You want your honeymoon to be perfect. Perfect scenery, perfect sunsets, perfect romance.

But no matter how perfect your plans may be, your actual experience may not match. That’s why you need travel insurance for your honeymoon, to protect you from all the what-ifs that can mess up your trip.

Taken from real travelers’ stories, these are the most common honeymoon disasters—plus ways travel insurance can help make things better.

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“Our honeymoon accommodations were unlivable.”

You arrive at your vacation rental in the Costa Rican rainforest, near Corcovado National Park, and it’s not what you were expecting. The listing promised a sparkling pool, air conditioning and high-speed Wi-Fi. Instead, you find a green, stagnant pool and a dark house. The owner says an electrical fire knocked out the power, and it might take a few days to fix. Candlelight is romantic, but this isn’t the honeymoon you had in mind.

Can travel insurance help? Yes! If your vacation rental, resort or hotel is uninhabitable, that’s a covered reason for trip interruption benefits. You can cut your trip short (or find new accommodations) and file a claim to get reimbursed for your nonrefundable, unused, prepaid trip costs. Take some photos to document the situation, and save your written communications with your host.

It’s important to understand what “uninhabitable” means for travel insurance purposes. Here’s how we define it: “a natural disaster, fire, flood, burglary, or vandalism has caused enough damage (including extended loss of power, gas, or water) to make a reasonable person find their home or destination inaccessible or unfit for use.” If your honeymoon stay doesn’t have all the promised amenities, or if it’s dirty or has bugs, it’s still considered habitable. Your best recourse is contacting the vacation rental company.

“We both got super sick on our honeymoon.”

On the flight to Mexico, you and your new spouse begin to feel a little feverish. By the time you arrive at your resort in  San José del Cabo, there’s no denying it: You’ve both caught the same nasty bug. You feel a little better after a night’s rest, but you’re really worried about your wife. Her fever is up to 103 and she can’t keep anything down.

Can travel insurance help? Yes! When you’re buying honeymoon travel insurance, make sure it includes emergency medical benefits in case you or a travel companion becomes seriously ill.

Contact 24-hour assistance for help, either by phone or via the free TravelSmart app. Our assistance team can recommend a local, high-quality medical provider; arrange an ambulance, if needed; arrange payment for emergency medical care; and monitor your wife’s condition if she’s hospitalized.

Travel insurance can help with your ruined honeymoon, too. Trip interruption benefits can cover your transportation home, should you have to cut short your honeymoon due to illness, and reimburse you for the unused part of your trip.

Be aware, however, that trip interruption benefits only apply to a serious illness or injury that’s disabling enough to make a reasonable person interrupt their trip. If you have a cold, a bad sunburn, or an upset stomach, that doesn’t qualify. A doctor must either examine or consult with you to confirm the decision to interrupt your trip.  

“We had to cancel our honeymoon because of extreme weather.”

You can’t wait to escape the winter cold and set off on your honeymoon cruise through the Caribbean. Then a massive snowstorm cancels all flights out of JFK Airport, including your flight to Miami. The earliest the airline can get you there is Thursday afternoon… but your cruise ship departs Thursday morning.

Can travel insurance help? Yes! If your travel carrier can’t get you to your destination within 24 hours of the originally scheduled arrival time due to severe weather or another covered reason, you can file a claim for trip cancellation. The trip cancellation benefit in your travel insurance plan can reimburse your prepaid, non-refundable expenses for the trip.

Not ready to give up on your honeymoon? We can help with that, too! Your travel delay benefit can pay reasonable transportation expenses to help you catch up with your cruise ship if a covered delay causes you to miss the ship’s departure.

Keep this in mind: While trip cancellations caused by unforeseen severe weather or a natural disaster may be covered by honeymoon travel insurance, that doesn’t mean you can cancel your trip because the weather is less than ideal. You may just have to make the most of a rainy honeymoon… unless you purchased the Cancel Anytime upgrade (available in OneTrip Prime and OneTrip Premier). Cancel Anytime reimburses 80% of your unused, pre-paid, non-refundable trip costs if you cancel your trip for almost any unforeseeable reason your plan does not already cover.

“We broke up before the honeymoon.”

Your wedded bliss lasts all of three days. Then, you find out your new spouse has spent the last year canoodling with her ex behind your back. You file for a rapid divorce, but what are you supposed to do about the honeymoon? You booked a villa at the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan that costs $1,000 per night.

Can travel insurance help? It may be able to! If you or a traveling companion legally separates or divorces on or after your policy’s coverage effective date but before your scheduled departure date, that may be a covered reason for trip cancellation. (Your plan must have been purchased within 14 days of the date of the first trip payment or deposit.) File a claim, get your money back, and treat yourself to something that will help heal the heartbreak.

“My spouse’s family tagged along on our honeymoon.”

Your husband’s aunt gave you the best wedding gift: a week at her beach house in Cape May, New Jersey. Yay, free honeymoon! But when you arrive, you find that the aunt is staying there, too. So is your husband’s mom. And his brother, and his brother’s wife, and their twins. Goodbye, romance. Hello, playing Pictionary with 8-year-olds.

Can travel insurance help? Sadly, no. Travel insurance can’t help resolve family drama. But it sounds like you deserve a honeymoon do-over! The next time you travel, make sure you’re protected against travel disasters with a solid travel insurance plan.

Discover why more than 70 million American travelers every year trust Allianz to protect their most important adventures: Get a quote today!

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