How we write our travel advice

Last Updated
Friday, 15/05/2026

 

Read this page to understand how we develop our travel advisories. For information about our advice levels, go to what our advice levels mean.

On this page:

Smartraveller travel advisories

It's important to know how safe the places you plan to travel are before you book your trip. This includes places you'll transit through. It's also important to stay informed during your travels if things change. Our travel advice helps you know the risks.

We have travel advisories for 179 destinations. Each advisory has specific information about:

  • safety
  • health
  • local laws
  • travel
  • local contacts.

Our advice also applies to Australian officials travelling and living overseas. We also adhere to the principle that there is no difference in information about security and other risks provided to Australian travellers and Australian government employees. We ensure we give the same advice about the risks to the public as we do to Australian officials.

There are limits to what the Australian Government can do if you get into trouble. Read the Consular Services Charter to understand how and when we may help.

Where we don't have travel advice

We don't have travel advice for countries with few Australian travellers or where the risks are low. We regularly check if we need travel advice for these destinations.

Our consular partners also publish travel advice. Check with them if we don't have an advisory for where you're going.

What does 'advice level' mean?

We give each destination an overall advice level of 1, 2, 3 or 4. These levels show the risk for Australians travelling there.

A higher advice level means higher risk.

The levels are:

Sometimes, we give a higher or lower level to areas within a country for specific risks or safety reasons. This could be a city, border region or other location.

It's important to understand the advice levels for each place you travel to and transit through. The advice level can affect your safety and travel insurance.

Read our information for each advice level to understand the risks.

Where to find the advice level for your destination

The coloured bar at the top of each advisory page shows the overall level.

We also show the overall advice level and any regional levels under 'advice levels' on the advisory page.

When we update our advice

We keep all our travel advisories under review but we don't change them for all issues and events. If a travel advisory hasn't been updated for several months, it's not out of date. There's just been no reason that an update has been required.

We update our advice if:

  • there are new risks to Australian travellers
  • the known risks change.

Risks include things such as:

Stay informed about changes to our advice.

Changes to the advice level

We'll raise or lower the advice level if the risk for Australian travellers has changed. This could be because of a specific event or something else. We'll include the change in the 'Latest update' section at the top of the travel advisory page.

Sometimes regions or cities within the destination have different levels. This can be because either higher or lower risks or safety concerns exist for that specific location.

We may update our advice with new information without changing the advice level. We won't change the advice level if we decide that the risk for Australians hasn't changed.

If we raise the level of your destination, consider the advice carefully. Take extra precautions.

Where our information comes from

We use a range of sources to update our travel advisories, such as:

  • Australian diplomatic missions overseas
  • threat assessments from ASIO's National Threat Assessment Centre
  • intelligence reporting
  • information from our consular partners in the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada
  • other Australian government departments
  • media and open-source reporting
  • common problems Australians face overseas
  • feedback from travellers.

Our advisories objectively assess the risks you face overseas. Diplomatic, political or commercial factors do not influence them.

Travel insurance and advice levels

Check the advice level of where you're going before buying insurance.

Most travel insurance policies won't cover you in level 4 countries. Some will also exclude level 3 countries depending on the advice level reasons.

Some policies only let you cancel for safety reasons if we raise the advice level after you buy your policy. Most won't cover cancellation for safety reasons if the advice level hasn't changed.

If we raise the travel advice level to level 3 or level 4 and you want to cancel your trip, contact your insurer. Find out if you can claim to cover cancellation costs or itinerary changes.

Each travel insurance company will be different. Check with yours directly.

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