Do I Need Travel Insurance? A Complete Guide 2026

01 January, 1970

- By Bec

If you’ve booked the flights and accommodation but are now wondering, “Do I need travel insurance?” Well, picture this: you’re halfway through your dream holiday when you slip on some cobblestones and break your ankle.

The hospital bill? Over $15,000. Your rescheduled flights home? Another few thousand dollars. And guess what? Without travel insurance, that’s all coming straight out of your pocket.

It’s a scenario that plays out more often than you’d think. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than 1,400 Australians were hospitalised or fell ill while overseas in 2024-25 and needed consular assistance – and that’s just the serious cases where government help was required; the actual number of hospitalisations is likely much higher.

And Medicare will not cover you once you leave Australian shores and your private health insurance generally won’t either. So, if you’re wondering whether you really need travel insurance, the short answer is yes. But read on for absolutely everything you need to know.

what is
travel insurance?

Travel insurance is essentially a safety net for your trip. It’s a policy that protects you financially against unexpected events that could derail your holiday or leave you with massive bills.

At its core, comprehensive travel insurance typically covers a few key areas. Medical expenses are the big one – if you get sick or injured overseas, your policy can cover hospital stays, doctor visits, ambulance rides, and prescription medications.

Then there’s trip cancellation and interruption cover, which reimburses you for non-refundable costs if you need to cancel before you leave or cut your trip short due to covered reasons like illness, family emergencies, or natural disasters.

Lost, stolen, or damaged luggage is another common inclusion, along with travel delays that leave you stuck at an airport needing accommodation and meals. Many policies also include personal liability cover (in case you accidentally cause injury or damage to someone else’s property) and 24/7 emergency assistance services.

You can usually choose between different levels of cover. Basic or medical-only policies are the cheapest option, covering just your hospital and medical bills. Standard policies add in things like trip cancellation, luggage cover, and additional expenses. Comprehensive policies offer the highest claim limits and the broadest protection, which is particularly useful for longer trips or if you’re taking valuables with you.

The exact coverage varies between providers, so it’s worth reading the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to understand what’s included, what’s excluded, and what the claim limits are.

do i really need ?
travel insurance

To be blunt: Yes. Unless of course you’ve got tens of thousands of dollars sitting around and you’re happy to lose it all if things go pear-shaped.

Let’s break it down. Medical emergencies overseas are expensive. A simple emergency room visit in the United States can easily run into thousands of dollars. If you need hospitalisation, surgery, or specialist care, you could be looking at bills in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Then there’s medical evacuation. If you’re trekking in Nepal, diving in Indonesia, or exploring the Australian outback (which can require evacuation to major cities), the cost of emergency medical transport can exceed $20,000.

In more extreme cases, evacuations have been known to cost over $100,000, often requiring upfront payment before they’ll even move you. Yikes!

Beyond medical emergencies, there are plenty of other reasons to have cover. Trip cancellations happen – family emergencies, sudden illness, job loss, natural disasters. If you’ve paid thousands for flights, accommodation, and tours that are non-refundable, travel insurance means you might actually get some of that money back rather than losing the lot.

And lost luggage, travel delays, and missed connections are frustrating at the best of times, but they’re even worse when you’re the one who’s out of pocket for the replacement clothes, toiletries, accommodation, and meals. Travel insurance can reimburse these costs.

There’s also the peace of mind factor, which isn’t something you can put a dollar figure on. Knowing you’re covered means you can actually relax and enjoy your holiday instead of constantly worrying about worst-case scenarios.

is it okay to not get
travel insurance?

Look, in many countries it’s not mandatory to get travel insurance. But it’s always better to be safe than sorry and just get it!

Seriously, if you’re thinking of going without travel insurance, ask yourself: what’s a few hundred dollars compared to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars if something goes wrong?

The average comprehensive travel insurance policy costs somewhere between 4% and 10% of your total trip cost.

Sure, it’s not exactly pocket change, but it’s not going to break the bank either.

And if you’re travelling to countries where Australia doesn’t have a reciprocal healthcare agreement, you’re taking on significant financial risk by going uninsured.

We currently have reciprocal healthcare agreements with 11 countries: Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. But even in these countries, the reciprocal arrangement typically only covers basic emergency treatment in public hospitals – it’s not comprehensive, and you’d still be responsible for many of the related costs.

