Best Travel Insurance For Europe

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If you plan a trip to Europe, there are a couple of things you have to manage before taking off. One of them is definitely a travel insurance. It’s always been at the bottom of my ‘to-do list’, just because of the number of choices the market offers. I was keeping it aside as I didn’t like spending so much time researching what the best travel insurance was for me.

But I’ve finally sat down and done proper research about all of the travel insurance out there. Now I am happy to share the results with you.

This article will walk you through all the steps you should consider when buying a travel insurance for Europe, what to pay attention to, and which one will be the best for you.

What To Consider When Buying Travel Insurance

One evening, I finally did extensive research on the most popular travel insurance out there. I compared their prices, how high the deductible/excess is, which areas it covers, the limit they pay you when you make a claim, and many more points. Thanks to my research, I can now say with confidence, what is the best travel insurance for Europe for you.

In this article, I’ll be comparing the 3 best travel insurance for Europe for you: Safety Wing, World Nomads, and True Traveller. I find these to be the best on the market, so you can choose which one fits you the best.

But before we get to the comparison, let’s talk about what is important to think of when buying travel insurance.

Important Coverages Travel Insurance Should Include

medical coverage
emergency medical evacuation

dental treatments
lost and/or delayed luggage
travel delay

trip cancellation
trip interruption
adventure activities

personal items (electronics)

Some insurances offer them all, and with some, you can choose whether you want to add personal items such as electronics. Some of them even offer you insurance if you’re already traveling or if you only have a one-way ticket.

For us, travelers, the most important coverages will be medical, trip cancellation or travel delay, lost luggage, personal items, and in many cases adventure activities, too.

So now that we know what should good travel insurance include, let’s talk about how to get travel insurance and talk about each of the 3 best travel insurance for Europe.

best travel insurance for Europe — *Filling out travel insurance to kick off the journey*

How To Get Travel Insurance

Getting travel insurance is fairly easy. Simply go to the website of the travel insurance you chose. After, type in all the data they ask you for (usually it’s your age, country of residency, dates when you’re traveling, and areas where you’ll be traveling).

Once you request a quote, they’ll generate your offers. Each provider normally gives you a few offers. The first one has the lowest cover limits, and the other offers come with higher cover limits.

Then you just select the offer you want to take (after reading what’s included). You can pay directly online with your credit card. Travel insurance will be sent to your email box with all important documents.

And so you’re insured and can start your journey. Whenever something happens during your trip, you’ll make a claim (contact them) and ask for a refund.

What Is Deductible

Another very important thing to know is the deductible, also called excess. A deductible is basically the amount you’ll have to pay upfront if you make a claim with your insurance company.

Let’s make an example. Your teeth are sore a lot that you can’t enjoy your trip anymore and decide to visit a dentist in a foreign country. So you make an appointment with him, show up, and get treatment. After, you’ll claim it to your travel insurance company. You’ll write them that you want your money back. Many insurance companies charge you the ‘deductible’ or ‘excess’ when you contact them to receive money. With some it’s 150$, with others 250$, depending on their policies.

Let’s say the dentist’s treatment costs you 1500$. If you have to pay 150$ deductible, you’ll be refunded 1350$ instead of the full price of 1500$. Simply because you have to pay the 150$ upfront for making the claim.

So it’s essential to think about whether treatment costs you a lot or not. In the example above, it’s worth making a claim. However, if the dentist treatment costs you 150$, you wouldn’t actually get any money back.

best travel insurance for europe safety wing true traveller

Best Travel Insurance For Europe

Overall, the best travel insurance for Europe is Safety Wing and World Nomads. True Traveller is an equally great option, but it’s only restricted to European residents.

So I want to break down each travel insurance company, its coverage, advantages, and disadvantages for you to choose the best fit.

Safety Wing

Safety Wing is a relatively new company that started offering insurance back in 2018. It’s built by nomads, who travel the world equally as you, so they know what we travelers need the most, which is great.

They offer the cheapest rates and work on a monthly bases. You can choose if you want to select an end date for your insurance. Otherwise, you’ll pay for the first month only, and after, they’ll automatically renew the insurance every month until you cancel it.

With Safety Wing, you’ll be insured for the entire world and don’t have to choose areas where you’ll travel to. The only thing is to mark whether you’ll be visiting the US or not. If you select USA coverage, it’ll be slightly more expensive.

A disadvantage with them is that you have to pay 250$ deductible every time you make a claim. It’s quite high, therefore is the insurance fee per month very cheap. So if you go too cheap countries like Southeast Asian or South American countries, where you know that medical treatments are not so expensive, you’ll have to probably pay for them yourself.

Another drawback is that they don’t have coverage for adventure activities.

Generally speaking, Safety Wing offers the cheapest insurance with all necessary coverage options, has 250$ excess, doesn’t include adventure activities coverage, and is available for almost everybody except a few countries (check out their website for it).

Get Safety Wing Insurance

World Nomads

World Nomads has well-known travel insurance that many travelers have been using all around the world. They’re especially great because they cover extreme sports and adventure activities, which most other insurances either offer as an option or not at all.

World Nomads doesn’t have any deductible when you make a claim.

You’ll select a starting date and an end date for your insurance. It’s also possible to buy if you’re already traveling.

Anyone can buy it regardless of their residency, which is another advantage. They already have trip cancellation coverage as well as valuable items coverage included. So it’s perfectly fitted for us travellers.

Get World Nomads Insurance

True Traveller

True Traveller is my personal choice whenever I buy travel insurance. However, it’s only available for European residents, including the UK, which is its biggest downside.

It’s even slightly cheaper than Safety Wing. So if you have a residency in Europe, I wouldn’t doubt it anymore.

They offer 3 basic plans with their 4 essential coverages:

medical expenses

baggage cover
cancellation
personal liability (valuables and items)

On the top of the main 4 coverages, you can choose optional coverages that include electronics, travel disruption, adventure activities, already traveling options, or even a one-way ticket trip. This is great because you can choose whatever suits you best for the trip and don’t have to pay anything extra for something you wouldn’t need.

True Traveller has 3 plans among which you can choose: true value, traveler, and traveler plus. Each of them offers 4 main coverages and only differs in the limit of each coverage. The traveler plus has a much higher limit for each coverage than the true value plan, therefore is more expensive.

With True Traveller, you also have to pay a deductible of 150$ if you make a claim. However, you can choose to pay those 150$ when purchasing your travel insurance. If you do so, you won’t have to pay it anymore whenever you make a claim while traveling. That’s a big plus with them.

Lastly, you’ll choose which area you’ll travel to. It can be Europe (incl. Morocco, Egypt, and Israel), Australia & New Zealand, Worldwide (excl. USA and Canada), or Worldwide, also including USA and Canada.

Get True Traveller Insurance