With holiday insurance being as cheap as it is – Annual cover for a family can cost as little as £60 – you’d think that there would be no reason for anyone to travel without it. However over three million Brits travelled abroad last year without having adequate travel insurance. It’s not just regular bods who make the mistake either, even the celebs have been known to do so – Michael Winner holidayed in Barbados without insurance and nearly died because of food poisoning, surviving because his friend spent £20,000 to pay for an air ambulance home to the UK. Michael lost one of his legs, but he survived. Unfortunately most of us don’t have friends with £20,000 to spare, so travel insurance is very important.

The important thing when buying travel insurance is making sure you get cover appropriate to you and your holiday. If you’re going on an extreme sporting holiday for example then regular holiday insurance won’t cover you, and if you’re trekking through the rainforests then you need to tell your insurer this so that they make sure you are covered for tropical diseases and snake bites. You also need to inform them of any existing medical conditions or your policy might be invalidated.

There are a number of different policy types that you can go for, Annual multi-trip, Long Stay, Backpacker, Sports, Extreme Adventure, Over 60’s, Standard, Premier, Premier Plus or Basic. All cover you for different things, and many can be tailored to fit your exact needs. To avoid your dream break being turned into a nightmare sit down and look through to see what you need to be covered for.

The EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) is a useful thing to carry and will help if you need emergency treatment in Europe, however, it is important not to regard it as a replacement for travel insurance. The service it provides will only match the standard cover provided to citizens of the country you are visiting, and that may not be as good as the NHS offers, so you may still need to pay for extra care. It also doesn’t cover you for any of the other things that could go wrong from lost baggage to accident cover, or legal cover.

Useful features to look for include:

Cover if you need to cancel due to illness or family emergency
Baggage replacement including money/travellers cheques
Accident cover
Personal liability & legal expenses

Don’t forget, plan your insurance well in advance of travelling so you’ve got plenty of time to read the policy. If you have annual travel insurance make sure it covers the holiday type you are going on, and that it is up to date. Make sure you get your EHIC card if you’re travelling in Europe. Lastly, don’t rely on ‘free’ travel insurance that some bank accounts and credit cards offer. These are normally pretty basic and you’ll need to check them very carefully to see what they do and don’t cover, and if you need to, buy extra insurance to make sure you’re protected.