Cruise travel insurance

You should buy cruise insurance as soon as you’ve booked your holiday – you may need to cancel your trip if you fall ill prior to departure.

Find out if your cruise is ATOL protected or not by checking your holiday provider’s website – look for the ATOL protected logo. If your cruise is covered by ATOL, you should also receive a certificate with all the details of this.

If you have any doubts, check with your holiday provider before you book.

You can buy cruise travel insurance after you've booked your holiday until your departure date.

But if you don't buy cover right away and need to cancel your holiday, you may lose out financially.

There is also often a period after booking when you can't claim, often 24 hours. So it's not always a good idea to leave it to the last minute to buy a policy.

If you're going on a domestic cruise around the UK, you may still need insurance. The NHS will cover your medical costs, but you won't have cancellation cover.

But if you're using travel insurance for a domestic cruise, check the policy's small print. Some travel insurers have certain rules, such as travelling a certain distance away from your home before you can use the policy.

You'll need cruise insurance to cover the extra risks associated with a cruise trip. This includes travelling to different countries and potentially being airlifted to a hospital if there isn't the right medical equipment on board.

Before you buy your cruise cover, check which countries you'll be travelling through on your river cruise and make sure they're included.

Insurance is all about risk and the more countries you visit, the higher the risk will be of something going wrong. Similarly, if you're travelling to somewhere dangerous or remote, the price may be higher as it'll cost an insurer more to pay out a claim made there.

The price is also affected by the cost of medical care. In America, for example, it's a lot more expensive to seek medical treatment than it is in France.

As with standard travel insurance, you can buy a group policy or one with family members on.

If you decide to do this it's worth checking the price of a combined policy and separate policies. If one person is a higher risk, like if they have a pre-existing medical condition, they may increase the overall price for the whole family.

You don't need a Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) (which is replacing the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) for a cruise but it might be useful.

The card gives you access to medical treatment at the same cost as a local would pay. This can dramatically reduce your medical bills if you do need treatment. It's not a substitute for insurance but it can lower your costs. But it doesn't cover all EU countries so check which are included before your trip.

If you still have an EHIC you can continue using it until it expires. You can apply for a GHIC up to 6 months before your EHIC is due to expire for free through the NHS website.

You can buy cruise insurance that covers worldwide travel or specific areas. You're likely to visit or travel through a few different countries on a cruise. So it's important to make sure your insurance covers all of these countries.

In some cases, insurance won't cover countries that are especially dangerous or where the Foreign Office has warned against travelling to. If you're not sure, check with your insurer.

If you go on a few cruise trips every year, annual multi-trip travel insurance with cruise cover could be an option. It will cover cruises anywhere in the world and it is often cheaper than buying standalone policies for each cruise you go on.

It's always worth comparing prices though to make sure you're getting the best value. In some cases, annual insurance can be more expensive if you have pre-existing medical conditions.