Best travel insurance UK 2026: companies and policies rated

Why you can trust our travel insurance reviews

Expert analysis

We examine 120 areas of cover across hundreds of policies, from medical expenses to cancellation cover and protection if luggage goes missing.

Best Buys

To pick Best Buy policies we also use claims and complaints data from the Financial Conduct Authority and Financial Ombudsman Service.

Best travel insurance: companies and policies compared

Want the best travel insurance policy or insurer? Use our tables below, then go to confused.com, another comparison site or direct to the insurer.
Want the cheapest travel insurance policy or insurer? Follow the links to confused.com, or another comparison site, to get a list of policies. Then check what the policies scored by searching our tables.

We’ve also written comprehensive reviews of the best and biggest insurers – just click on the links in the table to read them.

Please note that this article is for information purposes only and doesn’t constitute advice. Please refer to the particular T&Cs of an insurer before committing to any financial products.

Table note: All ratings are for policies available to new customers, and the details were gathered in a survey carried out in March/April 2026. The information should be considered correct to that date. We will next update our policy scores in May 2027. See our full methodology. This table has been updated in May 2026.

If a brand isn’t listed in the table, it means it didn’t take part in our survey and hasn’t been reviewed.

Best travel insurance policies

We rated 23 policies as Best Buys – here are the four highest scorers:

Saga – Plus

The provider has no maximum age limits for new customers, and offers some of the highest levels of cover for those heading off on very expensive trips: up to £20,000 cancellation cover and £10,000 for baggage and valuables.

out of 160 travel insurance policies rated

Nationwide FlexPlus

Nationwide’s travel insurance, part of its packaged bank account, covers you, your partner (if they live with you) and dependents aged under 23. If you’ve booked a trip with different airlines, its missed departure cover will cover costs of getting back on track if a delayed outgoing flight led you to miss a connection.

out of 160 policies rated

Barclays – Aviva Travel Insurance (Travel Pack)

Barclays’ cover, which is open to Barclays current account holders, has some of the highest levels of cover for missed flights caused by delays: up to £10,000. Unlike with most policies, you can claim if your airline or holiday company goes bankrupt.

out of 160 travel insurance policies rated

Covered2Go Platinum

Covered2Go’s Platinum policy includes up to £5,000 cover for baggage and personal belongings, and it doesn’t apply excesses when you claim.

out of 160 travel insurance policies rated

What’s the best type of travel insurance?

When choosing travel insurance, consider the number of foreign trips you’ll make over the next 12 months, where you’ll go and who with.

Single-trip and multi-trip (annual cover)
Single-trip insurance is aimed at people who are making a single, one-off journey. Multi-trip (annual) provides ongoing cover for 12 months. If you take three or more trips per year, multi-trip (annual) is likely to work out cheaper. You don’t have to tell the insurer specifically when or where you’re travelling, although your policy will need to cover that general region – for example, Europe or ‘worldwide including the USA’.
European, worldwide and USA cover
European-only cover is usually the cheapest type, and ‘worldwide including the USA’ (and often the Caribbean) is the most expensive due to high medical costs. If you have no intention of going to these destinations in the next 12 months, save money by buying cover that excludes them.
Individual, couple or family cover
You’ll have the option to choose how many people to cover under a single policy, although if a member of your party needs specialist cover due to age or health, costs may change.
Specialist insurance options
If you have more specific requirements – for example, due to age or type of holiday – we’ve assessed the best options for you below.
Best cruise insurance • Best travel insurance for over-65s • Best travel insurance for medical conditions • Best ski insurance
Unexpected events cover
Your policy may include cover for unexpected events, such as bankruptcy of the holiday supplier, strikes, civil unrest and more. We’ve listed which providers’ policies have the best unexpected events cover.

How can I save money on travel insurance?

While travel insurance premiums haven’t gone up as dramatically as car and home cover, costs appear to have been rising in recent years.

Take these average prices, shared with us by the comparison site Compare the Market:

Source: Compare the Market – for travel customers selecting either single trip or multi-trip cover with or without pre-existing medical conditions. 51% of customers were quoted less than the prices stated between 8 October 2025 and 8 April 2026.

