How much travel insurance costs
We do not sell insurance and we do not run quotes, so there is no price table here. What we can do is explain why two quotes for the same trip come out differently, and what a very cheap policy has usually given up to get there.
What actually moves the price
- The strongest single factor on most quotes. Premiums rise gently through middle age and then steeply, with common step changes around 65 and 70. Two travellers on identical trips can be quoted several times apart on age alone.
- Priced by region, not by country, and the tiers are wide apart. Cover including the United States, Canada and the Caribbean is typically the most expensive band by a large margin, because that is where a hospital stay costs the most. Europe-only is usually the cheapest.
- Roughly linear for short trips, then cheaper per day as the trip lengthens. This is why an annual policy overtakes single-trip cover after about three trips, and why a long stay is better served by a student or long-stay policy than by extending a holiday one.
- Raising the emergency medical limit costs less than most people expect — the expensive part of a claim is that it happens at all, not the ceiling. Where a minimum applies, such as the €30,000 Schengen standard, meeting it rarely moves the premium much.
- The main lever a cheap policy pulls. Accepting a higher excess lowers the premium immediately, and it is a reasonable trade if you could comfortably absorb that amount. It stops being reasonable when the excess is a large fraction of any claim you would realistically make.
- Skiing, diving, motorcycling, trekking at altitude and most competitive sport sit outside a standard policy and need an add-on. The add-on is usually modest; discovering afterwards that it was needed is not.
- Only relevant if the policy includes cancellation, which is priced against the prepaid amount you want protected. Insuring a cheap, refundable trip for cancellation adds premium for very little cover — which is often the argument for medical-only.
What a very cheap policy has given up
A low premium is not a red flag in itself. It is the result of specific trade-offs, and all of them are fine if they happen to match your trip:
- A high excess, so a small or moderate claim returns little or nothing.
- A low emergency medical limit — sometimes below what a visa requires.
- No medical evacuation or repatriation, which is the costliest scenario of all.
- A narrow area of validity that excludes somewhere on your route.
- A short list of covered activities, with anything active excluded by default.
- Strict pre-existing-condition terms, or no acceptance of declarations at all.
What a quote form will ask you
Having these to hand makes comparing quotes much faster, and makes the numbers comparable:
- Your age, and the age of anyone else on the policy
- The countries you will visit, including anywhere you transit or stop briefly
- Exact travel dates, first day to last day inclusive
- The total prepaid cost you want protected, if you want cancellation cover
- Any medical conditions to declare, including ones under investigation
- Any activities beyond ordinary sightseeing
We do not run quotes, host a comparison engine or take commission from insurers, and there are no affiliate links on this page. Take these to whichever insurer or broker you prefer.
Common questions
There is no single answer, because the same trip prices very differently by age and destination — that is the honest version. What is useful is the shape: medical-only cover for a short European trip is among the cheapest insurance you can buy, comprehensive cover for a long-haul family holiday is many times that, and cruise cover for older travellers is the expensive end. If a quote sits far outside what similar quotes give you, the difference is usually in the excess or the medical limit rather than in value.
Almost always age, destination band or a declared medical condition. Those three account for most of the spread between quotes for what looks like the same trip. Trip cost matters too if cancellation is included. Comparing quotes is only meaningful when the medical limit, the excess and the area of validity are the same on both.
The premium itself barely moves, but what you get changes. Cancellation cover only runs from the day you buy, so buying at booking protects the whole exposure period, and buying the week before departure protects almost none of it. Medical cover only needs to be in place before you travel, so for a medical-only policy the timing does not matter much.
Usually yes within a cooling-off period, commonly 14 days, provided you have not travelled and have not made a claim. After that, refunds are at the insurer's discretion and often nil. If you are buying early to protect a booking, note that cancelling the policy later generally means losing the premium.
packset.travel is an independent trip-planning tool, not an insurer or broker. This is general information, not insurance advice — always confirm cover levels and entry requirements with the insurer and the relevant consulate before you travel.