General & Any Policy
Travel Insurance Cost Guide
Rates computed from Squaremouth's International Travel Insurance Data Report, as reported by Experian.
Travel insurance is priced as a percentage of your trip cost, not a flat fee, and that percentage moves a lot more with age than most people expect.
Data sourced from Squaremouth, Experian
Travel insurance is a percentage of your trip, not a flat rate
Unlike a lot of insurance types priced against a policy limit, travel insurance is most usefully understood as a percentage of what you are actually spending on the trip.
Based on Squaremouth's international travel insurance data, that rate runs from about 4.28% of trip cost for travelers age 14 to 29, up to 11.53% for travelers 81 and older.
On a $5,000 international trip, that is the difference between roughly $214 and roughly $577 for the same trip, insured by the same kind of policy.
Why age moves the price so much
Medical coverage, for an illness or injury that happens during the trip, is a major component of most travel insurance policies, and both the likelihood and the potential cost of a travel medical claim rise substantially with age.
That is the underlying reason the rate climbs roughly 2.7x from the youngest age band in this data to the oldest, rather than staying flat the way a simpler cost, like baggage loss coverage, effectively does across ages.
Domestic trips and high-risk destinations move the price too
A domestic trip is meaningfully cheaper to insure than an equivalent international one, running about 25% less, since domestic travel avoids the added variables of international medical coverage, medical evacuation, and navigating a foreign healthcare system.
On the other end, traveling to a destination with elevated political instability, natural disaster risk, or limited healthcare infrastructure can raise the rate by as much as 45% above the standard international rate.
To combine your own trip cost, age, and destination type into one estimate, the travel insurance cost estimator runs all three factors together.
When travel insurance is worth buying
Travel insurance makes the most sense for trips with significant non-refundable costs, a large prepaid international vacation, a cruise, or a trip involving nonrefundable event tickets, where a cancellation or interruption would mean a real financial loss.
It also matters more for older travelers and for destinations with limited or expensive healthcare access, since the medical coverage component of the policy is doing more real work in those situations than it would on a short, inexpensive domestic trip.
Frequently asked questions
How much does travel insurance typically cost?
As a share of trip cost, it runs from about 4.28% for travelers age 14 to 29 up to 11.53% for travelers age 81+, based on Squaremouth's international travel insurance data.
On a $5,000 international trip, that works out to roughly $214 for a younger traveler versus roughly $577 for the oldest age band.
Why does age affect travel insurance cost so much?
Medical coverage is a major component of most travel insurance policies, and the likelihood and cost of a travel-related medical claim rises substantially with age. That is why the rate climbs roughly 2.7x from the youngest age band to travelers 81 and older, rather than staying flat across ages the way some other travel costs do.
Does a domestic trip cost less to insure than an international one?
Yes, domestic travel insurance runs about 25% cheaper than the equivalent international policy, since international trips carry more variables, medical coverage abroad, evacuation costs, foreign healthcare systems, that domestic trips generally do not.
Does traveling to a high-risk destination cost more to insure?
It can, by as much as 45% more than a standard international rate, according to Squaremouth-sourced reporting. Destinations with elevated political instability, natural disaster risk, or limited healthcare infrastructure are generally priced at this premium rather than the standard international rate.