These are averages, and so you’re likely to pay:

More for longer trips or trips to certain destinations (such as the USA)
More or less, depending on the cover you purchase
More or less, depending on your medical history.

Whatever your situation, you can probably reduce costs by comparing travel insurance. An annual policy may work out cheaper if you travel multiple times a year.

When should you buy travel insurance?

You should buy travel insurance on the same day you book your holiday.

One of the best features of travel insurance is that it covers you if you’re unexpectedly forced to cancel the trip and stand to lose money as a result.

If you leave buying your insurance until the last minute, you won’t benefit from this protection, even if some providers might make it slightly cheaper.

With this in mind, you should buy your insurance as soon as you book your holiday – unless you already have annual cover in place.

Should you buy travel insurance from the tour operator or airline?

When you buy your holiday, whether that’s through a traditional package provider or a budget airline, you’re likely to be offered insurance at the same time.

But cover offered as an add-on to your trip is unlikely to be tailored to your needs and could be more expensive. Always check the wider market to see if you can get better cover for less.

If you do buy add-on insurance, make sure it covers any medical conditions that you have.

Do you already have insurance?

Some packaged bank accounts come with travel insurance as a sweetener – so if you have a packaged account, check whether cover is included.

If you do have travel insurance with your bank account, check its terms carefully and make sure it meets your needs. Does it cover you for trips outside Europe? Will it cover your medical conditions?

If it doesn’t, call your bank to see if you can add the cover you need or look for a standalone policy that meets your needs.

You might also have some of your insurance needs met if you have personal possessions cover with your home contents insurance. These policies often protect things you carry on your person (such as gadgets or jewellery) around the world, from loss, damage or theft.

Do you need travel insurance if you have an Ehic or Ghic?

Yes, you still need travel insurance.

A Global Health Insurance Card (Ghic) – the replacement for the Ehic – is a medical card that can be used throughout the EU. It entitles you to treatment in state hospitals for the same price paid by the residents of the country you’re visiting. If they get free treatment, so do you.

But it won’t cover the costs of medical transportation (for example, ambulance bills or being flown back to the UK where medically needed), alongside costs of cancelling your holiday or returning early, replacing lost and stolen possessions, and many other things – that’s what travel insurance is for.

Find out more: The Ehic and Ghic explained

How much travel insurance cover do I need?

Although it can be tempting to get the cheapest cover you can find, this could prove a false economy. Everyone’s specific cover needs will be different but, as a starting point, we recommend looking for policies with these minimum levels of cover:

Medical expenses: £5m
Cancellation cover: £2,000 – or the full cost of your holiday (which may be higher or lower)
Personal belongings: £1,500 – or the value of your possessions
Personal liability cover: £1m.

Many sports won’t be covered as standard, such as skiing and snowboarding, so you’ll need to get cover that includes this, or add it on for a fee.

Cruises require a special type of cruise insurance. If you’re considering working abroad, or spending a couple of months abroad, you may need ‘backpacker insurance’.

Check you’re getting a great deal and search for a new travel insurance policy using the service provided by Confused.com. Get a quote now

How to compare travel insurance companies

1. Check our tables and reviews

We’ve assigned each travel insurance policy a policy score, reflecting how comprehensive the cover is overall.

It’s important to remember, however, that travel insurance is complex – so even policies with high policy scores won’t necessarily cover everything you’re looking for. For a more detailed look at some of the larger and higher-scoring providers, see our individual travel insurer reviews.

2. Get a travel insurance quote

While looking at our reviews, you can get a quote for travel insurance using the service provided by Confused.com.

You might be able to save by using multiple comparison sites.

Some insurers don’t sell through comparison sites, including some specialist medical insurers.

Both the government’s MoneyHelper website and the British Insurance Brokers Association have directories of specialist medical insurers.

An insurance broker can find affordable cover for unusual scenarios that most insurers won’t cover.

3. Check the T&Cs

Before you buy, check the policy wording to make sure you understand what your policy covers and what it doesn’t.

If there are specific reasons you’ve bought the cover, check these sections to make sure they meet your expectations. Also check the policy’s general exclusions and conditions. If anything in the policy is unclear, always contact the insurer.

