How much does travel insurance cost on average? Since the cost depends on a few factors, like your trip cost and age, looking at average prices can help you plan for this expense in your trip budget.
Travel insurance costs probably aren’t as high as you’re thinking – most people can get good coverage for an upcoming trip for around $100-$150.
Learn more about how much travel insurance costs, see average dollar amounts for travel insurance, and learn how to calculate potential insurance costs for your trip in our guide!
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?
- Travel insurance averages range from $95-$250
- Rates depend on coverage, trip cost, age, and more
- Choose standalone or comprehensive plans to fit your budget
When you’re planning a trip, you’re probably asking yourself all the important questions: What’s the best time to visit this place? How much is our hotel going to cost per night? How many days should we stay?
But there’s another question you need to ask if you’re trying to cover all your bases: How much does travel insurance cost?
Travel insurance has become a go-to trip resource that’s easily accessible in the days of digital signups and quick, online claim filing.
If you’re not okay with flushing thousands of dollars down the drain for unexpected derailments of prepaid, nonrefundable trips, you need travel insurance.
But how much does travel insurance cost? Is it worth the extra expense just for a safety net?
On average, travel insurance can cost anywhere from $95 to $250 for basic or mid-tier plans. It’s more expensive for high-tier, comprehensive coverage.
But those rates really depend on individual factors unique to your trip, including the type and amount of coverage you get, your total trip cost, your age, and more.
We’ll explore average travel insurance costs, the factors that can affect your total insurance cost for your trip, and how different coverage types can fit within your travel budget.
5 Travel Insurance Cost Factors
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Your travel insurance costs will largely depend on 3-4 factors: Your coverage type and amount, your overall trip cost, your age, and whether or not you have any reported pre-existing conditions (for travel medical insurance).
Take a look below to learn about these important cost factors and how your costs for travel insurance might differ from the averages.
1. Coverage Type and Amount
Travel insurance isn’t one-size-fits-all coverage. You get to choose the type of protection you want from your policy, with insurance types like:
- Trip protection/cancellation coverage
- Trip interruption coverage
- Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) add-on coverage
- Travel medical insurance coverage
- Comprehensive (trip protection + travel medical insurance) coverage
Purchasing a standalone travel medical insurance policy will be significantly cheaper than getting comprehensive travel insurance with CFAR add-on coverage.
2. Overall Trip Cost
The total cost of your trip definitely factors into how much travel insurance costs. In fact, it’s one of the biggest factors in what you’ll pay for your coverage!
Travel insurance companies don’t want to over- or under-insure your trip since they’ll be responsible for paying out 100% or more of your total trip cost in the event anything goes wrong.
Travel insurance costs range from 4% to 12% of your total trip cost, closely linking these 2 factors.
If your trip costs $1,000, you could pay anywhere from $40 to $120 for basic coverage. A trip costing $5,000 means you’d pay somewhere between $200 and $600 – a big difference.
3. Your Age
Your age might not come to mind when you’re thinking about travel insurance, but this factor directly influences how much you’ll pay for travel medical insurance and comprehensive travel insurance coverage.
Older people pay higher amounts for travel insurance with medical coverage than younger people due to the higher risk level (slips and falls, fractures and breaks, sickness requiring hospitalization, etc.).
Bankrate found that travel insurance for a 10-year old might be around $92, while the same policy for a 50-year old costs $126. The cost rises to $561 for a 90-year old.
With a potential $469 cost difference between a 10- and 90-year old, your age could result in paying almost 510% more for travel insurance than a child or teen.
4. Deductible Amount
The deductible amount you choose affects how much your travel medical insurance will cost. Lower deductibles typically raise the overall insurance cost while higher deductibles will reduce the insurance cost.
If you’re agreeing to pay a higher deductible in the event you need to use your travel medical coverage, the insurance company will drop your premium since you’ll be helping cover more of the cost through your deductible.
If you want to reduce your payment out-of-pocket with a low deductible in the event you need to use your medical coverage, you’ll still “pay for it” indirectly with a higher premium amount.
