Whether you’re going on the trip of a lifetime or visiting your adult children who’ve moved away, there’s one non-negotiable when heading overseas, and that’s travel insurance. You need overseas travel insurance for medical care and evacuation if nothing else, and this gets even more important as we age. Travel insurance can also cover things like theft, additional accommodation or cancellation costs if your trip is interrupted, and returning to Australia early if a relative becomes ill.
Do seniors pay more for travel insurance?
Yes, our analysis of premiums across age groups shows that older people pay more. Travellers in their 70s pay more than triple the price of those in their 30s and 40s, and those aged over 80 pay more than six times the price.
People in the higher age brackets tend to have longer trips, but this doesn’t seem to explain the skyrocketing premiums. In fact, prices really start to increase for travellers in their 50s and 60s, who pay around 10% and 80% more, respectively, than those in their 30s and 40s.
Text-only accessible version
The above infographic is titled “How much does travel insurance cost for seniors?” It contains a dual-axis combination chart. One axis depicts the average quote (per traveller) for international travel insurance, grouped by age of the oldest traveller. The other axis depicts the average trip length for the quoted travel scenarios.
Average premiums based on a market-representative sample of 184,194 quotes collected in September 2026. Quotes for a wide variety of customer profiles (single and duo travel groups) were collected at the insurers’ default excess with as close as possible to $10,000 cancellation benefit selected.
Age group: 20s Average premium per traveller: $178 Average trip length : 20 days
Age group: 30s Average premium per traveller: $197 Average trip length: 22 days
Age group: 40s Average premium per traveller: $184 Average trip length: 20 days
Age group: 50s Average premium per traveller: $207 Average trip length: 22 days
Age group: 60s Average premium per traveller: $342 Average trip length: 27 days
Age group: 70s Average premium per traveller: $672 Average trip length: 29 days
Age group: 80s Average premium per traveller: $1250 Average trip length: 29 days
How much does travel insurance to the UK cost for seniors?
The average cost for travel insurance for a trip to the UK is $875 for a couple or family with an adult in their 70s. A couple or family with an adult in their 60s pays $584 on average, while a similar group with an adult in their 50s pays $488 and for someone in their 40s it’s $364 on average.
The above infographic shows a table with average quotes for travel insurance to the United Kingdom, for couples and families. Averages are grouped by the age group of the oldest traveller.
Based on 8254 market representative quotes collected in September 2026. Quotes for a wide variety of customer profiles were collected at the insurers’ default excess with as close as possible to $10,000 cancellation benefit selected.
Age group: 40s Cost: $364
Age group: 50s Cost: $488
Age group: 60s Cost: $584
Age group: 70s Cost: $875
Reciprocal healthcare: Australia has reciprocal healthcare arrangements with several countries such as the UK. So do you still need travel insurance and will it still cover you? The answer is yes to both questions. Reciprocal health care usually only covers urgent care that can’t wait until you get home, while travel insurance can pay for a medical escort home, or additional expenses if you have to stay longer overseas than expected. And if you’re travelling somewhere like the UK, you’ll have to transit through other countries that Australia doesn’t have a reciprocal healthcare agreement with, so you need cover for your journey.
Will travel insurance cover your existing medical conditions?
As we get older and wiser our medical needs often get more complex. If you have a medical condition, you can still get insurance for international travel but you may have to pay extra for it.
Some medical conditions require special approval from the insurer, and payment of an additional fee, while others are automatically covered as long as you meet a few requirements, such as not requiring hospital treatment within the last two years. For some medical conditions, automatic coverage can also depend on age. For example, it’s usually possible for asthma to be covered automatically, but only for travellers under 60 years. Requirements vary from policy to policy. If you have any medical conditions, make sure you read this section of your PDS carefully and seek advice from the insurer when necessary.
Most insurers do have an age limit, which varies from policy to policy. A handful of policies limit cover to just 69 years, but most will cover you until 99 years or beyond 100. This age limit is usually listed in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or on their website. We’ve summarised the age limits below.
Insurers may also place conditions on insurance cover for older travellers, such as higher excesses or lower cover limits. Some insurers limit the length of the trip they’ll insure for older people depending on the destination.
For example, Tick Travel Insurance lists a complex set of rules in its Target Market Determination about the trips it will insure for different age groups, including limiting worldwide trips for those over 80 years to 35 days, and trips beyond the Pacific region to 90 days for travellers over 65 years. And while Passport Card doesn’t have an age limit, its policy requires travellers over 85 years to provide a medical certificate declaring them fit for travel. And Tick Travel Insurance offers a reduced benefit for accidental death if you’re over 65.
It’s also not uncommon for the age limit for a brand’s single-trip policy to be more generous than for its annual multi-trip insurance. In most cases, the way to find out what they’ll cover is by plugging your details into the online quoting system.
In the table below we’ve used an age limit of 110 to denote policies that don’t specify an age limit. You can also use the filter in our travel insurance comparison to find travel insurance options for ages ranging from 66 to 110.
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance.
Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. LinkedIn
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance.
Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. LinkedIn
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