Can you get travel insurance over 80?

From that luxury cruise to finally seeing far-flung relatives, it's possible your plans for retirement include some big trips. Just don't leave them too late.

We've found that travel insurance premiums start to rise in your 60s.

But at least you can get insured: once you reach your 80s, many insurers turn their backs on you altogether. And those that remain charge ever higher prices.

Here, we explore how much of the market is available to older travellers, how likely it is to impact your price and show you how you can still get great cover.

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How age limits affect you

Generally speaking, until you hit your 80s, age limitations on travel insurance policies won't close much of the market off. 

In April, we analysed the maximum ages of 145 annual and single-trip policies. As the table below reveals, a customer in their 70s has access to over 90% of policies that a customer in their 40s could buy.

However, by the time you've reached your 80th birthday, the picture has changed dramatically: more than two thirds of annual policies become unavailable.

Bleak as this may seem, lots of insurers unwilling to sell annual cover to the over-80s will still offer them single-trip policies. 

This makes it worth checking how much it would cost to cover your trips separately, even if you're planning multiple trips in a year and have previously only paid attention to annual policies.

Most annual policies unavailable for over-80s travellers 

• Find out more: read our guide to the best travel insurance for older customers

Price hikes (not just prices) soar with age

What's probably a larger cause of complaint than insurers being unwilling to sell cover to older customers is what happens to prices. Insurers view older customers as being more likely to make expensive claims and so factor this into their premiums. And the effect isn't subtle.

In June, when we ran quotes for annual European policies, we found not only higher prices when we increased the traveller's age, but also that these increases grew bigger the further along we got. 

The cheapest policies available to a 60-year-old were about double those available to a 40-year-old. The prices for an 80-year-old were three and a half times higher than those of a 70-year-old.

Average quotes for annual European policies

Older travellers can still get great cover

While we've painted a somewhat dispiriting picture around the availability and price of travel insurance for older travellers, the good news is that there are still plenty of insurers offering quality cover to customers in their 80s and older.

When we analysed the cover in 153 policies, we awarded 22 policies Best Buy status, meaning they stood out in our assessment for having high levels of cover while not coming from providers with poor claims records.

Over half (12 out of 20) of the Best Buys for annual cover had age restrictions that allowed those aged 80 to buy with them. Meanwhile, all single-trip Best Buys (18/18) were available. 

Our top-scoring Best Buy came from Saga, which specialises in covering older customers.

• Find out more: our full table of Best Buys

Watch out for age-related exclusions

With many policies, particular features of cover can vary depending on your age. Lots of annual policies, for example, reduce the number of days of cover available per trip for older travellers. 

You can find out more about this in our detailed reviews of 15 providers, including the nine firms with Best Buy products.

For more advice on things to consider if you're buying travel insurance as an older customer, see our packed guide.