Tasmania is a small island, an unless you're planning on doing some seriously epic trekking, the…read morebest way to see it is by renting *sorry, hiring* a car. While I don't have any particular allegiance to one rental car company, I must say, the experience at Budget was top notch. Hobart's airport is tiny, so it made the entire process painfully simple: grab your luggage, walk across the street, get your keys from the desk, grab your car from the lot, and you're on your way. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes from when we landed to when we were driving off the lot, and there are few things I love more than ease of travel. So the star-deducting issues? It did seem that our car had been previously driven quite hard. While everything was fine cosmetically, the shocks were a bit squeaky, and the hub cab continually fell off. (Luckily it was the only one of the original four left, so when we finally lost it for good, we weren't too upset.) $100 for 3-days through Tassie was totally worth it. Plus, I felt dead sexy in my bright blue Nissan Pulsar 1.6. Yeow!

If you book car hire through Expedia and it turns out to be Stix in Hobart - beware! Stix doesn't…read moreexist. Neither does a free airport shuttle from Hobart airport to Stix. After some research, you may discover that the free shuttle has stopped and that you have to take a taxi to kennedy drive. You are reimbursed for the taxi immediately; however, we were not reimbursed for the taxi when we returned the car. They are undergoing renovations so they had a makeshift office in an 'under construction' building. Insurance costs around 45 dollars if you don't want to pay the 1,000s of dollars in excess. It is cheap but involves some hassle.