Why Every Family Needs Travel Insurance (And the Two Providers We Actually Use)

Let me tell you about the afternoon in Tokyo when I was genuinely glad we had travel insurance.

We were mid-trip, mid-itinerary, mid-excitement. The kind of day in Japan where everything is going well and the city has that electric quality it gets when you are in it with people you love and nowhere else you need to be. And then our son woke up the next day with bright green eye discharge (sorry if this is TMI) and one very red, very unhappy eye.

Pink eye. In Tokyo. With a full itinerary ahead of us and zero knowledge of how to navigate the Japanese healthcare system as a tourist in a city where we did not speak the language.

What followed was a lost travel afternoon. This entailed the time it took to find a local clinic, navigate the appointment process, get the diagnosis, fill the prescription, and get back to our accommodation. It was not a disaster. It was not even particularly scary, because the clinic was excellent and the doctor was kind and helpful in ways that made the whole thing manageable. But it was unexpected, it cost money, and it was genuinely comforting to know that our travel insurance was there to help us navigate it in the end. Both the costs and the logistics of knowing we had a safety net in place.

That is the thing about travel insurance. You do not think about it on the good days. You are very, very glad you have it on the days that pop up out of nowhere.

   

And with kids? The likelihood of at least one unplanned medical moment across a multi-week international trip is possible.

This guide covers everything our family has learned about travel insurance from firsthand experience, including an honest look at the two providers we personally use and the specific reasons we choose each one for different types of trips.

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Please note: This post is for informational purposes only. Always read the full policy details before purchasing any travel insurance product, as coverage terms, pricing, and availability can change. This is not professional insurance advice.

Navigate to where you want to go:

• The Honest Answer to “Do I Really Need It?”
• What Your US Health Insurance Does NOT Cover Abroad
• What Travel Insurance Actually Covers
• The Medical Evacuation Number That Should Alarm You
• What to Look For in a Family Travel Insurance Policy
• Arch RoamRight: Our Go-To for Trip Protection
• SafetyWing: Our Pick for Flexible and Long-Term Coverage
• Arch RoamRight vs SafetyWing: How We Choose Between Them
• When to Buy (And Why Timing Really Matters)
• What Travel Insurance Does NOT Cover
• Our Tokyo Moment: What Having Insurance Actually Did for Us
• Final Thoughts

The Honest Answer to “Do I Really Need It?”

Yes. If you are traveling internationally with your family, you need travel insurance. I am going to say that clearly and without hesitating, because I think the travel insurance conversation is one where too much nuance gets in the way of a pretty straightforward answer.

Here is the version I give every family who asks me about it through Wayfaring Consulting. The cost of travel insurance is typically 4–8% of your total trip cost. On a $10,000 family international trip, that is $400–800 for the entire trip. The cost of a single medical emergency abroad, such as an ER visit, a hospital stay, an evacuation, can be tens of thousands of dollars. The math is not complicated.

The question is not whether international family travel carries risk. It does, and not because the world is a dangerous place (it is not, by and large), but because unplanned events happen. Kids get sick, flights get cancelled, luggage gets delayed, and unexpected things happen to even the best-planned trips. The question is whether you want to absorb those costs and logistical challenges entirely on your own, or whether you want a safety net.

We choose the safety net. Every trip, every time.

What Your US Health Insurance Does NOT Cover Abroad

This is the most important thing I want every American family to understand before they get on a plane with their kids: your US health insurance almost certainly does not cover you internationally.

Medicare and Medicaid provide essentially zero coverage outside the United States. Most private US health insurance plans treat international medical care as out-of-network and either deny claims entirely or provide severely limited reimbursement after the fact. These scenarios still requires you to pay out of pocket upfront and then fight for reimbursement back home.

This means that if your child gets sick in Tokyo, or you break a wrist in Portugal, or someone in your family has a medical emergency in Thailand, you are largely on your own financially without travel insurance in place.

Additionally, the CDC and the US State Department both recommend that all Americans traveling internationally secure travel health insurance before departure for exactly this reason.

Travel insurance fills this gap. It is not a nice-to-have. It is the coverage that makes international family travel financially responsible rather than financially reckless.

