The result is a mishmash of styles with rooms featuring original windows and artwork, and restored fireplaces – as well as hallways that rise or drop a step for no apparent reason and doorways that vary hugely in height from one to the next. Some rooms even have original doors that now open directly onto a solid wall.

The Mary Mary bar at The Tasman is named after the former hospital it inhabits, St Mary’s. Photo: Tasman Hotel

Where is it?

The hotel is part of a wider redevelopment of Parliament Square, located just behind the Australian island state’s Parliament House, so is as downtown as you can get in this dinky city. Leave by the main Murray Street entrance, turn right and you are on the waterfront, close to where the Salamanca Market takes place on Saturdays.

Hobart’s wharf area is just a short walk from the Tasman. Photo: Tasman Hotel
The wharf area is also where you’ll find the ferry to Mona, a museum 11km (7 miles) away, on the banks of the River Derwent, that doesn’t take itself especially seriously: its own tagline is, “Mona: a museum, or something. In Tasmania, or somewhere. Catch the ferry. Drink beer. Eat cheese. Talk c**p about art. You’ll love it.”Other vessels leaving from the wharf include that of Tasmanian Wild Seafood Adventures, an outfit that offers the rare experience of having the boat master dive for wild abalone (big ones, at that), oysters, sea urchin and other wild seafood in the waters off Bruny Island before cooking it up on the back deck for guests to enjoy degustation-style, washed down with free-flowing wine.

The only seafood fresher than this would have to be still squirming as you pop it into your mouth.

Dan Pearsall, of Tasmanian Wild Seafood Adventures, prepares an abalone he’s just plucked from the ocean for his guests. Photo: Mark Footer

Is there a restaurant at The Tasman?

Yes, and the “old overlaid with new” theme is perhaps best showcased here, in Peppina, the 1840s sandstone walls of which have been left exposed for the most part, albeit enclosed beneath a glass canopy.

The restaurant’s centrally positioned kitchen serves up fare inspired by “the Italian way of celebrating food, family and friends, in a space made for dining trattoria-style”, which in this case means handmade furniture, leather booths and two productive olive trees.

Two productive olive trees help give The Tasman’s Peppina restaurant an Italian feel. Photo: Tasman Hotel

In the mornings, a sumptuous buffet is served here, along with breakfast cocktails and breakfast wine.

The hotel bar, Mary Mary, owes its name to the former hospital it inhabits, St Mary’s, and is at the end of a passageway that reeks of time. Mary Mary’s quite contrary cocktails are made with local fruit and indigenous botanicals, and the old hospital’s coal chute has been repurposed into a “spirits library”, in which concoctions from local producers are stored.

What is the best room in the house?

The living room in The Tasman’s St David’s Park Suite. Photo: Tasman Hotel

Although not quite as expensive as the Aurora Suite, which is in the Pavilion wing and has a private rooftop terrace, we prefer the St David’s Park Suite, which is in the Georgian part of the property and overlooks its namesake park.

Within are a heritage fireplace, exposed sandstone walls, a handcrafted Tasmanian blackwood bathtub and a lofty ceiling resembling an inverted boat and made of Baltic pine, the type of wood used as ballast on 18th century ships sailing in to Hobart.

This suite is yours for around A$2,000 (US$1,360) a night.

Hike and sail Tasmania’s stunning east coast in style: no boots needed

Hmm; we were actually looking for somewhere more intrinsically historical.

Well, you’re in luck; not five minutes’ walk up Murray Street from The Tasman is the Hadley’s Orient Hotel, which has been in business since 1834, when it was known as The Golden Anchor Inn.

The property would become home to Tasmania’s first ice cream shop (1850) and first roller-skating rink (in 1867), but its greatest claim to fame came in 1912, with the visit of Roald Amundsen.
The dining room at Hadley’s Orient Hotel, which is just down the street from The Tasman. Back in 1867, this space served as Tasmania’s first roller-skating rink. Photo: Hadley’s Orient Hotel
The Norwegian explorer stayed here while recovering from having just led the first successful expedition to the South Pole – and while telling the world about it.

All of this and more is detailed in the “Trail of Terrific Tales”, a self-guided tour with an audio pack of exhibits around the hotel offered to Hadley’s guests as well as anyone else who would like to have a look around.