Purchasing Trip Insurance for European Travel

Key take-aways

1. Identify the travel insurance coverage options that you will need 
2. Buy the insurance early in the trip planning process
3. For self-planned trips, consider a package plan rather than paying the extra fees for each individual travel booking
4. For tour operated trips, consider the insurance provided by the tour operator

Travel insurance is an excellent way to make sure you are not blindsided by the unexpected. Travel insurance options include trip cancellation or interruption, emergency medical care, and repatriation, among other things.  There are a number of ways that all or part of your trip can be insured. In general, you probably want travel insurance that covers medical emergencies as well as trip cancellation if you’re worried that something might interfere with your ability to carry through on an expensive trip. Good travel insurance will cover you when your regular health insurance doesn’t.

For US retirees who are over 65, you may wonder if Medicare covers you while traveling abroad. The answer is no. If you have private primary or secondary health insurance, those policies likely do not cover you while abroad either.

You can purchase specific types of insurance or package plans that bundle a number of coverages into one plan. Here is a list of some of the typical things you might look for in travel insurance:

• Baggage delay or loss
• Travel accidents
• Hazardous activity accidents
• Health insurance and medical treatment to treat injuries and illness while overseas
• Unexpected reoccurrence of a pre-existing medical condition
• Medical repatriation, emergency evacuation to bring you back to your home country in the event of illness or injury
• Accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D)
• Repatriation for death overseas to bring you back to your home country 
• Stolen or lost credit cards, passports
• Terrorism, assault
• Trip cancellation – for covered reasons or for any reason – reimbursement for insured pre-paid and non-refundable trip costs. Typical covered reasons are injury, illness, or death of you, a traveling companion, or family member; weather events that cause cancellations; mandatory evacuations at your destination by local officials; transportation strikes that impact your travel; bankruptcy of your travel vendor; terrorist attacks in your destination; loss of employment for yourself or traveling companion
• Trip interruption
• Missed connections
• Rental car collision and liability

Tip: Before you start looking for travel insurance, identify the coverage that your credit card company is already providing for any travel that you booked using their card.

When should you shop for travel insurance?

Purchase your travel insurance as soon as possible. Some insurers have time limits based on the first trip planning deposit. For example, I bought travel insurance for an April 2020 trip for which I made an initial  booking deposit in October 2019. My credit card company would only provide travel insurance if I made my first deposit on the trip after January 1, 2020.  If you’re taking a cruise, the cruise line typically has a ‘last day to purchase’ trip cancellation insurance. Airlines and online travel agencies (e.g. Expedia) also often have deadlines for purchasing cancellation insurance. If you’re planning a complex trip with lots of different transports and hotel stays, you may do better to buy one package travel insurance plan as opposed to paying the extra charge with each individual booking of travel or hotel. Be aware as you’re clicking through the booking options. The extra fees for individual trip insurance can add up and may result in greater cost than simply buying a package plan. 

Think about your travel and which types of coverage are important to you. A good way to find policies that meet your needs is to go to a travel insurance comparison website, such as Squaremouth or TripInsurance.Com. You’ll fill out a form with your travel dates, personal information, and desired insurance options. The site will provide quotes from insurers and you can choose one that best suits you. 

Generally, buy trip insurance from the first day of your trip to the last. Some insurers have limits on the number of days the policy will cover. One site that I checked only provided quotes for trips that were less than 180 days in length. 

For a list of top rated travel insurers, see Christopher Elliott’s article here.