There’s a version of travel most of us picture when we’re planning a trip. Sun on our faces, backpacks stuffed with promise, and not a single thought about hospitals, clinics, or how hard it might be to find help if something goes sideways.

And then there’s the real version, the one that shows up without warning.

After more than twenty years traveling with kids in tow and often for months at a time, we’ve learned that things don’t just go wrong in theory. They go wrong in real life, and sometimes they go wrong spectacularly. We’ve had unexpected injuries abroad, illnesses that hit out of nowhere, and moments where we were standing in a foreign country thinking oh no, what now?

It’s in those moments that travel insurance stops feeling like a checkbox and starts feeling like the safety net it was always supposed to be. And it’s also the point where you notice a big truth that doesn’t always show up in brochures. Not all travel insurance is built for the way long term nomadic travelers actually move through the world.

Many popular travel insurance options are designed around short, fixed trips, which can leave gaps once you’re traveling for months or moving between countries.

This post looks at travel insurance from the perspective of lived through experiences. We’re talking real scenarios, real stress, and the kind of support that makes a bad travel day stay a story rather than turn into a nightmare. And we’ll look at why WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance has become such a strong fit for travelers like us.

And we’ll look at how WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance compares to other commonly used travel insurance options for travelers like us.

Because once you leave home for longer than a couple of weeks, you start playing, and paying, a different game.

Learn more about WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance

Why travel insurance only really matters when real life shows up

Most people buy travel insurance because they think they’re supposed to. It’s tucked into the same part of the brain as extra passport photos and double checking whether the stove was turned off before you head out the door. You get it, hope you never need it, and assume it’ll be fine if something bad happens.

But travel has a way of handing you more than just the easy and fun things.

When you’re traveling for longer stretches, moving between countries, or settling into a place for a while, you take more chances. You walk strange streets. You try new food. You say yes to adventures. Your kids get excited and run ahead. And suddenly, the risks shift.

It’s not only lost luggage or a delayed flight. It’s medical care in a place where you don’t speak the language and they don’t speak yours. It’s needing treatment for something you can’t wait to sort out when you get home. It’s having no idea where to go or who to call at that exact moment you need answers fast.

This is where one of the big differences in travel insurance starts to show. Many policies are built around one type of journey. Fly out, stay somewhere familiar for a week or two, and come home. That can work perfectly well when the most complicated thing that happens is a missed connection or a sprained ankle on a beach.

But long term travel is not a neat seven day itinerary. Plans change. You add a new country on a whim. You stay longer because you like it. Instead of one destination, you might pass through five, ten, or twenty. The travel insurance that works great for a short vacation sometimes isn’t designed to stretch that far.

Over time, we learned that the kind of coverage you need for months abroad looks different than the kind you need for a weeklong holiday. It needs to be flexible when schedules shift. It needs to actually support you when something serious happens. And it needs to work in the real world, not just the ideal one.

We didn’t figure that out from reading thousands of insurance policy pages. We learned that by living it, sometimes the hard way, and by realizing how important it is to have insurance that won’t crumble when travel stops being carefree.

When things go wrong abroad

Travel teaches you quickly that the stories you bring home aren’t always the ones you planned. We’ve had our share of unforgettable adventures, but we’ve also had moments where everything stopped and we were forced to figure things out fast.

One of the latest wake up calls came in Mexico, where a group of stray dogs decided Charles looked like a tasty snack. One second he was walking back from a wedding, the next we were trying to decide whether he needed stitches and how to find a clinic that was open at 2am in the morning. We had no idea where to go, who to ask, or how serious the bites were. Standing in a dusty side street with blood running down his legs was a moment he won’t soon forget.

Years before, on a relaxed family trip in Greece, our son cut his ear in a playground. Kids fall all the time, but abroad even a simple cut turns into a rush of questions. Could we get it cleaned properly? Would a regular clinic take us? Was there a hospital nearby or would we need to travel? What would it cost if we walked in and didn’t know the system?

Besides for the blood, It wasn’t an incredibly dramatic injury on the big scale of things, but it did require a bunch of stitches and was a lot to juggle when we were dealing with a different language and none of our usual comfort zones. Did we mention that Greece was also in the middle of a country wide hospital shutdown emergency?

Thailand was harder. Micki got hit with a kidney infection that escalated quickly. In the space of two days she went from feeling off to needing treatment, and fast. Finding care in a place where you don’t speak the language while you’re shaking with fever is humbling. Doing it while on a remote island without even a clinic is even tougher. There’s nothing like trying to decipher symptoms, hospitals and an emergency boat ride while barely staying upright.

And then there was altitude sickness in Quito, Ecuador, when our daughter suddenly had a terrible headache. We weren’t prepared for how quickly it came on or how intense it could be. While we were giving her electrolytes and getting her to rest, we were simultaneously Googling the nearest clinic.

Add a foreign country and you’re managing panic, logistics, and the reality that your child needs care right now. It turned out to be a minor case of altitude sickness that resolved itself even before we needed the clinic, but for a while we were in full emergency mode.

These moments are burned into our memory not because they were the worst days we’ve had, but because each one reminded us how far from home we really were. When something goes wrong abroad, there’s a different level of fear, uncertainty, and urgency involved. You don’t know where to go, how to get help, or what the system even looks like.

Travel has always been worth the risk for us, but these experiences made something clear. Travel insurance isn’t just a line item on a planning checklist. It’s the piece that lets you keep going with confidence even when the unexpected shows up.

How WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance fits real life travel

After enough years of travel, we stopped asking which insurance looked good on paper and started asking a different question.

Does this actually make sense for the way we travel?

That’s where WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance started to stand out for us. It’s designed with long term and international travelers in mind, not just people heading off on a quick one week break.

Here are a few things that made it feel different from a lot of typical trip focused plans.

Learn more about WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance

Built for longer, more flexible travel

Many travel insurance policies assume a classic pattern. You book a flight, stay somewhere for a short window of time, then fly home. That can work for a simple vacation, but it doesn’t always match how long term travelers move.

Atlas Nomad is created for people who are outside their home country for longer stretches and may be moving between destinations. That structure matters if you’re slow traveling, working remotely as you go, or not ready to commit to a tidy start and end date when you first leave.

Focused on medical needs while abroad

When something goes wrong overseas, medical care is usually the biggest concern. The stories that stick with us aren’t about delayed luggage. They’re the bites, cuts, breaks, infections, and altitude scares.

