Best travel insurance companies of February 2024 (2024)

Our picks at a glance

What is travel insurance?

Travel insurance protects your health and financial investment on a trip due to unforeseen circ*mstances. It can reimburse costs associated with delays, cancellations, lost baggage, illnesses, medical emergencies and other unplanned events.

The main types of travel insurance coverage include:

• Cancel for any reason: Known as “CFAR,” an add-on that allows you to cancel your travel for any reason not covered by your policy’s trip cancellation coverage
• Medical expenses and emergency evacuation: Covers emergency medical services internationally and emergency evacuation to a licensed facility if medically needed
• Trip cancellation: Recoup nonrefundable prepaid trip costs if you need to cancel for a covered reason
• Trip delay: Covers food, hotels and transportation costs if your trip is delayed
• Travel interruption: Reimburses travelers who need to cut their trip short for a covered reason
• Baggage: Covers expenses related to lost, stolen, delayed or damaged baggage or personal items

How does travel insurance work?

You buy travel insurance after you book a trip but before your departure date. Once you purchase a plan that fits your specific travel needs, you should be covered if a qualifying event occurs during your trip. Contact the travel insurance company as soon as you can to file a claim and provide any necessary documentation.

Do I need travel insurance?

Travel insurance is optional, but it could be a smart choice if you want a financial safety net while traveling away from home. Most US health insurance policies won’t cover you overseas, so medical coverage is a practical investment if you’re traveling abroad.

If your trip includes a remote destination, extended international travel or a visit to a place known for severe weather, travel insurance is a good idea. Every person’s needs are different, but if you have health concerns or you can’t afford to lose your financial investment in a trip or pay for an emergency overseas, then you need travel insurance.

What does travel insurance cover?

Travel insurance can cover the financial fallout from minor inconveniences to major emergencies. The main coverage categories are: trip cancellation, trip delay, trip interruption, baggage, medical and evacuation. A comprehensive travel insurance plan will offer some form of coverage in all areas, while other policies may have limited to no coverage in a category.

Most plans offer add-on coverage for an extra fee. Those might include optional coverage for car rentals, sports-related travel or the choice to cancel your trip for any reason. Coverage availability can vary by state.

What is not covered by travel insurance?

Many travel insurance plans have preexisting condition limitations, which means trip cancellation won’t be covered for preexisting illnesses that occurred 60 to 180 days — also called a “look-back period” — prior to departure, depending on the policy. However, some policies have no look-back period for preexisting conditions.

Weather events or natural disasters that begin before you purchase a policy or life-threatening adventure activities such as bungee jumping usually won’t be covered. It’s unlikely you’ll find travel insurance that will cover health issues or complications that arise from pregnancy or childbirth. Read your policy exclusions carefully so you know what to expect.

How much does travel insurance cost?

Travel insurance is a one-time cost that’s usually between 4% to 10% of your total trip cost. Factors like your age, the length of your trip, the coverage you select and the number of travelers on the policy can directly affect the cost. Plan coverage and cost can vary by the state you reside.

How much travel insurance do I need?

Travelers only need one policy per trip, which is usually enough to cover yourself and the family members included in your party. Unrelated travelers may need separate policies.

In some cases, your credit card may offer trip interruption, lost baggage, and medical evacuation if you purchase the trip with your card. Additionally, a homeowners insurance policy may offer partial coverage for certain events like trip delays or baggage loss. In both cases, you’lll need other coverage to fill the gaps.

How much travel insurance you need depends on factors like your destination, any medical concerns, your budget and the total cost of your trip and valuables. A comprehensive policy with at least 100% reimbursem*nt for trip cancellation, delay and interruption, plus at least $100,000 in emergency medical coverage, could be enough to cover a basic tourist international vacation.

Methodology

To find the best travel insurance companies, we started by examining more than 50 policies from 19 different companies. We then narrowed it down to the top 49 policies across 17 companies.

For each policy, we analyzed 16 crucial categories. To identify the winners, we worked with over 1,500 data points across the 49 policies and 16 categories. The following sections describe the category we scored and the weight we gave that category in our scoring model.

