Overseas travel checklist for Australians

The pre-departure checklist for Australian travellers - beforeyoufly.com.au/travel-checklist/

8+ weeks before

Eight or more weeks before you fly

The items with real lead times. Everything in this group can take weeks to fix if it goes wrong, and none of it can be fixed from the departure lounge.

1. Check your passport meets the validity rule

Most countries want more validity than just covering your trip - six months counted from the day you arrive is the most common rule, though plenty of destinations ask for less. If your passport is inside about nine months of expiry, check now: renewal times move with demand, and priority processing costs extra. Our passport validity checker has the rule for every destination we cover and a calculator that tells you whether your expiry date clears it.

2. Sort your visa or entry authorisation

Australians enter many countries visa-free, but a growing list wants an electronic authorisation arranged before you board, and a few still want a full visa. Check the country you are visiting and any country you transit through - transit rules catch people out far more often than destination rules. Start with our guide to visas on an Australian passport, then confirm on your destination’s page.

3. Book a travel health appointment

See your GP or a travel clinic six to eight weeks out. Some vaccines are given as a course spread over several weeks, and some destinations recommend cover you will not have from childhood vaccinations. Mention every country on the itinerary, including stopovers.

4. Check your medication travels legally

Medicines that are routine in Australia are restricted or banned in some countries - including common cold-and-flu and ADHD medications. Check the rules for your destination, carry everything in its original packaging, and take a letter from your doctor covering prescription medicines. If a medicine is restricted, the destination’s embassy can tell you what paperwork makes it legal.

5. Buy travel insurance when you book, not before you fly

Cancellation cover starts the day you buy the policy, so insurance bought the week before departure has spent months not covering the deposits you had already paid. Buy it when you book the trip. Our guide to what Medicare does and does not do overseas explains what the policy actually has to cover.

6. Decide whether you’ll drive, and get the permit if so

Many countries require an International Driving Permit alongside your Australian licence, and hire companies in some countries will not hand over the keys without one. They are issued through the state and territory motoring clubs and are quick to arrange - but only from inside Australia, which is why this item sits early. Our IDP guide covers who needs one, country by country.

4 weeks before

Four weeks before you fly

Money and connectivity. A month out is when ordering things still beats paying airport prices for them.

7. Order a travel money card

The gap between a fee-free travel card and an ordinary Australian debit card is real money on a long trip - foreign transaction fees, ATM fees and the exchange-rate margin all stack. Cards are posted, so order with time to spare. Our travel money guide compares what the popular options actually charge.

8. Know what your everyday bank card charges overseas

Even with a travel card, your normal card is the backup - so know its overseas ATM fee and foreign transaction fee before you rely on it. And when a terminal or ATM offers to charge you in Australian dollars, decline: paying in local currency is nearly always cheaper.

9. Choose how your phone will get data

Roaming on an Australian plan is convenient and expensive; a travel eSIM is usually a fraction of the price and can be set up before you leave. Our eSIM vs roaming guide runs the numbers, and your destination’s page lists plans that work there.

10. Book your first night and know how you’ll get to it

Whatever shape the rest of the trip takes, land with the first night booked and the transfer worked out. Immigration forms ask for an address, and working out an unfamiliar transport system after a long-haul flight is how people end up in the taxi that charges triple.

11. Check the power plugs and buy adapters at home

Adapters cost a few dollars in Australia and a lot more airside. Your destination’s plug type is in our adapter guide - and check voltage too if you are packing anything with a motor or heating element.

12. Subscribe to Smartraveller updates for your destination

Smartraveller is the Australian Government’s travel advice service. Subscribing takes a minute and means a change in advice level or entry rules for your destination lands in your inbox rather than in your news feed after the fact.

2 weeks before

Two weeks before you fly

Paperwork copies, the house, and the things that are cheap to fix now and stressful to fix later.

