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- Your travel insurance may already cover your entire family, including children.
- Travel insurance can cover a single trip or multiple trips within a set time.
- Travel insurance for families should have larger coverage limits than single-traveler plans.
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Before they were four months old, my daughters went on their first long-haul international flights, stopping in Dubai before reaching Australia to visit family. Since then, I've learned a lot about traveling with kids. It essentially boils down to expecting the unexpected. Whether it's a child needing a sudden ER visit just before departure (shoutout to my oldest) or your luggage with all the baby essentials going missing (which happened to my second), you've got to be prepared to roll with the punches, which is where travel insurance comes in.
You might not think much about travel insurance and kids, but if you're a jet-setting family, you probably should. The question of what travel insurance covers is broad. It may cover medical emergencies abroad, lost luggage, and interrupted trips. Some policies will even cover cancellations for illness, which parents know always seem to strike at the worst possible times. Here's what you should know about travel insurance before starting your next family vacation.
Your travel insurance policy may already cover kids
If you're already familiar with buying travel insurance for yourself, you'll find buying travel insurance for children easy. Many policies allow you to add children 17 or under as long as they travel with at least one legal guardian. Some policies enable grandparents to add kids too. Often, adding kids is free, but if you're traveling with more than one kiddo, you may need to pay for additional travel insurance coverage.
Family travel insurance is a good option too
While adding your kid to your travel insurance policy is the simplest way to get coverage, it's not always the best travel insurance for your family's needs. More extensive trips and larger families often have to purchase family travel insurance. These packages are designed to cover medical, cancellations, and lost luggage for your entire group. As your costs go up, so does your travel insurance coverage.
Kids traveling without parents need different travel insurance
Sooner or later, your child might want to go on a trip with their cousins, friends, or neighbors. Children traveling without a parent need travel insurance for unaccompanied minors or single-child travel insurance. Child-specific travel insurance provides the same coverage as other policies, targeting the youngest solo travelers.
Children don't need travel insurance coverage for school trips
Many people (myself included) go on their first travel adventures with their school. The good news is that your child won't need travel insurance for these excursions since the school or organizing party likely already has them covered. However, just as you'd want to know which adults will accompany your child, it's a good idea to find out precisely what type of coverage is included with the price of group travel.
High-flying families can buy a multi-trip travel insurance policy
If your little ones have frequent flier miles, you might be the type of family to benefit from a multi-trip policy, also known as annual travel insurance. This type of policy covers your entire family for the whole year, which means you'll have one less to-do item on your list before booking flights on a whim.
Annual plans may have more limitations. Of course, you should expect to also pay more upfront for the same coverage. Depending on how often you travel, though, an annual plan could save you compared to buying a new one for every trip. Just make sure you check your policy documents for any restrictions.
Big kids qualify for travel insurance too
As more experienced parents like to tell me, the years fly by. At some point, your kids aren't, well, children anymore. But many are still dependent on mom and dad. Luckily, some travel insurance policies allow you to add older offspring, often till the age of 21.
If you've started a tradition of buying travel insurance, your bigger kids might purchase separate policies for spring break weekends and other friend trips. For many parents, looping young adult dependents into the family plan is one more way to reduce unnecessary hassles.
Parents traveling without kids should consider a cancel for any reason policy
Sometimes kids can impact your travel plans, even when traveling without them. Parents traveling sans children can enjoy the extra peace of mind from cancel for any reason (CFAR) travel insurance. As the name suggests, this coverage lets you cancel because of a sick kid, a must-see school event, or anything else. Of course, each policy has a time limit.
You have to cancel your plans before the trip happens. Some companies may have different cutoffs. So make sure to check your policy documents. However, as long as you meet that deadline, you won't have to worry about unseen coverage exclusions.
I just added this for a girls' trip to Italy without my daughters this spring. While I would hate to miss the pizza and gelato for any reason, knowing I could change plans if there were an emergency with my children was well worth the cost of adding cancel for any reason coverage.
Traveling with families is expensive and stressful, even for those who love it. However, travel insurance is a small expense that can reassure you that you're ready for whatever happens.