​Unlike earlier, these days there are many occasions when your child may need to travel without you next to him/her. Inter-school, inter-college competitions, trekking, summits, conferences, etc. are just few examples when you may not accompany your children. However, even when physically you are not around your children, you would definitely wish to protect them in every possible manner.

In such a case, a travel insurance for a child plays a very important role. And deciding on such kind of trip insurance requires good amount of research.
 
There is no inch of doubt that you may have covered your child in your family policy, yet the need of a travel insurance for your child is equally important. While your family policy would offer coverage to your child in the event of your demise, a child travel insurance will cover your children to travel independently. In case your family insurance policy does to protects your children against unaccompanied trips, then you would require to seek for an insurance company that offers benefits of trip insurance for unaccompanied children.

What should a travel insurance for children include?

Insurance policies for children travelling independently will be different from company to company. Therefore, while choosing trip insurance for your child, you need to be extra cautious that you get the deal that suits your needs the best way. For instance, if your child is about to attend some winter sports while he/she is on tour, irrespective of the fact that they might be with school mates or relatives, you need to check the availability of this activity in the policy to buy.
 
Also, it would be wise to verify the range of coverage available for the standard features of the insurance policy of your choice. You can always look for coverage against the regular features of a standard policies like loss of luggage, personal accident, medical treatment and loss of currency and valuables.
 
Though generally standard trip insurance policies for children do offer coverage with respect to sport activities, there might be additional cost involved in some specific high rish activities like para-gliding, para-ceiling, go karting, etc. In such instances, it becomes even more important on your part to check and re-check the policy details before you signing on the dotted lines.
 
What are the rules & regulations when a child is travelling without parents?
 
Whenever it is about a child travelling alone, it is not only the parents but also the authorities who are conscious, hence comes in the role of rules and regulations. In other words, with unaccompanied minors travelling, comes in more responsibilities towards the airlines. In order to meet these responsibilities and in the interest of the child travelling, each airline will apply different rules.  Therefore, once you are sure about the insurance for your child, you also need to check with the concerned airlines that your child may use.
 
Some standard rules you need to follow in case of unaccompanied child are:

a) Airlines allow only children above five years to travel alone,
b) You must opt for specific services offered by airlines for children between five and 15 years,
c) Check the minimum age criteria with the country your child is going to,
d) Handover the passports of your children,
e) Book the flight tickets atleast 24 hours prior to the scheduled trip
f) Double check that your child carries all required documents while travelling
 
Unaccompanied child travelling is one of the things which can be a matter of concern for anyone. Therefore, this needs to be your utmost responsibility to get the most suitable coverage for your child in his/her independent trip.