A Complete Guide to Travel Insurance

Single Trip Insurance

Single-trip insurance covers one journey, start to finish — the day you leave to the day you land back in the UAE. It's the right call for a one-off summer trip home, a two-week European holiday, or a short business trip with fixed dates. Cover typically includes trip cancellation, delayed or lost baggage, and medical emergencies abroad. For most families flying once this summer, this is the simplest, most cost-effective option.

Multi-Trip Insurance

Multi-trip insurance (also called annual travel insurance) covers every journey you take within a 12-month period under one policy, instead of buying cover each time. If your family visits relatives more than once a year, adds a winter break to the summer trip, or you travel often for work, one annual policy works out cheaper than repeat single-trip purchases. Plans typically start from 6 months and renew annually.

Group and Family Travel Insurance

Family travel insurance covers everyone travelling together — parents, kids, grandparents — under one policy, at one price. It includes everything in single-trip cover, plus one detail worth knowing before you book: children under 16 get 50% off with GIG Travel insurance when included on a family plan. For a household flying home for the school break, this is usually the most cost-effective structure, whether that's two adults and one child or a group of six.

Student Travel Insurance

Student travel insurance is built for students travelling abroad for education — a different eligibility category to family or single-trip cover. It includes medical emergencies, extended-stay protection if a course overruns, study interruption cover, and mental health support, with optional add-ons for educational materials and internships. If your summer plans include dropping a child at university abroad, this is the correct policy, not a family or multi-trip plan.

Domestic Travel Insurance

Domestic travel insurance covers trip interruption, medical emergencies, and baggage issues for travel within a single country. Premiums run lower than international cover, reflecting the shorter distances and reduced risk involved. When comparing providers, check the size of their medical network in the region you're travelling through, not just the price.

Senior Citizen Travel Insurance

Senior citizen travel insurance is built around the risks that increase with age: cover for pre-existing conditions, higher medical expense limits, and emergency evacuation as standard. Add-ons include prescription medication cover, pre-trip medical screening, and 24/7 emergency assistance. If grandparents are joining the family trip home this summer, check whether they need this cover separately, or whether the family plan already accounts for age-related limits — this varies by provider.

Corporate Travel Insurance

Corporate travel insurance covers employees travelling for work: medical emergencies, trip cancellation, lost equipment, and business-specific extras like replacement-worker cover and corporate liability protection. Most plans include worldwide assistance, document replacement, and crisis management support, and can be tailored to the size and travel pattern of the business. If summer includes a work trip alongside the family holiday, this is a separate policy, not an extension of personal cover.

International Travel Insurance

For any trip outside the UAE, check your policy includes worldwide medical cover, emergency evacuation, and legal assistance abroad — the three protections that matter most once you're outside your home healthcare system. Flying to Europe? Confirm your plan meets Schengen visa insurance requirements, which mandate proof of cover as part of the application eg. Medical coverage of at least €30,000 for emergency treatment. Flying to the US? Check your medical expense limit specifically — US healthcare costs run higher than most destinations, and a standard international limit may not stretch far enough. Look for multi-currency claims settlement and a genuinely international medical network, not just a list of countries.

How to Choose the Right Plan

Match the policy to the trip, Everything else follows from that.

• Travel Frequency: one trip this summer, or several a year? That's single-trip versus multi-trip.
• Destination Requirements: Schengen countries require proof of insurance for the visa. Some home-country routes don't require it but still carry real medical cost exposure abroad.
• Coverage Needs: factor in planned activities (skiing, diving), pre-existing conditions, and the value of what you're carrying.
• Cost Factors: weigh the premium — what you pay for the policy — against the excess, what you pay first on a claim, and the overall policy limit.

GIG Gulf's travel insurance covers all of the above, with 50% off for children on family plans and optional add-ons for activities like skiing or diving. Claims go in directly online, and support runs 24/7 through our global assistance network.