5. Pre-Existing Conditions
Pre-existing conditions can increase the cost of your travel medical insurance. You’ll still be able to get travel medical coverage from companies that don’t exclude pre-existing conditions from coverage altogether.
If you tell your insurance provider about a pre-existing condition you have, like diabetes, cardiac disease, or autoimmune disorders, you might pay more for travel medical insurance.
Travel medical insurance coverage typically doesn’t require a medical examination because these plans offer emergency medical coverage when you’re traveling.
But it still pays to be honest in the signup process to ensure you won’t be excluded from coverage when you need it.
If you end up having a medical emergency related to a pre-existing medical condition you didn’t inform your insurance company about, it might not be covered.
The Average Cost of Travel Insurance
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Percentages are fine and dandy, but if you’re trying to flesh out your trip budget, you want some real costs to sink your teeth into. How much does travel insurance cost on average?
Let’s take a look at the overall average cost of travel insurance and how it varies.
Then, we’ll check out average costs for trip protection insurance, travel medical insurance, Cancel For Any Reason travel insurance add-on plans, and comprehensive travel insurance.
| $95 | Source: AdvisorSmith.com |
| $103 | Source: TravelAgentCentral.com |
| $124 | Source: TravelInsurance.com |
| $148 | Source: ValuePenguin.com |
| $248 | Source: BusinessInsider.com |
These amounts represent the average costs for travel insurance from a few different sources. AdvisorSmith found the average plan to be around $95, while Business Insider says the average plan will run you almost $250.
So who’s right? Travel insurance plans vary so widely and are based on a number of factors, so these different average amounts actually do a good job depicting the overall average range of travel insurance costs.
Chances are, if you’re not taking a super-long or very expensive trip and just want basic or mid-tier insurance coverage, you’ll pay somewhere between $95 and $250 for coverage.
How Much Does Trip Protection Insurance Cost?
- Expect to pay anywhere from $95-$150 for coverage
- Basic plans are around $100 with better plans in the $150+ range
- Travel medical insurance won’t be included in coverage
Trip protection insurance can be purchased in basic, mid-tier, and high-tier coverage levels with costs ranging from $95 to $150.
Cheaper trip protection insurance around $95 might include trip cancellation and baggage insurance only.
Slightly better plans in the $120-range may include delayed baggage insurance and theft protection in addition to trip cancellation and regular baggage reimbursement.
The best trip protection plans are closer to $150 for the average trip and may include trip delay reimbursement in addition to the coverage from basic and mid-tier plans. Plans labeled “trip protection” don’t include travel medical insurance.
How Much Does Travel Medical Insurance Cost?
- Expect to pay anywhere from $24-$100 for coverage
- Average travel medical insurance costs around $52
- Cheaper than comprehensive or trip protection plans
Travel medical insurance standalone policies without trip protection/cancellation coverage are cheaper, costing anywhere from $40 to $100 on average in total for the trip.
We were able to find basic travel medical insurance plans starting around $3/day. If you spend 8-14 days on your trip, you’d end up paying anywhere between $24 and $42 for basic travel medical insurance.
The cost range is wide for travel medical insurance, but so are the coverage options. You can find plans with medevac coverage, accidental death and dismemberment payouts, and different coverage levels that affect the final price.
How Much Does CFAR Travel Insurance Cost?
- CFAR add-on plans cost $16-$40 on average
- CFAR costs represent about 2%-4% of total trip cost
- Not all insurance companies offer these plans
Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) travel insurance plans cost $16 to $40 on average (in addition to your basic travel insurance costs).
You can’t purchase CFAR insurance on its own, but it’s sometimes available as an add-on policy to existing travel insurance. These plans enable you to get a 50% to 75% refund on trip costs if you decide to cancel for any reason.
While trip protection and comprehensive travel insurance plans may cover 100% of your total trip costs in the event of cancellation due to an “unforeseen” event, CFAR plans allow you to cancel for reasons outside of those policy rules.
That means you can cancel as late as 2 days before your departure date and still get back up to 75% of the trip cost because the weather looks poor, you’ve come down with a mild cold, or you’ve been suddenly called into work.
How Much Does Comprehensive Travel Insurance Cost?
