Best Annual Travel Insurance
Protect Yourself and Your Family

Looking for the best annual travel insurance but without compromising quality? Holiday insurance is one of those things that you hate to pay for but you simply cannot go without. In order to protect yourself, your family, your belongings and of course your money while on holiday, you should definitely take out a policy to put your mind at ease.

Travel insurance should be organized before you depart on your next holiday because it will help you gain protection in case you have to cancel your trip due to airlines going bust, severe weather warnings, sickness etc. You can purchase travel insurance for domestic or international journeys and can be taken out for a 12 month period or just on a specific trip basis.

With the 12 month policy, it can work out cheaper in the long run i.e. if you plan to take more than two holidays a year. We're going to concentrate on the annual policy here, because it's more cost effective.

One of the main benefits of travel insurance is the health cover because (depending on your destination) its highly likely you'd be required to pay for any healthcare you needed while on holiday. While we all hope for great health while exploring the world, accidents can happen, sickness can sneak up on you and when you're bent over the toilet bowl (or worse) you will want to get to a doctor and not be hit with an astronomical bill!

The best annual travel insurance policies range in cover and price but are often broken up into the following categories:

• Baggage Cover
• Cancellation Cover
• Personal Liability Cover
• Medical Insurance Cover

Baggage Cover

Is a travel insurance addition that protects your baggage and contents whilst you're on holiday. By paying a little extra, you could be covered up to an agreed amount for any loss or damage to personal belongings that you've packed in your luggage - which saves you stressing out if your bags don't turn up at the other end!

Typically, baggage cover can help if:

• Your luggage gets delayed
• You lose passport documents stored in your luggage
• Your luggage gets lost
• A personal item is stolen, lost or damaged whilst you're away - the bulk of insurance providers will cover you up to 1,500GBP for items that are lost or stolen on your trip

It is also worthwhile checking out the limits of cover under your Household Insurance policy before considering adding baggage to your best annual travel insurance policy.

Nowadays most people have cover for Personal Effect, sometime called All Risks included within their standard Household Insurance Policy.

Cancellation Cover

Covers you for charges which may incur if you are unable to start your holiday, have to cancel flight tickets or interruption of journey. Typically cancellation cover can help if:

• Missed flights or connections
• Death of the traveller or the death of the traveller's close companions and family
• Severe weather such as cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes etc
• Terrorist incidents at the travel destination
• Political uprisings in the country you are travelling too
• A workers strike or Airlines going bust in the travel industry. Just like XL Airways in 2008! (Please note, you may need additional cover for airlines going bust - To cover you against a company going out of business you need an option called scheduled airline failure (SAF). Only around 10% of travel insurers include this option in their regular policies, although others do offer it for a separate charge)

Personal Liability Cover

Can be described as, 'Obligation for which an individual is responsible and which may be satisfied out of his or her assets.' This part of the policy is to cover you if you are legally liable to pay compensation because you have injured someone or damaged their property. If you cannot extend the personal liability cover under your contents insurance, you should aim for minimum cover from your travel insurance of £1 million. Typically cancellation cover can help for:

• Damage to someone else's property
• Someone unrelated to you being injured or becoming ill
• Damage to your holiday accommodation (e.g. your hotel room or rented apartment) unless it belongs to you or a member of your family

Medical insurance Cover

Is insurance that pays for medical expenses, strangely enough. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. Typically Medical insurance cover can help for:

• Doctors visits
• Hospital stays
• Surgery

What is it going to Cost?

Now obviously the question on the tip of your tongue is most likely - what is this all going to cost! Everyone wants to find the best annual travel insurance policies so that they can save the extra money to spend on the fun stuff. Like your holiday.

I personally have started using a site called Money Supermarket which compares quotes from over 450 different travel insurance providers so that you can make an informed (and wallet friendly) choice! It compares absolutely every travel insurance site, so you know you're getting the best deal.

How do you Use it?

Basically what happens is, you enter in some basic details about you, your family or your fellow travellers, your travel destination and of course what coverage you are looking for. The site then brings up a WHOLE HOST of different quotes for you to examine so you can select the best price and package to suit your travel needs.

The best annual travel insurance policies don't have to be the holy grail, make your choice easy by using a company like Money Supermarket to do the research for you!