Six exhilarating Tassie adventures

Do adventure experiences often leave you wanting more? Test your limits with Tasmania’s mega waves, white-water rapids, wild caves, soaring sea cliffs, natural waterslides and the world’s highest commercial abseil. On a guided tour, you don't even need any experience to tick these awesome adventures off your bucket list.

The guided tours of Marakoopa and King Solomons caves are easy – and awesome! – but more subterranean surprises await in Mole Creek Karst National Park’s undeveloped caves, which have no lighting, handrails or steps. If you’re up for a bit of climbing, crawling, squeezing and wading through underground streams, join Wild Cave Tours on experiences ranging from an all-day, two-cave adventure to the popular family-friendly tour.

Cradle Mountain National Park is best known for that iconic peak, but Cradle Mountain Canyons can show you a whole other side of this epic wilderness. On their 6-8 hour Dove Canyon tour, you’ll slip into a wetsuit then abseil down cliffs, jump off waterfalls and plunge down natural waterslides – including one 10-metres high that shoots you through a cave and into a pool. Anyone who is able to swim and has reasonable fitness can do this!

Granite cliffs plunging into the sea make Freycinet National Park one of Tasmania’s most popular rock-climbing (and abseiling) spots. The further up you go, the better the view across clear blue waters, where whales and dolphins frolic. Of course you’ll often need to focus forward, looking for the next finger- or toe-hold, especially when climbing 60-metre Whitewater Wall. Even beginners can take up the challenge with the guide, gear and encouragement provided by operators like Mountain Bike and Rock Climbing Tasmania and Rock Climbing Adventures Tasmania.

Here’s one for daredevils: the world’s highest commercial abseil. At 140 metres, the Gordon Dam wall is taller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. No abseiling experience is required to join Aardvark Adventures’ guided experience, but you will need a head for heights and plenty of courage.

The Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park is famous for white-water rafting adventures lasting a week or more. If you’re not up for this big commitment, try King River Rafting’s six-hour experience in Tassie’s western wilderness. The King for a Day guided tour includes rafting grade-three rapids through a gorge and portaging across Sailor Jack rapid, as well as easier, scenic sections and visits to mining heritage sites.

There’s no land between Tasmania’s north-west coast and Argentina, making it the planet’s longest uninterrupted stretch of ocean. That means big waves thunder in here, including onto the beaches of a little town called Marrawah, where one was recorded at nearly 20 metres high. When the swell is westerly and the wind offshore, expect 100-metre-long rides off Tassie’s unofficial surf city, which hosts the West Coast Classic each March. Anyone can have a go at it the rest of the year, but wear a thick wetsuit – the water here is pretty chilly, which just adds to your bragging rights!

If you’re looking for mountain-biking adventure, check out our blog post about Tassie’s epic MTB trails. Prefer to enjoy some thrills with very little chance of spills? From hot-air ballooning to easy urban kayaking, our guide to the state’s best easy adventures is for you.

Find out more about Spirit of Tasmania's new Victorian home, Spirit of Tasmania Quay.

Information included in this blog is correct at the time of publishing. Please contact individual operators for further information.