- Expect to pay around $250 for short trips
- Longer trips (2 weeks+) might cost $1,000+
- Most expensive travel insurance coverage
Comprehensive travel insurance costs are higher, usually upwards of $250 for the average trip. You could pay a little less or more, depending on how long you stay, your total trip costs, and your age.
At 10% to 12% of your total trip cost, comprehensive travel insurance prices are on the upper end of travel insurance cost averages because they offer more coverage with trip protection and medical coverage included.
Your comprehensive travel insurance plan might cost $500 for a $5,000 trip (using the 10% total trip cost average). It could be $1,440 for a $12,000 trip (using the 12% of total trip cost average).
In general, the shorter your trip is and the less it costs, the cheaper comprehensive travel insurance coverage will be.
The Cheapest Options
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The cheapest travel insurance plans offer basic, no-frills coverage that can be enough for certain types of trips.
The cheapest plans include standalone trip protection insurance that covers cancellation for unforeseen reasons out of your control and emergency medical coverage without trip protection.
The cheapest travel insurance plans range from about $30 to $100, but the cheapest plans have a few possible drawbacks you should consider.
- Most cheap travel insurance plans offer partial coverage, not comprehensive
- Cheap plans are hard to find for longer or more expensive trips
- You may only get trip cancellation or travel medical coverage with cheaper plans
These factors aren’t ideal, but they’re still better than no travel insurance at all!
If you’re considering foregoing travel insurance altogether to save money, you’re better off just getting a cheap plan that offers some degree of coverage in the event you need to cancel, cut short, or seek medical help during your trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Turns out, “How much does travel insurance cost?” isn’t the only question travelers have about paying for a trip safety net.
Check out some of the most frequently asked questions to learn more about how much you can expect to pay for travel insurance!
How much does travel insurance typically cost?
Travel insurance usually costs $95 to $250, depending on the coverage type and amount, your total trip costs, your age, and any deductible amount you have.
The cheapest travel insurance plans offer standalone, basic coverage for trip protection/cancellation or travel medical expenses - not both.
More expensive plans may offer combined or comprehensive coverage.
Is travel health insurance expensive?
Travel health insurance, or travel medical insurance, is not expensive to purchase. You can find plans as low as $24, but most plans are in the $40 range for basic medical coverage.
Does travel insurance cover the cost of the trip?
Travel insurance including trip protection should cover up to 100% of the cost of your trip if you need to cancel for an approved reason. Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) add-on policies may cover 50% to 75% of your total trip cost if you need to cancel for any reason beyond the approved "unforeseen event" reasons.
Does cheap travel insurance offer good coverage?
Cheap travel insurance offers basic coverage that may or may not be good enough for your trip. Get a few quotes and compare policy coverage amounts between plans to weigh your options.
Cheap travel insurance usually won't offer full, comprehensive coverage that includes trip cancellation, delay, and medical coverage. Still, you can find policies from $30 to $100 that offer sufficient coverage for a short trip.
What is usually covered by travel insurance?
Travel insurance is offered in different types and coverage levels, so what your plan covers depends on the policy you select. Trip protection insurance covers up to 100% of the cost of your trip if it must be cancelled for unforeseen reasons but doesn't include medical coverage.
Over to You! Get Your Travel Insurance Today
The average travel insurance cost ranges from $95 to $250. Your total travel insurance cost will vary depending on the main cost factors, including your coverage type and amount, total trip cost, and your age.
Other cost factors for medical policies only include your deductible amount and whether or not you have pre-existing conditions.
On the lower travel insurance cost end – around $100 – you’ll get basic plans that usually offer one type of coverage or protection, like trip cancellation with baggage insurance or standalone travel medical coverage.
In the middle, around $120, you’ll find better coverage with travel insurance policies offering enhanced trip protection with baggage delay and theft protection policies.
On the higher end, around $250, you’ll find travel insurance policies that cover a broader range of events including trip delay, rental car insurance, and emergency medical coverage.
Choose the coverage level that fits your budget and comes closest to suiting your needs.
You don’t have to automatically choose the cheapest or most expensive plan out there – do some research to see what you can pay for only the coverage you need.