Premium (34%)

Premium accounts for 34% of a plan’s score because it’s a key factor in travelers’ decisions about which travel insurance to buy. If a plan’s premiums are too high, a traveler might not choose the plan even if it offers high coverage amounts. Therefore, plans with lower premiums received higher scores.

Cancel for any reason coverage (CFAR) offered (10%)

CFAR coverage allows you to cancel your travel purchase for any reason, whereas you’d normally be restricted to a certain number of covered cancellations with your plan’s trip cancellation coverage. CFAR plans typically reimburse you for a certain percentage of your trip cost, with many companies offering 50% to 75% reimbursem*nt. Plans that offered higher reimbursem*nt percentages earned higher scores.

Medical evacuation and repatriation limit (10%)

If you require evacuation from the country you’re traveling to because of your medical emergency (including return travel to the United States), travel insurance policies may pay up to a certain amount. This coverage tends to be higher than emergency medical coverage, with the best plans offering $1 million limits. Companies with higher limits earned higher scores.

Trip interruption reimbursem*nt rate (10%)

Trip interruption coverage can help reimburse the cost of any travel you don’t get to participate in because your trip is cut short by covered reasons. Trip interruption coverage is usually expressed as a percentage, like 100% or 150%. We gave higher scores to companies with higher trip cancellation reimbursem*nt rates.

Interruption for any reason (IFAR) coverage (10%)

The usual trip interruption insurance only covers you if you have to interrupt your trip for specific reasons. IFAR coverage reimburses you if you have to interrupt your trip for any reason not already covered by your policy. Like CFAR, IFAR coverage offers to pay a percentage of your trip costs. Companies with higher reimbursem*nt rates earned higher scores.

Emergency medical coverage: primary or secondary (5%)

Supplemental insurance policies like travel coverage are either primary or secondary. Primary coverage means the plan covers you no matter what other type of insurance you have. Secondary coverage covers you after any applicable plans kick in. Plans with primary coverage earned a higher score because primary coverage simplifies the claims process.

Emergency medical coverage amount (5%)

If you face a medical emergency abroad and your insurance company covers it, you usually have a maximum coverage amount of anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000. Once you use up that coverage amount, you have to pay your expenses out of pocket if you don’t have any other insurance you can use. Plans with higher coverage amounts led to higher scores.

Baggage delay (4.5%)

Baggage delay coverage is similar to travel delay coverage in that it provides a daily dollar amount you’re entitled to if your baggage delay meets the minimum hour requirement. Policies that offered higher limits and shorter minimum delay times earned better scores.

Baggage and personal items loss (4.5%)

Should your baggage or personal items become lost, stolen or damaged during your travel, baggage and personal items loss coverage can help offset the cost of replacing or fixing what was lost. Insurers usually provide a per-person and per-day limit; those with higher limits earned higher scores.

Hurricane and weather delay (2.5%)

Hurricane and weather coverage can help reimburse the cost of a trip, in general, if weather cancels your flight, makes your lodging uninhabitable and, in some cases, requires a mandatory evacuation of the area you’re staying in. This coverage is often associated with hurricanes and typhoons, which is why it requires you to purchase the coverage before a storm is named. Companies with lower minimum times to active coverage received higher scores.

Travel delay (2.5%)

Travel insurance policies usually cover the costs of trip delays, such as when a flight is canceled and you have to make a last-second hotel booking for the night. Travel delay coverage has three parts to it: per-person limits, per-day limits and the minimum number of hours you have to be delayed to get the coverage. Companies with higher limits and lower minimum delays earned higher scores.

No look-back period for preexisting conditions (2%)

Travel insurance policies sometimes have rules about covering preexisting conditions that require medical care during a covered trip. A “look-back period” refers to the time you have to be symptom-free in order to get coverage for a preexisting condition.

What didn’t make the cut

Many of the companies that didn’t win categories in our study simply did not have high enough overall scores and category scores to be considered. However, there were a few policies that scored well yet failed to win a category. Those policies include John Hanco*ck Insurance Agency’s Gold, Tin Leg’s Gold, Cat 70’s Travel, Generali Global Assistance’s Premium, Arch RoamRight’s Pro Plus, Travelex’s Travel Select, GoReady’s Choice and IMG’s iTravelInsured Travel LX.