How much does travel insurance cost? If you’re asking that question, you’re ahead of the game. Travel insurance is often a bit of an afterthought when planning a vacation. I know that it once was for me. But, I personally won’t travel without it anymore.
Over the years, I’ve just encountered and experienced too many stories where travel insurance (or the lack thereof) played a huge part in someone’s life, and I won’t risk not being able to do the things I love (for either physical or financial reasons) in the future because the help I needed wasn’t covered.
I love being an optimist about travel. I’ve been able to make so many incredible memories throughout the world, and it’s truly my most favorite thing to do on the planet. I look forward to good things happening each and every time. But, it’s reasonable to also be practical and do what I need to do to protect it all.
To our main question: how much does travel insurance cost? The cost of travel insurance is dependent on factors such as your destination, age, trip cost and length, but it is common to have a 7-day vacation covered for between $50 and $100 per traveler.
However, as I found through a ton of research, there’s a lot to know about the topic beyond just how much travel insurance costs, like what the different types of travel insurance are and how to pick one that will cover what I want to be able to do on my trip.
All of this is of course just for informational purposes and you’ll ultimately need to get your own quotes, read plan details carefully, contact the companies directly if any questions come up, etc. to make sure that something works well for you specifically. But, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned on my own ride.
Let’s take a look at why travel insurance even matters to me, what travel insurance costs, and options for travel insurance companies to get online quotes from depending on what you need and want to do on vacation.
Why Does Travel Insurance Matter?
Having the right travel insurance can make a big difference.
For example, a friend of a friend happened to be accidentally bitten by a monkey when handing it some food (which is a bad idea anyway, but it happened) and urgently needed a rabies shot.
The country he was visiting had a very short supply of the needed shots and the local hospital told him they could only do it for about $7,000. He didn’t have any sort of travel insurance and couldn’t afford that, and it ended up being cheaper for him to book a last-minute flight to a different country in the region to get treatment there, which still ended up costing several thousand dollars. Needless to say, it was risky, his vacation was over and his bank account took a real hit.
On the flip side, a friend who was on a week-long live-aboard scuba diving trip with his wife ended up getting decompression sickness (also known as the bends, which can be deadly serious and does happen occasionally for scuba divers even if everything is done right) and urgently needed to find medical treatment.
However, the tour boat was large, slow and miles from the nearest city. The tour company ultimately radioed the country’s navy which then sent a speed boat out to the group, taking my friend (while hooked to oxygen) and his wife a couple of hours to the nearest town with a modern medical facility. He then spent several days in the hospital with multiple stints in a hyperbaric chamber to squash the nitrogen bubbles that had formed in his blood to protect his brain, limbs, etc.
The bills for the emergency transportation, hospital stay and complicated treatments were well into the tens-of-thousands-of-dollars range (they were even in a very inexpensive country — it could potentially have been into the hundreds of thousands in a more developed nation). However, he had good travel insurance and ultimately ended up paying nothing for the ordeal.
These incidents are purely anecdotal, of course, but they definitely give me something to think about. There are certainly a zillion other stories and stats out there about travel insurance (like how medical evacuation, should someone need it, could cost up to $220,000 [source]), but even just these two were more than enough for me to recognize how important to me having it is, and to just plan to spend a few bucks on it for every trip that I take. It’s worth it for me.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?
There are two main types of travel insurance: travel medical insurance and travel trip insurance.
Travel medical insurance aims to cover certain types of unexpected medical expenses that you might have while traveling, while trip insurance can cover expenses from things like trip delays, cancellations, lost luggage, etc. In reality, though, most travel insurance plans have a mix of both medical and trip coverages.
I’ve used different types of travel insurance regularly for a long time now, so I was pretty well versed in the process. When I have a trip planned, I go to one of my preferred travel insurance sites, get an online quote, pay for it, and be on my way. Easy. But, as I wrote this guide, I wanted to know how much travel insurance costs in a bigger sense. Here’s what I found out.
The price of travel insurance, like any sort of insurance, depends on a variety of factors; where you’re going, how old you are, where you live, how much your trip might cost, what types of activities you’ll be doing on vacation, etc. With so many variables, it seemed like it might be tough to find an answer to the “how much does travel insurance cost?” question.
So, I just started pulling travel insurance quotes — lots of them, hundreds of them — and looked for patterns. And, some interesting things started to emerge. Check out the overview of the data I collected below.
| Destination Region | Average Travel Medical Insurance Cost (per person) | Average Travel Trip Insurance Cost (per person) | Trip Length | Average Traveler Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $81.50 | $46.33 | 7 days | 35 |
| Mexico | $76.41 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Canada | $84.05 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| The Caribbean | $79.81 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Africa | $86.60 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Antarctica | $157.06 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Asia | $85.75 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Australia / New Zealand | $73.86 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Europe | $86.60 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| Central America | $95.93 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
| South America | $98.48 | $69.00 | 7 days | 35 |
To pull quotes and build the data, I used World Nomads as a reference for travel insurance that is heavy on the medical benefits (though it still has some trip insurance benefits) and Allianz Travel Insurance for travel insurance that is heavy on the trip benefits (though it still has some medical benefits).
