Traveling can be incredibly expensive, so spending extra money on something as nebulous as “travel insurance” can make you wonder—“is it worth it?”. Most trips or vacations go without issue, so travel insurance can, at best, seem like a waste of money and, at worst, like a potential scam.
As a full-time traveler, I’ve purchased more travel insurance policies than I can count and have had to actually use them on several occasions, from when my husband fell and broke his kneecap in Cuba to when one of my ferry rides from a remote area in Alaska got canceled, due to bad weather. After going through the process of purchasing insurance, filing claims, and submitting receipts for reimbursement, here’s why I think travel insurance is absolutely worth it—and why you shouldn’t travel without it.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may receive a small commission, for which we are extremely grateful, at no extra cost to you.
This article is sponsored by InsureMyTrip. All opinions are my own.
What is travel insurance?
Before we dive into the nuts and bolts, I thought we should back up a bit and address the question of what the heck travel insurance even is in the first place.
In essence, travel insurance offers coverage for some or all travel-related non-refundable costs, like flights, accommodations, or tours if you experience a cancellation or interruption in your trip, as well as medical emergencies while you travel. These policies can be specific to one particular trip or they can be annual policies, to cover all your travel plans for the year.
One very important thing to understand is that travel insurance is not one-size-fits-all.
The benefits and coverages can vary broadly, ranging from only covering expenses related to illnesses or sicknesses that happen while you’re traveling to covering all kinds of issues that can pop up, like hotel stays related to flight delays or reimbursing you for a tour if your trip is interrupted because a family member dies.
There are also usually different levels of coverage that you can buy if you’re doing more adventurous activities, like scuba diving or white water rafting, or travel that comes with unique issues, like cruising.
Here are a few examples of things that travel insurance can cover:
- Lost or stolen baggage while you’re flying or during your trip
- Kennel fees for your pet, if you get delayed from returning home from a trip
- Emergency evacuation for a treatment of a medical condition
- Missed cruise connections, due to inclement weather or flight delays
- Damage to rental cars
It’s important to carefully read the coverages for whatever policy you’re considering to make sure it aligns with issues that might arise on your trip, as well as covers the activities that you’re doing.
Insider tip: It’s also important to consider when to buy travel insurance. You’re usually eligible for more coverage (e.g., like pre-existing medical) if you purchase your travel insurance within a few days of making your first payment towards your vacation. You can still usually buy travel insurance well after you make your first purchase towards a vacation, even while you’re actively on a trip, but you may be ineligible for certain coverages or benefits.
Is travel insurance worth it?
Like all insurance policies, travel insurance is there in the event that something happens during your trip and, hopefully, is not used on every trip you go on (fingers crossed you don’t get ill or have your bags stolen on EVERY vacation you take!).
It really sucks to have something go wrong during a trip. However, in such an event, it’s SUCH a relief to have travel insurance and not have to worry about expenses stacking up, like medical bills or moving your flights to fly home due to the death of a loved one.
Here are some examples of times that we’ve used travel insurance on our adventures:
- Justin fell into a large pothole on a cobblestone street in Havana, Cuba and split his kneecap in two (ouch!). The hospital would not see or help him without first verifying that he had travel insurance. He wound up being in the hospital for two nights and having knee surgery while in Cuba, which we wound up paying $0 for.
- Justin was super sick during our trip in Iceland and went to see a doctor. It turned out to be COVID, so there wasn’t much to be done, but we wound up being fully reimbursed for the doctor’s visit and prescribed medications.
- Our $600 (one-way) water taxi from Katmai National Park, a remote area of Alaska, was cancelled, due to inclement weather, so we wound up having to purchase an alternate way back to mainland Alaska. Our travel insurance fully reimbursed us for the cancelled ferry tickets
- Justin got a severe respiratory infection while we were on an Antarctica cruise that lingered for several weeks afterwards. He went to see a doctor in Chilean Patagonia, who prescribed antibiotics. Again, his medical care was covered by our travel insurance.
This is just a handful of examples that we’ve experienced, but I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of examples from friends and family—having to cancel a trip last minute because of the death of a family member; breaking a bone while you’re on an international adventure; or having a laptop stolen while you’re working at a cafe in Paris.
Often, these types of issues don’t just cause one type of expense—there’s usually multiple costs that you incur if you get ill or have some kind of issue while you’re traveling.
