Travel Insurance for Interrailing - Advice Appreciated

[Hejaz]

Hi all, I will taking an interrailling trip around Europe soon and am trying to find the best travel insurance for my needs.

Specifically, I'd like to be able to deal with the following scenarios without too much stress:
* Train delays or cancellations leading to missed connections or last minute hotel bookings
* Lost/stolen/damaged luggage or possessions

(I already have health and accident insurance with worldwide coverage so that's not important to me. I appreciate it tends to get bundled with the other stuff in most travel insurance packages.)

In the scenario where a train is delayed or cancelled, I'm of the understanding that it's actually the rail operators responsibility to either provide alternative travel arrangements or accommodation so tends to not be covered by insurance. I'm happy to not be covered by insurance for this kind of scenario if claiming from the rail operator is simple enough. I have no experience with international rail but I just don't want to be stranded or out of pocket. I'll include the list of journeys I'm making at the end of this post[0] in case it makes a difference.

Does anyone have recommendations for travel insurance that they have first hand experience with?

TopDog insurance looks okay and has good reviews on TrustPilot but two things concern me:
* They keep mentioning "home country" in the scenarios they cover e.g. "you are delayed leaving your home country/BFPO or returning to your home country/BFPO" which makes me concerned about coverage for the intermediate train journeys.
* They will pay at most £400 for the loss of, theft of or damage to any individual item. A gadget like a laptop or tablet, for example, could easily cost much more than that making the coverage not that useful.

Has anyone used TopDog travel insurance and can speak to their experience?

Thanks for your time.

[0]: list of rail journeys
Geneva to Basel using SBB trains (changing trains at Bern or somewhere else along the route)
Basel to Hamburg using OBB Nightjet
Hamburg to Copenhagen using DB EuroCity Express (and the reverse journey)
Hamburg to Brussels using European Sleeper
Brussels to London (home) using Eurostar

 

[Watershed]

You will want an insurance provider whose policies explicitly cover overseas connections. I currently have a Post Office policy - this has a section on Missed Departure and Connections Outside the UK. Their pricing has been pretty reasonable but unfortunately each year they have removed more and more of the benefits. They do still offer a zero-excess option which I value, because travelling as much as I do, you tend to make claims if not every year then perhaps every other year!

Cover for luggage or possessions is pretty standard for travel insurance so you won't struggle to find a policy that covers it. But the amount covered will vary significantly by policy - usually it's one of the things they try to use to upsell you to a more expensive category of cover.

 

[Porty]

If you've got health and accident insurance then for the scenarios you describe it's principally the responsibility of the operator. Yes it's likely to be a hassle but probably less of a hassle than claiming on insurance. You'll probably have a hefty excess so the money you can claim could be a lot less than you have spent (a combination of policy cost and excess).

 

[rvdborgt]

I wouldn't take any insurance to cover alternative transport or overnight accommodation for the listed journeys. Travel in Switzerland is no problem. DB and ÖBB are normally reasonably helpful to provide overnight accommodation and will also reimburse expenses if you had to organise it yourself. European Sleeper will also reimburse, although they take their time. All operators involved subscribe to the AJC, except European Sleeper, but Eurostar will rebook you free of charge if a European Sleeper delay makes you miss your Eurostar. Of course do make sure you have enough margin when catching a night train.

 

[Nigel]

My attitude to insurance is that it I only need it to cover things that wouldn't be able to afford - e.g. medical costs and emergency repatriation. Otherwise I feel that I am subsidising those who are less careful than me when travelling.
The only time that I have ever claimed on travel insurance was when everything was cancelled due to Covid, before insurers got wise and excluded such things from their policies. My claim took many months and was met with endless obfuscation and attempts to wriggle out of paying. I got the impression that the insurer could not cope with independently booked multi-leg journeys. They only finally paid out when I started complaining publicly and, even so, after excesses and other exclusions, the payout was small. Particularly annoying was that they wouldn't cover anything were a voucher was offered, even if I could demonstrate that it would be impossible to use the voucher in the time before it expired.

 

[blimmo]

I agree with @Nigel that you don't really need cover if you can afford to pay yourself. Especially gadget cover I would ignore completely unless you would struggle to afford a replacement: you don't really want to have to deal with an insurance company unless you have to.

I know @Watershed is of the opinion that insurance for missed connections can be worth it because you are more likely to use it than the average traveller if you do a lot of multi-leg international travel. It's difficult to know if that applies to you but if it's just for the journeys you've mentioned I'd be surprised!