How to choose the best travel insurance

I’m taking a brief time out to deal with the topic of travel insurance. As unlikely as it sounds, I have a strong recommendation in this area, as our experience has been really good. Needless to say, travel insurance is vital. Wherever you live and however long you are going to be gone, you don’t want to have to deal with a medical or other emergency out of pocket when you’re far from home:

If you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford your trip.

There are a few considerations when choosing an insurance policy, such as whether you are going on one long trip or multiple shorter trips; whether you have children to cover; and whether you will be undertaking inherently risky activities (like rock climbing or scuba diving). No one company is going to be the best for everyone, because your answers to these questions will be different. 

The article below is an excellent summary of the issues and review of the best insurers from a U.S. perspective. I recommend reading it even if you aren’t based in North America, as it clearly spells out what you should be looking for, and answers questions in a clear way.

For us, based in the U.K., we chose TrueTraveller and I cannot recommend those folks highly enough. They know about long-term backpacking and offered a competitive price. I had to choose the “extreme” package of coverage, since I was going to be trekking at high altitude (Mt. Kilimanjaro!) But more importantly, when we actually needed to contact TrueTraveller, they got back to us right away and were very helpful. When we had a claim to process, they were back to us within days—not weeks—and actually compensated us for more than we expected.

You rarely get that kind of experience with an insurance company. I have no hesitation in recommending that Europe-based travelers look at TrueTraveller to see if their policies are appropriate for you.

Best Travel Insurance of 2018