What Travel Insurance Actually Covers

Travel insurance is not a single thing. It is a bundle of protections that vary by plan and provider. Here are the main categories of coverage and why each matters for families:

   

Emergency Medical Coverage

Covers doctor visits, urgent care, hospital stays, prescription medication, and emergency dental care when you are abroad. This is the foundational coverage and the reason most families buy travel insurance in the first place. Emergency medical claims represent over 27% of all travel insurance claims paid, with average payouts of approximately $1,816 per claim — but individual claims can run into the tens of thousands for serious incidents.

Medical Evacuation

Covers the cost of transporting you to an appropriate medical facility if local care is inadequate, or transporting you back to the US for treatment if medically necessary. This is one of the most important and most underappreciated coverage categories — more on the specific numbers in the next section.

Trip Cancellation

Reimburses your pre-paid, non-refundable trip costs if you have to cancel before you leave due to a covered reason — illness, injury, death of a family member, certain natural disasters, and other qualifying events. Trip cancellation and interruption claims account for approximately 40% of all paid travel insurance claims, with average payouts of $5,511 and some individual claims exceeding $50,000.

Trip Interruption

Similar to cancellation, but applies if you have to cut your trip short mid-travel. If a family emergency brings you home early from a two-week international trip, trip interruption coverage reimburses the non-refundable costs you are walking away from.

Trip Delay

Covers additional expenses such as hotel stays, meals, transportation. if your trip is significantly delayed due to covered causes like weather, mechanical issues, or airline strikes.

Baggage Loss and Delay

Covers lost, stolen, or damaged luggage and essential purchases if your bags are delayed at the start of your trip. With young children, a delayed bag containing car seats, medications, and children’s clothing is not merely inconvenient — it is an urgent situation that this coverage addresses.

Emergency Assistance Services

Often overlooked but genuinely valuable: 24/7 access to an emergency assistance line that helps you navigate finding a doctor, arranging medical care in a foreign country, coordinating evacuations, replacing lost documents, and managing the logistical chaos of an unexpected crisis far from home. When we were finding a clinic in Tokyo, having this resource available was part of what made the situation manageable.

The Medical Evacuation Number That Should Alarm You

I want to pause specifically on medical evacuation because it is the coverage category that most clearly illustrates why “I’ll just use my credit card if something happens” is not a complete plan.

Emergency medical evacuation, which is the transporting of a patient from a foreign country back to the United States for treatment, costs upwards of $200,000 depending on your location and the severity of the situation. That number comes from the CDC and the State Department. It is not an exaggeration. International medical evacuation is extraordinarily expensive, involving air ambulances, specialized medical staff, coordination across healthcare systems, and international logistics that standard travel does not involve.

Most travel insurance plans with medical evacuation coverage include this protection for a fraction of what the event itself would cost. This single coverage category, for a family with children traveling internationally, justifies the cost of a travel insurance policy on its own.

What to Look For in a Family Travel Insurance Policy

Not all travel insurance policies are created equal and deciding purely based on price is not a good strategy. Here is what we look for specifically as a family:

Free or discounted child coverage. The best family-oriented travel insurance policies include children at no additional cost per adult, or at significantly reduced child rates. This makes a meaningful difference to the total premium for a family of four versus four individual adults.

Medical coverage limits appropriate for your destination. Coverage limits vary widely between plans. Higher limits matter more for destinations with expensive healthcare systems or remote locations requiring potential evacuation.

Pre-existing condition coverage or waiver. If anyone in your family has a pre-existing medical condition, look carefully at whether the policy excludes it entirely or whether a waiver is available if you purchase within a certain window of your initial trip deposit. (You will want to check coverage if you have high risk, or other pregnancy complications)

24/7 emergency assistance. This is non-negotiable for families traveling internationally with kids. You need to be able to call someone at 2am when something goes wrong and have a real person help you navigate it.

Trip cancellation for covered reasons that match your risk profile. Read the fine print on what qualifies as a covered cancellation reason. Some policies are broader than others, and the difference between “cancel for covered reasons” and “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) is significant.

Evacuation and repatriation coverage. As discussed above above, make sure it is in the policy and you understand the limits.

