We review the best tours to Bruny Island from Hobart based on our experience staying on and exploring the island this year. Why? To help you get the most of your time there! We break down the features, pros and cons of 5 super popular Bruny Island tours so you know what you’re getting, what you’re not, and how much you’ll actually spend . By the end of this 5 minute read you’ll know which Bruny Island tour to book for the most important person in the room. You.
Why reading this will save you from disappointment
Bruny is a stunning blend of beautiful bays, foodie experiences, and natural attractions. That’s why 18% of visitors to Tasmania – 227k people a year – have Bruny Island in their travel plans.
But how do you know a good Bruny Island tour from a not so good one, if you’ve never been?
Sure, you can look at tour reivews. From folks that have only seen one side of Bruny Island – from their spot on a tour! They don’t know what exists outside the tour. What’s worthwhile, and what’s a waste of your precious holiday time on this truly beautiful patch of Tassie.
So we’re going to give you that perspective.
We’re going to reveal what to look for in a tour, and compare the 5 best Bruny Island tours on offer, so you know exactly what you’re getting (or not) from each.
By the end of this 5 minute read, you’ll be ready to book the best Bruny Island day tour, according to the only person who matters.
You.
‘Must have’ experiences for an unmissable Bruny Island tour
Based on our stays on Bruny Island, the best tours must feature Bruny’s best attractions and experiences:
Scenery. Food. Adventure. Wildlife. Beaches.
Here’s what to expect from the best Bruny Island tours:
- Scenery: Cape Bruny Lighthouse, The Neck and Truganini’s Lookout
- Food: Oysters, cheese, beer, wine, honey, chocolate, seafood
- Adventure: walks, hikes, cruises, water sports (surfing, kayaking, swimming)
- Wildlife: white wallabies, pademelons, echidna, dolphins, whales, seals
- Beaches: Adventure Bay, Cloudy Bay,
Check out our Bruny Island guide for more amazing Bruny Island travel inspo.
How to find the best Bruny Island tours
We judge all Tassie tours by these 6 things:
- Our travel experience in Tasmania: We’ve travel & take tours to get direct insights and knowledge of tour destinations and operations.
- Tour Inclusions: Check what’s included in the tour price—meals, transport, guide services, and entry fees.
- Tour Highlights and activities: Look for tours that include key attractions, xxx. Choose tours offering activities you actually want to spend your money on!
- Costs & Value: we compare tours to establish where the best value is.
- Duration or schedule: Is there enough time at each stop? Is there free time?
- Ratings: We use online ratings to learn more about the tour operator, and validate or otherwise our on-the-ground knowledge.
5 Best tours to Bruny Island from Hobart
We’re going to review the 5 most popular Bruny Island tours from Hobart – from least to most expensive – and compare key features, pros, cons and costs:
- Full Day Guided Bruny Island Tour from Hobart
- 2 Day Hobart AND Bruny Island tour
- Bruny Island food, sightseeing and guided lighthouse tour with lunch
- Full day Bruny Island Day Cruise Tour from Hobart
- Bruny Island Gourmet Traveller Tour
Bruny island tours compared – summary
Our results from comparing the 5 best Bruny Island tours on the market are in!
Our winner for best of the best Bruny Island tours is…
No. 3 – Bruny Island Food, sightseeing & guided lighthouse tour!
You can book this tour here.
| TOURS | Cape Bruny Lighthouse | The Neck Lookout | Beaches | Food inclusions | Adventuring | White wallabies | Cruise | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Full Day Guided Bruny Island Tour | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | 🟠 | ✅ | ❌ | $165 |
| 2. 2-Day Hobart and Bruny tour | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | 🟠 | ✅ | ❌ | $249 |
| 3. Bruny Island food, sightseeing & guided lighthouse tour | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | $260 |
| 4. Full Day Bruny Island Day Cruise | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | $265 |
| 5. Bruny Island Gourmet Traveller | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | $265 |
1. Full Day Guided Bruny Island tour (no food included)
The full day Guided Bruny Island Tour from Hobart is the most affordable tour we review.
