ### Option A: Port Arthur Historic Site Spend approximately 9am–1pm at the site, including the harbour cruise. Then drive to Bicheno via Dunalley, Orford and Swansea. This is the most balanced choice and would be my default. ### Option B: Tasman Island wilderness cruise Take the 10am–1pm cruise, then eat lunch and drive to Bicheno. This produces a later arrival, so I’d keep stops brief and aim to be moving north by about 2pm. ### Option C: Short hikes and coast Skip the major paid attractions and spend the morning around Stewarts Bay, Remarkable Cave or accessible sections of the Waterfall Bay coastline. Then take a leisurely drive north. The direct drive to Bicheno is approximately 3½ hours. Swansea makes the natural coffee or late-lunch stop. Try to arrive before dusk because the final section has abundant wildlife. Stay in Bicheno for two nights. ## Thursday 20 August — Freycinet and penguins This is your full countryside day. A flexible Freycinet sequence: - Wineglass Bay Lookout, around 1–1½ hours. - Cape Tourville circuit. - Honeymoon Bay. - Sleepy Bay if it isn’t too wet or windy. - Devil’s Corner for a late lunch, wine, pizza and seafood choices. You don’t need to descend all the way to Wineglass Bay unless you want a substantially longer walk. The lookout plus the smaller coastal stops gives you more variety in limited winter daylight. Return to Bicheno well before dusk. Do the guided penguin tour that evening, arranging an early dinner around the assigned tour time. ## Friday 21 August — Bicheno → Launceston and home This day depends on the departure time you book. ### With a late-afternoon or evening flight Leave Bicheno around 9am and drive via Campbell Town. Then choose: - **Cheese option:** detour west of Launceston to Ashgrove Dairy Door. This adds considerable mileage, so allow about 1½ extra hours compared with driving directly to the airport. - **Launceston option:** lunch in town followed by a short Cataract Gorge walk. - **Relaxed option:** stop in Campbell Town, then proceed directly to Launceston Airport with plenty of buffer. Return the Evry vehicle contactlessly at Launceston Airport and fly home. ### With an early-afternoon flight Skip Ashgrove and drive directly from Bicheno. Allow at least three hours before departure for the drive, charging contingency, vehicle return and airport formalities. ## The main trade-off This version gives you an excellent Hobart stay, but it removes the original dedicated Launceston day. I think that’s the right choice: Salamanca, Bruny and MONA collectively offer much more for your interests than spending a night in Launceston. The one booking constraint is the return flight. I’d strongly favour a flight leaving Launceston **after about 5pm**. That preserves Friday as a useful travel-and-food day instead of turning it into an anxious airport transfer. For Evry, the requested booking direction is now: **Hobart Airport pickup: Saturday 15 August** **Launceston Airport return: Friday 21 August** Confirm that complimentary charging, one-way relocation and contactless handovers apply in this reversed direction too.