Family travel insurance
Compare travel insurance quotes for families
What is family travel insurance?
Family travel insurance covers one or two adults and anywhere between one and eight children. They all have to live with you and be under 18.
Most policies also cover stepchildren, foster children or adopted children too. They can be yours, or your spouse or partners, as long as you both live together.
You can get family travel insurance for a single trip, or as a multi-trip policy.
Benefits of a family policy
Family travel insurance offers value for money, as it’s usually cheaper to insure everyone under the same policy, than taking out individual cover for each person.
Cover options that would normally cost extra might be offered as part of a family policy as standard, like alternative accommodation and increased cancellation cover.
The adults on an annual family policy don’t necessarily have to be travelling with their children to be covered, but this varies by policy.
Some family policies cover children below a certain age for free, but again this depends on your policy wording.
If you have one child, a couples travel insurance policy and a separate policy for your child might be cheaper than family cover. It's worth comparing the two and seeing which works out best value for money.
Some family policies won’t cover family members travelling independently, or children travelling with a non-family member. If your child needs to travel without you, you'll need to take out cover for them separately.
What does family travel insurance cover?
Family travel insurance includes cover for:
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Lost luggage and possessions
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Cancelled, delayed or curtailed holidays
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Medical treatment and repatriation
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Some adventurous activities
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Legal assistance
Family travel insurance policies offer European, worldwide and UK cover
Europe
You can get family travel insurance for trips in Europe, for example, France, Spain and Bulgaria are all covered.
A few non-EU destinations are also covered too, including Egypt, Gran Canaria, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco.
European travel insurance is usually cheaper than worldwide cover, so it’s worth checking to see if your destination is covered under one of these policies first.
Worldwide
Worldwide travel insurance covers you nearly anywhere in the world.
There are two categories of worldwide cover - including or excluding the USA, Canada and the Caribbean.
If you’re not travelling to America, Canada or the Caribbean, look for policies that exclude them as they’ll be cheaper.
You won’t be covered for travel to destinations the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has advised against.
UK
Cover for holidays in the UK is included in most family travel insurance policies.
It covers the costs of lost or stolen luggage and trip cancellation, curtailment and delays, but you’ll need to check the policy exclusions to see whether internal flights are covered.
You won’t get medical cover in your UK family travel insurance policy, as you’ll be treated for free by the NHS.
Frequently asked questions
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As soon as you’ve booked your trip. That way, if you need to cancel it, your travel insurance could cover the cost.
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In 2020, the average cost of a family travel insurance policy was £28.08 for single-trip cover and £58.74 for annual multi-trip cover.[2]
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Before you travel, find out the emergency and non-emergency local healthcare numbers for your destination.
It’s also worth researching the nearest medical facilities to where you’re staying, so you know where to go.
If you’re ill or injured and are unsure what to do, call the non-emergency number or local medical advice line for guidance, or go to the nearest medical facility.
Only call the emergency healthcare service in the event of a real emergency.
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Yes, some annual family policies do, but you’d need to check the cover details to be sure.
Under-18s might be able travel on their own too, as long as they’re picked up and dropped off by a responsible adult.
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Credit cards[1]Gocompare.com introduces customers to theidol.com which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Gocompare.com's relationship with theidol.com is limited to that of a business partnership, no common ownership or control rights exist between us. Please note, we cannot be held responsible for the content of external websites and by using the links stated to access these separate websites you will be subject to the terms of use applying to those sites
[2]Average price purchased data recorded by theidol.com for family policies with no medical conditions between 1 January and 31 December 2020.