It’s a popular tour with loads of 5 star reviews that hits the big attractions on Bruny Island and some food trail favourites, but on a budget.
Yay! Sounds awesome. This day tour will tick the boxes for a lot of people.
But before you decide prematurely that this is the tour for you, don’t you want to find out what you’re really paying for and whether this tour’s low cost really represents the best value for you dough?
Thought so! 😃
Inclusions:
This tour lasts around 9-10 hours and departs from and returns to your Hobart hotel. Convenient! Tick.
Stops we love on this Bruny Island day tour are the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, The Neck & Truganini Lookout, Adventure Bay (where white wallabies are),
You’ll see the big 3 Bruny Island attractions, and the tour operators cover your Parks Pass to South Bruny National Park.
But it’s definitely a tour done in budget mode.
The tour stops at Bruny Island Cheese Co. and Get Shucked Oysters. But…(and importantly), food is not included.
Tastings at the food trail stops, and lunch, are at your own expense. This will add to the cost of your tour on the one hand. But means you can control those costs and ‘won’t pay for what you don’t use’, on the other.
Oh, one last thing. The tour has no set schedule. The guides may change destinations based on the weather and people on the tour.
Activities:
- Visit picturesque Cape Bruny Lighthouse where you can take a tour to the top as optional
- Climb up to Truganini Lookout at The Neck and take a selfie overlooking the beach and Isthmus.
- Wander Adventure Bay Beach and along a rainforest walk to Mavista Falls.
- Visit the local artisan producers that Bruny Island is famous for – oyster farmers, cheese makers, brewers, wine makers, honey farmers.
This is not an adventurers tour. If you’re expecting active, it’s not for you.
The most active it gets is the 20 minute rainforest walk into Mavista Falls – an easy short walk by Tassie standards. The 30 minutes beach combing at Adventure Bay barely gives you enough time to spot a white wallaby and get your toes wet.
Costs:
$165 is the tour price.
Plus additional costs for lunch and food tastings (est. $50 per person).
How does it compare:
What’s great about it?
In one word – breadth! This tour really packs a lot of Bruny’s highlights into one day. You’ll see the rugged beauty of South Bruny National Park, the gorgeous beaches of Adventure Bay, the insta-worthy isthmus between North and South Bruny from Truganini Lookout. You may even spot a white wallaby or two.
Knowledgable tour guides will give you insights that self guided day trippers just don’t get.
It’s budget all the way. You can keep costs low with BYO lunch and opting out of any food tastings you don’t like but still have a great day out.
What’s not great about it?
You’ll spend a lot of time on the bus. Half the allotted tour time (5 hours) to be precise. And that’s the overriding commentary for this tour. It covers a lot of ground, but very quickly! Like an on-and-off tourist bus, but on Bruny Island. There’s little time for activities or free time to wander off and do your own exploring.
It’s also mostly hopping from artisan shop to artisan shop. It’s not the kind of tour to explore the island on foot or get into nature. The upshot is this is not the tour to take if you have kids. Chances are they’d be fidgety and bored.
Something worth considering: all of the activities on the tour are actually admission free! Eeek! So you’re paying $165 for convenience, your Parks Pass, transport and your knowledgable guide…
How does this cost compare with taking time to plan self guided Bruny Island day trip (or following ours), then renting a car and drive to Bruny yourself?
Is this tour cheaper?
| Self guided Bruny trip Expense | Price |
|---|---|
| Rental car | $150 |
| Bruny Island Ferry Cost (car) | $50 |
| Petrol | $40 |
| National Parks Pass (car) | $47 |
| Total | $287 |
The answer is yes. Marginally. It’s cheaper to take this tour than travel solo. But couples pay a little extra above the cost of driving themselves.
And I guess these are the things only you can weigh up when picking the best tour. Do you want to be hands off and hassle free. Or is free time and cost more important to you?
