Travel Insurance

Travel comes with many risks, most of which may be potentially mitigated by travel insurance. In order to understand any insurance, including travel insurance, one needs to understand the risks that it does and does not cover.

As it is not possible to evaluate every single policy, only generalities can be discussed when it comes to travel or holiday insurance policies.

Travel insurance comes in many different and distinct varieties such as: adventure travel, business travel, cruise travel, international travel, leisure travel and student travel. Since all insurance is based on risk assessment, these different categories are arguably designed to create an effective balance between premiums and risk for the insurer. After all, it is unreasonable to expect someone going on an adventure vacation to pay premiums equal to those just taking a short holiday in lovely, safe Paris or Madrid.

The opposite side of that equation is that it is unreasonable for insurers to be exposed to higher degrees of risk than they have to; going on a business trip to a seaside community is usually less likely to be the source of claims than another tourist in the same region who is actively participating in adventure sports such as diving with sharks and paragliding would be.

Different kinds of holiday insurance cover different risk factors to different degrees, but the short list of what is typically covered is: accidental death or severe injury, cancellation, curtailment, delayed departure, emergency repatriation, legal assistance, medical assistance and theft or loss. Those with pre-existing conditions are unlikely to find any coverage for them, and alcohol or drug abuse is also unlikely to be covered.

There are numerous insurers selling travel insurance policies, and generally speaking the more insurance one requests, the more they are likely to pay in return. A general rule of thumb is that travel insurance will comprise between 5 and 10 percent of the total price of an average holiday.