Initially, shopping for travel insurance can seem daunting because there are so many types of travel insurance and so many choices. It’s hard to know what kind of insurance you need for a particular trip, especially when there are dozens of companies, hundreds of policies, and countless options to choose from. This information will help you find the type of travel insurance you need for your trip or trips.
Contents (click to jump down) Different types of travelers and trips means lots of travel insurance choices |
So many types of travelers:
On all kinds of trips:
Explains why travel insurance companies have so many options from which to choose. Let’s review the types of travel insurance plans.
When most people think of travel insurance, they’re thinking of a package plan. Travel insurance package plans deliver coverage for trip cancellations, hurricanes, lost, stolen, and delayed baggage, medical emergencies, evacuations, and more. This type of plan is the most popular because it fits the needs of most travelers.
Read the full review of travel insurance package plans.
Travel medical insurance is international travel health insurance that provides coverage for medical emergencies, accidents, emergency evacuations, and repatriation. It provides very specific medical coverage for the policyholder. In some cases, travel medical plans include package-like benefits, but those benefits are often limited; this type of travel insurance plan focuses on medical and evacuation coverage.
Read the full review of travel medical insurance plans.
Medical evacuation, or Medevac, plans provide coverage for emergency medical evacuations and international security evacuations. Most of these plans include repatriation and some AD&D and a few include special features to help travelers, including trip interruption coverage (for emergency returns), lost baggage, and optional adventure sports coverage.
Read the full review of travel medical evacuation insurance plans.
Travel accident plans provide international accident protection and term life benefits for frequent travelers. This type of plan focuses on AD&D (accidental death and dismemberment) and term life insurance benefits that are in effect while the insured is traveling on an insured trip or during their annual coverage period, depending on their plan.
Read the full review of travel accident insurance plans.
Annual travel insurance plans are more common than you think and useful because they provide a variety of coverages in one convenient plan that covers you for an entire year’s worth of trips. Frequent travelers, traveling academics, business travelers, and even retirees who travel often like the simplicity of having the same coverage all year long.
Read the full review of annual travel insurance plans.
Specialty travel insurance plans are those that cover one-off needs like car rental, term life, and other types of coverage that fill in the gaps between what the traveler already has available to them back home.
Damian Tysdal is the founder of CoverTrip, and is a licensed agent for travel insurance (MA 1883287). He believes travel insurance should be easier to understand, and started the first travel insurance blog in 2006.