There's a line in last summer's trip log that reads "Travel ins. $41," with a check mark I added in July, after we got home without needing it. That's the best possible outcome for insurance, and it still felt like money well spent at the time.
Our summer loop leaves June 13 this year: twelve nights, North Georgia, a hotel night in Chattanooga and the Panhandle on the way home. We priced trip insurance again and decided not to buy it. Here's how we got there. I'm a PE teacher, not an insurance agent, and this is only our math for our trip. If you're weighing a policy for your own family, a licensed agent can tell you what one actually covers.
What we insured last year
Last June we had $873 prepaid, and most of it would have been hard to get back close to the trip:
- Vrbo cabin near Townsend, 2 nights: $468
- Elkmont Campground, 5 nights: $150
- Hampton Inn in Savannah, prepaid in the app: $151
- Skidaway Island State Park, 2 nights: $104
A basic trip-cancellation plan we found through a comparison site cost $41, a little under 5 percent of what it protected. Hurricane season had just started, the cabin's cancellation window was closing, and our first night was at Ron and Linda's, so a health scare on either side of the family could have ended the trip before it started. It was an easy yes.
What's at risk this year
This summer's bookings look different. Here's what we've paid and what we'd lose if we cancelled this week:
- Vogel State Park, 4 nights, $214: refundable, minus a cancellation fee.
- Tallulah Gorge State Park, 2 nights, $108: the same.
- Grayton Beach State Park, 3 nights, $151: refundable, minus fees. When we cancelled Pennekamp last Labor Day, we were charged the $6.70 reservation fee plus a $17.75 cancellation fee, so I'm assuming about the same.
- Holiday Inn Express in Chattanooga, 1 night, $164: nonrefundable. We took the cheaper rate on purpose for the one night we were least likely to cancel.
Add it up and our real exposure is about $210: the $164 hotel plus a little under $50 in park fees across the three parks. The cheapest quote we got for a similar basic plan was $48. Paying $48 to protect $210 means spending almost a quarter of the money at risk. Last year we paid under a nickel on the dollar.
What a policy wouldn't fix anyway
When we talked it through at the kitchen table, Dana pointed out that most of what actually worries us about this trip isn't a cancellation problem at all.
- The camper breaking down. That's what our roadside plan is for. We moved up to AAA Plus RV in February, and it covers towing the camper as well as both cars.
- Damage to the camper. It's on our Progressive auto policy now, $15.50 a month.
- Getting sick or hurt away from home. Last year I called our health insurance to make sure we're covered out of state, and we are. Dana checked again this spring.
- A storm. Grayton is the only Florida piece, and it's in late June, early in the season. When we booked, we were told a state park reservation is refunded if the park closes for a storm. If something brews in the Gulf while we're up in Georgia, we skip the beach, drive home and lose a few fees.
When we'd buy it again
We're not done with trip insurance. For us, it comes back when:
- We have more than about $500 prepaid that we can't get back, like last year's cabin.
- A trip lands between mid-August and mid-October, the heart of hurricane season, with anything nonrefundable on the books.
- We rent a house with a strict cancellation policy.
- We ever fly somewhere. We don't, but Maya has a long list of aquariums, and I can't rule anything out.
Our Thanksgiving trip to St. George Island this fall is a state park with the usual fees and nothing else prepaid, so I doubt it passes the test either.
The $48 isn't going anywhere exciting. It's just staying in the checking account. But I did write "Trip ins: $0, decided" on the first page of this summer's section of the trip log, so that in July, future me knows it was a choice and not something I forgot. I have forgotten things before.
