Anyone else who's been to Tassie is welcome to respond too. I probably should have started the ball rolling with some comments myself.

We holidayed in Tasmania twenty years ago and it truly was the holiday isle. Our biggest regret was not booking ahead. It was just after peak season so we thought we'd be okay but we had some close calls. Sadly this time it seemed the tourist industry is in decline. We booked ahead and that was a big mistake. There's some weird quota system so in some places we were told our preferred accomodation was not available when in fact there were vacancies when we arrived. The alternatives we were given always seemed to be old holiday units, even when a better hotel was available. We would have been much better off just looking around and paying standby rates. (This is in September.) It seemed much harder to find decent places to eat than twenty years ago. I feel very sad for Tasmania because it has so much to offer. There are some things I can wholeheartedly recommend. In chronological order - Mures Seafood Restaurant in Hobart, Par Avion flight to Melaleuca, Hastings Caves and Tahune Airwalk (both have very good visitors centres and the scallop pies at Tahune were great), Felons Restaurant at Port Arthur, Freycinet Lodge and Cradle Mountain Chateau. I'd like to go back sometime. A few days in Hobart with all meals at Mures, a flight down to Melaleuca, stop for lunch at Felons, a week at Freycinet, a week at Cradle Mountain, then back to Hobart for one more meal at Mures before flying home. Freycinet and Cradle Mountain are so beautiful. If I had just a week off I'd happily spend it in either of those places.

Did you book these places through a travel agent? I was wondering if you could beat the system by booking directly with the hotel of your choice either by phone or the internet...surely no one would have the right to mess with that?

Cheers,
Dee.

In St Helens we were booked into an old holiday unit outside of the town centre and there was no place to have dinner that we could see nearby. When we came across the new hotel we decided to go back there for dinner and then we thought why go back and forth, they had vacancies, so we stayed. Really nice place, with convention facilities too as I recall, it should be getting more support from the tourism people.

At some places you couldn't check in until 2pm. They remembered to specify that on the booking confirmation for another place but not the holiday unit at Cradle Mountain. After having a bad pastry for breakfast in Launceston and driving for hours along the windiest road in Australia (well, it seemed that way at the time) I really needed to lie down and we couldn't get in. We ended up at the Cradle Mountain Chateau, which we liked so much that we cancelled our next two holiday units and extended our stay at Cradle Mountain. We had a wonderful time there and would love to go back.

Some places were very amateurish. The man at one holiday unit told us we could get dinner at a couple of restaurants, a hotel or either the bistro or the restaurant at the motel across the road, but we should book as they were quite busy. We booked into the motel restaurant across the road. After being seated and given the menus we waited quite a while until someone came over and told us we had to place our orders at the bar. Turned out the restaurant and bistro "operate together in the off season". The place was not that busy and emptied out early. We were still having our main course when the waitress started coming round to scrub the tables with bleach. No, not the stuff they wipe tables with in food courts, I mean really strong smelly bleach. When she started on the table right next to us we left.

Very disappointing that this time we booked ahead and we booked through the local experts and we had more hassles and disappointments than last time. Makes me nervous about the other places we've been to that we would like to visit again.

Gosh! It sounds like you have been a little unlucky with some of your bookings etc. I would certainly be giving the Tourist Bureau the flick.

The trouble with posting in the conversations forum, is that not everyone pops in here. It might pay to put something on the Garden in Oz forum. You can ask about gardens to see in Tassie and then just happen to mention other issues as well. That way it wouldn't be off-topic.

Good luck,
Cheers,
Dee.