Should You Get Travel Insurance for Your Vacation?
Planning a vacation can be one of the most exciting events—dreaming of exotic destinations, booking flights, and finding the perfect accommodation. But amid all the excitement, one question often pops up: Should you get travel insurance?
You might wonder if adding another cost to your pricey trip is necessary. So, let’s consider whether you need travel insurance, why we recommend it, and when it might be worth buying so you can make an informed decision.
What Exactly Is Travel Insurance Coverage?
Before we tackle whether you need travel insurance, let’s first understand what it is. Simply put, a travel insurance plan protects you from financial loss if you encounter travel disruptions, like trip cancellations, medical emergencies, flight delays, lost baggage, and natural disasters.
There are two main types of travel insurance policies to choose from; single-trip and annual travel insurance. How often you vacation, your budget, and your coverage needs will determine which is the best travel insurance option for you.
The vast majority of travelers, roughly 70%, opt for comprehensive trip insurance that protects their prepaid, non-refundable trip costs while providing well-rounded protection for common travel disruptions.
If you’re not concerned about protecting your travel expenses, many travel insurance companies also offer travel medical insurance policies. These polices forego cancellation benefits and instead focus on providing affordable medical coverage for the duration of your trip.
What Does Travel Insurance Cover?
Now that you have a rough idea of what travel insurance is, let’s talk about the types of coverage included in a typical policy.
While benefits, coverage limits, exclusions can vary by plan, most travel insurance policies cover the following:
- Cancellation Coverage: Most travel insurance plans include Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverage. These benefits will reimburse your prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses you stand to lose if you or a traveling companion are forced to cancel or cut your trip short for a covered reason, such as an unforeseen injury, death of a family member, or natural disaster at your destination.
- Medical Coverage: Most travel insurance plans can cover unexpected medical expenses incurred during a trip, such as doctor visits, hospital stays, and emergency medical evacuations.
- Flight Delay Coverage: If your travel plans are impacted by significant flight delays, your plan’s Travel Delay coverage can provide reimbursement for food, accommodation, and transportation expenses while you await your new departure time.
- Baggage Delay & Loss: Millions of bags get misplaced by airlines each year. Fortunately most trip insurance policies include Baggage Delay and Baggage Loss benefits that provide reimbursement if your belongings get delayed, lost, or damaged during a covered trip.
- Travel Assistance Services: Many travel insurance policies offer 24/7 emergency assistance services to support customers during their travels. This can include medical referrals, evacuation arrangement, translations services, emergency cash transfers, and more.
Do You Need Travel Insurance for International Trips?
When you’re outside of your home country, the stakes are often higher. This is especially true when it comes to medical emergencies.
Since most domestic health insurance plans don’t extend coverage overseas, even the smallest incident can result in costly medical expenses if you don’t have the proper travel medical coverage.
International travel insurance can offer extensive financial protection against the potential disruptions you may face while abroad. This safety net can allow you to explore the world with the peace of mind that you’re covered if your trip takes a sudden turn for the worse.
While it may not be a requirement for you to travel abroad, purchasing travel insurance before departing for an international trip is typically always recommended.
When Is it Not Necessary?
Now, let’s talk about those times when you might not need travel insurance. It’s possible that for some travelers, insurance may not be worth the extra cost.
For example:
- Domestic Travel: If you’re traveling within your own country, especially if it’s a shorter, less expensive trip, travel insurance might not be necessary. You’ll likely already have health insurance coverage at home, and the risks of trip disruptions may feel smaller.
- Existing Coverage: In some cases, your existing insurance policies, such as your health insurance, credit card benefits, or homeowner’s insurance, may offer travel-related coverage. For example, some credit cards include complimentary trip cancellation and delay protection, so check what’s already included in your policies before buying additional travel insurance.
- Short, Inexpensive Trips: If you’re going on a quick weekend getaway that didn’t cost much to plan, travel insurance may not make sense financially, or a basic coverage plan with trip cancellation coverage might be sufficient to avoid out-of-pocket expenses.
Is Travel Insurance Worth it?
The short answer is: it depends. Travel insurance isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. Comprehensive travel insurance may be essential for some people, while it might feel like an unnecessary expense for others.
So, how do you decide whether or not to buy travel insurance? Consider the following to help you determine if exploring insurance options makes sense for you:
- The Cost of Your Trip: If you’re spending significant money on your vacation, you’ll want to protect that investment. Travel insurance can cover the cost of a canceled trip if an emergency arises, like a sudden illness, a death in the family, or even a natural disaster at your destination. So, if your trip is costly, buying travel insurance could give you peace of mind and a sense of financial responsibility.
- Your Destination: Travel insurance is strongly recommended if you travel abroad, especially to remote destinations with limited access to adequate health services.
- Your Situation: Travel insurance could be an essential safety net if you travel with pre-existing medical conditions or plan a trip during potential life changes (like a family illness).
- The Type of Trip: If your trip involves increased risks, travel insurance becomes more of necessity. Many of the nation’s best travel insurance companies create policies specifically for adventure sports and cruises to make sure travelers are covered for the unique danger and expenses that may come their way.
Ultimately, travel insurance is all about risk management. It helps you answer this question: How much risk are you willing to take, and how much are you willing to pay to reduce that risk? In other words, it’s a way to protect your investment in a trip against unforeseen circumstances that could disrupt or cancel your plans.
How to Buy it
So, you’ve decided that buying travel insurance is the right choice for your next trip—great! But how do you go about purchasing a policy? It’s easier than you might think.
- Shop Around: There are plenty of travel insurance providers out there, and the best way to find the right policy for your needs is to compare plans. You can use our compare tool to weigh the different travel insurance companies side by side to see which coverage best suits your trip.
- Read the Fine Print: A policy’s Certificate of Insurance will outline what’s covered, what’s excluded, and any limitations or conditions that apply (such as pre-existing medical condition exclusions).
- Consider Timing: Consider Timing: It’s generally best to purchase travel protection within two weeks of your first trip payment. Not only does this give you a longer coverage period, but it may also make you eligible for time-sensitive benefits like Pre-Existing Medical Condition coverage and Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) insurance.
- Customize Your Coverage: Travel insurance policies often offer add-ons or upgrades for specific needs, such as coverage for extreme sports or rental cars. Tailor your coverage to fit the specifics of your trip.
Bottom Line: Deciding whether you should get travel insurance depends on how much peace of mind you want while traveling. For some, it’s worth the extra cost for the reassurance that if something goes wrong, they’ll have financial protection. The risks may feel manageable enough for others to skip the additional expense.
If you’re still on the fence, consider the factors that matter most to your situation—your trip’s cost, the destination, personal health, and how much risk you’re comfortable taking. And remember, there’s no right or wrong answer. Just make the choice that feels best for you.