And everywhere else in the world? You’re on your own. And some destinations are particularly expensive. For instance, the United States is notorious for its astronomical healthcare costs. And while popular European countries like France, Germany, and Spain have excellent medical care, it comes at a pretty penny for visitors.

Even nearby destinations like Bali or Thailand (while more affordable than Western countries) can leave you with bills in the thousands for anything serious.

Not to mention, some overseas hospitals won’t even let you through the door unless you can show proof of insurance or make a substantial down payment. Imagine being seriously injured and being turned away because you can’t prove you can pay for treatment. It’s not a position anyone wants to be in.

It’s not just medical bills you need to think about either. Natural disasters, political unrest, airline strikes, supplier failures – these things do happen, and they can leave you stranded or out of pocket.

If you’ve invested a significant amount of money on your trip, going without insurance means you’re happy to risk losing it all. So, is it okay to not get travel insurance? Not really, no.

is it a must to get
travel insurance?

While we recommend getting travel insurance no matter where you’re jetting off to, in some countries it’s an absolute must because it’s mandatory.

Yes, a growing number of destinations now require visitors to have valid travel insurance as a condition of entry.

This trend has accelerated in recent years, particularly as many governments have started to prioritise their public health systems, wanting to ensure tourists don’t become a financial burden.

The biggest group requiring mandatory insurance is the Schengen Area in Europe. If you’re planning to visit countries like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, or the Netherlands, and your trip will be longer than 90 days, you must have travel insurance with at least €30,000 (roughly AU$50,000) in medical coverage and it must be valid for your entire duration of stay in Europe.

The 29 Schengen countries include:

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

Other countries with mandatory travel insurance requirements include (but are not limited to):

Argentina: Requires all foreign visitors to carry insurance covering medical emergencies, hospitalisation, 24/7 assistance, medical transport or evacuation, and repatriation for the entire duration of their stay.
Cuba: Requires all international visitors to have travel insurance with minimum medical coverage of US$10,000 (roughly AU$14,000) for emergency medical treatment and hospitalisation. This coverage must be specifically valid in Cuba, as many international policies exclude certain countries or regions.

This list is not exhaustive, so always check your destination's specific entry requirements before you travel.

If you try to enter a country where travel insurance is mandatory without it, you could face visa rejection, delays at immigration, be forced to purchase expensive local insurance on the spot or even be denied entry entirely.

And like we said above, it’s better to be safe than sorry! Just get travel insurance no matter where you’re going.

when should i purchase
travel insurance?

It’s best to get travel insurance immediately after you book your trip. Why? The earlier you buy it, the bigger your coverage window.

If you wait until a week before you leave, you likely won’t be protected against unforeseen events that could happen in the months before you depart – like getting sick, a family emergency, or even natural disasters affecting your destination.

For instance, let’s say you book a trip to Fiji, and you buy travel insurance right after booking. A few months later, a cyclone is forecast to hit Fiji during your travel dates. Because you already have travel insurance, you’ll most likely be covered if you need to cancel.

However, if you booked a Fiji trip and planned to get travel insurance closer to the departure date, but a cyclone was predicted before you purchased it, you won’t be covered for anything cyclone-related because it’s now a known event.

Now, if you’re booking your trip in stages – flights this month, accommodation next month, tours later – you should still buy your insurance when you make that first payment, then update your policy as you add more costs. Most insurers should let you modify your coverage to reflect your final trip cost, as long as you do it before you depart.

Finally, and with all that said, don’t panic if you’ve already booked and paid for most of your trip and haven’t bought insurance yet!

You can still purchase travel insurance right up until the day before you depart (with most providers), and you can still get important coverage like emergency medical expenses, trip interruption, baggage loss, and travel delays.

Tip: If you travel frequently, consider an annual multi-trip policy instead of buying separate cover each time you jet off. These policies cover you for multiple getaways over a 12-month period and can be more cost-effective if you’re taking two or more trips per year. Just make sure you buy it before your first departure of the year to maximise your coverage.

Bec Milligan

Bec Milligan is a Content Writer at Compare Travel Insurance, where she creates in-depth guides to help Australians find the right cover for every kind of trip. With a background in journalism spanning some of Australia's most respected publications (including WHO Magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly and DMARGE) she brings sharp editorial instincts and a knack for making complex policy details genuinely readable.