Even as the height of the pandemic wanes, having travel insurance that covers COVID is still a good idea.
Updated Jun 3, 2024 12:40 p.m. PDT · 3 min read Written by Natasha Etzel Natasha Etzel
Natasha is a freelance writer and frequent traveler. She writes about luxury travel, travel hacking and credit card rewards. Her goal is to encourage more people to experience the world around them.
Assistant Assigning Editor Meghan CoyleMeghan Coyle started as a web producer and writer at NerdWallet in 2018. She covers travel rewards, including industry news, airline and hotel loyalty programs, and how to travel on points. She is based in Los Angeles.
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MORE LIKE THIS TravelNo matter how well you prepare, travel plans don’t always go as expected. Some travelers buy travel insurance to protect their investment in prepaid travel costs. Amid the ongoing pandemic, exploring travel insurance with COVID-19 coverage is recommended. With the right policy, you can protect yourself if you need to cancel your trip or end it early due to illness. Many insurers offer travel insurance policies with this kind of coverage.
This is the shortlist of the best travel insurance for COVID options:
We used the following factors to choose insurance providers to highlight in our best travel insurance for COVID list:
Range of coverage: We looked at how many plans each company offered with COVID-19 coverage, plus the range of available plans.
Depth of coverage: We compared the maximum caps for trip cancellation and trip interruption claims between carriers and plans.
Medical benefits: We examined whether plans included emergency medical benefits for COVID-19 reasons and whether plans included medical evacuation and repatriation benefits.
Cost: We determined an average cost for shoppers to benchmark plan prices by looking at the basic coverage costs for plans with COVID-19 benefits across multiple companies.
We looked at quotes from various companies for a six-night trip in May 2023 to Croatia. The traveler was 30 years old, from Texas and planned to spend $1,500 on the trip, including airfare.
On average, the price of each company’s most basic coverage plan with COVID-19 coverage was $47.22. The prices listed below are for the most basic COVID-19 travel insurance coverage. All insurers offer multiple COVID-19 policies with greater coverage coming at a higher cost.
Basic coverage cost
Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection
Traveling athletes; limited sports and activities coverage is included.
Budget travelers who want to protect their travel expenses, the most basic plan doesn’t include medical benefits for COVID-19.
John Hancock Insurance Agency, Inc
Travelers who want a solid basic travel insurance plan with COVID-19 coverage.
Travelers who want an affordable COVID-19 travel insurance policy with no medical deductible.
Adventure travelers; An adventure travel policy is available with included COVID-19 coverage.
Travel Insured International
Traveling athletes; limited sports and activities coverage is included.
Travelex Insurance Services
Budget travelers who want COVID-19 coverage at an affordable rate.
Traveling athletes and adventure travelers; sports and activities and sports equipment loss benefits are included.
Let's take a closer look at our eight recommendations for travel insurance with COVID coverage:
What makes Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection great:
Several plans allow policyholders to cancel for COVID-19 sickness as part of trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance benefits.
Several plans include COVID-19 medical coverage benefits. Medical evacuation benefits are included in these plans. Plans include limited sports and activities coverage and sports equipment loss benefits.Basic Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection will run you $50 for an ExactCare Value policy, the company’s most basic COVID-19 travel insurance coverage option.
Read our reviewWhat makes IMG great:
Many plans include COVID-19 cancellation benefits.Most of these plans also include COVID-19 medical benefits (the Travel Essentials plan doesn’t include this).
Medical evacuation coverage is available on select plans. Coverage for adventure travel is available for an extra cost.IMG is a good option for the budget-minded: Its Travel Essential plans cost more than $10 less than average based on our comparison.
Read our review
What makes John Hancock Insurance Agency great:
Multiple plans offer COVID-19 cancellation benefits as part of the included trip interruption and trip cancellation coverage.
These plans offer COVID-19 medical benefits. Medical evacuation coverage is included in all COVID-19 coverage plans. The John Hancock Insurance Agency, Inc. basic plan (Bronze) costs $56. Read our reviewWhat makes Seven Corners great:
Multiple plans offer COVID-19 cancellation benefits as part of the included trip interruption and trip cancelation coverage.
These plans include COVID-19 medical benefits and evacuation and repatriation benefits. There is no medical deductible.Seven Corners’ basic coverage plan (RoundTrip Basic) for our trip to Croatia costs $44.
Read our reviewWhat makes Travelex Insurance Services great:
Multiple plans include Covid-19 sickness coverage, which reimburses prepaid and nonrefundable trip payments if a trip is canceled or interrupted due to a traveler contracting the virus.
These plans also include COVID-19 medical benefits. Medical evacuation and repatriation benefits are included.Basic coverage (Travel Basic) from Travelex Insurance Services costs $44 for our sample trip, which is slightly cheaper than average.
Read our review
What makes Travel Insured International great:
Multiple plans cover COVID-19 cancellation benefits as part of the included trip interruption and trip cancelation coverage.
These plans also include COVID-19 medical benefits, including medical evacuation. Limited sports and activities coverage is included in plans with COVID-19 coverage.Travel Insured International's basic coverage (Worldwide Trip Protector Edge) begins at $55 — only a few dollars more than the average basic policy price.
read our reviewWhat makes Tin Leg great:
A wide range of plans offer COVID-19 cancellation benefits as part of the included trip interruption and trip cancelation coverage.
All of these plans also include COVID-19 medical benefits. All of these include medical evacuation benefits. An adventure travel policy is available.Another plus: Tin Leg’s basic coverage plan (Basic) for our trip to Croatia costs $48.85 — making it right around the average price for the policies we covered.
read our reviewWhat makes WorldTrips great:
Several plans allow policyholders to cancel for COVID-19 sickness as part of trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance benefits.
Several plans include medical coverage for COVID-19. Medical evacuation and repatriation benefits are included. Sports and activities and sports equipment loss are included. Coverage can be extended for up to thirty days, including for medical quarantine purposes.WorldTrips’ most affordable plan with COVID-19 coverage (Atlas Journey Economy) starts at $44, making it a low-cost option.
Do you want to learn more about travel insurance before you spend money on a policy? Take a look at these resources:
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