How wildfires and heatwaves affect your travel insurance

Travel insurance rarely covers what wildfire season actually does to a trip, according to The Conversation. Emergency medical care and lost belongings are typically covered, but cancellations, early returns or alternative accommodation usually require add-on catastrophe cover, which figures from GoCompare show sits on only about half of policies. Even where it exists, insurers often pay out only once a hotel is unusable or an evacuation order is issued, so smoke, shut beaches and cancelled excursions frequently don't qualify. Buying cover before a fire makes headlines is essential, since insurers treat news events as known risks and exclude them afterward, and stronger fee-free cancellation rights only apply to package holidays booked as a single deal rather than flights and accommodation bought separately.

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