Only four of the nine carriers here price families differently in any meaningful way. Allianz covers children 17 and under free on its upper plans when an adult on the booking is a parent or grandparent; Travel Insured includes them free on Deluxe and Platinum; Travelex offers kids-included pricing on Ultimate; Berkshire Hathaway covers two children free on ExactCare. Everywhere else a child is simply another insured traveller at their own price. On a family of four that difference dwarfs anything else on the quote — and it is not available to Pennsylvania residents at Allianz.
| What matters here | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Family value or Family pricing | ×3 | Whether children are covered without their own premium. The carrier guides label this dimension both ways — each carrier is weighted once, on whichever of the two its own guide publishes. |
| Emergency medical limit | ×1 | What the policy will actually pay a hospital |
| Cruise-specific benefits | ×1 | Missed connection, missed port, and how fast a delay triggers |
What actually matters here
In rough order of how much it changes the outcome. The first one usually decides the rest.
Whether children are covered free, and on which plan
Allianz covers children 17 and under on its upper plans rather than all of them, provided they travel with a parent or grandparent. Travel Insured includes them free on Deluxe and Platinum, but not Essential. Berkshire Hathaway's ExactCare covers two children. Travelex Ultimate offers kids-included pricing per insured adult. Everywhere else, each child is priced individually.
Whether your state removes it
Allianz's free child cover is not available on policies issued to Pennsylvania residents. On a multi-generational booking that is often the single largest saving on the quote, so it is worth confirming before you assume it applies. Other state exceptions exist too.
The medical limit, multiplied
A family shares one policy but four people can need care. The medical limit is usually per person rather than per policy, but it is worth confirming which, because the answer changes what a bad week costs you.
Cover for the grandparent on the booking
Multi-generational cruising puts the oldest traveller's health at the centre of the risk. Where a policy prices on age, that traveller drives the premium — and Original Medicare generally provides no coverage outside the United States, outside limited exceptions.
Whether a child's illness can cancel the trip
Standard covered reasons generally include the illness of an insured traveller, which is the scenario families actually face. What varies is whether a non-travelling family member's illness counts, and that is worth reading before you rely on it.
The same nine, reordered for this
Every score here is already published in that company’s own guide on this site. This page only changes the weighting — Family value or Family pricing ×3 · Emergency medical limit ×1 · Cruise-specific benefits ×1.
The other five publish nothing about family or child pricing
Nothing is wrong with these policies — several score at the very top of this site on medical limits and evacuation. None of them publishes a family or child pricing benefit in the materials reviewed for this site, so there is no family dimension to rank them on.
IMG · WorldTrips · Seven Corners · Faye · Freely
The movement column is the point of this page.
These are the same nine companies in a different order, and several swing hard between one need and another. A carrier near the top here can sit near the bottom on a different page of this site — not because the scoring changed, but because the question did.
Which is the honest answer to “what is the best travel insurance”. There is no best. There is only best for something, and the something is yours to name.
The trap: assuming free child cover is standard
It is not standard. It is a differentiator at four carriers out of nine. Even there it is conditional: on the plan tier, on an adult relative being insured alongside the child, and at Allianz on not living in Pennsylvania.
The reason it matters so much is arithmetic. On a family of four, two free child premiums can exceed every other difference between two quotes combined.
So check it before you compare anything else — including price, because it is the thing most likely to change which quote is actually cheaper.
How to use this
Only four carriers could be ranked here at all, and that is the finding rather than a gap in the data. Before you use this order, confirm the child benefit applies to your plan tier, to your relationship to the child, and in your state — that variable can reorder the whole list on price.
It cannot price your trip. Premiums are filed at state level and vary by age, cost and dates, so two carriers a place apart here can be far apart on your own quote. Get both.
It cannot tell you what is sold where you live. Plans, names, limits and whole ranges change by state, and the shelf you actually see may be a fraction of this one. That has a page of its own.
And it cannot read the plan document for you. Every carrier here says the same thing in its own words: the certificate issued to you is the binding version. This page is a way of knowing what to look for in it.
Nothing on this site names a policy to buy. No company has paid to appear, and the ranking above weights judgements published openly in each guide — which you can disagree with, because the weighting is printed at the top.
See What Your State Does to Your Own Shortlist
This page catalogues the exceptions. The calculator applies them. Choose your state and it caps the limits, removes the ranges not sold to you, and marks the secondary-cover cases — then works out your purchase deadline from the date of your first deposit.
Work out my deadline →Straight answers
Do kids travel free on travel insurance?
At some carriers, on some plans. Allianz covers children 17 and under on its upper plans when they travel with a parent or grandparent, Travel Insured includes them free on Deluxe and Platinum, Berkshire Hathaway's ExactCare covers two children, and Travelex Ultimate offers kids-included pricing per insured adult. The other five publish no family or child pricing benefit in the materials reviewed. It is a genuine differentiator rather than a market norm.
Does free child cover apply in every state?
No. Allianz's free child cover is not available on policies issued to Pennsylvania residents, which is exactly the kind of exception that never appears in a comparison table. State availability changes plan names, limits and benefits across this market, which is why it has a page of its own.
Should the whole family be on one policy?
Usually it is simpler and often cheaper, particularly where free child cover applies, because that benefit generally requires the child to be insured alongside a parent or grandparent on the same policy. The case for separate policies is narrower — it tends to arise when one traveller needs a much higher limit, or lives in a state where the plan you want is not sold.
What happens if one child gets sick and we all cancel?
That is what trip cancellation is for, and the illness of an insured traveller is a standard covered reason on every comprehensive plan here. What varies is the wording around non-travelling family members, and around whether the whole party can claim when one person is the reason. Both sit in the plan document rather than the marketing page.
Ask us about cruise insurance
Tell us about the trip, and who's going.
What your booking is exposed to, which coverage types your group needs, and which deadline is closest to biting you.
Seabound Journeys is an independent travel advisory and does not sell insurance. Answers come from this guide and are general information rather than advice about your policy.
Sources and verification
Every limit, window and benefit named here was taken from that company's own published materials and is recorded with its source in the relevant guide on this site. The ranking re-weights scores already published in those guides — it introduces no new judgements, and the weighting it applies is printed in full at the top of the ranking so you can disagree with it.
Every limit, window and benefit named on this page was taken from that company's own published materials and is recorded with its source in the relevant guide on this site.
The ranking on this page RE-WEIGHTS judgements already published in those guides for this particular need. It does not introduce new scores, and the weighting is stated in full above.
Benefits, limits and availability all vary by state and by plan. The certificate issued to you is the only binding version.
Verified July 2026. Insurance terms change, ratings are revised, and carriers update plan documents without announcement. This page records what the sources said when it was checked and carries that date deliberately. The plan document issued for your state is the only binding version — nothing here replaces reading it.
Joey Boleslawski is the founder of Seabound Journeys and a CLIA-affiliated travel advisor with more than twenty years in the hospitality industry. He researches and writes every guide on this site himself, and books the sailings he writes about. The examples on this page were assembled from carriers' own plan documents, FAQs and disclosures, with secondary reporting used only where identified in the source notes above. More about how this site works →
The same nine companies, in a different order, because you asked a different question. Back to the ranking →
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