The forest is the main event. But when you're ready to venture out, this corner of Tasmania rewards the curious.

Into the trees

Liffey Falls and Honor Falls are both close enough to reach before lunch and wild enough to make you forget you ever had a to-do list. The Great Western Tiers unfold in every direction - take the Higgs Track up to Lady Lake if you want to earn your evening wine, or follow the Meander Falls trail for something gentler. Quamby Bluff on a clear day is the kind of view that rearranges things slightly.

We call it forest bathing. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku. The trees don't care what you call it.

The Valley

Twenty minutes down the road, the Meander Valley opens up into wine country. Meander Valley Vineyard does what good Tasmanian wineries do - small, considered, worth lingering over. Pick up a bottle or two. The fire pit will be waiting.

Deloraine

A proper country town that hasn't tried to be anything else, which is exactly why it's wonderful. Start at Frank & Lottie for coffee that takes itself seriously and the BEST pastries this side of Paris. Walk the river - it winds prettily through the middle of town and asks nothing of you. End up at The British, where the locals have been gathering for years and the welcome is genuine. If you're staying for dinner, Red Rock Gin distillery does woodfired pizza that's better than it has any right to be. Order the gin while you wait. Obviously.

A little further

Cradle Mountain a worthwhile day trip and one of those places that earns every superlative thrown at it. Go early, go quietly, go prepared for weather that has its own opinions.

Launceston is fifty minutes north and full of reasons to visit - good restaurants, the Cataract Gorge, galleries, markets, the kind of wandering that fills an afternoon without trying. It's there when you need it. So is the forest when you don't.

The full list of trails, maps and local tips lives in your welcome book at the house.