Travel insurance reviews

Last updated: 26th October 2015

We review and compare 35 comprehensive travel insurance policies from 30 insurers offering backpackers, singles, couples, families and seniors travel insurance to recommend the best travel insurance for you.

Insurers include Southern Cross Travel Insurance, One Cover, Virgin Money Travel Insurance, Aussie Travel Cover and CGU Travel Insurance.

Going somewhere? Check out our travel guides for Europe. Japan. the USA and more. For advice on how to get from the airport to the hotel, get the best cash rates, and why you shouldn't tread on money in Thailand or smack your kids in New Zealand.

Independent travel insurance comparison

We're not like the other insurance comparison websites we don't get paid by any of the insurers we're comparing. Instead, we find the best travel insurance policies for consumers by focusing on:

• Price - We rank policies from the cheapest ($) to the most expensive ($$$$$).
• Features - We collect policy information and assign policies a score out of 100 for their policy features. This includes medical, cancellation, baggage, public liability, activities covered and more. (If you're interested in reading more about exclusions, read our articles on common travel insurance exclusions. mental health and travel insurance. and travel insurance and alcohol exclusions .)
• Claim service - We use the Financial Ombudsman Service's (FOS) data to create the dispute rating, based on the number of consumers that lodged a dispute about an insurer with FOS in 2013 14, how far they progressed through that process and what the chance was of achieving an agreeable outcome.

Comprehensive policies

In this comparison, we've assessed the policies that insurers classify as their comprehensive insurance offering. Comprehensive travel insurance generally has higher levels of cover for medical, cancellation, baggage, public liability and cover for the excess on your car hire.

Like most things in life, the more you get the more it costs. But our analysis picks out the CHOICE buys with above-average cover at below-average prices.

Before you buy

If you don't know where to start. or even which end of a PDS is up, visit our travel insurance buying guide for a cheat sheet and expert tips on shopping for travel insurance .