For example, let’s say you get a really bad infection while you’re in Thailand. You may have to go to a doctor and may miss some non-refundable ticketed activities during your trip, like a tour or a flight. You may need to even extend your hotel stay a night or two until you’re better enough to catch your next flight.
Expenses related to missed flights, extra hotel stays, and medical costs can quickly snowball into thousands of dollars—but, with the right travel insurance, you’ll be fully reimbursed for these costs.
Speaking from my own personal experience, the amount of money that we’ve paid in premiums on travel insurance that went unused is dwarfed by the benefits that travel insurance has afforded us (if we had to pay for Justin’s hospital stay and surgery in Cuba out-of-pocket, I’m sure that would have been more expensive than ALL of the premiums we pay on travel insurance for the rest of our lives!).
So, is travel insurance worth it? In my honest opinion, 100% yes, especially if you have any meaningful non-refundable travel expenses, are traveling internationally, or visiting someplace that’s out-of-network for your medical insurance.
The cost of a policy’s premium is usually much less significant than the value you receive if anything goes wrong while on your trip (plus, in my book, there’s also a LOT of value in having some peace of mind on your vacation). Again, you hopefully won’t use travel insurance every time, but when an issue pops up, you’ll be SO relieved you have coverage.
Insider tip: If you intend to file a claim, I’d suggest trying to reach out to your travel insurance company, while the issue is happening, to understand what documentation is needed to support your claim.
We’ve ALWAYS gotten reimbursement for a travel insurance claim we’ve filed, but we have had to jump through a few hoops to make sure we had the right documentation that the insurance company is requesting. It would be much easier to ask for the right documentation upfront, rather than to have to chase down an Icelandic medical report when you’re already back in the United States, for example.
How to find the best value travel insurance
As mentioned above, it’s important to get the right travel insurance for you, that covers the type of issues that you’re worried about happening during your trip AND that covers the kinds of adventures that you’ll be going on. Given the dizzying amount of insurance providers, the confusing terminology, and the seemingly endless different types of policies, it can be REALLY hard to know where to start looking to purchase travel insurance.
After using just about every platform out there, my favorite way to find travel insurance is InsureMyTrip, which is a broker that helps you quickly and easily compare plans from a variety of different insurance providers (i.e., InsureMyTrip does not directly provide travel insurance and, instead, works with almost 30 vetted providers to help you compare plans and choose one that works for you).
After filling out a simple form about your trip, you’re offered an incredibly easy way to evaluate quotes from over 20 providers in the U.S. and 6 in Canada. Given that you can quickly compare plans, side-by-side, it makes choosing a plan, with a premium and coverages that you’re comfortable with, SO much easier. I love that its comparison tool helps me quickly determine whether the activities that we plan to do at a particular destination, like kayaking or scuba diving, are covered.
Even as full-time digital nomads that have purchased a LOT of travel insurance, it can be confusing to know to shift through the insurance jargon and figure out what policies do and don’t cover.
So, I also love that InsureMyTrip offers licensed (and, equally as important, non-commissioned!!) agents that will help walk you through different plans’ coverages and what might make sense for your particular trip, all for free! These agents are available via phone, chat, or email—however, you prefer (I’ve always been a chat girly, myself!).
As someone who’s had to file a number of travel insurance claims, I think it’s awesome that InsureMyTrip is available to support you if you need to file a claim with your travel insurance provider. They have experts, at the ready, to help you navigate filing a claim and even advocates, who help work with the insurance company if your claim has been denied or even if it’s taking too long. After trying out multiple different travel insurance companies, I can definitely attest to the fact that most providers do not offer a claims advocate to help make the process of getting reimbursed quicker and easier.
If you’re a traveler, like me, that wants to have the right protections but doesn’t want to over-pay, InsureMyTrip is such an awesome solution to quickly find an insurance provider that’s right for you and your trip.
I hope you have a better idea of why we think travel insurance is absolutely worth it and a few things to look for when you’re purchasing it. Do you have any questions about when travel insurance can be handy or our experience with using it? Let us know in the comments below!
Thank you for reading our post! Check out our latest stories here and follow us on Instagram (@JustinAndJess_), YouTube, TikTok, or on Facebook to see what we’re up to next!
