Is It Safe to Travel? Travelling When the World Feels Shaky (And Why I'm Still Going)

Summary:

The world is a bit wobbly at the moment. 

If you've been sitting on a trip you've been dreaming about for years, it's tempting to wait until things settle down.

Here's the thing — they may not settle. Not the way we're used to. 

This is a piece about travelling through uncertain times, what to actually think about (travel insurance, weather patterns and a few honest trade-offs), and why regret is a far bigger risk than uncertainty.

I had coffee with a friend last week who told me she'd been planning a trip to Italy for eleven years.

Eleven.

She had a Pinterest board. She'd saved the money.

And then she said the thing I keep hearing, over and over:

"Maybe I'll wait until the world calms down."

I didn't say anything at first. I just stirred my coffee.

Because here's what I've been thinking about lately, and it's the reason I'm writing this piece.

My bestie Kezza and I holiday at home. It's not so bad, is it?

The world isn't going to calm down

Not in the way we remember it.

Twenty-plus years of traveller research have taught me that travellers have always worried about something.

SARS. The GFC. Bali bombings.

Iceland's 2010 ash cloud grounded European airspace and left travellers sleeping on airport floors.

But something shifted after 2020. After the pandemic.

Uncertainty used to feel like a storm that passed. You battened down the hatches, waited it out, and got back to normal.

Now it feels more like the weather itself. It's the climate we're living in.

• Wars in places that used to feel far away. 

• Political shifts nobody saw coming. 

• Currencies wobbling. 

• Airlines going bust. 

• Heatwaves where it used to be mild. 

• Cyclones where there weren't cyclones before.

This isn't me being dramatic. This is me being honest, the way I'd be honest with a friend over coffee.

Is it safe to travel and the trap of waiting for "normal"

Here's what I keep hearing in my conversations with travellers:

"I'll go when I retire."

"I'll go when the world's safer."

"I'll go when my knees are better."

And then one day the knees aren't better. 

The partner gets sick. 

The world does something else. 

The window gets smaller instead of wider.

I'm not writing this to scare you. That would be cheap and I don't do cheap.

I'm writing this because I've sat across from too many travellers who've said,

"I wish I'd gone when I had the chance."

And I have never once had a traveller tell me they wished they hadn't gone.

Not once.

Have a think about that.

So what do we actually do?

We don't stick our heads in the sand. And we don't bail on the trip either.

We plan smarter.

We factor uncertainty in, rather than pretending it isn't there.

Here's what that actually looks like.

Weather, with more attention than you used to give it

Climate is no longer a vague "what's the average rainfall" question. It's a real planning input now.

Hurricanes and wet seasons are stretching beyond what they used to be.

Heatwaves are turning up in places that didn't get heatwaves. 

Wildfires. 

Flooding. 

Snow where there isn't usually snow.

You might need to look at when you're going more carefully than you used to.

Shoulder seasons aren't always the safe bet they were.

If you're heading somewhere historically hot in summer, ask yourself whether "hot" means what it used to.

This isn't about bailing on a destination. It's about choosing the right month, packing differently, and having a backup plan if your big day at the temple is forecast to hit 45 degrees.

Travel insurance — the boring bit that matters most

I know. The moment anyone says "travel insurance" the eyes glaze over.

But this is the one piece of admin I'm going to bang on about, because in a wobbly world it is the single biggest piece of protection you've got.

A few things to actually think about:

• "My credit card covers me". It astounds me that our distrust of banks has not fed over into their travel cover. Read the fine print, and then again. What does it really cover you for?

• Acts of war are almost never covered. If a region you're heading to slides into conflict and your trip is cancelled because of it, the standard policy will not pay out. Read that exclusion carefully.

• Check your government's travel advice. And check it again. For Australians, that's Smartraveller. For everyone else, your equivalent. If your government has issued a "do not travel" or "reconsider your need to travel" warning for the region, your insurance will almost always not cover you for things that happen there. A lot of travellers don't realise this until they try to claim.

• Cancellation cover. Not just medical. Look at cancellation for natural disasters, airline collapse, and family emergencies at home.

• Existing conditions. The wrong policy can exclude the one thing you actually need. Declare everything, even the boring stuff.

• The excess. A cheap policy with a massive excess isn't cheap when something happens.

• "Known events" exclusions. Once a war, an earthquake, or a disease outbreak is officially declared, you may not be covered if you book after that date.

• "Cancel for any reason" cover if it's available where you are. It costs more. Sometimes it's worth every cent.

• Your home contents policy while you're away. I've heard of insurers refusing to pay out on a break-in because the homeowner had been posting holiday photos on Facebook in real time. Either wait until you're home to post, set everything to private, or get a friend to check the house. Ring your home insurer and ask the question directly.

Here's the bigger point.

If you're in midlife or older, this is not the time to grab the cheapest policy on a comparison site and tick the box.

This is the time to do scenario planning.

To think about what could actually go wrong on this trip, for you specifically.

To weigh the cost of a better policy against the opportunity cost of not having one when you need it.

Different insurers cover different things. 

Some are brilliant on medical and rubbish on cancellation.