Atlas Nomad is a travel medical plan, which means its purpose is to help with unexpected illnesses and injuries while you’re away. Where some trip policies focus heavily on prepaid cancellation and lost bags, this one leans into support that long term travelers rely on most.

Designed for real world use

The moment you need help is rarely calm. You’re not at home with a laptop and time to read fine print. You’re on a street or in a hotel room weighing decisions fast.

That’s where the structure behind a plan becomes real. With Atlas Nomad, you’re not just buying numbers on a page. You’re getting access to a support system you can call on when something goes sideways in another country.

Compared broadly with more traditional policies, Atlas Nomad feels like it was designed for people who are out in the world more often and for longer, instead of for a once a year vacation.

Air Doctor telehealth access

One feature that really caught our attention with Atlas Nomad is access to the Air Doctor telehealth app.

If you’ve ever been sick abroad, you know sometimes the hardest part isn’t the illness, it’s the questions. Is this serious? Do I need a doctor right now? Where do I go? Can I wait and see how I feel tomorrow?

Air Doctor helps bridge that gap. Instead of guessing, you can connect with medical professionals while you travel and get guidance without immediately navigating clinics or hospitals on your own.

Many other travel insurance options don’t include any kind of telehealth access, which means you’re left guessing until you’re already sitting in a clinic.

For long term travelers, that kind of support can make a stressful moment feel manageable.

You’re in Thailand, running a fever, trying to judge whether you should get to a hospital. A conversation with a doctor through Air Doctor gives clarity fast.

Your child starts struggling with altitude sickness while in Quito. You don’t know if it’s mild or something more serious. A medical professional who understands travel cases can help you figure out your next step.

Or, you’re dealing with something minor and don’t want to spend half the day sitting in a foreign clinic if you don’t have to. Telehealth can help you assess your situation safely and often much quicker than standing in a long lineup.

Where some plans focus mainly on reimbursement after the fact, Atlas Nomad offers both coverage and an on the ground resource you can lean on, which isn’t something every travel insurance option includes. When you’re 10 thousand miles from home, that’s a nice thing to have handy.

Who WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance is for

There’s no one size fits all answer when it comes to travel insurance. What works perfectly for someone taking a two week getaway might not make much sense for someone moving between countries for half the year.

Atlas Nomad is a strong match for travelers who:

• Stay abroad for longer stretches of time
• Move between multiple destinations instead of sticking to one
• Prefer slow travel and don’t always know how long they’ll stay
• Work or study remotely while outside their home country
• Want support focused on medical care rather than prepaid costs
• Care more about real world flexibility than rock bottom pricing
• Who like zero deductible plans with coverage up to $250,000 depending on plan selection
• Currently available for travelers between 14 days old and 69 years of age

This is very different from insurance companies that have plans designed primarily for short vacations with fixed dates and prepaid costs.

If your travel plans unfold over weeks or months instead of days, your needs are different. Atlas Nomad is designed to meet the kinds of trips that shift, stretch, and evolve as you go.

That said, it is limited in where it can be sold currently. As their site says: The Atlas Series is available to travelers who are at least 14 days old and traveling outside of their home country, unless physically located in the states of New York, Maryland, or Washington or in the countries of Canada or Australia at the time of purchase. In those cases, coverage may still be available as long as you’re already traveling when you purchase.

Travel with backup you can use

Every long term traveler eventually learns that things go wrong. It’s not a matter of if. It’s when, and how well you’re supported when it happens.

We’ve spent years collecting our favorite travel memories, but many of the lessons that shaped us came from the surprises. The kidney infection. The hospital run. The frantic search for help. And yes, the dogs in Mexico who will get talked about long after the 20+ needles for rabies Charles ended up getting fades into the background.

Those moments changed how we think about insurance. Not as something you buy to meet a requirement, but as something that sits quietly in the background until you need it.

WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance feels like an option built for real travelers. The ones who stay longer. Move more freely. Change plans without warning. And occasionally need help faster than Google Translate can kick in.

You can check WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance here and see if it fits the way you travel.

Learn more about WorldTrips Atlas Nomad Insurance

If you want a full breakdown, including how it stacks up against more traditional travel insurance plans, we’ve gathered everything in one place.

Travel will always come with risks. The right backup turns those surprises into stories you’ll tell for years.

This article was produced in partnership with HeyMondo. Compensation was provided for the creation and publication of this content. All opinions and editorial decisions remain those of The Barefoot Nomad.

Traveling is all about embracing the unknown, but that doesn’t mean you want to be caught off guard. That’s why we get travel insurance every time we hit the road, and Heymondo is our pick for our next trip.

It’s not perfect, though nothing is (well, except maybe Häagen-Dazs Cookies & Cream ice cream), but there are some real perks that make Heymondo worth considering. No messy paperwork, no deductibles, and a handy app that gives you 24/7 worldwide assistance – that’s pretty useful when you’re far from home. The ease of getting a quote is a big plus too – just a few clicks and you’re done.

Whether you’re planning a quick getaway or a longer adventure, it’s good to know that Heymondo has options that might fit your needs.

Here’s our honest take on how it stacks up.

Heymondo travel insurance

Traveling is an adventure, but let’s be real – sometimes it comes with its share of hiccups. Over the years, we’ve learned the hard way that having solid travel insurance is non-negotiable.

A few years back, I ended up in a hospital in Thailand for three days. It definitely was not part of the plan.

And then there was the time our son got injured in Greece. Both were stressful situations, but knowing we had travel insurance meant that at least we didn’t have to worry about facing a massive medical bill on top of everything else. Having that safety net was a game-changer.

Why We Chose Heymondo

One of the things I appreciate most about Heymondo is how simple it is to get a quote. I’m not a fan of filling out endless forms, so the fact that I could just select the type of insurance, plug in a few basic details like our destination and travel dates, and instantly get a quote was a huge win for me. There was no need to painstakingly enter birthdates and names for each of the four of us, which, honestly, saved me a lot of time and hassle.

But ease of use isn’t the only reason I’ll be using Heymondo.

What Heymondo Offers

Heymondo offers a range of coverage options that suit different types of trips. Whether you’re planning a short vacation, a business trip, or a long stay, there’s likely a plan that fits your needs.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Travel Insurance: For your next leisure or business trip, Heymondo has you covered.
• Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance: If you’re a frequent traveler, this might be a great option. It covers all the trips you take in a year, as long as each trip is under 60 days.
• Long Stay Travel Insurance: Planning an extended stay? Heymondo’s got a flexible plan that covers trips longer than 90 days.

One of the standout features is the Covid-19 coverage. It includes 24/7 worldwide assistance and covers things like medically prescribed PCR tests and cancellation in case of severe illness or death due to Covid-19 (in policies that include trip cancellation). This kind of flexibility and comprehensive coverage brings a lot of peace of mind, especially with everything that’s happened in the last few years.

My Heymondo Quote

I was really curious what travel insurance would cost for me, for a five day trip down to the USA from Canada.

So, I got a quote from Heymondo travel insurance for me (I’m Canadian) traveling five days worldwide including USA.

The quote was insanely easy to get. I just entered my trip dates, where I was going, and selected the type of insurance (annual or single trip). Just a few clicks, and I had my quote. No annoying medical questionnaires, or endless scrolling to select drop-down dates. My quote took all of about 60 seconds.

The Heymondo Medial insurance, the most basic, cost $24.93. That included a whopping $10 million USD emergency medical and dental expenses overseas. PLUS medical transport and repatriation home. The medical transport and repatriation home is a big deal to me, because if something really serious happens, I’d want to be transported back to Canada.

The Heymondo Top insurance had a few extra bells and whistles, including $1700 USD baggage coverage, $450 USD travel disruption, and $3.500 trip cancellation and interruption. It also had $10 million USD emergency medical and dental expenses overseas. PLUS medical transport and repatriation home.

The Heymondo Premium insurance had $2,500 baggage insurance, $1.500 travel disruption, and $7,000 trip cancellation and interruption. It also had $10 million USD emergency medical and dental expenses overseas. PLUS medical transport and repatriation home.

Are adventure sports, electronics, or cruise insurance included in the travel insurance?

I could get optional adventure sports, electronics, or cruise insurance on the Heymondo Top and Heymondo Premium Plans. I couldn’t get it added to the Heymondo basic.

The Heymondo App: A Handy Tool

The Heymondo app is another feature I found incredibly useful. It’s like having a travel assistant right in your pocket.

Need to chat with a doctor? You can do that directly through the app’s 24/7 medical chat. Got a question about your policy or need to file a claim? The app handles that too, along with free online assistance calls from anywhere in the world. All your policy details are also stored in the app, so they’re easy to access whenever you need them.

You can get the app on Google Play or the App store.

Need more details?

Because travel insurance policies can change without warning, look over your specific insurance policy before you buy and don’t be afraid to look into any fine print if something seems off to you.

Final Thoughts

While no travel insurance is perfect, Heymondo has proven to be user-friendly for us, with a nice selection of plans from basic travel medical to annual multi-trip. The coverage is solid, the app is a great convenience, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing we’re protected is priceless. If you’re planning a trip, whether it’s a short getaway or a longer adventure, we’d recommend giving Heymondo a look. It might just make your travels a little less stressful and a lot more enjoyable.

Learn more about Heymondo here.

Wondering how to get expat travel insurance?

You’re not alone! One of the most common questions we get is how to find travel insurance for expats, digital nomads and other long-term travelers.

Expats and digital nomads struggle with travel insurance, because many travel insurance policies:

• have six months or a year maximum coverage
• can only be bought when you’re physically in your home country
• only cover people from the US or Canada

In this article we look at SafetyWing insurance. SafetyWing specializes in expat travel medical insurance, and is working to solve many of the problems nomads like us have finding expat travel insurance.

Visit SafetyWing now to learn more.

Expat Travel Insurance

Most travel medical insurance policies top out at six months (or a year, if you’re lucky). That can leave expats, digital nomads, and long-term travelers either without insurance, or scrambling to find private health insurance in a single country. Either way, short policy lengths mean finding long term health or travel insurance is a real problem for travelers.

Whether you call it expat travel insurance, digital nomad insurance, insurance for long term travelers, or international medical insurance, it’s still a tricky thing to find.

Coupled with short terms, it can be hard to purchase travel insurance when you’re already abroad. That means expats either need to go back to their home country (if they have one) to get insurance, or have a much smaller choice of insurance companies that will start cover when you’re out of country.

If you’re wondering “do I need travel insurance?“, we definitely think medical travel insurance is an absolute necessity! We’ve been grateful for insurance when Micki had a three day hospital stay in Thailand, when our son needed stitches for his ear in Greece, and when we quickly needed the addresses of the nearest hospitals in Quito, Ecuador. Even if you’re in perfect health, accidents can happen in an instant.

Expats have a problem that many lose residency in their home country when we settled in their new one, and that often means losing medical benefits. Traditional travel insurance often won’t cover travelers without a base medical insurance from their home country, like Canadians traveling without provincial health care coverage. Luckily, SafetyWing doesn’t have that requirement.

Travel medical insurance vs heath insurance

In this article, we talk about travel insurance, not health insurance. Travel medical insurance won’t generally cover you for routine checkups and preventative care. Instead, travel insurance covers you for unexpected illness or injury, for example, if you get in an accident or develop an emergency medical condition.

SafetyWing insurance review

SafetyWing medical travel insurance is tailored to the needs of expats, and digital nomads like online freelancers, entrepreneurs and workers with remote companies.

In fact, the founders of SafetyWing are digital nomads who wanted to create insurance for other digital nomads. In the future, they plan to move onto offering comprehensive health insurance and eventually disability and pension.

It’s a little bit different than other travel medical insurance in that it works like a subscription. Once you purchase your policy, you can auto-renew in four week increments while you travel (or you can just choose a set number of days.

SafetyWing Insurance is available to anyone from any home country in the world (unless your home country is Iran, North Korea or Cuba, or if you have Cuba as your citizenship).

Visit SafetyWing now to learn more.

Can I buy SafetyWing insurance if I’m already abroad?

Yes, you can buy SafetyWing medical travel insurance before or after you leave, there is no restriction saying you have to buy it before you leave.

You can buy SafeteyWing in 180 countries. It can be purchased when already traveling.

With SafetyWing, you don’t need to pre-purchase your insurance for the full length of travel. Instead, you can set up a subscription that’s renewable in 4 week increments. It’s really popular with digital nomads who travel to multiple countries, and who often change travel plans.

Where am I covered?

There is no cap on the duration of a trip and no need to know how long you’ll be travelling in advance or what destinations you’ll visit.

What’s the maximum duration I’m covered?

With SafetyWing, there’s no cap on the duration of travel.

Honestly, having no cap on how long you can travel is huge. When we traveled Australia and southeast Asia for a year, we struggled to find travel insurance companies that would cover us for our one year trip. In fact, one of the major reasons we went back to Canada after a year was because we no longer had medical travel insurance!

If SafetyWing had been around then, we likely would have extended our travels past a year.

What’s covered?

There is coverage for medical and travel, which includes including lost luggage, trip interruption and delay, and emergency medical evacuation.

SafetyWing cover includes coverage for a lot of common recreational activities and sports like ballooning, bowling, camel riding, canoeing, canyoning, deep sea fishing, dog sledding, ice skating, kayaking, orienteering, SCUBA (with some conditions), wake boarding, and stand up paddle surfing.

Some sports are excluded, including boxing, ice hockey, kite surfing, parasailing, quad biking, snowmobiling, and whitewater rafting. See an exhaustive list of sports. See the policy for specific sports that are included or excluded. There’s also no coverage for organized athletics or professional sports.

How much does it cost?

SafetyWing travel medical insurance starts from $56.26 for 4 weeks, or just $2.01 per day for their zero deductible Nomad policy. You can also buy for a set number of days.

It can work like a subscription, you can choose your start date and cancel any time. You can set up monthly auto-renewal payments to avoid having your coverage expire and forgetting to renew in time.

There’s an additional cost if you’re visiting the USA, or if you’re over 39 years of age.

To buy, simply visit the SafetyWing website, choose your age, if you’re traveling to the USA, and then add family members. It’s that simple.

What’s the deductable for Nomad Insurance?

You can now purchase insurance with a $0 deductible so your claims are covered from the get go.

What if I want to visit my home country?

For every 90 days, you can use your medical coverage for 30 days in your home country if something happens while there. (you can’t start in your home country, 15 days if your home country is the US)

Visit the SafetyWing website now.

This article is only intended as general advice. Please check your own policy carefully.

Any information here is from one traveler to another. If you have any travel insurance questions, please chat with a qualified travel insurance agent or broker. Because policies and plans can and do change all the time, without warning, always consult your insurance policy since that is the legal document to which you are agreeing.

Has your travel insurance run out while you’re on vacation and you want to extend your stay or, heading to an area where it might be a really, really good idea to have travel insurance and you never bothered to buy any before? No matter the reason, buying travel insurance while you’re already abroad happens a lot more often than you’d think.

If you find yourself without travel insurance, and you’re already on the open road, don’t worry, we have the solution.

Can I buy travel insurance if I’m already abroad?

Whether you’re a classic procrastinator and forgot, or if your travel plans have changed: the good news is you can probably get travel insurance when already abroad for the remainder of your trip. Even better, the coverage you get will likely be similar to a policy you’d have purchased before you left.

This is important: No matter which policy you buy, you won’t be covered for injuries or accidents that happened before you buy your policy. So waiting until you’re on the way to the hospital isn’t the best time to buy travel insurance.

Not all travel insurance companies offer travel insurance if you’re already out of the country. In fact, many require that you haven’t already left on your trip. That said, there are some companies that let you get travel insurance after departure.

Heymondo

Heymondo is one of our newer favorites for travel insurance.

One of the reasons we love them is that they offer travel insurance after you’ve already left the country.

Heymondo covers people worldwide, regardless of residency. You can get 24/7 worldwide assistance, with medical expenses coverage of up to 10 million USD. There are no deductibles or out-of-pocket expenses. There’s even a Heymondo app with a 24 hour medical chat and free emergency assistance calls. Heymondo is the first travel insurance company to offer a travel assistance app worldwide.

Learn more about Heymondo here.

SafetyWing Nomads Insurance

SafetyWing Nomad Insurance offers flexible medical insurance while traveling.

If you’re on a budget, SafetyWing lets travelers pay for insurance on a monthly basis, as opposed to all at once in the beginning. 

Travel medical coverage starts from $42/4 weeks.

You can buy Nomad Insurance from SafetyWing in 180 countries. You can also by it while already traveling, in case you forgot to purchase insurance before leaving on your trip.

Learn more about SafetyWing Nomad Insurance here.

Waiting periods before coverage starts

Some insurers have a waiting period before coverage starts, which is usually just a few days, before your travel insurance coverage takes effect. This is more common for Australian and New Zealand companies, but we’ve also heard it happens with Canadian, UK and US companies. So, the answer to “Can you get travel insurance when already abroad?” is yes, but you may have to wait a few days.

If you get sick or have an accident during this waiting period, you likely won’t be covered. Insurance companies add this waiting period to protect themselves from fraud from people who’ve gotten sick or injured, and then buy insurance to cover the now existing injury or illness.

That said, check your policy because some insurers have a waiting period, but they’ll also cover you for emergency overseas medical expenses and emergency transport expenses for a sudden illness or serious injury that results from an accident during that waiting period. Every travel insurance company handles the waiting period differently, so talk with your travel insurance agent to see what they do and don’t cover during this waiting period.

Travel insurance coverage for people already abroad

Just like regular travel insurance, the costs and what’s covered under your policy varies a lot for travel insurance if you’re already overseas.

The exact eligibility requirements to buy travel insurance after departure, and cover you get, will depend on the specific insurer you choose for post departure travel insurance. Talk to an insurance agent to make sure you’re covered for every activity you plan on doing while you travel. The best travel insurance for backpackers can include insurance for standard backpacker activities like snorkeling, and hiking, but always make sure your plan includes the activities you’re interested in!

Age limits

Depending on the travel insurance company you choose, age limits may apply. This is common for both standard travel insurance, as well as health insurance you buy when already on a trip. There are some travel insurance policies with no age limit, but some insurance policies have age limits as low as under 60 years of age. Read the fine print to make sure you qualify.

Pre-existing medical conditions

Just like standard travel insurance, depending on the plan you choose, you may also not be covered for pre-existing medical conditions. Of course this depends on your policy, as some travel insurance policies do cover some pre-existing medical conditions like stable high blood pressure.

It’s very important that no matter whether you’re buying your travel insurance before you leave or while you’re already on the road, to always tell your travel insurer about any pre-existing medical conditions when you buy your policy. Otherwise, you might be surprised when you submit your bills that they’re declined.

If you’re over the age of 60, pre-existing conditions get more common, and also more complex. We get a lot of questions from Canadian seniors heading south in the winter (called snowbirds) about pre-existing conditions and travel insurance. However, any good snowbird travel insurance coverage should include pre-existing conditions – just be sure to check your policy to make sure that you’re covered.

Tip: Always check your travel insurance policy to know exactly what your coverage offers, and if there are any exemptions. At the end of the day, your policy is your contract and generally supersedes everything else.

Buy this coverage	If you need
Travel medical insurance	Your expenses to be paid if you're sick or injured on your vacation
Trip cancellation and trip interruption	Unfortunately, you likely won't be able to get trip cancellation or interruption insurance if you've already left on your trip. This coverage will reimburse you if you need to cancel or end your trip ahead of time.
Theft and lost luggage coverage	To be reimbursed for lost, stolen or damaged luggage
Electronics coverage	Payment for stolen or damaged electronics or photography equipment
Emergency evacuation and repatriation	To be moved to the nearest hospital or flown home if needed
Payment for damage to a rental car	Car collision insurance (CDW)
Assistance finding a doctor	24 hour medical or concierge assistance

It’s probably non-refundable

Of course, each insurer is different, buy many travel insurers don’t offer you a cooling off period if you buy travel insurance once you’ve already left your home country. Instead, these policies are typically non-refundable. If you have any doubt, check your own policy to make sure.

Need some more help?

Have you ever wondered “do I  need travel insurance“?

If you’re a Canadian, and looking for travel insurance, check out our Canadian travel insurance review.

Have you bought travel insurance whilst already abroad? Let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!

It can give you medical coverage when you’re injured or sick, plus it can reimburse your if your expensive camera or smartphone is broken, if you need to return home if a family member becomes sick or injured, or if your flight is cancelled.

We always strongly advise people to get travel insurance like Heymondo. It only costs dollars a day. We’ve seen good insurance help us and so many other people, and we’ve also seen others regret being cheap and not getting good insurance.

We’ve been grateful for  insurance when Micki had a three day hospital stay in Thailand, when our son needed stitches for his ear in Greece, and when we needed the addresses of the nearest hospitals in Quito, Ecuador.

You can buy SafetyWing Nomad Insurance in 180 countries and you can purchase it while already traveling.

They also offer travel insurance to citizens of multiple countries, even if you’re already overseas.

You can use the widget below to get a free quote for your trip:

Why you need travel insurance

So why do you need travel insurance? The same reason you need car insurance, home insurance and so forth. It’s insurance, something you need to insure that you don’t lose everything else you have in your life in case something bad happens. Without it you open yourself to a lot of unnecessary risk.

Now, you might be thinking, how much can it cost me if I don’t have insurance? I mean, you’ve traveled dozens of times and haven’t needed it. Why should you bother giving your hard earned money to some  insurance company?

Simple, no one plans for an accident to happen, that’s part of the definition of an accident. If you haven’t needed to use your travel insurance on previous excursions out of country then consider yourself fortunate. If you travel often, the odds are that sooner or later you’ll need it and hospital stays in foreign countries can easily cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

What is travel insurance

So what exactly is travel insurance? It’s a hedge bet that something will happen on your next trip that you’re not prepared for.

It might be a stolen phone or camera. It could be a sudden case of a nasty flu or it could be that a car swerves and hits a truck that unleashes a herd of geese that distracts a driver that nearly hits you and, as you back away, you fall down a flight of stairs. Now, it wasn’t the fall that hurt you, it was slipping on the ice at the bottom as you were dusting yourself off that broke your arm while you were trying to grab the handrail. The bad part is that you need to use your arm when you get home and it’s going to take 6 weeks to heal.

Sound too far fetched? Maybe, but that’s the nature of accidents. If they were planned, they’d be called on purposes.

Travel insurance is piece of mind

So yes, accidents happen, at home or abroad. It’s called life and it’s not simple, clean or easy. We’ve been fortunate the we only needed travel insurance a few times over the course of our travels, but it’s still something we firmly believe every traveler should carry.

Not only can a good plan give you piece of mind, the company behind it can often help guide you to a good doctor, they can help with your emergency return to your home, pay for follow up treatments in case it’s warranted, cover your lost or stolen goods, cover your cancelled flights and even pay for your hospital bills.

They can also provide money to your family should you not make it back home. Not something people like to discuss but it’s a reality whether you’re getting in the car to go to work or getting on a plane and heading to Rio. Leaving enough so your family can properly do what they need will make their lives easier in times of loss and there’s no price too high for that.

Travel insurance options

So now that you’ve decided you need travel insurance, what are your options? The good and bad side are that there are tons of options to choose from. Not only are there hundreds of companies and brokers, there are single trip plans, multi trip plans and comprehensive plans. Plans that have deductibles and plans that are deductible free. There’s cancellation insurance, liability insurance even dismemberment insurance. There are evac only plans, hostage and negotiation plans and even natural disaster only plans.

Amid all that there are different price points for each plan. So I ask again, how do you choose your travel insurance?

The hard truth is there is no simple way to choose insurance. You need to decide which factors are the most important to you and how much you’re willing to pay for each service because the fact is, the more comprehensive the  insurance, the more it’s going to cost you.

Doesn’t seem fair? Well, think of it from the company that’s insuring you’s side. It’s no secret they’re into this business to make money. That’s why they have actuarial tables and the risk each person faces and the likelihood that they’ll have to pay out in case an accident occurs. They can’t offer more services without charging for it.

Get what you need

On the other side of the fence we have people that often over buy insurance. They get enough insurance that if they have to make a claim they equate it to winning a lottery. That’s not right either. To us, the purpose of travel insurance is to mitigate as much risk as possible while also realizing that sometimes bad things happen.

However, just like I don’t make my kids walk around in helmets in the odd chance they fall and hit their head, so too don’t I rely on insurance to make my life better. In this way we often plan for the worst case scenario and no matter the outcome we know we’ll be at a loss when it comes to insurance, but our family on the whole will survive.

To us that often means getting a good insurance plan with a reputable company with a little less bells and whistles than we’d need. We save on fees a ton that way, like by including a deductible on our plans. We know we don’t often end up using our  insurance and having a deductible often lowers our initial cost. That said, we know that if we do have to make a claim it will cost us a few hundred dollars. This also ensures that if we really need to use our insurance it has to be worth it.

