Travel insurance is the thing everyone buys in a rush on the last screen of a booking flow, for £22, without reading anything. Then something goes wrong and they discover the policy covers roughly none of it.
Here’s what actually matters, in order.
Medical cover is the only part that can bankrupt you
Everything else on a policy is an inconvenience with a price tag. Medical is the one where the numbers get frightening.
A broken leg in the US can run tens of thousands of dollars. An air ambulance repatriation from Southeast Asia to Europe has been quoted in the tens of thousands too, and from more remote places considerably more.
Look for medical cover of at least £2 million, and confirm repatriation and emergency evacuation are included. Those are separate line items and cheap policies sometimes cap them low.
Everything else — bags, delays, cancellation — is nice to have. This is the bit you’re actually buying.
A useful way to think about the whole purchase: insurance is not for the £300 problem, it’s for the £30,000 one. If losing a bag would annoy you but not hurt you financially, the baggage section barely matters and you shouldn’t pay much extra for it. If a hospital stay abroad would genuinely wreck you, that’s the number to obsess over. Most people optimise the wrong one because the small risks are the ones they can picture.
The exclusions that catch people
Pre-existing conditions. If you don’t declare them, the insurer can void the whole policy, not just the related claim. Declare everything, even things you consider resolved. Yes, it costs more. It costs less than an invalid policy.
Alcohol. Most policies exclude injuries sustained while intoxicated. That’s a broad clause and it’s used.
Adventure activities. Standard policies typically don’t cover scuba diving, skiing, motorbike or scooter riding, trekking above a certain altitude, or bungee jumping. Scooters are the big one — half of Southeast Asia gets around on them and most travellers are not covered, especially without the right licence.
Riding without a licence or helmet. Even on a covered policy, if you weren’t legally entitled to ride it, you’re not covered.
Unattended belongings. A bag stolen from a beach while you swam is almost never covered. Neither is one left in a car.
Government travel advisories. If your foreign office advises against travel to a country and you go anyway, cover is usually void.
What “cancellation cover” actually means
It covers cancellation for specified reasons listed in the policy — illness, injury, bereavement, jury service, redundancy, that sort of thing. It does not cover changing your mind, a work deadline, or deciding you’d rather not.
If you want that, you need “cancel for any reason” cover, which is a separate and considerably more expensive add-on and typically reimburses only 50 to 75% of your costs. It also usually has to be bought within a short window of your first booking.
Also: cancellation cover only works if you buy the policy when you book, not the week before you fly. Buying early is free protection for the months in between.
Annual multi-trip vs single trip
If you take three or more trips a year, an annual policy is almost always cheaper. They typically cap individual trips at 30 or 45 days, so check that against your longest trip.
Single-trip policies make sense for one big holiday, or for a trip longer than the annual cap.
Backpacker or long-stay policies are a separate category for trips of several months, often with the option to extend from abroad.
▶ Watch This Before You Go
The cover you might already have
Before you buy anything, check these:
Your bank account. Packaged current accounts frequently include family travel insurance. It’s often decent cover that people pay a monthly fee for and never use.
Your credit card. Many premium cards include travel insurance, usually conditional on paying for part of the trip with that card. Read the condition carefully.
Your home insurance. Some policies cover personal possessions away from home, which can overlap with baggage cover.
An EHIC or GHIC (for UK and EU travellers) gives access to state healthcare in EU countries on the same terms as locals. It is not insurance — it won’t repatriate you or cover a private clinic — but it reduces what you’ll claim.
What good cover looks like
- Medical: £2m+, including repatriation and evacuation
- Cancellation: at least the full value of your trip
- Baggage: £1,500 to £2,500, with single-item limits that actually cover your laptop or camera
- Personal liability: £1m+
- Excess: £50 to £100, and check whether it applies per person per section or per claim
- 24-hour emergency assistance line — and check it’s staffed by the insurer, not an answerphone
How to actually claim
Call the emergency line before treatment where possible. Many policies require pre-authorisation for anything non-emergency, and paying first and claiming later can get refused.
Get a police report within 24 hours for any theft. Almost every policy requires one and almost nobody does it at the time.
Keep receipts for everything, including the replacement toothbrush you bought when your bag went missing.
Photograph documents and email them to yourself. Claims fail on missing paperwork more than on disputed facts.
For flight disruption in the EU or UK, remember that EU261 compensation from the airline is separate from and usually more generous than your insurance for the same delay. Claim from the airline first.
One more habit worth building: read the policy wording, not the marketing page. The headline figures on a comparison site are chosen to look competitive, and the actual limits, excesses and exclusions live in a PDF nobody opens. Twenty minutes with that document before you buy is the single highest-value thing in this article, and it’s the thing almost nobody does.
FAQ
How much should it cost? Roughly 4 to 8% of your total trip cost for a decent single-trip policy. Annual multi-trip for Europe often runs £40 to £90.
Is the airline’s offered policy any good? Usually poor value with low limits. Buy separately.
Do I need it for a weekend in Europe? Yes. A GHIC covers state treatment, not getting you home with a broken leg.
Can I buy it after I’ve left? Some specialist insurers allow it, often with a waiting period and no cancellation cover. It’s worse and more expensive. Buy before you go.
What if I’m travelling for a year? Get a dedicated long-stay or backpacker policy rather than stringing single trips together.
Does it cover my phone? Sometimes, subject to a single-item limit that’s often £200 to £500. Check, and consider declaring high-value items separately.
