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A stay in Launceston Tamar Valley provides you with an ideal base to explore the many attractions of the Valley of the Senses and Northern Tasmania.

Within an hour from your hotel, you can be barefoot on a white-sand surf beach, peering up through the fronds of a man fern in a temperate rainforest, or getting an adrenalin rush as you mountain bike down the slopes of local ski-field Ben Lomond.

There's also plenty for history buffs and antique collectors  - you can visit several National Trust properties on a heritage pass, fossick around the delightful Sunday market and antique shops in the historic village of Evandale (home to the famous annual Penny Farthing races), see the last century's best and strangest car and motorbike inventions at the National Automobile Museum in Launceston, or explore one of the country's most significant regional museums, the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Galley, at the City's historic Inveresk rail yards.

The old gold mining town of Beaconsfield, which caught the world's attention in 2006 when two miners were rescued after fourteen days trapped underground, is also just 40 minutes from Launceston. Here you'll find the fascinating Grubb Shaft Gold & Heritage Museum next to the spot where Brant Webb and Todd Russell emerged from their ordeal.

Tasmania is a mecca for bushwalkers and nature lovers, and Launceston Tamar Valley doesn't disappoint. Numerous picturesque day walks are within easy reach and the famous Cradle Mountain is just 2 ¼ hours' drive away. Closer to home, the Tamar Valley Wetlands is a haven for bird life, with a 3 km boardwalk to Tamar Island, and food-for-the-soul views from the middle of the river. Just 20 minutes from Launceston is a wildlife park and fishing lake complex with a large collection of native and exotic animals, including wombats, emus, wallabies, kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles, alpacas and our famous Tassie devils. A little further along the West Tamar at Beauty Point, there's the only seahorse farm of its kind and the chance to get up close to platypus and echidnas in an indoor setting. 

For the more adventurous, there's cable-hang gliding and mountain bike trails at Trevallyn State Reserve; as well as rock climbing and abseiling in the Cataract Gorge - a piece of dramatic wilderness a few minutes from the City. This is also the venue for one of the world's most challenging biennial white water kayaking events, which can be viewed easily from the Gorge's many trails and cliff walkways.

Or you could take off in a classic VW beetle with a Tamar Triple Pass to three of the Valley's key attractions, board a cruise down Australia's longest navigable tidal estuary – the Tamar River, or indulge your senses on a wine tour and let someone else take care of the driving while you visit some of the Valley's 24 vineyards.

With so many award-winning restaurants serving our famously fresh and delicious local produce, you could send your taste buds to heaven on a gourmet weekend (and walk it all off with a City heritage or ghost tour; a guided discovery of the Gorge, or a stroll through the Hollybank Forest).  

Maritime enthusiasts can visit the fully operational pilot station at Low Head, Australia's oldest ship navigation station. Tours of resident seal and penguin colonies are close by, inhabiting one of the best coldwater marine environments in the world (which is also one of Australia's best dive sites).

There's a sense that all the world is here, nudged up next to the area's own unique and often surprising attractions: the longest single-span chairlift at Cataract Gorge; the oldest cable-stayed truss bridge (Batman) linking West and East Tamar, the various hot rooms and pools of Launceston's Italian marbled Roman Baths, Australia's only museum collection of contemporary wood design housed next to the botanical treasures and monkey enclosure at City Park; one of the world's very few water-powered Brindley organs at the magnificent 1891 Albert Hall, the historic Boag's brewery (Australia's third largest), and the beautiful lakes of Tamar Valley Resort in the 'Swiss' hillside village of Grindelwald - to name just a few.

Launceston and the Valley come to life with a diverse calendar of events from Festivale – a celebration of local food and wine culture, to AFL games at Aurora Stadium - Hawthorn's home away from home. There are also a myriad of music, arts and theatre events showcased in a range of venues from the elegant historic Princess Theatre to the modern University Academy of the Arts.