The most important part of booking a group or family holiday is to purchase the travel insurance to cover you against pre-departure cancellations due to:
- injuries, especially if you have children who may or may not be travelling with you.
- illness or death in the family
- accidents
- anything else that’s beyond your control; some insurers also cover natural disasters.
Medical Cover
If you are an expatriate family returning home for a break, you are quite probably not covered by your country’s public health-care. For e.g. British Expats are not covered by NHS once they are resident elsewhere. So as an Expat it is often necessary to ensure you have adequate travel insurance cover for you and your family when returning home.
Additionally, ensure you and your family have adequate cover for any medical treatments you might need. In particular, check what the deductibles and pay-out ceilings are. The pay-out ceiling is whereby the insurance company limits its pay-out per medical instance and some even have a per-day expense ceiling. So read the policy wording very carefully indeed.
Some insurance companies only pay-out 50% for children which will not be helpful if you have a big medical bill.
Adventure & Sports Travel Insurance
With a family, the interests are never going to be the same so it’s essential that you check the activities you & your family plan to engage in is covered by your policy. Most travel insurance companies charge an additional premium for what they consider “dangerous activities”. So check what is covered under the standard premium.
These are the 3 main ones. That said, you should always read your policy, especially whats covered & not covered and the general exclusions. If you think the policy is too long or in double-dutch then just ask your questions.
Other Useful Links
Travel Advice To Your Destination – UK Foreign Office
The Importance of Reading The Trave Insurance Fine Print
Annual Travel Insurance Buying Tips
Top Tips For Buying Travel Insurance
Annual Multi Trip Insurance 