Who is this tour for:
This guided full day Bruny Island tour is for anyone:
- travelling Tasmanian on a budget or
- too time poor to plan a self guided day trip or
- travelling solo.
If that sounds like you – book this tour!
2. 2-day Hobart AND Bruny Island tour
On the 2 Day Hobart and Bruny Island Tour, takes you on a whirlwind tour of both Hobart and Bruny island over two (long) days.
The tour starts and ends in Hobart and only runs on Friday and Saturday each week.
Inclusions:
The tour includes hotel pick up, your guide, transport, and Bruny Island ferry costs.
It’s just as important sometimes to cover what is NOT included, to avoid disappointment. Food is the first thing. You’ll need to cover the cost of your own meals and all tastings at artisan food producers on Bruny Island.
The second main cost that is not included is park entry fees – both for Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary and for South Bruny National Park.
Of course, accommodation is not included either. You’ll need to find your own accommodation in Hobart for 2 nights around the tour.
Activities:
Hobart (Day 1)
- Drive up Kunanyi/Mount Wellington to take in the incredible scenic views of Southern Tasmania and the bays and coves around Hobart
- Wander Hobart’s Salamanca Market where you can experience tastings from local distillers and shop ’til you drop for hand-made Tasmanian gifts and souvenirs (Saturday only)
- Visit Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary and get up close and personal with the native occupants – Tasmanian Devils included.
- Stop in on the historic town of Richmond, 30 minutes from Hobart to see the famous old Richmond Bridge, peruse it’s boutiques and wander the streets lined with beautiful colonial Georgian buildings. On the way you’ll stop in at Wicked Cheese Company for a free cheese tasting.
Bruny Island (Day 2)
- The activities on Day 2 at Bruny Island are exactly the same as tour No. 1 above (Full Day Guided Bruny Island Tour)
Costs:
The tour costs $249/person, which for a two day tour seems like a steal to us.
Additional costs for Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary are $33.50 per person and your Parks Pass is $23.25. Thats a total of $56.75.
Lunch and food tastings on Bruny Island we estimate to be $50/person.
Lunch in Hobart or Richmond maybe around $20.
Total additional costs = $125/person over 2 days.
We expect the total outlay on the tour, plus food and experiences to be $375 per person over 2 days.
How does it compare:
What’s Good About It:
It’s a fantastic way to have some of Tasmania’s best experiences – scenic views, colonial heritage, markets, unique wildlife, beaches, rugged remote island coastlines, and really great local food producers – in two days.
You get to see more of Hobart and surrounding areas such as Richmond, Kunanyi. If you’re spending most of your free time in Hobart City, or if you don’t have a hire car, its a great chance to explore further out..
Read about the Bruny Island leg under Tour No. 1 👆🏼
What’s Not Good About It:
The tour’s schedule is tight for those who prefer a more relaxed pace. You cover a lot in a short time and may feel a bit rushed because of this. You spend a lot of time on the bus over 2 consecutive days.
The drive up Kunanyi is weather dependent – if it snows you’ll visit Rosny Lookout or Mt Nelson instead.
Who is this tour for:
The ultimate budget traveller or committed tourist determined to pack your time with as many experiences as possible – book this tour!
3. The Bruny Island food, sightseeing and lighthouse tour (with lunch)
The Food, sightseeing and guided lighthouse tour packs in a top combination of sightseeing the main attractions and Bruny Island food trail tasting.
It’s a different schedule from Tour no. 1 👆🏼 but it’s also a 10-hour day, beginning and ending in Hobart.
Inclusions:
The inclusions in this tour are bomb!
Pick up and transport to and from Bruny Island, your guide for the day, and your Parks Pass for South Bruny National Park are all included.
All food is included, and there’s a lot of it!
- A morning picnic on the beach at Adventure Bay – to share a spread of Bruny Island oysters, fresh bread and Bruny Island cheeses.
- Lunch at Hotel Bruny which serves massive sized meals by the beach.
- Afternoon tastings of honey and chocolate.
