Port Arthur Motor Inn

Port Arthur Motor Inn itself welcomes children (but not pets, apart from service animals) and all manner of motor vehicles: the free self parking can accommodate your truck, bus, RV or even car! Dry cleaning is available, as is luggage storage and help with booking tickets and tours. The premises feature a picnic area, with barbecue equipment for the guests’ use, a bar with a lounge and also a restaurant. Breakfast is available for a surcharge. The restaurant, right at the front of the premises, has a spectacular panoramic view of Port Arthur, with a fireplace to sit in front of in colder months and a rose-bordered terrace to relax on during the warmer times of the year. It is open seven nights a week and it is a good idea to book beforehand. The hotel’s front desk is open from as early as half past seven in the morning to as late as nine in the evening, although it is possible to make some arrangements for arrivals outside this time if you do so in advance.

Port Arthur Motor Inn is, as the name implies, on the historic Port Arthur site – once described as ‘hell on earth’, a penal settlement and later full-blown prison. Now it is the exact opposite. It is a tranquil forty hectares of gardens featuring English Oaks, restored buildings and ruins which have been stabilised after the years of abandonment. Ghost Tours are one of the offers it is possible to book at reception. Other attractions a little further afield are Tasman Golf Course, Isle of the Dead and Point Puer.