Is travel insurance worth it for backpacking?
Yes. A single hospital visit abroad can cost more than years of premiums, and backpacker policies are cheap — often £30–£70 for a multi-week trip. The catch is cover: make sure it includes the activities you'll actually do (scooters, diving, trekking), your full trip length, and enough for your phone and gear.
The claims that sink people aren't the dramatic ones — they're the scooter graze that needs stitches, the stolen phone, or the missed connection. Read what's excluded: many standard policies won't cover riding a motorbike without the right licence, or diving below a certain depth.
Buy it when you book, not at the airport — decent policies cover cancellation from the day you purchase, so you're protected if something goes wrong before you even leave.
Disclosure, because we're an honest broker: if you get cover through our insurance page we may earn a commission — it doesn't change the advice above, and any policy that covers your actual activities beats any particular brand.