What You See on the Wineglass Bay Cruise

The Wineglass Bay cruise runs from Coles Bay south along the Freycinet Peninsula below the pink granite of The Hazards, past Cooks Beach and Bryans Beach, through the inner passage by Schouten Island, and up the ocean side into Wineglass Bay, with sea caves, blowholes and waterfalls along the way. Dolphins, Australian fur seals, sea eagles and other seabirds are the animals to look for, and whales pass in season; no animal is guaranteed. The cruise, listed as From Coles Bay: Wineglass Bay Cruise with Lunch, is from US$148 a person (checked November 2026).

The calendar above is the cruise from Coles Bay, with 587 reviews (checked November 2026).

The short answer

You see the half of Freycinet that you cannot reach by road: the peninsula’s western shore below The Hazards, the empty beaches at its southern end, the passage by Schouten Island, and Wineglass Bay from the water, with granite cliffs, caves and blowholes in between. The crew give a commentary on the coast, the wildlife and the history. What animals you see changes from day to day; on a rough day the boat takes an alternative route around the Schouten Island group instead of going into Wineglass Bay.

The route

The Hazards. Leaving the jetty in Coles Bay, the boat heads south along the western shore of the peninsula, below the range of rounded pink granite peaks called The Hazards, which rise almost straight from the water of Great Oyster Bay.

Cooks Beach and Bryans Beach. Further south, on the peninsula’s sheltered side, these two beaches are otherwise reachable only by boat or a full day’s bushwalk.

Schouten Island. At the southern end of the peninsula the boat goes through the inner passage between the mainland and Schouten Island, the start of the open-water stretch.

Wineglass Bay. The boat then runs north up the Tasman Sea side, past granite cliffs, sea caves and blowholes, and into Wineglass Bay, where you see the curved white beach from the water with The Hazards behind it. The famous view of the curve from above is from the Wineglass Bay Lookout, a separate walk: the cruise or the walk compares them.

The wildlife

The cruise looks for white-bellied sea eagles, dolphins, Australian fur seals, cormorants, albatross, shearwaters, gannets and little penguins. Humpback and southern right whales pass Freycinet on their migrations from September to December and from May to July. Sightings are not guaranteed, and which animals turn up changes with the season and the day. On the alternative route, used when Wineglass Bay is too rough, the boat visits a large Australian fur seal haul-out in the Schouten Island group.

H5 bird flu has been detected in Tasmania since August 2026 (first in a wild brown skua near Rocky Cape). The Department of Natural Resources and Environment asks everyone not to touch sick or dead birds or animals and to report them on 1800 675 888.

See dates for the cruise

Is it worth it?

It is worth it if you want the coast rather than one view. The cruise covers in 4½ hours a stretch of Freycinet that would take days on foot, from a dry, heated boat with lunch, and it is the only practical way to see the peninsula’s southern beaches and the ocean side. It is not the way to get the photograph of Wineglass Bay’s curve: for that, walk to the lookout, 2.6 km return. And if you only have a couple of hours in Coles Bay, the lookout walk or the guided Freycinet Paddle kayak tour fits better than a 4½-hour cruise.

Photographs

The cruise runs from 9:45 am to 2:30 pm, so the light is late morning and midday. The lounges have large windows, and there are outside viewing decks on both levels, so you can photograph the coast without glass in the way. A zoom helps with seals and sea eagles, which keep their distance.