Travelling interstate

People take trips all the time, some as holidays, some for work. You do it, I do it, and we all do it in one way or another. We don’t all go overseas either. In fact most of our trips are taken right here in Australia.

And while we’re busy zigzagging around the country, we don’t really treat driving from Perth to Adelaide or flying from Sydney to Melbourne any different to driving down to the local shops. Because of this, we never really think about having any insurance for domestic travel. We’re still in Australia, what could go wrong?

It’s true, travelling in Australia is probably less risky than travelling overseas, in terms of violent crime, theft or security alerts but things can still go wrong.

Let’s say you live in Cairns and you have to get to a conference in Sydney. You’re booked into a pretty decent hotel, your airfares and conference tickets are paid for and a cyclone is about to hit town. You don’t want to leave your family and couldn’t anyway as all flights out of Cairns are cancelled but your air tickets, hotel and conference fees are all non-refundable.

Or what if you’re on your honeymoon and have booked a cruise around the coast. The ship has docked at a tourist town for a day or two and you’re off inland, exploring the romantic sights. It’s been raining for a couple of days and the local river floods. You can’t get back to the ship and it leaves without you.

Most people understand the need for travel insurance when they’re going overseas, but as you can see, things can go wrong on any trip, even here in Australia. While there’s not much you can do if these things happen, you can at least make sure you’re not getting hurt in the back pocket as well.

When you’re about to go on your next trip interstate to watch your football team play or your next business trip, think about what might happen if you don’t quite make it.

Domestic travel insurance will usually cover you for loss of baggage, rental car excess, disruption of journey, accidental death, family emergency and other things that could go wrong. You may even qualify for a multi-trip policy or discount if you travel a lot.

Most travel insurance companies will have information on their website and their policies will be more competitive if you deal with them directly, rather than using a travel agent.