Cradle Mountain, AU

The flagship dining room at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, doing a fine-dining modern Tasmanian menu of cool-climate produce, local seafood and Tasmanian wines in a timber-and-stone room overlooking the bush. It is the closest thing to a destination restaurant inside the park. Best for the one nicer dinner of a stay, with the wallaby and Tasmanian salmon as the cult orders.

The dining room at Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village, doing a modern Tasmanian share-plates menu with venison, duck and local seafood matched to Tasmanian wines and whiskies. The room has a stacked-stone fireplace and direct alpine views. Best for a long evening of small plates rather than a fast pub dinner.

The Cradle Mountain Hotel's refurbished dining room and lounge, doing an a la carte modern Tasmanian menu with a signature hot-stone grill where you cook Cape Grim steak or seafood at the table on a 360-degree volcanic stone. Pale-timber, Scandi-leaning fit-out. Best for the hot-stone experience as a one-off, with the lounge bar handy for a fireside drink before or after.

The rustic timber pub at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, with a central wood fire, pool table and stone-baked pizzas, schnitzels, burgers and Tasmanian beers on tap. Casual, walk-in-friendly, and where everyone ends up after a day on the tracks. Best for a one-pot bistro dinner when you do not feel like the formal room next door.

The casual fireside bar at the Cradle Mountain Hotel, sharing a kitchen with Altitude Restaurant but doing a pared-back menu of pizzas, sliders and bar snacks alongside Tasmanian beers, gins and whiskies. Open fires, deep couches. Best for a relaxed drink and a snack rather than a full sit-down dinner.

The cafe inside the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre, doing pies, wraps, sandwiches, cake, soup and coffee for the shuttle-bus crowd. Function over finesse; nobody comes for the food, but it is the only walk-in option at the park gateway. Best for a quick coffee and a pie before catching the shuttle, or a hot soup when the weather turns.

The 6 km loop around the lake under the spires of Cradle Mountain, mostly on boardwalk through myrtle-beech and pencil pine forest, past the iconic boatshed. Easy underfoot, around two and a half hours, no real climb. Best as the one walk to do if you only have a single fine half-day in the park.

The high lookout above Crater Lake with a 360-degree view over Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain and the surrounding plateau, usually done as a loop via Wombat Pool and Lake Lilla. Short but steep, with chain handrails on the final climb. Best for the single most rewarding effort-to-view ratio in the park.

The full day scramble to the 1,545-metre summit via Marions Lookout and the Overland Track, with serious boulder hopping for the last kilometre. Around 13 km return and six to eight hours. Best only for fit walkers prepared for a sudden weather change, with an early start from Ronny Creek.

A 20-minute boardwalk loop from Peppers Lodge along Pencil Pine Creek through moss-covered myrtle forest, with pademelons and the occasional platypus in the creek. Flat, family-friendly, and one of the loveliest short walks in the park. Best at dawn or dusk for wildlife and the quiet light through the trees.

Two small waterfalls linked by a 1.5 km boardwalk loop from the interpretation centre, threading through pencil pine and myrtle rainforest along Pencil Pine Creek. Around 30 to 40 minutes total. Best as a rainy-day option when the higher tracks are socked in, since the falls run hardest after wet weather.

A 2 km boardwalk circuit from the interpretation centre into a stand of ancient King Billy pines, some of them around 1,500 years old and found nowhere else in the world. Quiet, gently uphill, and far less walked than the headline tracks. Best for a meditative 40 minutes among trees older than most cathedrals.

Tasmania's flagship multi-day trail, 65 km from Ronny Creek through alpine moorland to Lake St Clair over five to six days, with rough huts and tent platforms along the way. Booked, permitted and one-way only in summer. Best to either commit fully to the through-walk or do the first day to Waterfall Valley as a long day return.

A small conservation sanctuary on Cradle Mountain Road breeding Tasmanian devils and Eastern and Spotted-tail quolls, with after-dark feeding tours where you watch the devils properly tear into a wallaby leg. Tightly run by the keepers themselves. Best as an evening activity after dinner, especially on a rainy night when hiking is off.

A nine-room wilderness photography gallery at the Cradle Mountain Hotel, anchored by a permanent room of Peter Dombrovskis prints and a rotating Aurora Australis exhibition. Free entry, rarely crowded. Best as a quiet hour out of the rain, or a sober counterpoint to a long day on the tracks.

The local heli operator running 20 to 60 minute scenic flights over Cradle Mountain, Fury Gorge and the western wilderness from a pad near the visitor centre. The aerial perspective of the dolerite spires and the plateau is something the tracks cannot give you. Best as a weather-dependent splurge on a clear morning.

A guided canyoning operator running Lost World Canyon for families and Dove Canyon for stronger groups, with jumps, abseils, swims and slides through tannin-stained creeks under old-growth forest. Wetsuits and gear included. Best for a full active day when the weather is too unsettled for the high tracks.

The day spa at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, with massage and facial rooms and a separate Sanctuary area combining sauna, steam, hot tub and a cold plunge beside the Pencil Pine River. Open to non-lodge guests by booking. Best to recover the legs after the Dove Lake or summit walk, or to ride out a wet afternoon.

The glacial tarn at the end of the road, with the jagged Cradle Mountain rising straight out of the water and the much-photographed old boatshed on the shore. It is the single image everyone associates with the park. Best for the first morning view of the mountain reflected in still water before the wind picks up.

The dolerite-spired summit that gives the park its name, on every Tasmanian postcard, looming over Dove Lake at 1,545 metres. You can simply look at it from below or scramble to the top on a long day hike. Best appreciated from the Dove Lake shore, Marions Lookout, or the summit itself in clear weather.

The park gateway where every visitor stops to pay the park fee, board the Dove Lake shuttle bus, and check the weather and trail conditions for the day. The interpretation exhibits cover the geology, wildlife, and Aboriginal and European history of the area. Best as the first stop on arrival, even before checking into your lodge.

A replica of the King Billy pine chalet built by Austrian-born conservationist Gustav Weindorfer in 1912, the man who lobbied to have Cradle Mountain protected. The simple slab-timber rooms are kept as a free walk-in museum. Best as a short, atmospheric detour combined with one of the rainforest tracks that start here.

The buttongrass valley shuttle stop where Overland Track walkers set off and where, at dusk, wombats trundle out of the tussocks to graze on the open flats. The raised boardwalk is flat and pram-friendly. Best for late-afternoon wombat spotting and as the trailhead for the climb up to Marions Lookout.