Compulsory travel insurance?

[unicorn]

Just tried to book online a Keycamp holiday and it seems you have to take out their insurance (a rather hefty 80+ pounds)...
the alternative is to get your own - which I attempted to do, but it seems you can't get the insurance without the holiday booking,catch 22!
So, I call Keycamp and they say oh just put down that you are taking our insurance, and then when you get your own we will refund the difference....
hmmmm. Doesn't seem right to me.

You could just buy an annual travel insurance policy from Columbus or similar, which definately costs less than £80 & covers you for all holidays in a year.

Do not go abroad without insurance. You need cover in case you have an accident to cover all sorts of things such as emergency accomodation, repatriation costs etc. Even if in EU the reciprocal health agreement only covers your emergency treatment.

Oh we wouldn't dream of going without insurance, I just object to being forced to take their own (inflated)one out prior to booking the holiday. It stops you shopping around for a better deal and doesn't seem quite right to me (even my insurance company said it was crazy as you can't get their insurance until you have a holiday booking)
Can you buy annual insurance without actually having booked a holiday then?

I used to work in an insurance agents, and we never needed a proof of booking to take out travel cover. How strange.
I'd say look at other travel insurance companies. £80+ seems an awful lot of money for a family holiday.

BTW you can take out annual cover anytime. You can set a start date for when you think you will be going.

cheers, will look into annual insurance (although we don't really go away that much)