Travel Insurance Explained: What You Actually Need

Travel insurance is one of those purchases people either skip entirely or buy in a panic at checkout. A little understanding helps you buy the right amount of cover without overpaying. The goal isn't to insure every minor inconvenience — it's to protect yourself against the rare event that could genuinely derail your finances.

How to think about travel insurance

Insurance is for the things you can't afford to absorb yourself, not the things you can. A delayed bag is annoying but survivable on your own budget; a helicopter evacuation off a Croatian island and a hospital stay is not. So the right mental model is to insure the catastrophic and self-insure the trivial. Read every policy with one question in mind: if this exact bad thing happened, would it ruin me financially? If yes, you want strong cover. If no, the cover is a nice-to-have at best.

The cover that actually matters

The most important component is emergency medical and evacuation. A serious accident abroad can cost tens of thousands, and medical evacuation home can cost far more. Make sure the medical limit is high — this is the part you genuinely cannot self-insure.

Within this category, look closely at:

• The medical limit — high enough to cover a serious hospital stay, not a token amount.
• Medical evacuation and repatriation — the cost of flying you to adequate care, or home, which can dwarf the treatment itself.
• A 24-hour emergency assistance line — a real human who can coordinate hospitals and translators when you're least able to.
• Repatriation of remains — grim, but genuinely expensive, and worth confirming it's included.

If you're an EU resident travelling within the EU, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC, or the UK's GHIC) entitles you to state healthcare on the same terms as locals — but it is not a substitute for insurance. It won't cover evacuation, repatriation, private treatment, or getting you home, so carry both.

Trip cancellation and interruption

This reimburses prepaid, non-refundable costs if you have to cancel or cut a trip short for a covered reason, such as illness or a family emergency. It's most valuable on expensive, prepaid trips like cruises or package tours.

The key word is covered reason — policies pay out only for specific listed events (your own or a family member's serious illness, bereavement, jury duty, certain disruptions), not simply because you changed your mind. If you want the freedom to cancel for any reason, that's a separate, pricier "cancel for any reason" add-on with partial reimbursement. Match the cancellation limit to what you've actually prepaid: there's no point insuring 5,000 of cancellation cover on a trip where you've only committed 800 in non-refundable bookings.

Baggage and delay cover

Useful but rarely the deciding factor. Check whether your home contents insurance or credit card already covers your belongings before paying extra here.

Baggage limits are usually modest and come with per-item caps that won't fully cover a laptop or camera. Before relying on it:

• Check your home contents policy — many cover personal possessions away from home.
• Check your credit card — some include baggage and delay cover when you paid for the trip with the card.
• Keep receipts for valuable items and photograph your packed bag; claims need proof of ownership and value.
• Note that travel delay cover typically only triggers after a set number of hours, so read that threshold.

Read the exclusions

Adventure activities (diving, skiing, motorbiking) are often excluded unless you add cover. Pre-existing medical conditions usually need to be declared. And almost every policy excludes claims involving alcohol or drugs.

The exclusions are where policies quietly narrow what they'll pay, so read them before you buy, not after something happens. Common traps:

• Adventure and water sports — scuba diving, skiing, climbing, jet-skis, and even mopeds are frequently excluded without a specific add-on. On the Adriatic, that mattering for diving and scooter hire is very real.
• Riding a moped or motorbike — often only covered if you hold the correct licence and wear a helmet.
• Pre-existing conditions — usually must be declared; an undeclared condition can void a related claim entirely.
• Alcohol and drugs — claims arising from intoxication are almost universally rejected.
• Unattended belongings — leave a bag on the beach and a theft claim may be denied.
• High-risk destinations — travel against an official government advisory can invalidate cover.

Annual vs single-trip

If you take more than two or three trips a year, an annual multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than buying single-trip cover each time. For one big trip, single-trip cover tailored to your dates is simplest.

A few extra distinctions worth knowing:

• Annual policies often cap the maximum length of any single trip (commonly around 30 days), so a long backpacking trip may need separate cover.
• Single-trip cover lets you set the medical limit and cancellation amount to that specific trip.
• Family or couples policies can be cheaper than insuring each person separately.
• Specialist policies exist for older travellers, those with medical conditions, or long-stay travel — generic policies often price these out or exclude them.

Frequently asked questions

When should I buy it? As soon as you book and have non-refundable costs. Cancellation cover only protects you for the period you're actually insured, so buying early protects you if something happens before you even leave.

Does my credit card already cover me? Sometimes, partially — often baggage, delay, and limited cancellation, rarely strong medical or evacuation. Read the card's certificate of insurance and treat it as a supplement, not a full policy.

What do I actually do if something goes wrong? Call the 24-hour assistance line before incurring big costs if you can, keep every receipt and report (a police report for theft, medical records for treatment), and file the claim promptly within the policy's deadline.

Is it ever fine to skip insurance? For a cheap, fully refundable trip close to home where you could self-fund a medical bill, perhaps. For anything involving a long-haul flight, prepaid costs, or a place where healthcare is expensive, skipping the medical cover is the gamble that occasionally bankrupts people.

Practical tips

• Prioritise a high medical and evacuation limit above everything else.
• Match cancellation cover to your actual non-refundable spend.
• Declare every pre-existing condition, even if it raises the price — an honest higher premium beats a denied claim.
• Add cover for any activity you'll realistically do: diving, skiing, scooters.
• Save the policy number and emergency line offline on your phone and on paper.
• Read the exclusions and the claim deadlines before you travel, not from a hospital bed.

The bottom line

Travel insurance is confusing on purpose, but the principle is simple: insure what could ruin you and ignore what couldn't. Get a strong medical and evacuation limit, size your cancellation cover to what you've prepaid, declare your conditions, and check that the activities you'll do are actually covered. Do that and you've bought genuine peace of mind rather than an expensive checkout-page reflex.