Finally, check what protection your holiday provider offers, because if something goes wrong, you might need to seek compensation from it first before your insurer will accept your claim.

‘Be wary of policies that are great on paper but don’t pay out’

Dean Sobers, Which? insurance expert, says:

According to claims data published by industry regulator the Financial Conduct Authority, travel insurers are some of the least likely to pay out.

Roughly one in five travel insurance claims were declined in 2024 (the latest stats available). With most types of insurance, payout rates are above 90%.

Even if a policy appears to be brimming with features and high levels of cover on paper, it may be backed by an insurer that has a less-than-brilliant track record when it comes to honouring these apparent promises. When you claim, insurers can’t technically add new exclusions or ignore commitments in their policy wording as they choose – but it’s an unfortunate fact that some policies are less straightforward than others, and can prove disappointing when actually tested against the real world.

Our Best Buy endorsement primarily means the policy offers comprehensive levels of cover as written (you’ll see a more detailed explanation as to what we mean by this below).

We also check the latest available data on how often the insurers accept claims and how regularly they lose when customers bring complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We don’t give our Best Buy badge to providers shown to be lacking when it comes to these aspects of their service.

The truth is that no policy is perfect, and no provider gets it right every time with claims. But when picking a Best Buy, you get the assurance that we think its cover looks genuinely impressive – and that we haven’t seen evidence suggesting it fails to do in practice what it promises.

Frequently asked travel insurance questions

The best time to get your travel insurance is the day you book your trip.

This ensures that you’re covered from the get-go against any unexpected events that might arise before your departure, like having to cancel, even though the travel insurance doesn’t start until the day you go abroad.

While it’s possible to purchase insurance even up to the day of your travel, you’ll miss out on this cancellation cover and won’t necessarily save money.

This depends on whether you can no longer make your flight or the airline has cancelled it.

If the airline cancels your flight, it is generally their responsibility to find an alternative flight or to give you a full refund.

If you can no longer make your flight, perhaps due to illness or accident, then it is not the airline’s responsibility. If you have taken out a travel insurance policy and depending on the reason you can no longer fly, you may be able to claim some of the flight costs back.

You should also check the airline’s conditions of carriage if you are going to miss your flight last-minute to see whether you can be moved to an alternative flight.

Yes you can – but you’ll need to get a special type of policy called ‘post-departure insurance’.

Unfortunately, you’re likely to pay more and get less cover than if you had bought standard travel insurance.

Post-departure insurance won’t cover incidents that have already happened, such as a delayed flight on the way out. It generally applies from the day after buying, not the same day.

Even though you’ll need to cover fewer days, the specialised nature of post-departure insurance means it’s likely to cost more per day and overall.

The best approach is to buy standard travel insurance on the same day you book your holiday. Although the insurance only needs to cover the dates of your holiday, from the moment of buying it you’ll be covered if, for instance, you need to cancel your trip.

Buying insurance just before you travel effectively means missing out on months of cover.

You can get travel insurance if you’re pregnant, especially if your trip is less than 28 weeks into your pregnancy.

Many insurers still offer cover for trips after that point, but check with them before buying, and bear in mind airlines may request extra details such as a letter from your doctor.

Pregnancy is not considered a pre-existing medical condition so you shouldn’t have to tell your insurer or pay more.

Standard travel insurance will cover emergency medical care, but ask insurers if antenatal care after premature births will be covered, or cancellation due to pregnancy-related complications.

In general, travel insurance won’t pay out if you cancel a trip simply because you’re pregnant – it’s worth asking airlines and accommodation providers if you can reschedule.

Potentially, depending on the type of trip you’ve booked.

Most travel insurers will cover the UK; if you have an annual policy check if it includes UK travel.

The main advantage of travel insurance for the UK is cover if you need to cancel your trip (such as because of illness) or lose baggage.

In general, travel insurance only covers paid-for accommodation, sometimes with a minimum duration. So stays with friends and family wouldn’t be covered.

Nor will you need travel insurance for medical cover, due to the NHS – though visitors to the Isle of Man and Channel Islands may need insurance for repatriation to the mainland.

