Your Guide to Winter Travel | Saga Travel Insurance

Demand for trips abroad soars in the summer, but winter is a wonderful time to get away too. Prices can be lower, tourist sites less crowded, service more personal and upgrades possible.

If you haven’t got anything booked yet, there’s still time. But if you’re counting down the days to something special – maybe Christmas shopping in Germany, visiting family in New Zealand, or simply heading south for some off-peak sun in France, Italy or Spain – you won’t want anything to get in your way.

And that’s where travel insurance comes in. It protects three key things: your plans, your health and your belongings. You can get additional cover for your winter sports and leisure activities too.

It pays to plan ahead

Winter weather can cause unwelcome travel disruption with road traffic hold-ups, bus cancellations and train delays all adding to pre-departure stress. Here are some simple travel tips for worry-free winter holidays.

If you’re heading abroad, consider staying in a hotel near the airport the night before you travel so you won’t have a mad dash to catch your flight. Or pre-book airport valet parking so you can pull up as close to check-in as possible rather than parking in the dark and waiting for a bus to take you to the terminal.

But it’s when something totally out of the blue happens that means you have to cancel or abandon your plans altogether that you’ll be most relieved you’ve got insurance.

Get full cover for your health

Your health is the main thing you want to take care of while you’re away, especially during winter illness season.

You’ll need to declare all pre-existing medical conditions, so they’re covered on your policy. If you have medical issues or take a number of medications, it’s a good idea to tell your travel insurer about these over the phone.

Once your travel insurance is in place, if you become ill on holiday you’ll have a number of options for getting help.

Protect your belongings

There are many ways you can keep valuables safe on holiday including keeping items such as jewellery and gadgets close to you when you’re travelling.

Before you head off, it’s a good idea to take photos of costly items and jot down serial numbers of gadgets just in case you have to fill in any lost property forms later.

If the limit on your travel insurance isn’t high enough to cover valuable items you’re taking on holiday, check your personal belongings are covered on your home contents policy.

For those bearing gifts by airplane in November or December, make sure you read the airline’s guide to Christmas packing before you travel.

Before you go

Four travel insurance winter tips to get you off to a great start:

1. Get cover

Buy your travel insurance policy as soon as you book a trip and you’ll be covered if you have to cancel unexpectedly any time during the run-up to your holiday.

2. GHIC

Check your EHIC or GHIC is in date and whether it entitles you to state healthcare in the country you’re travelling to. These health cards won’t help everywhere or for everything, so you’ll still need travel insurance for major medical costs and repatriation.

3. FCDO

Always check in with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website before you go, as you won’t be covered if you go against its travel advice.

4. Delays

Consider what plans are in place if you experience flight delays. Some travel insurers give you free access to an airport lounge if your flight is held up by a specified amount of time, usually one or two hours. Choose a policy that offers this airport extra and the time should fly by while you and your travelling companions enjoy complimentary drinks and snacks in the comfort of a private lounge.

Set off with Saga

Let Saga take care of your travel insurance needs, with no upper age limit for travellers.

We have a choice of single trip policies so you can get the one that's the best fit for a one-off trip. Or, if you go away a lot, our annual multi-trip policies cover you for up to 180 days in a policy year – up to 45 days at a time with the option to extend your trip limit to 60 or 90 days (90 day extension excludes USA, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean Islands policies).

Each Saga Travel Insurance policy comes with a different cancellation cover limit, so you can choose the one that best suits the type of trip you're taking. For single trip policies, you can even specify to the pound the amount of cancellation cover you need.

Saga has plenty of experience in understanding customers' health issues, having covered more than 1.2 million people with diagnosed pre-existing conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

Emergency medical expenses are covered up to £2 million for UK trips and up to £20 million for overseas travel, depending on cover level. You'll also get 24-hour access to the UK-based Saga GP Service for phone or video consultations with a doctor while you're away.

Who underwrites Saga Travel Insurance?

Saga Travel Insurance is designed for people over 50 and is underwritten by Astrenska Insurance Limited, with claims administered on their behalf by Collinson Insurance Services Limited.