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Boutique hotels in Launceston

Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

Launceston Overview

Australia

Cityscape
River-hugging historic haven
City Life
Slow, sleepy, sophisticated

Lush and leafy, three-syllabled Launceston wears its Tasmanian history with puffed-up civic pride. Indeed, with graceful Georgian estates peppering its West Country farmland-esque surrounds, this is as Jane Austen as Australia gets. Tassie's second largest city is also more than just country meets country town – Launceston has a maritime spring to its step too, thanks to its position on the banks of the winding Tamar river. Huge, four-metre tides breathe in and out of the city and ships bigger than the Spirit of Tasmania dock in its modern-day port. Mucking about on the river, Ratty and Toad style, is de rigeur, but the surprisingly hilly latticework of streets also hides gourmet, craft and fashion treasures. Or tickle your tasting tonsils with a visit to nearby Tamar Valley, home to some of the best-credentialed cold-climate wines in the world.

Literally Launceston

Launceston loves its relative antiquity, and it rains fairly frequently, so it’s little surprise there’s an Old Umbrella Shop (60 George Street; +61 (0)3 6331 9248). Run by the National Trust, this is small-town eccentricity at its best: hand-painted cardboard advertising signs, original blank receipts, and, you guessed, it, old umbrellas, take on the aura of Dutch Master museum exhibits, alongside potted histories of the multi-generational Shott family, North Tasmania's pre-eminent umbrella-selling dynasty.

Local knowledge

Taxis
Taxi Combined has Launceston’s largest fleet of cabs (13 2227; www.taxicombined.com.au), running a 24-hour service throughout the city. A cab from the airport into town costs around AU$32.

Tipping culture
As with the rest of Oz, tips aren’t expected anywhere – but 10 per cent is always appreciated for good service.

Siesta and Fiesta
Tasmania is at the sleepier end of the scale when it comes to opening hours. Watch for Saturday afternoon closures and don't assume you can order a meal much beyond 10pm, earlier in the week. Launceston also has a bit of a reputation as a hard-drinking town, so take care on the streets after lock-up time.

Packing tips
Waxed anoraks for the water; portable spittoon for the wine.

Recommended reads
Check out celebrated Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan: his novel, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, which was also made into a movie (directed by Flanagan), tells the darkly dramatic story of Slovenian immigrants to the island. For something a little lighter, try Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger by Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, a road trip in search of the island’s elusive, probably extinct predator.

Cuisine
Tasmania has come a long way since dubbing itself the Apple Isle. You're just as likely now to stumble across a saffron farm as a pear orchard, and the wine industry has been getting gongs for years. Despite the 75 kilometres that separate the city from the sea, Launceston's deep and broad Tamar River has also been bringing munificent ocean harvests to town to rival its more nautical Southern neighbour, Hobart. Round it all off with extensive dairy farming in the fertile valleys nearby – Launceston's cheeses are legendary – and you've arrived in gastronomic nirvana.

Regional specialities
To love Launceston is to leave it, but only for the short drive into the Tamar Valley, the island's oldest wine-growing region (www.winetasmania.com.au). It all began with the migration of Provence boy Jean Miguet and the planting of the Lalla vineyard north-east of Launceston in 1956; now the region is noted for a barrel-full of crisp Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnays and Rieslings. But it’s the Sparklings that are really, well, sparkling, especially with the infusion of more French talent through the Jansz partnership of Louis Roederer and local group Heemskerk.

Currency
Australian dollar (AU$).

Time zone
GMT + 10.

Dialling codes
Country code: +61; Launceston: (0)3.

Do go/don't go
Come for mists and mellow fruitfulness in autumn or manageably balmy summers away from the desert and tropical heat of the mainland. The island can get a little closed-down during winter, but the fires are toasty even if the winds are Antarctic.

Don't go home without

Clothbound Pyengana Cheddar Cheese from fourth-generation cheesemaker, Jon Healey. Made traditionally – think wood-fire milk-boiling, slatted pine shelves for 12-month maturation, weekly turning and wiping – it is crumbly, hard, nutty, complex and the cheese equivalent of liquid gold. Available from the farm door (Pyengana Dairy Company, St Columba Falls Road, Pyengana; +61 (0)3 6373 6157), an hour east on the St Helen’s Road, or at Delicacy Delicatessen (35 Canning Street; +61 (0)3 6334 8911).