Your home contents insurance may cover personal possessions outside the home, but you may have to pay high excesses.

Yes, travel insurance is essential for European holidays.

The European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) and Global Health Insurance Card (Ghic) only entitle you to public medical care at the price locals pay.

That’s only in the EU, Switzerland and a few other countries, however, and won’t cover associated – and very high – costs, such as for rescue from ski slopes or repatriation to the UK.

Nor will the Ehic and Ghic cover cancellations or lost baggage, unlike the best travel insurance policies.

Find out more: The Ehic and Ghic explained

Any current or recent medical conditions that haven’t been disclosed to your insurer will almost certainly be automatically excluded from your policy.

When you declare a condition, you’ll go through a medical screening process where you give the insurer information about your medical history. When you buy insurance by itself, this will usually form part of the application process.

With some providers (for example where the cover is included with a holiday or a bank account), you may need to contact the insurer separately to have the conditions added. If you’re uncertain about what needs to be declared, it’s best to contact the insurer.

Find out more: Best travel insurance if you have a medical condition

Travel insurers only expect you to claim with them if you’ve been unable to recover your money through other channels.

Book with a Which? Recommended holiday provider

If a package holiday firm cancels your holiday, or airlines can’t fulfil flights, you’re entitled to a refund by law.

Find out more: Your legal rights with package holiday companies

Atol protection

If you buy a package holiday that includes flights from an Atol-protected firm, you’ll get your money back if it goes bust. You’ll also be repatriated if this happens while you’re on holiday.

Your credit card provider

If you can, pay for your holiday with a credit card.

If you pay with a credit card for services costing more than £100 and less than £30,000 that aren’t provided as advertised, you can claim the money back from your card supplier if the seller (ie the holiday company) won’t refund you.

Find out more: Section 75

Your bank

Banks have similar schemes to help you recover money for services that haven’t been fulfilled as paid for. These are known as chargeback.

Chargeback can be used to recover debit and prepaid card payments, as well as credit card payments below £100.

Banks aren’t legally bound to do this in the same way as credit card providers are under Section 75, so you should always pay for amounts over £100 with a credit card if possible.

How we analyse travel insurance

Our editorial independence means we are able to work on behalf of consumers, not insurers. That means our reviews are fair and there’s no hidden agenda.

Policy score

The policy score rates how comprehensive the cover is in a policy – the higher the better.

We’ve looked at 160 policies, examining 120 elements of cover in each one.

Policies are given points for each element of cover, reflecting how competitive their cover is compared with what other policies offer. The policy score shows how well the policy did overall.

Based on our assessment of which elements are more or less important for customers choosing and using travel insurance, we adjust the impact that points earned in each area have on the overall policy score.

Among the highest-weighted elements are medical expenses cover, cancellation cover and the compulsory excesses on the policy.

How we pick Which? Best Buys

Our ‘Best Buy’ badge recognises the individual products that stood out as being the most comprehensive in our analysis.

It doesn’t reflect customer service. However, we do look at claims statistics published by the Financial Conduct Authority and complaints data from the Financial Ombudsman Service, where these are available. We won’t give a Best Buy badge to providers shown to reject higher-than-average numbers of claims or that have a poor track record regarding complaints.

Policies named as Best Buys did well in our analysis of cover, with a policy score of at least 64%.

Additionally, Best Buy policies scored well consistently across different areas of cover. To make the cut, a policy needs to have scored at least three out of five points in two thirds of the features we compare (see ‘Policy score’ for more).

Lastly, all Best Buy policies must provide – either as standard or as an option – the following levels of cover as a minimum:

£5m cover for medical expenses – with emergency medical repatriation and some cover for emergency dental treatment.
£2,000 cancellation and travel abandonment cover – including cancellation in the event that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advises against travel to your destination country because of natural disaster after you’ve insured your holiday.
Cancellation cover because of the illness, injury or death of a close family member or a person you were planning to stay with.
Cover for travel delays – including cover for missing your outgoing or returning flight due to delays.
£1,500 cover for baggage.
£2m personal liability cover.

Best travel insurance UK 2026: companies and policies rated

Best travel insurance: companies and policies compared