I mention World Nomads and Allianz often here because they are two of the travel insurance companies that actually cover snorkeling, which we’re big on here at Coral Nomad. And, you might be surprised to learn that many travel insurance plans explicitly exclude snorkeling and lots of other activities from coverage.
World Nomads is geared towards more active and adventurous travelers (covering a ton of activities between their Standard and Explorer plans that almost every other travel insurance plan specifically excludes from coverage), and I often use Allianz as a fallback when traveling with someone over 70 since they are one of the few who have coverage for that age group.
As a standard point of reference for every quote, I imagined a week-long trip three months out valued at about $1,000 (for the added cost of flights, hotels, transportation, snorkel tours, etc.) to various countries around the globe being taken by a 35-year-old person who lives in the United States. The quote numbers in this article are subject to change at any time for various reasons, of course, but I think this gives me a good baseline.
As it turns out, how far out the trip was scheduled didn’t seem to impact how much the plans for travel insurance cost, but every other factor (destination, trip length, trip value, traveler age) did impact the quotes for at least one of the companies.
As I mentioned, World Nomads is heavier on the travel medical insurance side of things (which is great for me) and geared for active travelers (also great for me). As such, they do tend to be a bit more expensive than other companies who cover less or are geared toward people who do less, but I think they’re my best option to have things like snorkeling and scuba diving well covered, along with a whole list of other common vacation activities like kayaking or jet skiing, or even more adventurous things like paragliding or shark cage diving. I’m often surprised by what’s often excluded in typical travel insurance plans that World Nomads does specifically cover.
Since World Nomads has a big focus on the medical side of things, their quotes seemed to be more sensitive to the perceived medical cost in an area and how likely it might be to get injured there, along with normal things like trip length. However, changing the traveler age (anything from 1 to 69 years old) had no impact, and they don’t even ask about your trip value.
Probably the biggest key for the price of a World Nomads quote, though, is to where you are traveling. After probably 50 quotes, it became pretty apparent that they group countries by region and then price a quote based on its region instead of the country itself. The regions appear to be the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Oceania (Australia/New Zealand area), Europe, Central America, South America and Antarctica.
That makes sense in terms of simplicity, but it is a little weird to me. For example, I would get the same World Nomads quote for a trip to Costa Rica (consistently rated the safest country in Central America [source]) as I would El Salvador, the country with the highest number of homicides per capita in the world [source]. (Though, note that most travel insurance will not cover you if you visit somewhere with a do-not-travel warning from your government, like the list at the U.S. State Department.)
In terms of which regions are cheaper or more expensive under World Nomads’ travel insurance cost, from least expensive to most expensive the regions are: Oceania, Mexico, the Caribbean, the United States, Canada, Asia, Africa and Europe (tied), South America, then Antarctica (more details on each region below). Again, the region pricing probably includes a lot of factors like the price, quality and availability of medical care, along with how easy it might be to get hurt somewhere.
It’s different with Allianz Travel Insurance, however, since they focus more on the trip insurance side of things (though they do still have medical benefits in their travel plans). The only region that affected their quotes, all else being equal, was the United States (probably since I would be traveling within my own country in this example); the other regions were all identical, all else being equal. Changing the trip length, cost, and traveler age did make noticeable differences in the Allianz quotes, though.
I also noticed that in travel insurance costs overall, rates are up probably 30-50% over a year ago. That’s likely a direct impact of the risk of traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic. If I am traveling right now before the related virus is fully eliminated, travel insurance with good medical benefits might be exceptionally important to me, even if plans are a little more expensive right now.
Also, both World Nomads and Allianz Travel Insurance allow their plans to cover multiple countries on one trip. For World Nomads, if you’re visiting countries in different regions, your travel insurance cost will default to whichever region is more expensive to cover (it doesn’t add the two regions’ travel insurance costs together, which is helpful). For Allianz, the cost is based on whichever country you’re spending the most time in.
World Nomads has two main plans: Standard and Explorer. The Standard Plan is often great for me and covers a heck of a lot, but the Explorer Plan covers even more adventurous activities (check out the full list of covered activities here) with higher coverage limits. Allianz has their OneTrip Basic, OneTrip Prime and OneTrip Premier plans, which mostly differ in coverage amounts.
If you’re curious what the specific numbers are for a given region, I’ll lay that out now below.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to the United States?
When traveling to the United States (Hawaii, Florida, California, etc.), the travel insurance cost for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $81.50 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $46.33 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads quoted $63.60 for their Standard Plan or $99.40 for their Explorer Plan (the one that has more adventurous activities covered with higher coverage limits) for the stated average of $81.50.
Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $35 for their Basic plan, $46 for their Prime plan, or $58 for their Premier plan for the average of $46.33.
Also, if you are a U.S. resident, World Nomads will only cover you if you travel more than 100 miles from your home. Allianz is only available to U.S. residents, and appears to give you a little bit of a break on travel insurance costs for staying within your own country (though I couldn’t find info on any minimum travel distance).
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Mexico?