Arch RoamRight: Our Go-To for Trip Protection

Arch RoamRight is our primary travel insurance provider and the one we most consistently recommend to families through Wayfaring Consulting. We use it, we trust it, and here is the honest breakdown of why.

What Arch RoamRight is

Arch RoamRight is a travel insurance brand under Arch Insurance Company, founded in 2012. It is not a broker, it offers its own pre-designed plans directly. It currently holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot, which places it among the highest-rated travel insurance providers for customer satisfaction.

The plans:

Arch RoamRight offers four plans. The two primary options for families booking a planned trip are:

Pro Plan: Comprehensive coverage including trip cancellation at 100% of trip cost, trip interruption at 100%, emergency medical, medical evacuation, baggage delay and loss, missed connection coverage, and 24/7 emergency assistance. One child 18 or younger travels free with each insured adult. This is a genuine family benefit that directly reduces your total premium.

Pro Plus Plan: Everything in the Pro plan with upgraded limits plus trip interruption at 150% of trip cost, higher missed connection and baggage delay reimbursement, higher baggage loss coverage (up to $1,500 vs $750 on Pro), and coverage for work-related cancellation reasons.

On-Trip Plus Plan: Designed for last-minute purchases after your trip has already started. Covers trip delay, baggage issues, and emergency medical. Useful if you realize mid-trip that you should have bought coverage.

Multi-Trip Plan: Annual coverage for frequent travelers. If your family takes more than two or three international trips per year, this is worth comparing against the cost of individual trip policies.

Why we like Arch RoamRight specifically:

The free child coverage per adult is the headline family benefit. For our family of four, this significantly reduces what we pay versus policies that charge individual rates for every traveler.

The claims process is a consistent positive experience. It’s straightforward, responsive, and with customer service that the Trustpilot reviews reflect as genuinely helpful rather than obstructive. In the world of insurance, easy claims processing is not a given, and Arch RoamRight’s reputation for it is one of the reasons we keep coming back.

The 24/7 emergency assistance line is exactly what you need when you are navigating an unexpected medical moment in a foreign country. Having someone available to help you find an appropriate local provider, understand your coverage in the moment, and coordinate the logistics of care is the practical value of this coverage beyond the financial protection.

The honest considerations:

Arch RoamRight’s medical limits are on the lower end compared to some competitors — which means it is best suited for families traveling to destinations with solid healthcare infrastructure (Europe, Japan, Australia, major Asian cities) rather than extremely remote locations where potential evacuation costs are highest. For destinations with higher medical risk or more remote healthcare access, compare limits carefully before purchasing.

The website is functional but not the slickest experience, however the quote process is clear and simple. Even though the overall digital experience is a little dated, it has not affected our experience with the product itself, just the initial purchase process.

Ready to get a quote? Use our affiliate link here: Get an Arch RoamRight Quote — you pay nothing extra and it supports our small business.

SafetyWing: Our Pick for Flexible and Long-Term Coverage

SafetyWing is our second travel insurance provider and the one we reach for when our trip structure calls for something different from a traditional single-trip policy.

What SafetyWing is

SafetyWing was founded in 2017 by digital nomads for digital nomads. They are a Norwegian company built around the specific needs of long-term international travelers who do not fit the mold of a traditional “two-week vacation” insurance customer. It has since expanded significantly beyond the nomad niche and is genuinely well-suited to families who travel frequently, travel long-term, or want flexible monthly coverage rather than a single upfront premium.

The plans (as of 2026):

SafetyWing’s Nomad Insurance now offers three tiers under its updated 2026 structure:

Essential: Covers emergency care, accident medical, and emergency evacuation. $250 deductible. This is the baseline plan and the one most comparable to traditional travel medical insurance.

Standard: Adds GP visits (up to $75 per visit) and prescription coverage to the Essential base. $100 deductible. A meaningful upgrade for families who want outpatient coverage beyond pure emergency care.

Premium: Zero deductible, full outpatient coverage, mental health benefits, and wellness care added. The most comprehensive tier for families who want health-insurance-level coverage while traveling.

