There are so many reasons to visit Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art when you are in Hobart.

Nab a spot in the Posh Pit aboard the MONA ROMA 1 fast ferry from Hobart's docks to the fort-like museum exterior on the banks of the Derwent River.

A tumble down the theatrically lit, underground inverted pyramid that is MONA is almost a hallucinatory trip.

This avant-garde museum, founded by gambling magnate David Walsh, contains exhibits that are both delightful and deeply disturbing. The 51-year-old, who helped develop complex computer programs that benefit from gambling, spent some $80 million building the museum, which has attracted more than 950,000 visitors since it opened in 2011, making it one of the biggest philanthropic contributions to Australia in decades.

As well as featuring works from artists as diverse as Brett Whiteley, Sidney Nolan, Pablo Picasso and Damien Hirst, the aim is to challenge visitors to think about what's behind that creative drive to make art.

Let your mood decide where to wander around the windowless bunker-museum:

• A room with all the coolness of a morgue, complete with a euthanasia machine
• The deep-mirrored toilet room with binoculars
• A sculptural wall of women's vulvas, giant, um, doodles, and voyeuristic peepholes filled with objects designed to challenge
• Cloaca Professional ('the poo machine') is the most 'loathed but most visited piece of art in the museum'
• Many other interesting works around the museum

You can go up to the roof of MONA to see the Cement Truck made of laser-cut Corten steel, or visit a chapel nearby. Its stained-glass windows feature sexualised images of 'mice copulating and other everyday things'.

When you emerge from the brooding confines of the museum, check in at one of eight luxe pavilions, all named after an artist or architect who has impacted MONA. Enjoy a glass of wine at Walsh's award-winning Moorilla Estate, sample his signature Moo Brew beer and explore the warped artworks on the headland overlooking the River Derwent.

Mona Fast Ferry return tickets (general or Posh Pit) are paid separately.