Travel insurance recommendations

[TheRealMBJ]

We are travelling with our 2 children (2yo and 4month old) to South Africa for 2 weeks. We are also planning other, European trips this year. Can anyone recommend a travel insurer?

We went with columbus direct travel insurance when we went to florida. we chose this one because it covered pre-existing medical conditions for myself dh and dd1. DH spent hours and hours on the net and this was by far the best.

We use Citybond and have an annual policy. We tend to keep a European policy then if and when we ( hope) go further we can pay a supplement for USA cover or worldwide.

Thanks.

Does anyone have any experience of claiming, particularly of health care related claims?

M&S have always been reasonable with us. They were good when I had to claim too.

I've used FLEXICOVER for many years - they have been great with pre excising medical conditions.

The post office do really reasonable annual policies. But have never had to make a claim (touch wood!!!)

I usually buy annual travel insurance and typically get mine via a comparison website.

The only time I attempted to make a claim was a couple of years ago when I got stuck abroad because of the Icelandic volcano. Funnily enough, I was not covered for this incident...

I have not needed travel insurance recently but the next time I buy it, I will look closely at the reviews of people who have made claims as it is a good indicator of what you can expect of the company at a time of need.