The family benefit: One adult can add up to three children under 19 for free on any SafetyWing plan. This is an excellent family benefit that makes the already affordable monthly pricing even more compelling per-family.

Why we like SafetyWing:

The monthly subscription model is genuinely flexible in a way that traditional travel insurance is not. You pay month by month, can cancel anytime with a pro-rated refund, and can purchase coverage even after your trip has already started, which is a feature that almost no traditional travel insurance provider offers. If you decide mid-trip that you want insurance, or if your trip extends beyond its original dates, SafetyWing accommodates both scenarios without penalty.

For longer trips, such as two weeks or more, and especially trips of a month or longer, the cumulative monthly cost of SafetyWing often comes out very favorably compared to a single upfront trip insurance premium. This is particularly relevant for families doing extended travel or slow travel through multiple countries.

The loyalty discount structure rewards families who use SafetyWing consistently: 5% off after 12 months of continuous coverage, 10% after 24 months, and 15% after 36 months.

Coverage is available in 180+ countries, and the claims processing through Trustpilot averages approximately 8 business days with a 4.1/5 overall rating.

One note from our experience and from consistent reviewer feedback: contact SafetyWing for pre-authorization before seeking treatment when possible, not after. This step increases final reimbursement rates meaningfully and avoids documentation issues on the back end.

The honest considerations:

SafetyWing is primarily travel medical insurance. It does not include trip cancellation coverage in its standard plans. This is the single most important distinction from Arch RoamRight. If trip cancellation protection matters to you (and for families with significant non-refundable trip costs, it should), you need to either supplement SafetyWing with a separate cancellation policy or use a provider like Arch RoamRight that bundles both (or check the credit card used to purchase your trip has this as a benefit).

The review feedback on document requirements echoes what we have encountered with insurance claims generally. Have your documentation organized and complete before filing makes the process significantly smoother. Keep receipts, medical reports, and any provider correspondence from the moment something happens, not as an afterthought.

Ready to explore SafetyWing? Use our affiliate link here: Get a SafetyWing Quote — again, no extra cost to you and it supports the work we do here.

Arch RoamRight vs SafetyWing: How We Choose Between Them

Here is our honest, practical guide to how we decide which provider to use for a specific trip:

We choose Arch RoamRight when:

• We have a significant non-refundable trip cost we want protected (flights, hotels, tours)
• Trip cancellation coverage is a priority
• We are booking a defined single trip with clear dates
• We want comprehensive bundled protection in one policy

We choose SafetyWing when:

• Our trip is longer (three weeks or more) and the monthly pricing is more cost-effective
• We are doing a multi-country itinerary with flexible end dates
• Trip cancellation is less of a concern (all-inclusive resort, fully flexible bookings)
• We want the flexibility to purchase or extend coverage mid-trip

The honest side-by-side:

When to Buy (And Why Timing Really Matters)

Travel insurance timing is one of the most underappreciated aspects of getting good coverage, and getting it wrong can mean the policy you paid for does not cover what you expected it to.

Buy as soon as you make your first trip payment.

Most travel insurance policies have what is called a “look-back period” for pre-existing conditions. which is typically 60–180 days. If you purchase your policy within a certain window of your initial trip deposit (often 14–21 days), many providers offer a pre-existing condition waiver that removes those exclusions entirely. Wait too long and that waiver is no longer available.

Additionally, for trip cancellation coverage to protect your full trip cost, you need the policy in place before something goes wrong. A named hurricane that exists when you purchase the policy is typically a “known event” and therefore excluded from coverage. A hurricane that forms after your policy is in effect is covered. Buying early maximizes what your cancellation coverage can actually protect.

The 14–21 day rule: For maximum protection including pre-existing condition waivers and the broadest cancellation coverage, purchase your travel insurance within 14–21 days of your initial deposit. Consider this part of your standard trip booking checklist, right alongside the actual booking itself.

SafetyWing exception: SafetyWing’s flexible monthly model means you can purchase after departure, which is genuinely useful in specific situations. But for comprehensive protection including trip cancellation, early purchase through a provider like Arch RoamRight is the better approach.