13. Copy your documents - twice digital, once on paper

Passport photo page, visa or authorisation, insurance policy number and emergency line, itinerary and bookings. Keep one digital copy you can reach from any device, leave one with someone at home, and pack a paper copy separately from the originals. A stolen passport is a bad day; a stolen passport with no copy is a bad week.

14. Check for a digital arrival card

A growing number of countries have replaced the paper arrival card with a digital one you complete in the days before you land - some will not let you board without it. Your destination’s page says whether yours uses one and when it opens.

15. Set up the house to run without you

Pause or redirect mail, sort the pets and plants, put lights on timers for a long trip, and tell a neighbour. If your car is sitting at home, a trickle charger or a weekly start from a neighbour saves a flat battery on your return.

16. Check your baggage allowance and weigh your bag

Allowances differ by airline, route and fare class, and budget carriers charge heavily at the airport for what would have been cheap to add online. Weigh the packed bag at home - bathroom scales are fine - and leave room for the return trip.

17. Install your eSIM before you leave

Buy and install the eSIM on home wifi, but leave it switched off until you land - most plans only start counting when the eSIM first connects. Doing the install at home means any activation problem happens where support can reach you, not at a baggage carousel.

18. Download the offline versions of everything

Your airline’s app, offline maps for your first city, your translation app’s offline language pack, and any tickets or passes saved to your phone’s wallet. Assume the first hour after landing has no data - if everything still works, you prepared correctly.

48 hours before

The last 48 hours

Confirmations and charging. Nothing new gets organised this close to a flight - this is checking what already exists.

19. Check in online as soon as it opens

Online check-in typically opens 24 to 48 hours out depending on the airline. Checking in early gets the seat allocation done and surfaces problems - a name mismatch, a missing authorisation - while there is still time to fix them.

20. Recheck the flight time, terminal and any strike news

Schedules move. Check the flight status the day before, confirm which terminal you leave from, and glance at news for your departure and arrival airports - industrial action rarely announces itself more than a few days ahead.

21. Charge everything, and pack power banks in cabin baggage

Power banks, spare batteries, vapes and e-cigarettes must travel in the cabin, never in checked baggage - it is a safety rule, not a preference. Charge everything the night before; security occasionally asks for devices to be powered on. Anything you are unsure about is in our item-by-item carry-on rules.

22. Sort a small amount of cash

You do not need a wad of foreign currency, but landing with enough for a coffee, a trolley and a bus fare beats hunting for an ATM with a queue behind you. How card-friendly your destination is - and whether cash still matters there - is on its travel money page.

23. Do the final document run-through

Physical passport in hand - not just remembered. Boarding pass loaded. Visa or authorisation approval saved offline. Insurance emergency number somewhere that is not only your phone. Thirty seconds of checking, once, calmly.

Departure day

On the day

The airport items, in the order the airport delivers them.

24. Arrive three hours before an international flight

Three hours is the standard airline advice for international departures from Australian airports, and it exists because check-in and bag drop close well before the flight leaves - typically around an hour out. Arriving with time to spare turns every other problem on this page into an inconvenience instead of a missed flight.

25. Pack liquids for the security rules

International departures from Australia still apply the liquids rule: containers of 100ml or less, in a resealable clear plastic bag, one bag per passenger. Larger containers go in checked baggage. Buy anything over the limit airside or at the destination - and check anything else you are unsure about against the carry-on rules, item by item.

26. Claim the TRS refund if you’re eligible

The Tourist Refund Scheme refunds the GST on goods worth $300 or more bought from one business within 60 days of departure - new phones and cameras are the classic claims. Bring the goods and the original tax invoice to the TRS facility after security, and allow queue time; it is busiest at peak departure banks.

27. Know when your gate closes, then relax

The boarding time on the pass is when boarding starts, not when the gate closes - but gates do close before departure time, and airside distances at big airports are longer than they look. Find the gate on the screens, know how far it is, and spend the rest of the wait on a coffee rather than a sprint.

Overseas travel checklist FAQs