Do Australians Need a Visa? All 10 Top Destinations, Checked and Dated

You're at the gate in Perth, phone in one hand, boarding pass in the other, and a forum thread from 2023 just told you Bali is visa-free. It isn't. It never has been for Australians. Somewhere else on the same screen, a site wants your passport number and a "priority processing fee" for an EU system that doesn't exist yet. Neither of those is a guess. Both are wrong, and one of them is trying to take your money.

Here's the fix: one table, ten destinations, each rule checked against the destination government's own page on 9 September 2026, not against another blog quoting another blog. Every AUD figure below is a live conversion as of September 2026, not a number carried over from an old post.

The ten destinations, at a glance

This is the table to screenshot before you close the tab. Every row links to the issuing government's own page, not a visa-agency reseller, and every row was checked on 9 September 2026.

Data: evisa.imigrasi.go.id, en.wikipedia.org, gov.uk, govinfo.gov

How we chose these ten

These are the ten countries Australians actually flew to most, not the ten someone thought sounded interesting. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' June 2026 release, Indonesia was the top destination for short-term resident returns with 156,190 trips, ahead of New Zealand (81,060), Japan (61,650), the UK (56,930), China (55,410), the US (52,030), Thailand (42,240), Vietnam (37,500), Fiji (36,930) and Italy (32,420).

We've grouped Italy and France under "Schengen Europe" rather than listing Italy alone, because the entry rule that actually matters here, ETIAS, applies to all 30 countries in the zone as one system, not per country. Everything else on the list keeps its own row because its rule is genuinely its own.

The part everyone skips: your stopover is its own visa question

Almost nobody flies from Australia to Europe, the US or Vietnam without landing somewhere else first. Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong between them carry most of the long-haul traffic out of Perth, Brisbane and Sydney, and every one of them has its own entry rule, completely separate from wherever you're actually headed.

The good news for this specific list of stopovers: none of them ask an Australian passport holder to apply for anything in advance, whether you stay airside or clear immigration for a longer look around.

Photo: Michael · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Indonesia (Bali)

Yes, Australians need a visa for Indonesia, and no, there's no visa-free option. Every Australian entering Bali needs a Visa on Arrival or its digital equivalent, the e-VOA, which Indonesia's own immigration portal prices at IDR 500,000 (about A$39 at September 2026 rates) for a single entry and a 30-day stay.

Apply online before you fly at evisa.imigrasi.go.id and you use the airport e-Gates instead of the manual counter queue. On top of the visa, every foreign visitor pays a separate Bali Tourist Levy of IDR 150,000 (about A$12), paid once per visit through the official Love Bali system, not the immigration portal. Both fees are fixed, and only .go.id domains are real, a point Smartraveller repeats for exactly the reason this article opens with: fake arrival-card sites are actively targeting Australians. We've covered the full sequence in our complete Bali entry requirements guide.

Who should skip the online application: nobody, really. Turning up without the e-VOA just means paying the identical IDR 500,000 at a manual counter after a red-eye flight, which is a worse version of the same requirement, not a cheaper one. The honest downside of Bali itself isn't the paperwork, it's the crowds: Bali logged 6,948,754 foreign arrivals in 2025, up 9.72% on 2024, and the levy queues and the attractions are busiest around the December-January break, when most state school holidays overlap.

New Zealand

If you're an Australian citizen, you need nothing at all. Under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, Immigration New Zealand's own page confirms you "can usually live, work and study in New Zealand without applying for a visa or New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA)", and you're issued a Resident Visa on arrival.

That's the bit almost every other guide gets wrong, or skips: the NZeTA exemption does not extend to every Australian passport. If you're an Australian permanent resident who is not a citizen, Immigration New Zealand's page on the Australian Resident Visa states plainly that "you must hold a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) before you travel", priced from NZD 17 (about A$14 at September 2026 rates). The one thing that does NOT change is the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy: the same page confirms an Australian permanent resident "does not pay" the NZD 100 (about A$81 at September 2026 rates) levy, exactly like a citizen. So a British citizen with Australian permanent residence pays the NZeTA fee but not the levy; an Australian citizen pays neither.

Who should double-check this: anyone travelling on a non-Australian passport who happens to live in Australia permanently. You'll need the NZeTA even though the levy still doesn't apply to you.

Japan

Straightforward, for now: Australians get a 90-day visa exemption for tourism and business, confirmed under Japan's official visa exemption arrangements and listed in Japan's published visa policy. Nothing to apply for, nothing to pay, no e-Gate registration beyond the usual arrival card.

That's changing, eventually, not soon. Japan's parliament has passed the legal groundwork for JESTA, a Japanese equivalent of the US ESTA that would require visa-exempt visitors to get a paid pre-travel screening before boarding, as reported by Japanese trade outlets including Impress Watch and JBpress. The target is fiscal 2028, which in Japan's calendar runs from April 2028. It changes nothing for a trip booked in 2026 or 2027, and no fee or application process exists to sign up for yet.

Who should skip worrying about JESTA right now: everyone flying before 2028. Anyone who tells you otherwise this year is guessing at a date nobody, including Japan's own government, has confirmed.