What Travel Insurance Does NOT Cover

Equally important to knowing what is covered is knowing what is not. This misunderstanding is how families end up with denied claims and genuine frustration with a product that would have worked fine if they had understood its scope.

Pre-existing conditions (without a waiver):

Most standard travel insurance policies exclude claims arising from pre-existing medical conditions unless you have purchased a pre-existing condition waiver (which requires buying within a specified window of your initial deposit). Read your policy carefully and be honest and complete when disclosing medical history.

Pandemic-related cancellations:

The COVID era changed this landscape significantly. Most current policies now include some COVID-19 related coverage, but the specifics vary. Do not assume and read your policy’s COVID provisions explicitly.

Known events:

If a hurricane has already been named, a travel advisory has already been issued, or a civil disruption is already underway before you purchase, your policy will not cover losses related to that specific event. This is the “known event exclusion” and it is why buying early matters.

High-risk activities:

Adventure sports, extreme activities, and specific high-risk activities may require an add-on to be covered. If your family’s trip includes activities beyond standard tourism, for example: backcountry hiking, scuba diving, skydiving, motorcycles, check your policy’s adventure sports provisions and add the rider if needed.

Alcohol-related incidents:

Claims arising from incidents related to alcohol consumption are typically excluded.

Traveling against medical advice:

If your doctor has advised against travel and you go anyway, related claims are typically not covered.

War and active conflict:

Coverage for losses arising from acts of war is standard exclusion. Arch RoamRight, for example, currently notes explicitly that their plans do not cover losses related to the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Our Tokyo Moment: What Having Insurance Actually Did for Us

I want to come back to the Tokyo pink eye story and be specific about what having travel insurance actually meant in practice. Because I think it illustrates the real value better than any coverage breakdown.

When we realized our son needed to see a doctor, the first thing we did was contact our insurance provider’s 24/7 emergency assistance line. They helped us identify an appropriate clinic nearby that was accustomed to treating international patients. That one piece of guidance in knowing where to go in a foreign city where we did not speak the language, with a sick child, without the stress of searching blind was worth a significant amount of the peace of mind that travel insurance provides.

The clinic visit was handled professionally. The diagnosis was straightforward (pink eye, treatable, nothing serious), the prescription was filled, and we were back at our accommodation within a couple of hours. We lost part of a travel day. We did not lose sleep over the cost or the logistics, because we had coverage in place.

The financial reimbursement for that clinic visit was genuinely simple to process. We kept our receipts, filed the claim when we got home, and were reimbursed. That part of the story is not dramatic and that is the point. When travel insurance works well, the claims process should not be dramatic. It should be a straightforward resolution to an unexpected situation.

That is what travel insurance does for families. Not just the financial protection, though that matters. The ability to act confidently and quickly when something unexpected happens, knowing you have a safety net and a resource on the other end of a phone line at any hour, in any country.

For families traveling internationally with young children, I genuinely cannot imagine doing it without.

Final Thoughts

We have now traveled internationally with our kids across multiple continents. We have flown long haul with babies, navigated foreign healthcare systems, dealt with delayed luggage, and handled the full spectrum of unexpected moments that international family travel produces.

Travel insurance has been on every single one of those trips. Not because we expect the worst, because we genuinely do not, but because our experiences have been overwhelmingly wonderful. The real season is because we believe in traveling smart. We believe in protecting the investment we make in these experiences for our family. And we believe in the peace of mind that comes from knowing that if something does go sideways at 11pm in a foreign city, we have a plan and a resource in place.

Arch RoamRight is our anchor for defined trips with significant non-refundable costs. SafetyWing is our solution for longer, more flexible travel. Between the two of them, our family is covered for every kind of international trip we take.

If you are not yet buying travel insurance for your international family trips, I hope this post is what changes that. It is one of the most straightforward ways to travel more confidently and more responsibly — and the cost, relative to what it protects, is genuinely worth it every time.

Ready to get covered?

• Get a quote from Arch RoamRight
• Get a quote from SafetyWing

Questions about which plan is right for your family’s specific trip? Drop them in the comments below or reach out through Wayfaring Consulting. Travel insurance guidance is part of every trip planning conversation we have with families.

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