As a bonus, the private Lighthouse Tour comes in the tour price (ordinarily $25/pp). This means you get scenic views of wild Cape Bruny from the top of the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, if you make it up the stairs!
Activities:
This is the best Bruny Island day tour for adventures in your day:
- A beach picnic at Adventure Bay with oyster, cheese and bread tasting (and hopefully a white wallaby sighting too).
- A tasty and generous pub lunch at Hotel Bruny, with views of the beach at Alonnah.
- White Wallaby spotting around Adventure Bay
- A private tour and stairway climb to scenic top of Cape Bruny Lighthouse for breathtaking views rugged Cape Bruny and the Southern Ocean.
- Get snap happy at The Neck and unique isthmus (land formation) connecting north and south Bruny Island.
- Honey and chocolate tastings.
- A bush walk at Mount Magna in South Bruny, hopefully to spot a white wallaby.
- A brief stop to check out the quirky Bruny Bread Fridge where we stopped in for our sour dough every day on the island. 👇🏽
Costs:
$260 is the tour price.
No additional costs if you bring a water bottle – you can fill this up on the bus.
How does it compare:
What’s great about it:
There’s a lot to love about this Bruny Island tour but the number 1 outstanding feature is that it’s packed with value inclusions. For an extra $100 on Tour no. 1 👆🏼 you get a private lighthouse tour, lunch and tastings of cheese, oysters, bread, honey and chocolate.
It’s also a more active tour than No. 1. There’s more time off the bus, exploring natural attractions and enjoying the beaches. We love this!
What’s not great about it:
Other than it’s also a long time on the bus, there’s not much about this tour that we could say you’re missing out on.
Who is the tour for:
Active travellers with a sense of adventure and foodies will want to book this tour!
4. Bruny Island tour with wildlife cruise
The full day Bruny Island Day Cruise Tour from Hobart is a great day out with something extra special the other tours don’t offer.
It combines the stunning natural beauty of the island with an incredible boat cruise and delicious tastings local artisan producers.
Starting from Hobart, you’ll be whisked away to Bruny Island for a jam packed 9.5 hours of touring.
Inclusions:
While hotel pick up and drop off is NOT included in this Bruny Island day tour (you meet at Franklin Wharf in Hobart CBD), there are still some great inclusions in this tour.
In addition to your transport and guide, you get morning tea and lunch, as well as the 3 hour cruise around South Bruny’s bays and coastal cliffs.
Activities:
- Sightseeing and Wildlife Spotting: You’ll explore Two Tree Point and the area of Adventure Bay, spotting unique white wallabies and pademelons and enjoying the picturesque beaches.
- Thrilling Cruise: This tour’s highlight is the captivating cruise around Bruny Island to see first hand the dramatic cliffs, hidden sea caves, and abundant marine life, including seals and dolphins that can only be seen by boat.
Costs:
$265 for the tour.
How does it compare:
What’s great about it:
Picture yourself on a boat cruising the Southern Ocean around South Bruny Island, feeling the salty breeze on your face as you glide past dramatic coastal cliffs and rugged rock formations, streaked with orange lichen. Dolphins leap alongside the boat, cutting through wave after wave and a colony of seals bask on the rocks, lazily captivating everyone on board.
It’s the only Bruny Island Day tour with a boat cruise and what a cruise it is! A mesmerizing encounter with nature and the powerful Southern Ocean that leaves you in awe of Bruny Island’s wild, untamed beauty. It’s one of THE reasons people rave about this Bruny Island Tour.
What’s not great about it:
The lunch spot. The food at Pennicotts restaurant on Bruny Island is not as good as the pub fare at Hotel Bruny.
You’ll also miss Cape Bruny Lighthouse which we rate as the best attraction on the island alongside the Isthmus.
The boat cruise can be weather dependent. And its wild ocean along Tasmania’s southern coast – fingers crossed you don’t get rough seas!
Who is the tour for:
Nature enthusiasts, wildlife lovers, seafaring adventurers – pony up & book this Bruny Island tour!