United States

Australians travel under the Visa Waiver Program, which means an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), not a visa. The fee rose from USD 21 to USD 40 on 30 September 2025, then to USD 40.27 (about A$56 at September 2026 rates) for fiscal year 2026 under an inflation adjustment published in the Federal Register. It covers stays of up to 90 days across a validity period of roughly two years or until your passport expires.

Apply only at the official esta.cbp.dhs.gov, at least 72 hours before you fly, though most approvals land within minutes.

Who should skip the standalone application form: anyone landing on a site that isn't esta.cbp.dhs.gov and asks for more than the government fee. Third-party "expedited" ESTA sites routinely charge double or triple for identical processing.

United Kingdom

The UK ETA is mandatory for Australians and has been since 25 February 2026. It now costs GBP 20 (about A$37 at September 2026 rates), up from GBP 16 before the 8 April 2026 increase confirmed in the Home Office's own factsheet, and one application, checked at boarding rather than at the UK border, covers multiple trips for up to six months at a time over two years.

The one exemption worth knowing: a same-ticket, same-day connection through Heathrow or Manchester that never leaves the airport's secure transit zone currently skips the ETA entirely, though the UK Home Office describes that exemption as temporary. Go landside for any reason, an overnight stopover, a terminal change through border control, and you need the full ETA at full price. We've run the complete UK ETA, ETIAS and EU Entry/Exit System picture, including the transit rule and the family-of-four cost, in our dedicated Europe entry guide.

Who should apply now rather than at the gate: anyone with a UK stop booked for 2027. Approvals usually land within a day, but the Home Office allows up to three working days, and a missing ETA is a check-in problem in Perth, not a border problem in London.

Schengen Europe (Italy, France and the rest)

No visa, and as of 9 September 2026, still no ETIAS to apply for. Australians travel to Schengen countries visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, exactly as before. What's changed is that a new biometric border check, the Entry/Exit System, has been fully running at every external Schengen border since 10 April 2026, replacing the ink stamp with a photo and fingerprints. It has no fee and nothing to apply for.

ETIAS, the EU's planned paid authorisation, is not live. The European Commission's own site dropped its previous last-quarter-2026 target and now says only that travellers get "several months" notice before launch. When it does open, it will cost EUR 20 (about A$32 at September 2026 rates), free for travellers under 18 or over 70, valid three years across all 30 countries in one application. Anyone charging you for ETIAS right now, before it exists, is running a scam. Full detail, including why time in the UK never counts against your Schengen 90 days, is in our Europe entry guide for Australians.

Who should skip a "pre-registration" fee for ETIAS: everyone, without exception. There is nothing to pre-register for.

Thailand

Australians remain visa-free for Thailand, but the stay just got shorter. Through 14 September 2026, the exemption still runs 60 days. From 15 September 2026, six days after this article went live, Thailand's own Tourism Authority confirms the stay drops to 30 days for Australia and 59 other nationalities, with a one-time 30-day extension available at Thai immigration offices for roughly 1,900 THB (about A$80 at September 2026 rates), giving a 60-day ceiling either way if you plan the extension in advance. Anyone who entered before 15 September keeps the stay they were granted on arrival.

Every entrant, visa-free or not, must also file the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) within 72 hours of arrival at Thailand's official immigration portal. There's no fee for it, so any site charging to "process" the TDAC on your behalf is charging for a form the Thai government gives away.

Who should skip planning around the old 60-day rule: anyone entering Thailand on or after 15 September 2026. That trip planned around a full 60-day stay now needs the in-person extension step built in, or a shorter itinerary.

Vietnam

Australians need an e-visa for Vietnam; there's no visa-free tourist entry the way there is for Thailand or Fiji. The e-visa costs from USD 25 (about A$35 at September 2026 rates) for single entry or USD 50 (about A$69 at September 2026 rates) for multiple entry, and either option is valid for up to 90 days, per Vietnam's published visa policy. Apply at Vietnam's official portal, evisa.gov.vn, rather than a resale site charging a markup for identical processing.

One genuinely useful exception: Phu Quoc Island allows visa-free entry for up to 30 days if you fly or sail there directly from outside Vietnam, without transiting through mainland immigration first. It's a narrow case, an island-hop rather than a mainland trip, but worth knowing if that's the whole itinerary.

Who should skip the e-visa altogether: only the traveller landing directly on Phu Quoc and staying there. Anyone touching Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang needs the full e-visa regardless of trip length.

China

Visa-free for now, and genuinely time-limited in a way most of this list isn't. China lets Australian passport holders in for up to 30 days, visa-free, for business, tourism, family visits, exchange or transit, and the scheme is confirmed only through 31 December 2026, per the Chinese Embassy in Australia's own November 2025 notice. It has already been reissued twice on short notice, so a track record of last-minute extensions exists, but nothing published today says what happens on 1 January 2027.

Everyone entering, visa-free or not, must also file a free online arrival card up to 72 hours before landing, and anyone not staying in a hotel must register their accommodation with local police within 24 hours. Neither step is optional just because the visa itself is free. We've run the full three-case breakdown for a trip that straddles the New Year cutoff in our dedicated China visa-free guide.

