Best travel insurance providers in 2024
If you’ve spent more on an upcoming trip than you’d be comfortable losing, you’ll want to have the best travel insurance in your corner.
Travel insurance key points
- All of the top-scoring plans and providers in our list cover COVID, but coverage varies and may require a physician’s diagnosis.
- If you want the freedom to cancel your trip for any reason — not just those listed in your policy — look for plans that offer a “cancel for any reason” upgrade.
- Most travel insurance policies come with a “free look” period which gives you a chance to make sure the policy fits your needs and request a refund if not.
- The average cost of travel insurance is 5% to 6% of your trip costs.
- How much you pay for travel insurance will depend on how expensive your trip is, how many benefits the insurance provides and the age of the covered travelers.
What does travel insurance cover?
Travel insurance covers your prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs and the extra money you need to spend due to unforeseen circumstances and emergencies both before and during your trip.
Coverage varies by company and policy, so it’s important to shop around to find the best travel insurance plan for your needs. In general, travel insurance covers costs associated with these problems:
- Bankruptcy of a travel company, such as your airline or tour operator.
- Dangerous weather conditions.
- Delayed and lost luggage.
- Illness or death in your family that requires you to stay home or cut your trip short.
- Illness that needs medical attention.
- Injury requiring medical evacuation.
- Jury duty.
- Travel delays and missed connections.
- Terrorism.
- Theft of your personal belongings while traveling.
- Unexpected job loss.
Types of travel insurance
A travel insurance plan bundles several types of coverage, each with its own limits. To ensure you have adequate financial protection for your trip, a comprehensive travel insurance plan should include the following:
- Trip cancellation insurance.
- Travel delay insurance.
- Trip interruption insurance.
- Travel medical insurance.
- Emergency medical evacuation coverage.
- Baggage delay coverage.
- Baggage loss and personal effects coverage.
Most travel insurance companies offer a free look period when you buy a policy. Take this time — which may be anywhere from 10 to 21 days — to carefully review the plan’s coverages and exclusions, and request a full refund if it doesn’t meet your needs.
How to get travel insurance
To buy travel insurance, you’ll need to submit an online application with information about yourself and your trip, such as your name, age, permanent address, destination, travel dates and total trip cost per person. Since the application is simple, you can easily get quotes from multiple companies on your own.
Even easier, you can get multiple quotes by submitting a single application online through a travel insurance comparison site.
“Cancel for any reason” upgrade
For the greatest flexibility to cancel, consider adding “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) coverage to your travel insurance plan. This will increase the cost of your policy, but will typically reimburse you for 75% of your trip expenses if you decide to cancel your trip.
A CFAR upgrade also usually has a number of requirements, such as buying it within seven to 14 days of making your first trip payment and insuring the full amount of your travel costs. But, it will give you the freedom to cancel your trip for any reason, as long as you do so at least two days before you plan to travel.
What travel insurance does not cover
Travel insurance policies typically exclude or limit “foreseeable” losses such as:
- Accidents or injuries caused by drinking or drug use.
- Canceling your trip because you changed your mind.
- Ending your trip early because you changed your mind.
- Losses caused by intentional self harm, including suicide.
- Losses due to war, civil disorder or riots.
- Medical tourism.
- Medical treatment for pre-existing conditions.
- Mental health care.
- Natural disasters that begin before you buy travel insurance.
- Non-medical evacuation.
- Normal pregnancy.
- Medical treatment related to high-risk activities.
- Routine medical care, such as physicals or dental care.
- Search and rescue.
Travel insurance plans typically only cover very specific trip cancellation reasons, these are listed in your plan’s description of coverage. If your trip is cancelled due to an event not included as a covered reason, it won’t be covered unless you opted for a “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) rider or separate CFAR policy.
How to choose the right travel insurance policy
When shopping for travel insurance, consider the coverages that are most important to you. For example:
- Travel medical insurance. If you’re traveling abroad, you’ll want a high limit for medical expenses, such as doctor and hospital bills, ambulance, X-rays and medicine. The best travel insurance for seniors includes ample travel medical insurance because Medicare generally does not pay for health care outside of the U.S.
- Emergency medical evacuation. If you’re planning a trip to a remote destination, make sure your travel insurance plan has high limits for emergency evacuation. Squaremouth suggests $50,000 to $100,000 of medical evacuation coverage for most trips but recommends $250,000 for travel to remote locations.
You’ll also want to consider common exclusions.
- Adventure sports. Many travel insurance plans exclude coverage for risky activities such as skiing and scuba diving. Read the fine print of a policy to see what is excluded, or look for a travel insurance company that specializes in covering adventure sports trips, such as World Nomads.
- Named storms. If a hurricane is named before you buy travel insurance, it’s too late to get coverage and file a successful claim.
- Normal pregnancy. Normal pregnancy typically isn’t covered by travel insurance. If you get pregnant after you buy travel insurance, you may be covered for pregnancy-related reasons, but you’ll need to provide medical proof that pregnancy started after your purchased travel insurance.
- Preexisting medical conditions. If you have dealt with a health issue, look closely at this common exclusion. Travel insurance plans typically have look-back periods, which could be 60, 90 or 180 days before you bought the policy. If you had symptoms during that time, your claim could be denied if your condition flares up while you’re traveling. You can generally get a preexisting medical condition exclusion waiver within 14 to 21 days of making your first trip deposit, as long as you are medically able to travel when you buy your travel insurance policy. There may also be other terms to get the waiver, such as needing to insure the full value of your trip.
When to buy travel insurance
The best time to buy travel insurance is immediately after making your first nonrefundable travel payment, whether it’s for a plane ticket, hotel stay, cruise or excursion. Like other types of insurance, your policy needs to be in place before something goes wrong. It won’t cost you any extra to buy travel insurance far in advance of your trip, and it will cover a longer period of time.
“Purchasing a travel insurance policy at the time of making an initial trip payment offers travelers the most peace of mind,” said James Clark, a spokesperson from travel insurance comparison site SquareMouth.
“Knowing they are protected if unforeseen events such as medical emergencies, inclement weather, natural disasters and other trip disruptions occur allows travelers to approach their trip with less worry and more confidence.”
You’d have a hard time buying travel insurance before booking anything because you’d have nothing to insure, Clark said. “With that said, travelers are able to purchase a policy and make modifications, such as updating travel dates or adding expenses to the insurance policy, as they continue to make their travel arrangements.”
You can buy travel insurance up to the day before your leave on your trip, but waiting may cost you the opportunity to qualify for a preexisting condition waiver or to buy a “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) upgrade.
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