5. Pennicott Bruny Island food tour
Pennicott Wilderness Journeys are an institution in Tassie, famous for Tasman Peninsula and Bruny Island day tours. This Bruny Island Full Day Gourmet Food Tour is their second Bruny Island tour on our list.
This tour stays firmly on Bruny Island however. There’s no cruise included.
It’s a 9 hour 45 minute full day tour, departing from and returning to Hobart.
Inclusions:
Your hotel pick up, local guide and transport to Bruny Island and back are all included.
This Bruny Island tour visits only 2 of the island’s 3 iconic attractions – the Neck Lookout and Adventure Bay. You won’t hit up Cape Bruny Lighthouse on this tour.
Your Bligh Museum tickets are covered in the price.
Lunch and some food tastings are also covered in the price of the tour.
In food terms, it’s the same oyster, cheese, chocolate and honey tastings as other tours on this list.
Instead of Hotel Bruny, you’ll dine at Pennicott’s seafood restaurant in Adventure Bay, supping on briny Get Shucked oysters and a in-house main course, complemented by a couple of glasses (included) of Tasmanian sparkling wine, beer or cider.
Activities:
- Food and beer tastings at Bruny Island Cheese Co., Bruny Island Honey and Bruny Island Chocolate
- A visit to the (outdated) Bligh Museum and rainforest walk to Mavista Falls.
- Lunch overlooking the beach, with two drinks – a choice of excellent Tasmanian wine, beer or cider.
- A scenic climb up to Truganini’s Lookout and Isthmus views.
- Garden tour at Bruny Island Chocolate Co.
Cost:
$265 is the tour price, all inclusive.
How does it compare:
What’s great about it:
Pennicotts professionalism and experience means this one executes like a well oiled machine.
If you’re less mobile, this is also an easier tour. There’s no climb up to the lighthouse. And you can skip the climb to the top of The Neck and just take in the Isthmus from a lower elevation.
What’s not great about it:
The lunch spot at Pennicotts restaurant. The food is not at good as Hotel Bruny and the menu is limited.
Too much time in Adventure Bay at places like the Bligh Museum, which doesn’t rate on our top attractions list. We’d rather see Cape Bruny Lighthouse every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Who is the tour for:
If you appreciate less strenuous, but well organised, hassle free travel, you should stick with reliable Pennicotts and book this tour.
What’s next?
To wrap up, the best Bruny Island tour is No 3 on our list – Bruny Island food, sightseeing and guided lighthouse tour. We love all of the inclusions, the activities and the overall experience. It’s great value for money too, for a hassle free tour that really does capture the essence of wild, beautiful Bruny!
If you’re hungry for more Bruny Island travel inspiration, check out our Bruny Island Guide for more ideas about where to go and what to do on Bruny Island
Or, here’s our recommended Best Bruny Island Day Trip Itinerary if you prefer to rent a car and drive to Bruny Island yourself.
FAQs
How far is Bruny Island from Hobart
Bruny Island is a 40 minute drive plus a 15 minute ferry ride from Hobart.
Where are white wallabies found?
The most common place to spot white wallabies on Bruny Island is near the shorefront at Adventure Bay Beach and around Adventure Bay Retreat. Although this is not their only habitat on the island.
Can you see seals on Bruny Island?
You can see seals off the coast of Bruny Island. But you need to be on a boat to do it. The best way to see the seals of Bruny Island is on a Pennicotts Wilderness Journey Bruny Island Day Tour Cruise.
Is Bruny Island a day trip?
Bruny Island is a popular day trip destination from Hobart and there are quite a few tours to Bruny Island to Hobart. We compare the best Bruny Island day tours above 👆🏼 to make your decision easy.
Can you visit Bruny Island without a tour group?
Yes you can! You will need to rent a car, buy a ferry ticket and plan your trip of course! There are some situations where it’s cheaper and more time efficient to take a day tour to Bruny Island instead. Check out why in our post above 👆🏼.