For travelers to Mexico (Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, etc.), quoted travel insurance costs for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $76.41 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
The World Nomads website quoted $59.63 for their Standard Plan or $93.19 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $76.41.
Next, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Canada?
When traveling to Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Banff, etc.), the travel insurance cost for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $84.05 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
Over at World Nomads, they quoted $65.59 for their Standard Plan and $102.50 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $84.05.
Again, Allianz Travel Insurance gave quotes of $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to the Caribbean?
When traveling to the Caribbean (Bonaire, the Dominican Republic, St. John), the travel insurance quotes for a 7-day trip valued at $1,000 for a 35-year-old averaged $79.81 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, or $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
The quotes from World Nomads were $62.28 for their Standard Plan or $97.33 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $79.81.
And again, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69 (seeing a theme?)
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Africa?
When traveling to Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, etc.), travel insurance costs for a 7-day trip valued at $1,000 for a 35-year-old averaged $86.60 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads quoted me at $67.58 for their Standard Plan or $105.61 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $86.60.
And, you guessed it: Allianz Travel Insurance also quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Antarctica?
When traveling to Antarctica, the travel insurance cost for a 35-year-old on a 7-day trip valued at $1,000 averaged $157.06 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, or $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads gave me quotes of $122.56 for their Standard Plan or $191.55 for their Explorer Plan for an average of $157.06.
Amazingly, Allianz Travel Insurance still quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
Antarctica is by far the most expensive region for travel insurance cost and pretty much an outlier in my tests, which does make sense since it has unique risks and very sparing medical care available.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Asia?
When traveling to Asia (the Philippines, India, Japan, etc.), travel insurance costs for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $85.75 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads quoted $66.91 for their Standard Plan and $104.58 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $85.75.
Once more, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted the $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Australia & New Zealand?
When traveling to Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.), the travel insurance cost for a 35-year-old with a 7-day trip valued at $1,000 averaged $73.86 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, and $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads helpfully quoted $57.64 for their Standard Plan or $90.08 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $73.86.
Allianz Travel Insurance again quoted the repeatable $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
Oceania was the cheapest region of those that I found, which likely has to do with a high-quality yet reasonably-priced medical infrastructure.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Europe?
When traveling to Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.), quotes on travel insurance costs for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $86.60 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, or $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads delivered quotes of $67.58 for their Standard Plan and $105.61 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $86.60.
As expected, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, and $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to Central America?
When traveling to Central America (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc.), the travel insurance cost for a 7-day trip for a 35-year-old valued at $1,000 averaged $95.93 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, or $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
Over at World Nomads, they quoted $74.86 for their Standard Plan and $117.00 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $95.93.
One more time, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, or $103 for their Premier plan for the average of $69.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost to South America?
When traveling to South America (Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, etc.), the travel insurance cost for a 7-day trip valued at $1,000 for a 35-year-old averaged $98.48 for a travel-medical-insurance-oriented plan, or $69 for a trip-insurance-oriented plan.
World Nomads returned quotes of $76.85 for their Standard Plan and $120.11 for their Explorer Plan for the average of $95.93.
Lastly, Allianz Travel Insurance quoted $46 for their Basic plan, $58 for their Prime plan, and $103 for their Premier plan for an average of $69.
South America was the highest-priced region not named “Antarctica” for travel insurance costs that I found, likely because of differing qualities and availabilities of medical care, and somewhat increased risk in the region overall.
The Best Travel Insurance for Me
As you already know, I like World Nomads for my active travelers who are under 70 and live pretty much anywhere in the world. Allianz Travel Insurance is my fallback in case I’m traveling with someone over 70 (and who only lives in the United States).
We have a lot more details on why I’ve used World Nomads and Allianz along with how they work over at Travel Insurance That Covers Snorkeling & Scuba.
The Deep Dive
I won’t travel without travel insurance anymore. After hearing so many stories about how impactful coverage can be, I’ll gladly spend a few bucks to do my best to protect my physical and financial wellbeing to be able to continue to travel (and snorkel!)
And, the answer to “how much does travel insurance cost?” Not that much to me, really.
Your personal quote for coverage will probably vary a bit from the numbers here, depending on your age, destinations, trip length and other factors. But, even in the current environment of heightened travel risk, it’s pretty typical to get solid coverage for $50-100 per traveler on something like our 7-day example trip. Compared to what most trips cost overall, that’s really not much. And, if I ever use my coverage even once in my lifetime, I’ll be glad that I always had it on each trip.
This guide is of course just for informational purposes and you’ll need to get your own quotes to find your own numbers. I always recommend reading any travel insurance plan details carefully to make sure that they cover what you need them to cover and that you understand how everything works while contacting the company directly with any questions that might come up, because things do change. But, it’s always possible to grab a quote online and then decide if it works best for you.
Up Next
Get your own travel insurance quotes online (they’re instant) from the companies that I outlined above:
Or, learn more about travel insurance:
- Does Travel Insurance Cover Snorkeling? 3 Critical Realities
- Travel Insurance That Covers Snorkeling & Scuba
Also, this article is part of a short series about what snorkeling costs (tours, gear, etc.), so check out the other articles in this series below:
