🛡️Travel insurance: a guide to choosing well

Within the European Union, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) covers essential medical care, but not everything: it doesn't cover medical repatriation or treatment at private facilities, for instance.

Outside the EU, especially in countries with expensive private healthcare (the US above all), travel medical insurance is strongly recommended: an unplanned hospital stay can cost tens of thousands of euros without coverage.

The essentials are: emergency medical expenses with a limit suited to the destination, medical evacuation or repatriation, and 24-hour phone assistance.

Depending on the trip, it can also be worth adding: trip cancellation, baggage delay or loss, and coverage for specific activities like winter sports, diving or high-altitude trekking.

Every policy has specific exclusions: undeclared pre-existing medical conditions, activities considered 'high-risk' not included in the base plan, or regions of the world excluded from coverage.

It's always worth reading the terms before buying, especially if the trip includes particular activities or if there are health conditions to declare.

Those who travel several times a year may find an annual multi-trip policy more convenient than buying one for each trip: the total cost is often lower starting from the second or third trip of the year.

For a single trip, a policy dedicated to that specific destination and duration remains the simplest and cheapest solution.

It's good practice to buy insurance right after booking the trip, especially if it includes cancellation cover: many policies don't cover events that occur before activation.

Always compare several options before choosing: the price can vary a lot for the same coverage, depending on age, destination and trip length.

Buying the cheapest policy without reading the coverage limits is a mistake that only shows its cost when you actually need it: a limit that's too low for medical expenses can leave you exposed in exactly the most serious cases.

Assuming your credit card already includes adequate travel insurance is another common mistake: many 'included' policies have low limits or exclude the most expensive situations, like medical evacuation.