The Best Annual Travel Insurance Of 2024

• GeoBlue Trekker Choice – Best for Travel Medical Insurance
• GeoBlue Trekker Essential – Best for Cost
• Trawick International Safe Travels Annual Basic – Best for Basic Trip Cancellation

Company	Company - Logo	Forbes Advisor Rating	Forbes Advisor Rating	Policy name	Covers trip cancellation?	Medical/medical evacuation coverage included	Learn More CTA text	Learn more CTA below text		Cost for a 40-year-old traveler
GeoBlue		5.0		Trekker Choice	No	$1 million/$500,000	Get A Quote	Via Forbes Advisor's Website		$175
GeoBlue		4.5		Trekker Essential	No	$500,000/$250,000	Get A Quote	Via Forbes Advisor's Website		$125
Trawick International		4.0		Safe Travels Annual Basic	Yes	$10,000/$50,000	Get A Quote	Via Forbes Advisor's Website		$155

Coverage and cost source: Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider.

Multi-trip travel insurance is a policy that covers multiple trips for a year from the effective date of the policy.

“The benefits of these plans vary but most typically cover medical expenses, trip interruption and medical evacuation costs,” says Don Van Scyoc, spokesperson with GeoBlue, a provider of global health plans. “Some may even cover pre-existing conditions for medical services and medical evacuation.”

Basic annual travel insurance policies often do not have trip cancellation insurance, though you can buy more comprehensive annual plans that include it.

A multi-trip travel insurance policy often provides these important benefits:

• Trip delay: If your trip is delayed due to a reason listed on your policy—severe weather, for instance—travel delay insurance benefits pay for meals, hotels and transportation while you’re waiting for your flight.
• Trip interruption: Trip interruption coverage provides coverage for expenses if you need to cut your trip short and return home due to death, illness or injury, family emergencies or other reasons listed in the policy.
• Medical expenses: Travel medical insurance covers emergency medical-related expenses during your trip such as doctor’s visits, X-rays, hospitalization and medicine.
• Medical evacuation: Medical evacuation travel insurance compensates costs for  emergency transport to get you immediate medical treatment.
• Baggage: Baggage insurance helps pay for delays and losses of your luggage and personal effects.

Multi-trip plans have a per-trip duration limitation. Generally, the maximum trip length for each trip taken during the 364-day period ranges from 30 to 90 days.

There are variations in the options for multi-trip plans. “While an annual plan is the most common for these travel insurance policies, there are some variations, such as a six-month term for students on a study abroad program, or policies that companies might purchase for employees on extended overseas assignments,” says Scott Adamski, spokesperson for AIG Travel Guard.

The cost of a multi-trip policy will primarily depend on the coverage levels included and your age.

The types of trips you’re planning will generally determine if a multi-trip travel insurance plan is the best fit for you.

Basic multi-trip travel insurance plans are best for:

• Travelers who take lots of trips within a year.
• Those who want to save money, as multi-trip plans are generally less expensive than insuring multiple trips individually.
• Travelers who aren’t concerned about trip cancellation benefits.
• People who take last-minute trips and want the convenience of having a year-long travel insurance policy in place.
• Business travelers who travel frequently.

For expensive, international travel, or even high-value trips taken domestically, Adamski says a single-trip travel insurance plan is likely a better option. That’s primarily because of the trip cancellation benefit that comes with per trip plans.

“For lower-cost trips (short domestic flights, or even road-trips) where your main concern is catastrophic-based benefits—medical expense and evacuation—the annual plan might be your best option,” Adamski says.

There are scenarios where you might have multiple trips in a short timeframe, and you would still be better off with single-trip policies for each one, says Adamski.

“One such circumstance involves a traveler taking an extended trip to the U.K., for example, and then using that as a home base from which to make shorter trips to the European mainland,” he explains. “Because of the high value of such a trip, the ability to mitigate the loss from the potential cancellation of one of the side trips might be of greater importance to your making the per-trip insurance option a better plan.”

Also, because it’s possible to modify an existing annual policy to include additional trip costs, under certain circumstances, you can accordingly alter your policy mid-trip to include these additional side trips.

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Pros

• Streamlined coverage. Multi-trip plans provide the convenience of purchasing just one policy for the entire year, rather than individual policies each time you travel.
• Affordable coverage for multiple domestic trips. An annual travel insurance plan could be a particularly good option for domestic frequent fliers, says Adamski. If you go on numerous, low-cost domestic flights over the course of 364 days, the annual plan would provide affordable coverage (AIG Travel’s plan is approximately $250) for the most common travel insurance needs without needing to purchase a policy for each separate trip.

Cons

• Coverage is not beneficial for U.S. road trips. An annual travel insurance plan would not provide much benefit for domestic road trips. You may have few or no non-refundable expenses (like plane tickets), and medical expenses can be covered by your health insurance plan, says Adamski.
• Con: Limited coverage for air travel. Basic annual plans usually do not cover trip cancellation or trip interruption.

When choosing between a multi-trip plan and a single trip plan, consider both the number of trips and the total number of days you plan to travel for all trips in a 12-month period.

“An individual or family taking four or five trips in a year where each trip is 10 days or less will likely spend less purchasing multiple single-trip plans,” says Don Van Scyoc with GeoBlue.

“Although rates and coverage vary by your age and company, if you will be out of the country 40 or more days on multiple trips during a 12-month period, you will usually be best served by a multi-trip plan.”

To find the best annual travel insurance plans we scored companies based on the following.

• Cost (50% of score): We analyzed rates from each company for three typical travelers profiles.
• Medical evacuation limit (15% of score): We looked at coverage levels for medical evacuation, which pays to get you to the closest adequate medical facility.
• Medical limit (15% of score): This covers medical treatment, X-rays, tests, medication and more related to an injury or illness you develop while traveling.
• Cancellation limit (10% of score): We awarded points for higher amounts of trip cancellation coverage.
• Trip Interruption limit (10% of score): We awarded points for higher levels of trip interruption insurance.