Tips for booking the right travel insurance

Booking travel insurance is an essential part of the process when you book a holiday, as it is your fail-safe if anything goes wrong throughout your holiday. But how do you know if you’re booking the right travel insurance for your holiday? We’ve outlined a few key things to look out for to make sure you are getting the right travel insurance.

Why should I book travel insurance?

Travel insurance is a fail-safe, if something goes wrong, gets cancelled, or you fall ill, insurance is a great way to make sure that you don’t end up in any financial struggles. If you don’t have travel insurance, paying for everything may leave you thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Where can I get travel insurance?

Travel insurance is widely available and you can find it pretty much everywhere you can find other insurances like car or home insurance. Looking at the comparison sights is a great way to see what different policies are out there, and you can find one that suits your holiday. Different companies will offer different types of policies so it is a good idea to compare a few before you buy one. Also, saving money is always a good thing and comparison sites are a great way to see if you are getting a good deal.

What type of cover do I need?

Your cover will really depend on what type of holiday you are going on, how you are travelling there, your age, and your destination, to name a few things.

How you are travelling
Some insurance policies won’t cover all modes of transport, like if you are going on a cruise

Your age
Some insurance policies will cost more depending on your age. There are special insurance policies aimed toward younger travellers and older travellers that could have better savings

What type of holiday it is
If you are going on a purely leisurely holiday you will want to have different cover to those who are going on a ski holiday, as the ski holiday needs to have winter sports coverage

Your destination
Depending on where you are going you will want to look out for different key points in your insurance policy. For example, if you are travelling to the USA you will want to make sure that you have extra medical cover

Package holiday vs booking everything separately
Package holidays usually come with a certain level of protection built into the deal, so it is worth seeing what you are already covered for before you book your

What do I want to be covered for?

What you specifically want to be covered for will vary based on what holiday you are taking, there are some key things that you will want to check that you are covered for no matter what you are doing or where you are going.

• Medical expenses and cover for getting you home if you are injured or fall ill abroad
• Personal injury and cover for damage and accidents caused by you
• Cover for lost, stolen, or damaged items
• Cover for lost, stolen, or damaged baggage
• Cover for travel cancellations or missed departures
• Covid-19 interruptions
  
  

With any additional bits of cover you need, like winter sports cover, travel insurance could become expensive, but it is important to remember that you don’t want to under-insure yourself.

Covid-19

With the Covid-19 pandemic still affecting the travel industry, making sure that you are covered for cancellations due to the virus is also very important, especially if it is something as big as your flight being cancelled due to it. A lot of insurances seem to have clauses that make it harder to make a successful claim if Covid-19 is at fault for something happening to your plans, so it is really worth reading the fine print to see what you would be entitled to.



Overall, whilst you want to ensure that you are covered for the key things, depending on what your holiday plans are, the cheapest cover may not be the best cover for your holiday. When it comes to insurance it is best to be over-insured than under, as this could be the difference between you getting a payout if you do need to make a claim versus having to pay thousands out of pocket because your insurance didn’t cover everything.

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