A personal travel accident story

To give you a good example, while we were in Greece a few years back, our son slipped on a merry go round and tore his ear wide open. Seeing as Greece was in economical turmoil, the hospital was closed down so we walked to the private hospital service across the street. For $180 dollars they had him sewn up and as good as new in a few hours. Now, we could have filed a claim, but however considering our deductible was $200 there was no point. That was an acceptable cost to us and didn’t really affect us monetarily in a big way, however had he severely injured his leg, we would have happily paid the deductible and considered ourselves fortunate that we had travel insurance.

So what’s the purpose of that story? It’s to affirm that yes, accidents happen everywhere as well as to highlight that every traveler has their own needs and what’s acceptable to them. It’s up to you to decide what’s right for you and your family.

Choosing what matters to you

If having your bags lost or stolen worries you, get baggage insurance. If you never file claims, consider increasing your deductible to save a little money. If you travel often, especially for short periods, consider getting a multi trip plan since it will save you in the long run and you won’t be having to buy travel insurance every time you leave the country.

Just like every traveler is unique, so is every plan. Make sure you compare your plan with others before deciding which one is right for you.

Need some more help?

Check out our post on how to get travel insurance if you’re already abroad, or our article on travel insurance for Canadians.

We travel with our kids all the time and it’s one of the most rewarding ways to travel. Not only do you get to share lifelong memories with those you love, but you also get a chance to bond over the not-so-perfect moments as well.

What, you don’t think that your once-in-a-lifetime getaway is going to get by without a hitch, do you?

I’m going to be 100% real with you here. There is a solid chance that something will break, something will be lost, a reservation will be bungled, a flight missed or one of a thousand other problems that come up whenever a group of people go on a trip together.

Tip: Are you already overseas? You can get travel insurance if already abroad!

You know what, it’s not a big deal, but the earlier you plan for contingencies, the quicker you can get past them and enjoy your holidays.

Life happens

You see, no matter where you are, whether it’s at home or on the road, life happens. Throw in a few kids, small suitcases that can only hold so many essentials and a bit of unknown and – bam, the possibilities for trouble are already racking up.

Looking for travel insurance for the family?

SafetyWing Nomads insurance includes young children for free on an adult policy! Kids must be aged between 14 days and 10 years old.

You can include one young child per adult on your SafetyWing Nomads Insurance without extra cost (with up to two free kids per family). So a family of four, with two adults, and two kids between 14 days and 10 years, would only pay for the two adults. Sweet deal!

Get a SafetyWing Nomads insurance quote here, or use the form below!

As much as you read up on other cultures, people and places there’s no telling who or what you’ll run into once you leave home and the truth is, there’s a reason people call travel an adventure. It’s the unknown that truly makes travel worthwhile and frankly, the oddities and one offs make the best stories when you get back and are what you remember most about your trip years later.

Like the time back in 2003 when Micki had a kidney infection and we were staying on a remote beach in Thailand. We had to charter both a private boat and a taxi to get to the local hospital. Luckily, our insurance company helped with the language barrier and she was quickly checked in for a few days and I was allowed to sleep on the couch beside her while she got better. Room service was lacking (for me anyway) but it was by far the cleanest place we stayed that year and Micki was treated like royalty.

Don’t fight the inevitable, embrace it.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should just throw caution to the wind and just let whatever happen, happen. There is a time for that to be sure however, when you have kids with you and a set timeline, a little planning does go a long way.

One of the ways we plan ahead is ensuring we have good travel insurance. You can even say that over the years travel insurance has become a passion for us. Don’t believe me? You can check out our post on Canadian Travel Insurance here, which we update every year.

Considering we first talked about travel insurance back in 2010, you can bet things have changed since then. We’ve learned a lot about different plans and what makes one plan better than another. That said, the fact remains, if you plan to travel as a family, these are some of the things that matter the most and why all families need travel insurance.

Medical Travel Insurance

This one is simple. Whether you’re traveling alone, or with a family, no one should be without medical insurance. Sure, no one plans to get E. coli or have their foot stepped on by an elephant, but it happens regardless.

We’re speaking from experience here; we’ve had a few hospital visits on our travels (one for badly cut ear, one for a kidney infection, and another for a bout of E. coli). They’re never fun, but it definitely eased our stress to know that we had reliable medical travel insurance.

When you factor in that you’re all likely to do more activities, some of them probably in the adventurous category than you generally would at home, you’re not just putting yourself more out there, you’re putting your whole family as well.

Though it’s not likely something bad will happen, it does raise the odds that something unplanned might occur.

I understand this isn’t something any parent wants to think about, regardless of whether they’re traveling or at home, however, the truth is that sometimes you have to plan for unexpected illnesses or accidents.

When something goes wrong, you want the best care you can get. The easiest way to ensure that is to have good medical travel insurance. Most companies have people you can call any time, day or night, that can guide you on where to go and how to get medical help. Don’t know the local number to call the doctor? Chances are your provider does.

Once you’ve been taken care of, you then have the peace of mind knowing that the rest of your trip won’t be in jeopardy because you’re worried about your bank account being empty or if that bone got set correctly.

Cancellation Insurance

The numbers don’t lie. The more people who travel together, the bigger chance that something will go wrong. This is true even before you leave home.

Accidents, work, family emergencies and unforeseen incidents can happen any time and none of us own a crystal ball that can predict the future. As Micki always reminds me, the future is unknown. The only thing you can do is plan your best using the information already in front of you.

Now, it’s no surprise that family vacations cost more than when you travel solo or as a couple. When you realize you have to book flights and accommodations for four or five people rather than just one or two of you, the majority of your costs are due before you even get on the plane.

It might be easy to swallow the cost of just a single flight if you have to cancel, but times that by all of your family members and it gets harder to digest. Spending a few extra dollars for cancellation insurance gives you the peace of mind if something comes up that forces you to cancel or postpone your family trip.

Sure, if you’re traveling as a couple, you could always have one of you stay at home with the sick kid or to deal with whatever crisis comes up but then you have to decide which person stays back while the other gets to enjoy margaritas by the pool and swimming with sea turtles. Have fun with that.

Getting cancellation insurance can ensure that you all can go on your dream trip together later.

Flight Delays

Did you ever get stuck somewhere you weren’t planning to be for long? We have, on numerous occasions, and having to figure out last minute details like where your family will sleep for the night isn’t enjoyable after hours of flying or sitting around in an airport.

The reality is that unexpected delays happen all the time when you travel.