Some are the other way round. 

There are policies built for older travellers, for travellers with existing conditions, for travellers heading somewhere unusual.

And this is the kind of thing travel agents help with all the time, and there's no point making it harder than it has to be.

Flexibility, not certainty

Certainty isn't on the menu anymore. Flexibility is.

That might mean booking refundable hotels where possible.

It might mean choosing airlines with decent change policies (and paying more for your airfare). 

It might mean leaving a few days of the itinerary open so you're not locked into a plan that can't bend when something changes.

It might also mean travelling with a company that has a duty of care and a phone number you can actually ring when things go pear-shaped.

A plan for your people at home

Who's looking after my slightly naught but extremely cute dog Emmy if I get delayed coming home?

Who's checking on the dog? 

Who has a spare key? 

Who knows your itinerary?

Who has the emergency number for your travel insurance?

Does somebody at home have a photo of your passport?

These aren't worry tasks. They're freedom tasks.

They're what let you actually be present on the other side of the world, instead of fretting.

Sometimes the answer is closer to home

Here's the trade-off nobody really wants to talk about.

The trip you've been dreaming about for fifteen years might cost twice what it cost three years ago. 

Flights to Europe in particular have gone bananas. The maths might not work the way it used to.

So the question becomes: do you postpone, or do you adapt?

I'm not going to tell you that New Caledonia is the same as France. It isn't.

But it speaks French, the food is wonderful, the lagoon is one of the great wonders of the planet, and the flight from Australia is a fraction of the cost.

Tahiti instead of the Greek Islands.

Tasmania instead of Scotland.

Vietnam instead of Italy.

A road trip in your own country instead of a road trip in someone else's.

These are not consolation prizes. 

They are different trips, with different rewards.

Sometimes the reframe is the whole point.

This may be a season where domestic and regional travel get a second look, not because they're cheaper but because they keep you moving. 

The muscle stays in shape. 

The dreams stay alive. 

And by the time the bigger trip becomes possible again, you're travel-fit and ready to go.

The regret maths

Here's something I come back to, because it's true.

If you book the trip and something goes wrong, the worst case is almost always: you come home. 

You lose some money. You feel a bit silly. You're still here.

If you don't book the trip, the worst case is: you run out of time, health, or courage. 

And that money you saved is sitting in a bank account while you sit in the living room.

It doesn't buy the trip back.

That's the maths nobody in travel marketing talks about. And it's the one that actually matters.

I'm not saying run off to a war zone.

I'm not saying ignore your government's travel advice. 

I'm saying that between "do nothing" and "do something stupid" there's an enormous middle ground, and that middle ground is full of Italian hill towns and Japanese gardens and Moroccan rooftops and travellers just like you having the best week of their lives.

What my travellers tell me

One traveller from my research said to me last year, after a trip she'd almost cancelled twice:

"I kept thinking, if I wait, when will be the right time? And I realised there isn't one. The right time is the time I'm in."

A client booked a solo trip to Japan the week her youngest moved out. 

She rang me from the airport, almost in tears. A week later she messaged me from Kyoto absolutely buzzing:

 "Bron, I have never felt more like myself."

These travellers are not unusual. They're the rule.

So, should you go?

I can't answer that for you, and I wouldn't try.

But here's what I say to anyone wondering whether this is the right time:

If you wait for the world to feel certain again, you will wait forever. Because certainty isn't coming back in the shape we're used to.

This is the world now.

And it is still full of hill towns and train rides and strangers who end up becoming friends. 

It is still full of travellers sitting on a balcony in Puglia with a glass of wine, thinking, "I did this."

It is still full of first mornings in a new city, when the light is strange and the coffee is wrong and you don't quite know where you are — and you feel bloody alive in a way you haven't felt in years.

Plan it well.

Insure it properly.

Be sensible, not scared.

And then go.

What's the worst that can happen?

You get on a plane. And you come home.

Happy travels, Bron

P.S. If you're sitting on a trip you've been thinking about for years and you're not sure whether to pull the trigger, hit reply and tell me about it. I read every email. And I am yet to meet the traveller who regretted going.

FAQs

Is it safe to travel right now? It depends entirely on where you're going, when, and how. Check your own government's official travel advice (Smartraveller in Australia, or your equivalent elsewhere) before you book and again before you fly. Safe doesn't mean risk-free. It means manageable.

Why does government travel advice matter for my insurance? If your government issues a "do not travel" or "reconsider your need to travel" warning for the region you're heading to, most travel insurance policies will not cover you for events in that region. Always check the warning level before you book and before you depart.

Are acts of war covered by travel insurance? Almost never. This is one of the most common exclusions in standard policies. If you're heading anywhere that could plausibly be affected, read this section of your policy line by line.

What if my home is broken into while I'm away? Some home contents policies will not pay out if you've been broadcasting your absence on social media. Wait until you're home to post, or set everything to private. Ring your home insurer and ask the question directly.

What if Europe is suddenly out of budget? Look closer to home. New Caledonia, Bali, Tasmania, Vietnam, your own backyard. Different trips, not lesser ones. The point is to keep travelling, not to keep waiting.