Travel Insurance - Yes/No

tinofapples

We're flying (Aer Lingus) to Malaga in 3 weeks time and staying at my brothers apartment in Estepona, I was wondering do we need travel insurance ? I'm approaching the stay as I would a weekend trip to Manchester/Edinburgh which I wouldn't purchase travel insurance for. We will consist of my wife, 2 kids and my mother.

Would it be foolish not to purchase or is there any need for it ? My brother is married to a Spanish girl and full-time resident there. What would be the ballpark figure for a 10 day stay single trip policy ?

schemingbohemia

Make sure you have your EHIC for any health related problems. I have an annual travel insurance policy but I make quite a few trips every year, usually including one outside of the EU. If I wasn't going outside EU I probably wouldn't bother, but I'm on my own, with a family I think I'd like the added peace of mind of having a policy.

www.ehic.ie

zagmund

Madness not to have travel insurance when travelling with a family. Doesn't matter whether you're in Edinburgh or Timbuktu. All you need is for one member of your party to break an arm and you are into all sorts of financial unhappyness. Imagine it happens on the day before you're due to fly home - does one adult stay with the kid in hospital and the rest fly home, do you both stay ? You're going to need accommodation . . . for a day, maybe 2 days, or if it's worse than an arm maybe a week. Then there will be flights, hopefully not an ambulance flight. Then there's missing days work because you're stuck in the other country. The potential cost of an accident can be huge. Being closer to home can make things easier, but cheaper doesn't come into it if/when you need treatment.

A full years family insurance costs me something like €130 or €150 including ski/dangerous sports cover. We could pay that in baggage charges, or we could be unlucky and have the fares for one flight rise by that amount while we think about booking.

It's money well worth spending in my books.

z

tinofapples

Thanks for replies, it's been 6 years since we were abroad (Our honeymoon) so we haven't had a need for it since. Any foreign holidays previously were package deals where insurance was included.

It's certain we won't be abroad again this calender year but there is a good chance we may travel again next Spring/Summer so any recommendations for a good value annual policy ?

Insure and go quotes:
Annual Bronze € 31.96 pp
Annual Silver € 40.56 pp
Annual Gold € 44.60 pp
Annual Platinum € 55.74 pp

Doesn't seem too bad and the kids are free !!

tatli_lokma

I usually book with getcover.ie - find them good prices and good cover. I am having a problem with the underwriters at the moment, as they will not insure me when a member of my immediate family is over 76 years old, so unless you have an issue like this, they are good cover.

Also - remember to factor in your mother's age - for many policies you need to be under 68 years.

I definitely think it is worth having - loss of personal belongings, delays, accidents or injury while away, god forbid, were something to happen to your home in ireland like a flood or fire you would be covered to get home.

tinofapples

My mother is 64, gonna do the online application for the European cover this evening and probably go ahead with annual cover either today or tomorrow sometime.

Thanks for views and advice folks

ScouseMouse

Make sure you do get it. I tore ligaments playing with my daughter in the pool last year. I was seen straight away and they were great. I did notice a big queue for other people who had none.

That was Tenerife.

As I have VHI already, an annual family policy was only 49 euro.

ProudDUB

OP, if you have regular health insurance check with them and see what foreign coverage (if any) you have with your policy. I am with Laya, and I am covered for Emergency treatments/visits up to $100,000. They don't cover visits to regular doctors/clinics/chemists for non emergency stuff. $100,000 isn't a lot if you are going to the US where you could rack up a bill for that amount by just getting a paper cut. I don't think it covers out of pocket non hospital stuff such as hotel bills for family members, meals, changes to flights etc etc but its better than nothing imo.