Short delays can often create larger ones. Sometimes it only takes one plane being late on the East Coast to completely sabotage your flight on the West Coast.

How could that ever happen, you ask? Well, imagine that the flight crew assigned to your plane were stuck either in the air, or on land, for a couple hours longer at their previous location than expected due to a delayed flight. Even if your plane is fine and ready to go, you might not have a crew to pilot it, since they worked longer than allowed on their shifts.

We’re speaking from experience here: We were stuck in Chicago O’Hare airport overnight this summer with our two kids and their grandma when a summer storm delayed our flight crew.

Or, let’s just get wild and imagine that a volcano two countries over decided to erupt and blanket all the nearby airports with ash clouds for a few days. Heck, it already happened.

Much more likely, a storm could sweep in and close down the airport. Now, not only are you struggling to find a place that night but the thousands of people sitting in the airport are as well.

Yes, a flight delay usually isn’t life threatening in any way, however, when you travel with a family, sometimes it’s better to be on the cautious side and make sure your family travel insurance covers flight delays as well. The bonus is this one is usually included in many plans for free.

Baggage Insurance

Know what? The more of you there are means more bags for you to be responsible for. Sure, your son might seem like he’s big enough to take his own bag, but he’s going to be so busy checking out every new thing that his bags will be the last thing on his mind. And your daughter? After the second hour of standing in line at the airport, chances are you’ll be carrying her and her bags by the time you get going. At least that’s how it goes for our family.

Imagine this scenario: You’re a little frazzled by the time you land, and you forget a carry-on on the plane. Remembering it at the last minute, you leave your other bags and run back to get it. By the time you’re back, one bag has mysteriously disappeared and the language barrier isn’t making finding it any easier. Not a big deal in itself, but the bag you just lost contained your new underwater camera that you were hoping to use while snorkeling with your kids for the first time  or perhaps the sea sickness pills your wife needs whenever she gets on a bigger boat.

Here’s where baggage insurance comes in. It generally protects you from anything lost or stolen and can help getting those lifelong memories you’re about to make replaced as quickly as possible. You might never get the pictures you already took on the plane back, but it can help you create new ones.

Tip! Never treat insurance like a potential lottery ticket. Buy only as much as you’ll need to replace what you’re taking with you and the savings you make from keeping your premiums lower can help pay your next trip.

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing more important to us than the health and well-being of our family. Sure, we’ve gotten a little adventurous now and then, however we always take our safety and that of our children seriously.

When you step a foot out of your comfort zone, you shouldn’t feel intimidated by the possibilities. Just make sure that you have a solid cushion to fall back on if things don’t work out the way you hoped. Family travel insurance isn’t just a safety net, it’s a necessity these days.

Safe travels!

Get a SafetyWing Nomads insurance quote here, or use the form below!

Travel insurance can kill a travel budget for anyone. We feel the pinch especially hard, since we’re buying travel insurance for a family of four.

*** quotes and details updated in 2024! ****

When I searched high and low for Canadian travel insurance comparisons and reviews for our upcoming trip, I found absolutely nothing to help me compare prices and insurance for our personal travel insurance needs So I had to do hours of legwork to get the best prices and policies for our family, and I’ve shared them in this review.

For six months of travel, for a family of four, we got quotes ranging from $892.08 (but with only $250,000 in travel medical insurance) to an eye-watering $5,760 for worldwide travel medical insurance, including the USA.

Because everyone’s needs are different, we can’t tell you what travel insurance is right for you, or that one travel insurance company or travel insurance policy is better than another.

On top of that, prices and policies can change almost overnight, so do your own research.

This travel insurance review just lists the results we got when searching for travel insurance for our own family’s needs, at one point in time. All prices are in Canadian dollars, although some companies cover people all around the world.

In our search, we found that insurance almost always meant medical travel insurance, which included a set amount of coverage (usually one to five million dollars per person for travel accidents and illness).

Tip! Read the terms and conditions of policy wording and description of coverage to decide if the policy you choose is right for you. Insurance policy wordings can be subject to change at any time, without prior notice.

Many travel insurance packages that we looked at included coverage for baggage, trip cancellation, trip interruption and even emergency dental. We chose to only buy what we personally needed, and I think we saved a lot of money.

TuGo Travel Insurance

TuGo (formerly called Travel Underwriters) is one of Canada’s biggest travel insurance companies, and they surprised us with one of the best rates for our family.

To find more about TuGo travel insurance, click here.

• $1,627.11 for six months, for a family of four. The plan includes travel to the USA.
• $5 million emergency medical insurance.
• $300 USD deductible
• There was also an All Inclusive Holiday Package, for an eye-watering $5,760, that included:
  • a medical plan benefit limit of $5 million
  • 24-Hour Accident Benefit Limit $25,000.00
  • Air Flight/Common Carrier Benefit Limit $100,000.00
  • Baggage Benefit Limit $500.00
  • Sum Insured After Departure $25,000.00
• We could also get additional non-medical plans, including optional baggage coverage, car rental protection optional coverage (for $2,506), trip interruption, accidental death and dismemberment, or trip cancellation & trip interruption.

Heymondo Travel Insurance

Heymondo travel insurance covers people worldwide, regardless of residency. You can get 24/7 worldwide assistance, with medical expenses coverage of up to 10 million USD. There are no deductibles or out-of-pocket expenses. There’s even a Heymondo app with a 24 hour medical chat and free emergency assistance calls. Heymondo is the first travel insurance company to offer a travel assistance APP worldwide.

You can see our Heymondo review here.

I really loved how easy it was to get a quote with Heymondo. I just selected the type of insurance (regular or annual multi-trip), chose my country of residence and destination, start and end dates, number of travellers, and email, and BOOM, my quote appeared on the screen. There was no need to painstakingly enter birthdates and names for each of the four of us, which I LOVED!

• For worldwide, excluding USA insurance, the cost for Heymondo Medical was a really competitive $1,680.10 USD ($420.02 USD/traveler)
• There is no deductible!
• That included a whopping $10 million USD emergency medical and dental expenses overseas. PLUS medical transport and repatriation home. The medical transport and repatriation home is a big deal to me, because if something really serious happens, I’d want to be transported back to Canada.
• You can also get insurance for worldwide, including the United States. For that, Heymondo Medical insurance was $2,082.42 USD, or $520.60 USD/traveler. That included $10 million USD emergency medical and dental expenses overseas, and medical transport and repatriation home.

