The NDIA draws a hard line between support costs and holiday costs.
Support costs are the things you need because of your disability: personal care, mobility assistance, medication prompting, overnight support, supervision, help with meals and transfers. These follow you. If you receive six hours of support a day at home, those six hours can generally be delivered somewhere else.
Holiday costs are the things every traveller pays for regardless of disability: flights, hotel rooms, meals, tickets, tours. These are ordinary living and lifestyle expenses, and they sit with you.
The NDIS operational guidance is unambiguous on the exclusions side. Short-term accommodation funding cannot be used for cruises, holiday packages, holiday accommodation or airfares; passports, visas, or travel and vehicle insurance; theme parks, music, theatre, cinema, sporting events and conferences; food or meals; or the accommodation and travel expenses of family members or support workers who are providing you with support on holiday.
That last exclusion catches a lot of people. Your support worker’s time is claimable. Their flight and their hotel room are not.
The four funding streams behind a supported trip
Most supported holidays are assembled from some combination of these.
1. Core Supports: Assistance with Daily Life
Your everyday personal care and daily living support. Showering, dressing, toileting, transfers, meal preparation, medication assistance, overnight support. This is the backbone of most supported travel. Core funding is flexible, which means you can generally redirect it toward a trip without a separate approval, provided you can still cover your ordinary needs for the rest of your plan period.
2. Core Supports: Assistance with Social and Community Participation
This is where a support worker’s hours accompanying you are most commonly claimed. If a worker enables you to participate in an activity you could not otherwise access, their hourly rate typically comes from here.
3. Short Term Accommodation (STA)
A distinct, purpose-built support with its own rules. Covered in detail below.
4. Transport and assistive technology
The difference in cost between standard and accessible transport, such as a wheelchair-accessible vehicle instead of a standard hire car, may be fundable. So may short-term hire of equipment at your destination: a mobile hoist, a shower commode, an adjustable bed. Hiring at the destination is very often cheaper and less stressful than freighting your own.
Short Term Accommodation (STA), explained properly
STA is still the NDIA’s formal term, though many providers and participants now say respite or STR interchangeably. It is funding for a stay away from your usual home, with support included, so that the people who normally care for you can take a break.
Who it is for
You may be able to get STA funding if you live with your primary informal supports (family, friends, a carer) or receive daily drop-in support, and you receive more than six hours of disability-related support a day from that informal support.
The purpose is stated plainly in the guidance: it supports you while your carers take a short break, so they can keep caring for you afterwards. That framing matters enormously when you are writing your goals, which is covered further down.
How much, and how you can use it
STA is usually funded for up to 28 days per year, used flexibly. That might be a single block of up to 14 days, one weekend a month, a week during school holidays, or a scattering of nights across the year. The flexibility is real, but so is the ceiling. If you burn through it early, the funding is gone until your next plan.
What it covers
- Supports for everyday activities such as showering, cooking and toileting
- Standard accommodation: a hotel, motel, short-stay rental, cabin, cottage, hostel or purpose-built respite accommodation
- Support to stay in your own home, or in a homestay arrangement with a support worker, if you normally need overnight support
Note the word standard. If you choose accommodation above the price limit, the gap is yours to pay.
Where you can use it
Generally within your home state or territory. The NDIA may fund STA outside your home state or territory if you live in a remote area. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood rules, and one of the most common causes of a rejected claim. An interstate respite stay at a coastal resort reads to a reviewer exactly like a holiday.
For participants under 18
STA can be funded for children in some circumstances: where their support needs exceed what is typical for their age, or where a break helps the family keep caring for them. It does not replace ordinary parenting. Toileting, settling a child to sleep, and babysitting are not STA.
What STA is not
It does not replace normal time apart such as school, work or community activities, and it does not replace mainstream services like crisis accommodation. And it is not a holiday. The NDIA has become markedly stricter about this distinction, and claims that look recreational rather than support-driven are being reviewed and rejected.
What changed on 1 July 2026
If you last looked at STA a year ago, one significant thing has changed. The pricing structure has been unbundled.
Under the old model, STA was claimed as a single all-inclusive daily package rate, with ratio-based line items (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4) covering accommodation, food, utilities and support worker costs in one figure.
Under the 2026-27 NDIS Pricing Schedule, effective 1 July 2026:
- The 1:1 through 1:4 ratio items have been removed entirely.
- Support hours are now claimed under standard support worker line items, reflecting actual hours delivered, time of day and intensity.
- Accommodation is claimed as a separate day rate, reported at approximately $162.85 per day, aligned with the Medium Term Accommodation rate.
- Food, utilities and activities are no longer folded into the bundled rate.
Two practical consequences. First, quotes will look different even where the total is similar, so expect an itemised breakdown rather than one daily figure. Second, transparency cuts both ways. It is now much easier for you to see what you are being charged for, and much easier for the NDIA to see it too. Vague invoicing is no longer viable.
A separate development worth tracking: the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, introduced to Parliament in May 2026, proposes giving the Minister power to make binding pricing determinations, which would shift price limits from NDIA guidance toward enforceable caps. Ask your provider whether their pricing is current.
STA, respite, MTA and SIL: a quick clarifier
These get conflated constantly.
| Support | What it is | Typical duration |
| STA | A short stay away from home with support included, giving carers a break | Up to 28 days a year, blocks of up to 14 days |
| Respite | The everyday word for what STA delivers. It is not a separate funding line | Not applicable |
| MTA | Medium Term Accommodation, for when your long-term home is not ready yet | Up to 90 days |
| SIL | Supported Independent Living, meaning ongoing daily support in your home | Ongoing |
If a provider quotes you respite, ask which line item they are actually claiming against.
