Most people buy travel insurance the same way they accept cookie consent notices: quickly, without reading, assuming it covers everything. It does not. The gap between what you think you are protected against and what will actually get paid out is where insurers make their money, and where travellers get a very expensive education.
Start with the big one: medical cover. The headline figure looks impressive. £5 million, £10 million, it sounds bulletproof. But read the exclusions. Pre-existing conditions are the most common trap. If you have high blood pressure, asthma, a bad knee, or anything else you take medication for and you did not declare it when buying the policy, the insurer can refuse to pay your hospital bill in full. Not reduce it. Refuse it entirely. Medical bills in the US can hit £100,000 for a serious accident. That is not a number you want to argue about through a chatbot claims portal from a hospital bed in Miami.
Alcohol is another quiet exclusion buried in the small print. Many policies will not pay out if an incident occurred while you were “under the influence,” which is a phrase that gets interpreted generously by loss adjusters. Fell off a moped after a couple of beers in Bali? Good luck with that claim. This does not mean stop drinking. It means know your policy before you need it.
Adventure sports are their own minefield. Standard policies typically exclude anything with a motor, most water sports, skiing above certain altitudes, and anything the insurer can label “extreme.” Paragliding, scuba beyond recreational depth, motorbike hire over a certain engine size, even hiking with a pack above a certain height on some policies: all potentially uncovered. You can usually add a sports rider for £20 to £60 extra. Most people do not bother, then they do not claim, then occasionally someone does and the word “void” appears in the response letter.
Cancellation cover is the one people most overestimate. FCDO travel advice is key here: if the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against travel to your destination before you leave, most insurers will pay out. If you cancel because you are nervous, because you read something alarming online, or because a friend said it seemed dodgy, they will not. Similarly, if you cancel because a family member is ill, the policy will typically require that person to be on the policy as a named relative, and the illness to meet a specific severity threshold. Read the definitions of “close relative” in your policy. They vary wildly.
The phrase “natural disaster” also needs scrutiny. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and severe weather events can trigger exclusions if the Foreign Office had already issued warnings before you purchased your policy. Buy after the warning, and the insurer considers it a known risk you chose to take. This caught thousands of travellers during multiple recent eruption and hurricane seasons.
What actually helps: annual multi-trip policies from established UK insurers such as Aviva, Allianz, or LV tend to offer broader default cover than comparison-site cheapest-available options. Expect to pay £60 to £150 for a solid annual policy covering Europe, or £120 to £250 for worldwide including the US. Call the insurer before you buy if you have any health conditions. Get the conversation logged. Pay by credit card for the Section 75 backup. And actually read the exclusions page, just once, before you go anywhere that might try to kill you.