Click here now to find out more about Heymondo travel insurance.

You can also get Heymondo premium insurance, which includes everything Heymondo Medical offers, plus different levels of insurance for baggage, travel disruption, cancellation and interruption. There’s also optional electronic, adventure sports, and cruise insurance.

One thing I personally really like about Heymondo is that you can buy insurance for a minimum of 90 days, even if your trip has already begun, and renew if you need.

SafetyWing

SafetyWing is a (relative) new comer to the travel insurance space.

SafetyWing insurance specializes in expat travel health insurance (called Remote Health Insurance), and global travel medical insurance (called Nomad Insurance), which we think is a great option for longer term travelers.

There’s one huge catch for SafetyWing insurance, though, and it’s a big one for Canadians.

SafetyWing won’t sell Canadians travel insurance while you’re physically located in Canada. You can cross the border in any way and buy insurance immediately when you have left Canada.

However, it’s the perfect choice if you’ve already left Canada and forgot to buy travel insurance, or you want to buy better coverage.

SafetyWing Insurance is available to anyone from any home country in the world (unless your home country is Iran, Syria, North Korea or Cuba, or if you have Cuba as your citizenship).

The base price for insurance is $56.28 for four weeks of coverage, not including coverage in the USA. That’s for one person, aged 18-39 years.

• A quote for one person for for six – four week periods (approx. six months) was $554.4 for six months, NOT including coverage in the USA.
• For all four of us, the cost was $892.08 for six – four week periods (approx. six months), NOT including coverage in the USA.
• A quote for all four of us for six- four week periods, which included coverage in the USA, was $1658.16.
• $250,000 medical travel insurance

Visit SafetyWing now to learn more.

TD Meloche Monnex

We signed up with TD Meloche Monnex: Wide Horizons Solution on our last six month trip though Costa Rica, Mexico, Florida and Texas. Although we didn’t have to make a claim, their customer service was extremely professional and patient when answering all of my questions about the quote.

• Several years ago, we paid $947.80 for six months, for a family of four. Since we had home insurance with Meloche, we got a good discount on the premium.
• In 2024, I got an online quote for $2,434.40. That included $5 million for emergency medical expenses and 24/7 emergency assistance

Best Quote Travel Insurance

Tip: Lately, we’ve been trying Canadian-owned Best Quote Travel Insurance for our quotes. It’s owned by Canadian financial advisor Bob Hornal, and his deep understanding of travel insurance in Canada shows.

Find out more about Best Quote Travel Insurance now

RATESDOTCA (formerly Kanetix)

RATESDOTCA) is on online insurance quote consolidator. It lets me compare a number of travel insurance companies side by side.  They do all sorts of insurance, including home, auto, and tenant’s insurance.

Rates we found on RATESDOTCA were:

• For travel not including the USA:
  • MSH International, $1,106.22, Canuck Voyage Single Trip, $7 million medical travel insurance, $0 deductible
  • Allianz Global Assistance, $1,130.21, Single Trip NonUSA, $10 million travel medical insurance, $0 deductible
  • Destination Travel Group Inc., $1,389.04, The Destination: Travel Leisure Plan, $5 million travel medical insurance, $0 deductible
• For travel including the USA:
  • MSH International, $1,471.38, Canuck Voyage Single Trip, $7 million medical travel insurance, $0 deductible
  • Allianz Global Assistance, $1,550.14, Single Trip USA, $10 million travel medical insurance, $250 deductible
  • Destination Travel Group Inc., $1,389.04, The Destination: Travel Leisure Plan, $5 million travel medical insurance, $0 deductible

BMO

BMO travel insurance is one of Canada’s biggest names in travel insurance, so I thought I’d try them out. From their website, I think you can only buy travel insurance with them if you’re a BMO customer.

• $1,809.54 for six months insurance for a family of four.
• $5 million medical liability.
• No trip cancellation, interruption or flight delay coverage.

What if you’re taking a short trip?

For trips of 60 days or less, you may already have coverage through a credit card with medical travel insurance perks. These often offer trip cancellation and interruption, along with baggage insurance. For Canada travel insurance, the cards we looked at were Scotiabank and BMO.

Note: If you decide to use only your credit cards built in travel insurance, make sure that you’re covered for the duration of your trip (you can often extend coverage for an additional fee) and that you qualify since some cards that include travel insurance have specific riders that might not cover you if you fall outside of their policies parameters.

Baggage coverage and personal effects coverage

Baggage coverage insures your bags while in transit (in airplanes, though this may extend to buses and taxis).

Personal effects coverage covers your belongings anywhere, on any portion of your trip. This sounds nice in theory, but I found that most policies had some serious exclusions.  They would only cover losses with a police report (makes sense, but a police report can be pretty damn hard to get in a lot of countries).  On top of that, most policies would not insure belongings that were unattended. That means that if your wallet is stolen from your beach chair while you’re body surfing, you’re out of luck. No coverage.

Even more important, most policies wouldn’t cover loss or theft of computers, cameras, or cell phones, or jewelry. Seriously. The only expensive things that most people travel with aren’t covered.

Here’s a little trick, though. If you have insurance on your home or tenant’s insurance, then your belongings might be covered on your trip. Usually there’s a limit (around 10% of the total coverage on your original policy), and your deductible applies to any claims while travelling.

Trip cancellation and interruption generally only cover the portion of your trip that you buy before you leave. Not especially useful for us, since we’re only buying a one-way ticket to Mexico before we leave, and the rest of our tickets will be bought once out of Canada. Not having a set itinerary means that we’ll buy onward legs (by plane, train, car, taxi, water taxi, ferry, cruise liner, or bus) as we need them. I couldn’t find a single travel insurance policy that would cover purchase of additional legs once we left home. Trust me, I tried. And tried.

A lot of Canada travel insurance reviews don’t mention this, but it’s important: If you’re gone for more than six months, ensure you get a written extension from your provincial health care plan (this applies only to Canadians).

Checklist for travel insurance:

• What is the amount of liability you cover?
• Is trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance covered?
• Is there a refund available for unused amount?
• What is the deductible?
• Do you offer a medical service assist, e.g., can you help me find a doctor or hospital?
• Is the policy good worldwide, including the USA?
• Can I top up my insurance once I’ve left on my trip?
• Can I buy my initial insurance after I’ve left on my trip?

Are you already overseas? Check out this post to learn how to get travel insurance if you’re already abroad!