Best Family Travel Insurance

Even the best-laid plans can sometimes go awry. This possibility doubles (or even triples) when traveling with a family, which can mean that purchasing family travel insurance may make sense for you.

This type of insurance will cover you and your loved ones in the event that you miss your flight, your partner gets food poisoning, your children’s bags are lost and more. Let’s take a look at the best family travel insurance plans, including the factors we considered when making these choices and how to choose the best plan for you.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

If you’re thinking about purchasing travel insurance and are traveling with your family, it can make sense to buy a family plan. This essentially just means that everyone in your family will be covered under a single policy rather than buying them all separately.

A family travel plan works the same way as an individual plan. You’ll purchase your policies together and can make claims using the same systems as an individual plan.

Family travel insurance plans are just like individual insurance policies. You coverage will vary based on the plan.

Here are some types of coverage that are generally included in family travel insurance plans:

• Emergency medical.

• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance.

• Luggage insurance.

• Emergency travel assistance.

• Rental car insurance (either included or as an add-on).

• Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) insurance (either included or as an add-on).

Family travel insurance plans can be a good idea, especially if your vacation is expensive or has a lot of moving parts. However, before you buy a policy, you’ll want to look at any travel credit cards that you have to see if they offer complimentary travel insurance.

For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® covers many different kinds of family members who are traveling with you when you use your card to pay for your travel.

Family members covered include:

• Spouse or partner. 

• Parents-in-law.

• Children. 

• Stepchildren.

• Parents.

• Stepparents.

• Siblings.

• Grandparents.

• Grandchildren.

• Aunts or uncles.

• Nieces or nephews.

We used the following criteria when choosing which companies we thought were best:

• Cost. Cost can play a huge factor in choosing a travel insurance plan, especially when you’re traveling with multiple people. We compared costs for basic policies to choose the most affordable options. 

• Types of coverage. There is a wide variety of coverage options for insurance, including medical coverage and trip protection benefits. We chose plans with the widest range of inclusions. 

• Coverage amounts. Many policies offer a variable level of coverage; more expensive policies can include higher policy limits, though this isn’t always the case. 

• Customizability. Different travelers have different types of needs, which means that we focused on policies that offer customizability as part of their benefits. 

» Learn more: What does travel insurance cover?

To figure out the best travel insurance for a family, we compared the price and benefits for a sample trip across multiple insurance companies. For our quotes, we had a New Hampshire family of three — a 39-year-old father, a 33-year-old mother and a 3-year-old child — traveling to Germany during the winter. The total trip cost was $12,000.

Overall, the average cost of a plan came out to $277.73, though one plan priced out far below the rest. Here are our top options.

Let’s take a closer look at our top five recommendations for travel insurance for families.

Allianz Travel

What makes Allianz travel insurance great:

• Family travel medical insurance that includes coverage for pre-existing conditions. 

• Customizability includes rental car insurance and Cancel Anytime insurance. 

• Provides up to $1,000 per person for lost baggage. 

Here’s a snippet from our Allianz travel insurance review:

“Allianz’s five plans offer different kinds of coverage, and not all of them have a standard set of benefits.

“For example, Allianz travel insurance medical coverage isn’t available with the OneTrip Cancellation Plus plan, while general Allianz travel insurance coverage such as trip cancellation isn’t offered on the OneTrip Emergency Medical plan.”

» Learn more: Trip cancellation insurance explained

World Nomads

What makes World Nomads great:

• Low cost. 

• Includes adventure sports and activities.

• Provides $25,000 non-medical emergency transportation. 

Here’s a snippet from our World Nomads review:

“World Nomads is unique amongst other providers as it is a good fit for adventurous travelers. Its plans automatically include coverage for over 200+ activities, including skiing, rafting, backpacking and bouldering. Note that extreme sports are not covered.”

» Learn more: Does travel insurance cover award flights?

AXA

What makes AXA great:

• Covers 100% of trip cost for interruption or cancellation. 

• Provides $100 per person, per day for trip delay.

• Includes $500 in coverage for missed connections.  

Here’s a snippet from our AXA review:

“Silver: This is the least expensive plan that offers 100% trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage, $25,000 in emergency accident and sickness medical coverage and $100,000 in emergency evacuation and repatriation coverage. … Overall, if you’re looking for emergency medical and emergency evacuation coverage specifically, the limits are good on all the plans, including the least expensive one.”

IMG

What makes IMG great:

• Hundreds of dollars cheaper than the other options. 

• Variable deductible ranging from $0 to $2,500. 

• Policy maximum for emergency medical up to $2 million. 

Here’s a snippet from our IMG review:

“Some policies provide emergency medical evacuation coverage, while others skip this benefit entirely. This benefit may be more important to you if you travel to a remote location or engage in physical activity such as trekking.”

Tin Leg

What makes Tin Leg great:

• Lower-than-average cost.

• 150% reimbursed for trip interruption. 

• Offers coverage for pre-existing conditions. 

Here’s a snippet from our Tin Leg review:

“When comparing Tin Leg travel insurance plans, there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason as to which plans offer the most benefits or the largest payouts. For example, just because a plan is more expensive or has a seemingly better name doesn’t mean it automatically offers you more protections across the board.

“Instead, the only way to figure out the plan that’s right for you is to compare them all, look at the plan details, and decide which features and coverage suit you and your travel style best.”

Interested in learning more about travel insurance, including annual family travel insurance and methods to make travel insurance less expensive? Start here.

• How to find the right travel insurance for you

• How annual or multi-trip travel insurance works

• 10 credit cards that provide travel insurance