I’ll tell you travel insurance for the Canary Islands, what kind you need, how much it costs, and what options there are for tourists. It will be a unique product in the insurance market, greatly easing your life and making your vacation much more peaceful. A good insurance won’t save you from dangers, but you’ll definitely sleep better.

Insurance for the Canary Islands: the basics

The Canary Islands are part of Spain and the Schengen area. To visit the Canaries, you need a visa (if you’re not an EU, UK, US citizen, etc.).

It’s important to know:

No matter what anyone says, medical insurance for the Canary Islands, and generally for any country in the world, is mandatory. Yes, it’s rarely checked at the border, but by law, you must have it. Even when applying for a visa, medical insurance is as essential a document as a passport, and without insurance, your documents won’t be accepted, and you won’t get a visa.

The requirements for insurance are minimal, the main thing is that the coverage of the insurance policy should be no less than 30,000 euros. Therefore, whichever insurance for the Canary Islands you buy, the most basic for 5 euros or the extended for 30 euros, there’s no difference. Any option will be sufficient for crossing the border.

Insurance for the Canary Islands
The Canaries are in the Atlantic Ocean. Here you’ll feel the difference between the ocean and the sea. The waves are so powerful that you need to choose beaches for swimming very carefully, and anything can be damaged in such waves in a matter of minutes.

Useful to know:

Healthcare in Europe isn’t free, especially for tourists. It costs as much as a cruise ship. Going on a trip (this applies to any trip, not just the Canaries) without insurance is until the first time something unforeseen happens. Tourists often write to me asking for help finding a cheaper clinic because something happened, and they don’t have insurance. Courage or foolishness, you decide. It’s just something that’s been bothering me 🙂
  • Dangers in the Canaries, what can threaten you and your children, you’ll learn about tsunamis, earthquakes, and the dangerous ocean, and also whether there are dangerous insects and exotic diseases in the Canaries.

Differences between basic insurance and comprehensive insurance

I’ll say this, even if you buy the cheapest and most basic insurance for your trip, which is done for visas, that’s already great. It will work in most emergency situations. But there are situations when standard insurance doesn’t work, but extended insurance does. There are many of them, I’ll list the main ones:

  • Sunburns. In basic insurance, sunburns that you get on the beach on the first day at sea are considered non-insurable events. Basic insurance only covers this case for children under 14. It’s considered that adults should control their sun exposure themselves.
  • Any complication of an ongoing pregnancy and calling a doctor are also at your expense.
  • Flight delay, lost luggage, and so on. Non-insurable events.
  • Any active sport, surfing, kite surfing, hiking, biking. Basic insurance doesn’t work in case of injuries.
travel insurance canaries
And again about the ocean, most insurance cases happen in the water in the Canaries. Pay attention to what rocks and waves are in the distance, if such a wave covers you – it’ll be far from pleasant.

There are many more examples, but the main point is that the simplest insurance for the Canary Islands won’t work in the cases listed above, but comprehensive medical insurance will.

Where to buy insurance for the Canary Islands:

Anywhere, from your tour agent, at any insurance company near your home where you insure your home or car. Enter the query “comprehensive insurance for the Canary Islands” into Google, and you’ll get a hundred options.

Below, I’ll briefly tell you about one interesting product in the medical insurance market today, which has no competitors (yet).

Extended insurance for the Canaries for those who love to drink (like me)

This is a insurance product for adults :).

It’s important to know:

No matter what insurance you buy, basic, extended, and so on, it won’t work if the insurance event occurred in a state of alcohol intoxication. This is a basic requirement of all insurance companies worldwide.

The company EktaTraveling has found a very original solution to this situation. They have three types of tourist insurance worldwide: START, GOLD, and MAX+. So in GOLD and MAX+, an alcohol test isn’t done when you go to the clinic (or it’s done but not included in the insurance company’s “case”). This insurance is very popular among the British in the Canaries, I found out about it from them. For those who don’t know, the British are the most numerous tourists in the Canary Islands.

buy travel insurance canary islands
Three types of insurance, the alcohol point is highlighted with red rectangles, you can find the differences.
  • The company’s official website, prices, all three tariffs, and there you can also study in detail what the differences are: https://ektatraveling.com

In conclusion: what insurance you’ll have for the Canary Islands is up to you. Even if you buy the simplest one for 5 euros, that’s still cool. The most important thing to remember is that traveling without insurance is a very big mistake. It’s better that it never comes in handy than something happens, and you don’t have it.

No force majeure in your travels!

Useful links to help you plan your dream trip to Canary Islands:

  • Car Rental: LocalRent or DiscoverCars – the most popular car rental platforms.

  • Accommodation:
    • Trip.com – the largest accommodation booking platform.

    • or TripAdvisor – to compare prices among other platforms and choose the best one.

  • Budget-friendly vacation packages to Spain and Canary Islands: CheapOair.

  • Tours and activities: GetYourGuide or Viator – hundreds of offers, whales and dolphins, entrance tickets with discounts.

  • eSIM and internet: Airalo.

  • Flights: WayAway compares prices among dozens of companies.

  • Travel Insurance: EKTA.