This Remote Corner of Tasmania Just Made TIME’s World’s Greatest Places List — and You Can Get There in Two Nights

Southwest Tasmania is not a place you stumble across. There are no roads in, no towns, no hotels on the shore. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area covers a vast, water-shaped landscape that most travellers know only from photographs, and reaching it has traditionally required either a long-haul bushwalk or a multi-day sailing expedition. A two-night itinerary was not, until recently, part of the equation.

On Board’s Port Davey Highlights expedition has changed that calculus somewhat, and TIME magazine has taken notice: the experience was named one of the World’s Greatest Places for 2026, among only four Australian inclusions on this year’s list.

The journey begins with a seaplane flight from Hobart, which provides an aerial perspective on the southwest’s ridgelines and button-grass plains before guests board Odalisque III at Bathurst Harbour. The vessel, a member of Luxury Lodges of Australia, carries a maximum of 12 passengers across two nights, a constraint that shapes the experience considerably. Tasmanian guides lead walks and boat excursions through Port Davey, with stops at Melaleuca — a site significant for both its Indigenous history and its role as habitat for the endangered orange-bellied parrot — and access to remote beaches and waterways otherwise beyond reach on a short trip.

Dining is fully inclusive, drawing on Tasmanian produce: local seafood, Bruny Island cheeses, paired with Tasmanian wines and spirits. The region is noted for carrying some of the purest air on the planet, a detail that sounds like marketing until you are actually standing in it.

The Port Davey Highlights expedition is bookable via On Board’s website. The seaplane return from Hobart is included.

Feature Image Courtesy of: Lean Timms