Doing a Tasty Day Trip to Bruny Island from Hobart

While there are many day trips from Hobart that visitors to Tasmania can do, one of the most common is a day trip to Bruny Island. It’s a destination that’s not far from the city and offers visitors a lot of outdoor activities and tasty local produce. Having never been before myself, I decided to do a day tour of Bruny Island with Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, a well-known name in Tasmanian tourism, as part of my Hobart visit.

The most popular type of tour to visit Bruny Island is a wilderness eco-cruise of Bruny Island’s coast. Pennicott Wilderness Journeys is famous for these boat cruises, but I was more in the mood for something gentle. Instead, I decided to do their food and sightseeing tour, where I’d stay dry, warm, and well-fed. Hopefully, at some point, I do go back for the wilderness cruise.

This is what a land-based day trip to Bruny Island is like, whether you take a tour or go it alone. My one regret is that I never took photos of the food, proving two things: the food was excellent and I could never be a food blogger.

Where is Bruny Island?

Bruny Island is located south of Hobart, just off the coast of southern Tasmania.

This large island borders one side of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, with the Tasman Peninsula across from it on the other side. Look at a map, and Bruny Island almost looks like two islands, but a very narrow stretch of land joins North Bruny and South Bruny.

Despite its size, very few people live on Bruny Island – its residents are usually outnumbered by visiting people during the high season.

How to get to Bruny Island from Hobart

To visit Bruny Island from Hobart, you first need to go to the small town of Kettering, a 30-minute drive away.

There, you can take the ferry to Bruny Island with your car. The frequent ferry ride takes around 20 minutes and is generally smooth in the sheltered waters between the island and mainland Tasmania.

Bruny Island has one main road through it, with several minor side roads off it. Getting to the ferry and around the island both require a car, so you’ll need to rent a car if you don’t already have one. Naturally, this isn’t a problem if you visit with a tour.

What to do on a Bruny Island day trip

Once you’ve landed on Bruny Island, it’s time to set off and explore. Remember, there aren’t many roads here, so getting lost shouldn’t be a problem.

Bruny Island Cheese Company

The first stop on our Bruny Island food tour was at the Bruny Island Cheese Company. Now, some cheese-tasting for morning tea probably sounds like a good idea to most visitors.

However, the accompanying beer-pairing is a bit of an interesting way to start the morning. It does make sense though when you learn that they also founded a craft beer label, the Bruny Island Beer Company.

Our guide for the cheese-tasting took us through their “core range” of cheeses, a mix of hard and soft cheese made with cow milk. I wouldn’t say that I’m a big “cheese person”, but I did enjoy their soft cheeses more than I enjoy most.

Truganini Lookout at the Neck

With cheese, beer, and even a coffee on board, the tour set off for the first sightseeing stop. The isthmus connecting the island is known as the Neck and is probably the most famous feature of Bruny Island. It’s nearly impossible not to notice it when going between the island’s two halves. Stop at a parking lot at the northern end and you can climb a long series of wooden steps to reach a popular local viewpoint.

Truganini Lookout is named after Truganini, a famous aboriginal woman from the people who lived on Bruny Island in lutruwita. She is said to be one of the last people to speak the indigenous languages of Tasmania. There is a memorial to her at the lookout.

From Truganini Lookout, you see one of the classic views of Bruny Island and can properly appreciate how narrow the isthmus here is. A side path takes you over to the beach if you need a beach walk, but you will have other chances during the day.

Mavista Nature Walk

The coastline isn’t the only environment you’ll find on Bruny Island. Forest reserve covers large parts of the island and the Mavista Nature Walk provides an easy opportunity to see what it’s like. If you’ve spent any time in Tasmania’s nature, the scenery won’t look very different to what you’ve already seen.

At the Mavista Picnic Area, there’s a shelter with information boards on Bruny Island’s forest. The boards detail the history of the forests, including the history of Captain Cook at Adventure Bay which we’ll get into later. But it also identifies some of the walking trails and mountain bike tracks that you can find on South Bruny. I’ve read that there is a waterfall in the area, but it’s a bit of a bush walk. We just did a gentle 20 or so-minute walk instead.