Travelling interstate and overseas
Interstate. STA funding should generally be used in your home state or territory. But your Core Supports are not geographically fenced in the same way. If you are travelling interstate and you still need your usual personal care, a support worker’s hours can generally still be claimed. The structure of the claim matters more than the postcode.
Overseas. Widely cited guidance allows NDIS supports to continue for up to six weeks of overseas travel, with longer absences requiring prior discussion with the NDIA. Travel and accommodation costs, yours and any support worker’s, remain entirely your own. If your plan is NDIA-managed, you are limited to registered providers, which narrows your options considerably abroad. Self-managed and plan-managed participants have more room to engage a local worker at the destination. Overseas arrangements change, and the consequences of getting them wrong are expensive, so confirm directly with the NDIA or your support coordinator before you book.
Getting it approved: the practical checklist
Most rejections are documentation failures, not eligibility failures.
- Write goals that carry the trip. The NDIA funds against goals. “I want a holiday” is not a goal. “I want to maintain my current living arrangement by ensuring my family can continue caring for me” is. So is “I want to build my confidence and independence in unfamiliar environments.” Get this language into your plan at your planning meeting or check-in, before you need it.
- Get a written, itemised quote. Under the unbundled 2026-27 structure this is essential. It should separate support hours (with rates, times of day and intensity), accommodation, and anything you are paying personally.
- Have a service agreement in place. It should specify how many support hours will be delivered, how travel time is handled, and precisely which costs sit with you.
- Keep support logs. Records of the support actually delivered are your evidence if a claim is queried.
- Split the invoice cleanly. Disability supports claimed against your plan; flights, meals, tickets and accommodation upgrades paid personally. Never let a provider bundle them.
- Talk to your plan manager or support coordinator first. They see rejected claims all day and know what the current review triggers look like.
Why claims get rejected
Learn from other people’s expensive lessons.
- Booking accommodation at a tourist resort, even with genuine supports attached
- Flying interstate for an STA stay when suitable local options existed
- Invoices that bundle support and holiday costs into one line
- Activities that read as tourism, such as theme parks and ticketed attractions, rather than ordinary community participation
- Claiming a support worker’s airfare, hotel room or meals
- No service agreement, no quote, no support logs
- Running the Core budget dry, then having nothing left for ordinary daily support
Accessible travel: the details that make or break a trip
Funding is only half of it. The other half is logistics, and the failure points are predictable.
- Book accessible rooms early and verify them. “Accessible” is not a standard. Call ahead and confirm specifics: door widths, roll-in shower, grab rail placement, bed height, whether there is a step at the entry, whether the accessible room is the one with a bath.
- Hire equipment at the destination. Hoists, shower commodes, adjustable beds and mobility equipment can usually be hired locally for a fraction of the cost and hassle of transporting your own.
- Plan medication supply and storage. Include refrigeration, time zones if travelling abroad, and enough of a buffer for delays.
- Check the last mile. Accessible accommodation with no accessible transport to it is not accessible. Confirm the vehicle, the route, and the transfer at both ends.
- Consider group travel. Shared supports across a small group can substantially extend your funding, and many participants find the social side is the best part of the trip.
- Build in recovery time. Travel is tiring for everyone and more so with high support needs. A schedule with slack in it is a schedule you will actually enjoy.
Frequently asked questions
Will the NDIS pay for my flights and hotel?
No. Airfares and holiday accommodation are explicitly excluded. Your plan can fund the disability supports you need while you are there.
Can my support worker come with me?
Yes, and their support hours can generally be claimed from Core Supports. Their flights, accommodation and meals cannot.
How many days of STA do I get?
Usually up to 28 per year, in blocks of up to 14 days, used flexibly across your plan.
Can I use STA for an interstate trip?
Generally no. STA should be used in your home state or territory, with a remote-area exception. Core Supports are treated differently, so ask before you assume.
Is there a $15,000 NDIS holiday allowance?
No. There is no holiday allowance. Every support must still meet the reasonable and necessary test.
Does self-managing change things?
It gives you more freedom in choosing providers and negotiating rates. It does not change what the NDIS will and will not fund.
The bottom line
An NDIS-supported holiday is entirely achievable. It just is not free, and it is not automatic. It is a piece of planning: goals worded to carry the trip, a clean split between what your plan pays and what you pay, an itemised quote under the new 2026-27 pricing structure, and a provider who understands both the accessibility logistics and the compliance rules well enough not to leave you holding a rejected invoice.
Get those things right and travel stops being the thing you read about other people doing.
Travel with a team that knows both sides of this
Comfy Travel does exactly this work for a living. They are an Australian supported-travel specialist offering NDIS holiday packages, Short-Term Accommodation and respite breaks, accessible accommodation, wheelchair-accessible vehicle hire, medical appointment travel, family and friends visits, and return-to-country trips, Australia-wide, from Queensland’s beaches to Victoria’s vineyards, Sydney, Uluru and beyond.
What makes the difference is that they handle the paperwork as carefully as the itinerary. Their team works with you to align your trip with your NDIS goals and funding, provides transparent all-inclusive quotes with no hidden costs, and manages bookings end to end. Support workers are NDIS-screened, qualified and trained specifically for disability travel, and transport and accommodation are wheelchair accessible throughout. For participants travelling alone for the first time, their dedicated travel buddies provide one-on-one assistance and companionship the whole way.
.