Who should book with a fallback plan: anyone whose entry date sits on or after 1 January 2027. Book flexible where you can, and recheck the embassy's notices page before you commit to that leg.

Fiji

The simplest entry on this list. Australians travelling for holiday purposes get a free visitor permit on arrival, no application, no fee, for up to an initial four months, confirmed directly by Fiji's Ministry of Immigration. Extensions beyond that are possible, generally up to six months in total, but arranged with Fijian immigration once you're there, not before you fly.

You'll still need a passport valid well beyond your stay, a return or onward ticket, and proof you can support yourself, the same basics that apply almost everywhere else on this list. None of it involves a payment to a third party before departure, which makes Fiji the easiest "no" on this whole table.

Who should still plan ahead anyway: anyone wanting the extension past four months. Sort that with Fijian immigration in person once you've arrived, not by searching for a form online before you leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Australians need a visa for Bali specifically, or just Indonesia generally?

The same e-VOA covers all of Indonesia, Bali included. There's no separate Bali-only visa and no visa-free carve-out for the island. The IDR 500,000 fee and 30-day stay apply whether you're landing in Denpasar or Jakarta.

If I'm an Australian permanent resident but not a citizen, does anything on this list change for me?

New Zealand changes, but only partly: you'll need an NZeTA where a citizen needs nothing, though you're exempt from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy either way. Everywhere else on this list, the rule is based on the passport you're travelling on, not your Australian residency status, so check the rule for your actual passport's nationality, not Australia's.

Does a stopover in Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong need its own visa application?

Not for an Australian passport, at any of those five. All five allow visa-free entry or a free visa on arrival for Australians, whether you stay airside or go landside for the layover. That doesn't extend to every hub; check any stopover outside this list on its own terms.

Which of these ten destinations is genuinely changing soon, not just theoretically?

Two, and both inside months of this article going live. Thailand's visa-free stay drops from 60 to 30 days on 15 September 2026. China's 30-day visa-free entry is confirmed only through 31 December 2026, with nothing published yet about what follows.

Is ETIAS the same thing as the UK ETA?

No, and mixing them up is the single most common mistake in this whole topic. The UK ETA is real, live and mandatory since February 2026. ETIAS is the EU's separate, not-yet-open equivalent for Schengen countries, with no launch date. Time in the UK also never counts against your Schengen 90-day allowance, since they're tracked separately.

Do children pay these fees too?

Generally yes, at the same rate as an adult, with two exceptions on this list: ETIAS will be free for travellers under 18 once it launches, and Fiji's arrival permit has no fee for anyone. Everywhere else, including the UK ETA and US ESTA, every named traveller, infants included, pays the full amount.

What should I do before I fly, beyond sorting the visa itself?

Check your passport has the validity the destination actually requires (six months past arrival for Indonesia, three months past departure for Schengen countries), and keep the confirmation, QR code or approval email somewhere you can reach without wifi at a border desk. Our travel document checklist runs the rest of the pre-departure list, and Australia's own exit fee, the Passenger Movement Charge, is rising separately, which our departure tax guide covers if you're budgeting the whole trip, not just the destination end.

Key Takeaways

Last verified 9 September 2026, against each destination government's own page named in the table above. Visa and entry rules move fast, Thailand's on this list is changing within the week; recheck the official source for your destination before you fly if it's been more than a few months since that date.

Sources

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, latest release (June 2026)
2. Indonesian Directorate General of Immigration: e-VOA information, official e-Visa portal
3. Love Bali (Bali Provincial Government): Tourist Levy FAQ
4. Smartraveller (Australian Government): Indonesia travel advice
5. ANTARA News (reporting BPS-Statistics Indonesia, Bali Province): Bali's foreign tourist arrivals rise nearly 10 pct in 2025
6. Immigration New Zealand: Australian citizens and permanent residents travelling to New Zealand
7. Immigration New Zealand: Australian Resident Visa, NZeTA and IVL requirements
8. Wikipedia: Visa policy of Japan
9. Impress Watch: JESTA travel authorisation, fiscal 2028 target
10. JBpress: JESTA background and timeline
11. U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Official ESTA application site
12. Federal Register: Certain DHS Immigration Fees Required by HR-1, Fiscal Year 2026 Adjustments for Inflation
13. UK Home Office: Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) factsheet, April 2026
14. gov.uk: Apply for an ETA
15. European Union: What is ETIAS, official EU ETIAS site
16. European Union: EES Frequently Asked Questions
17. Tourism Authority of Thailand Newsroom: New 30-day and 15-day visa exemption rules from 15 September
18. Wikipedia: Visa policy of Vietnam
19. Chinese Embassy in Australia: Notice on Extension of Visa-free Policy
20. Fiji Ministry of Immigration: Visa application, entry permits
21. Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore: Visa-Free Transit Facility
22. Wikipedia: Visa policy of the United Arab Emirates
23. Australian Embassy, Doha: Visas and Citizenship
24. Wikipedia: Visa policy of Malaysia
25. Immigration Department, Hong Kong: Visit/Transit
26. Reserve Bank of Australia: Exchange rates, 9 September 2026