Where to stay near Wineglass Bay: hotel, lodge or campsite

The first thing to know is that nobody sleeps at Wineglass Bay except walkers with a tent. The bay sits on the ocean side of the Hazards, reached on foot, and the only bookable roof inside Freycinet National Park is Freycinet Lodge, overlooking Great Oyster Bay on the other side of the peninsula.¹ For overnight walkers there are a few small walk-in sites at Wineglass Bay, Hazards Beach and Cooks Beach, and none of them needs booking.⁵

Everything else is in or near Coles Bay, the town at the park's edge, where Discover Tasmania says there is plenty of accommodation.⁶ Its range runs from luxury rooms and fine dining to caravan and camping sites.² The main park entrance and visitor center lie just beyond the township, so a Coles Bay bed puts the lookout car park a short drive away.⁷

Why stay at all? The cruise leaves Coles Bay at 9:45am, and the operator runs no bus from Hobart to meet it.^8,9 A night nearby also means you can be at the lookout in the soft light of early morning or late afternoon, when the day-trip coaches are elsewhere, and swim at Honeymoon Bay without watching the clock.

At the top of the market, Saffire Freycinet sits on the Coles Bay Road with views to the Hazards. Its restaurant, Palate, is reserved for in-house guests and looks out over the Hazards mountain range.³⁰ The resort also runs a Connection to Country walk with Mick Quillam, a Palawa man and First Nations artist: a personal, two-hour walk for all abilities.³¹

That walk is worth knowing about even if you stay elsewhere, because this is old country. The park service places Freycinet within Oyster Bay nation country, a people it estimates at 600-700, and links the peninsula and Schouten Island to the toorerno-maire-mener clan.^32,33 Middens of shell, old quarries and rock shelters along the coast remain significant to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community today.^34,35

Luxury here is about quiet rather than glitz. Expect water views, local produce and very dark nights; leave the city habit of late dinners behind, because the peninsula goes to sleep early. If a resort is beyond your budget, a Coles Bay holiday house with a deck facing Great Oyster Bay gives you much of the same view.

Camping at Wineglass Bay itself is only for overnight walkers in the small walk-in site, but the park's main campground lies along Richardsons Beach and the granite knoll of Honeymoon Bay, close to the visitor center.^21,20 Powered sites 1-18 fit a small caravan or a campervan up to 18 foot; sand dune sites 19-45 are tents only; Honeymoon Bay sites 46-52 are tent sites on the knoll, open only over the summer holidays and at Easter.^27,45,46

Fees are AUD 24.00 for an unpowered site and AUD 35.00 for a powered site at Richardsons Beach and Ranger Creek, for up to 6 people, and AUD 18.00 at Honeymoon Bay.³ From 18 December to 10 February you may stay at most 10 nights.¹¹ Discover Tasmania says the summer demand is so high that ballots are drawn in early August.² The amenities block has hot showers run on two-dollar coins.³⁷

Freycinet is a Fuel Stove Only area, and on Total Fire Ban days the electric barbecues at Ranger Creek and Honeymoon Bay are the only way to cook.^36,47 For free camping, Isaacs Point at Friendly Beaches charges nothing and takes no bookings, on a first-in, first-served basis for up to 14 nights, with pit toilets and no fresh water.^4,22,28 Campervans should note there is no black water dump in the park; the nearest is at Bicheno or Swansea.⁴⁸