Lunch at the Bruny Island Cruises Restaurant

Normally, if a tour company says that they’re going to provide your lunch, I lower my expectations. But that’s not needed on this tour, as rather than having a picnic, Pennicott instead took us to their Bruny Island Cruises Restaurant. This modern restaurant is located just up from Adventure Bay, with wonderful views of the coast and surrounding forest.

The setting isn’t the only perk here. You get to dine from an a la carte menu, with two complimentary drinks and shucked oysters. Bruny Island is known for its oysters thanks to the prime conditions for farming them. Oysters were never my thing, but considered myself converted after trying them here. Bruny Island Beer Co. popped up again with lunch, with their Lighthouse Ale a stand-out for me.

A quick note on Bruny Island oysters. If you want to buy oysters to eat or take back with you, your best bet is the Get Shucked oyster supplier in North Bruny. It’s right on the main road, you can’t miss it.

Adventure Bay and the Bligh Museum

Adventure Bay is a major focal point on Bruny Island for tourist attractions. That’s because this stretch of coast saw a lot of attention from European explorers, including Abel Tasman, James Cook, and William Bligh, who regularly anchored there.

The reason for its importance was a freshwater spring found just outside town, which many explorers used to resupply their fresh water. Two Tree Point is where you’ll find the spring, as well as the two gum trees painted by George Tobin, who sailed with Captain Bligh back in 1792.

Back in the town of Adventure Bay, you’ll find the Bligh Museum of Pacific Exploration. This small museum is inside an old building constructed with bricks made by convicts who worked on the island. Exhibits here are diligently prepared by locals, with charts, manuscripts, logs, and globes connected with Bligh and other contemporary European navigators.

Bruny Island White Wallabies

There’s one other special thing about visiting Adventure Bay. Keep your eyes peeled as you pass through and you might spot a local curiosity – a white wallaby. Bruny Island is the only place you find these snow-white critters as the island is free from natural predators. Apparently, they quite like the front yards of homes in Adventure Bay, as you can see by the little guy above.

Bruny Island Chocolate Co.

Once enough time has passed since lunch, you can head to the Bruny Island Chocolate Co. This is just a small roadside shop that sells a large range of chocolate and fudge. If you have a sweet tooth you could find it very tempting and I did like the fudge I tried there. It’s a good place for edible souvenirs more than anything.

The Gardens at HIBA

Trying chocolate and fudge is only one part of this stop. Thanks to our Bruny Island tour, we were given a guided tour of the private estate behind the chocolate factory by one of the owners. For people in the know (not me), this is quite a celebrated garden, known for its rhododendrons, azaleas, and roses. However, it was the golden wattle everywhere in bloom that caught my eye.

Bruny Island Honey

The best way to ensure you’re completely full is with one last food stop at Bruny Island Honey. This store back in North Bruny specialises in Manuka Honey, but you can also do taste-tests of other honey types, including leatherwood, fennel, and bush honey. Who knew honey had such complexity to it?

Besides buying honey and skin products using honey, they all sell honey ice cream. And yes, it’s as good as it sounds. While you’re enjoying the honey ice cream you can watch bees at work through glass viewing windows that let you look directly into a working bee hive. It’s neat being able to see what’s going on, without them buzzing around you.

Other things to do at Bruny Island

Both day tours and independent day trips to Bruny Island aren’t going to cover an entire destination in one day. As good as this tour was, there were places we didn’t get to see. Some, such as the Bruny Island House of Whisky, would have fit in well.

But there are other things to do on Bruny Island that just require more time. There are coastal walks around several remote parts of the island, such as the Fluted Cape Walk and the Kelly’s Point Walk. Possibly the most significant place we didn’t visit though was Cape Bruny Lighthouse, a historic lighthouse down south.

To fit everything in, you could do multiple visits or you could simply stay on the island to see more. Staying would also give you more time to enjoy Bruny’s white sand beaches, and common water activities such as snorkelling, diving, and kayaking.

Have you been on a Bruny Island day trip from Hobart before? Did you go solo or take a tour? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.