Is travel insurance worth it? An honest cost-versus-risk answer.
Travel insurance is worth it when you have real money at risk that you cannot get back, or when a medical emergency far from home could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. It is not worth much when your trip is small, fully refundable, and close to home. Most trips fall somewhere in between, so the honest answer depends on two questions you can answer in a minute.
Question one: how much would you lose if you canceled?
Add up the prepaid money you could not recover if you had to cancel tomorrow: the cruise fare, the nonrefundable hotel, the tour deposit, the airfare change fees. If that number is small, trip cancellation coverage is not buying you much. If it is several thousand dollars, a plan that returns 100% of it for a few hundred dollars is straightforward math.
Question two: what happens if you get sick or hurt away from home?
This is the part travelers underweight. A hospital stay abroad, and especially a medical evacuation, can run from thousands into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and your regular health plan may pay little or nothing outside its network. For older travelers, this single benefit often justifies the whole policy, separate from any cancellation concern.
When it is not worth it
I tell people to skip it when there is nothing to protect. A fully refundable weekend with no flights and no health concerns does not need a policy. Selling someone coverage that protects nothing is not how I want to spend a reputation built over decades.
Common questions
Is travel insurance ever a waste of money?
It can be, if your trip is small, fully refundable, and close to home with no health concerns. The value comes from real nonrefundable costs and medical risk abroad.
What is the most valuable part of a plan?
For most travelers over 60, the emergency medical and evacuation coverage, because those costs can be enormous and your home health plan may not cover them abroad.
How do I decide quickly?
Add up what you would lose if you canceled, then consider what a medical emergency abroad could cost. If either number is large, a plan is usually worth it.
The bottom line
Travel insurance earns its price when you have real money or real medical exposure at stake, which is most meaningful trips and nearly every trip abroad. Our quiz compares three plans for your trip and recommends the one that fits, so you can weigh the cost against your own numbers.
Reviewed by Ati Jain, licensed travel insurance agent, NPN 20159563. Last reviewed June 2026.