Forty-eight packs of peanut butter crackers. Six bright yellow rain ponchos. Three disposable underwater cameras. And one bottle of really expensive wine.

You packed all of these items into one duffel bag for the big family vacation. But now that Bobby broke his leg, Kinleigh caught a stomach bug, and a hurricane is barreling toward your beach rental, you’re not going anywhere. If only you had purchased family travel insurance, then things would have been different, right?

Vacations and getaways are always teetering on the brink of disaster when you’re planning for your party of five, six or seven. When an injury, illness, or severe weather strikes, everything can be ruined. You’re left with crackers, ponchos and cameras to take pictures of your aquarium with. Oh, and wine to drown your sorrows.

Here are seven reasons why family travel insurance may be worth looking into before your fam pays for those non-refundable theme park tickets.

1. On a family vacation, the numbers are working against you.

When you just have to worry about you, the odds of getting packed, on the plane and to your destination seem to be in your favor, Weather, karma and distracted baggage handlers seem a whole lot less formidable during solo travel or a couple’s retreat.

When you’re responsible for four or five travelers, including kids who play by their own rules and refuse to wash their hands, your vacation plans are constantly hanging by a thread. It only takes one bout of the flu or one lost passport to send your trip spiraling out of control. The good news is that family travel insurance can offer you some relief from travel plans gone awry.

2. The cost of family travel is on the rise.

Traveling with kids can be shockingly expensive. One mom spent $10,000 on a weeklong family trip to Hawaii; a single pancake breakfast cost $160 for her and her three sons. Another mom spent $7,000 on a week at Disney for her family.¹

If you’re spending a ton to get parents and kids from here to there, planning a big trip without family travel insurance is a big mistake. Travel insurance can protect your vacation investment, so you don’t lose it all in case of an unexpected trip cancellation or interruption.

3. Time is money, and planning takes a long time.

Don’t forget about the time it takes to plan the actual trip. From poring over travel reviews to comparison-shopping hotel prices and leveraging your social network to weigh in on campgrounds, water parks and aquariums, robust pre-planning earns you more fun and relaxation once you reach your destination. If some unforeseen circumstance causes you to cancel, pause or cut your trip short, your time and money go down the drain. With family travel insurance, you may be able to be reimbursed for lost trip costs so you can reload your trip at a later date.

4. You have more bags than hands.

Herding children and all their backpacks, toys and special stuffed animals is an art form. If you can get all your stuff on a plane, to the hotel and back home again, you deserve a pat on the back—a light pat, a heating compress and some Advil. It’s not just Murphy’s Law, lack of sleep and children’s short attention spans working against you when it comes to keeping track of all your bags at the airport and beyond. These days, baggage mishandling rates are higher than they’ve been in a while.² If your suitcases are delayed, or if they simply disappear, it could cost you hundreds of dollars to replace the essentials. That’s why baggage loss, damage, and delay protection is a boon for families on the go.

5. You don’t have to make tough decisions about staying or going.

If an accident or illness affects a trip in such a way that part of the family is thinking of shoving off while the rest of the family hangs out at home, it’s tough for everyone. You don’t want to split up the family. And neither parent wants to play nurse while the other gets to surf and eat shrimp.

With family travel insurance, you may be able to cancel or pause your trip while recouping enough of the vacation budget to plan a new trip that everyone—knock on wood —can enjoy without incident.

6. An airport terminal is not Disney World.

Getting stranded in an airport terminal by yourself can be boring and stressful. Getting stuck in a terminal, bus depot or train station with your kids can be a nightmare. There are only so many times you can play I Spy or Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Family travel insurance can save your sanity by reimbursing essential expenses during a covered delay (up to the limit in your plan). Lunch in the airport? That can be reimbursed. A night in a hotel, when you learn that you’re not leaving until the next morning? That can be reimbursed. A cab back to the airport the next morning, plus two desperately needed cappuccinos? That can be reimbursed, too.

7. Allianz Travel Insurance makes everything so much easier.

Family travel is a fluid, cash-eating, time-consuming beast. It always seems like you just finished a trip, are planning a new one, or making an unexpected excursion to Aunt Karen’s to help her—and her 11 cats—move from Gary, Indiana to Rochester, New York. With the AllTrips Premier plan, you can get one policy that covers your entire household for the year. It doesn’t matter how big your family is or how many trips you take. With benefits including 24-hour travel assistance, trip cancellation benefits and baggage loss/damage protection, our travel insurance plans can give you the peace of mind your deserve.³

Related Articles

• Why Annual Travel Insurance Is a Must-Have for Families
• How to Involve Your Kids in Family Vacation Planning
• Travel Insurance for Family Trips: When You're Paying, What's Covered