Does travel insurance cover wildfires?

Does travel insurance cover wildfires?

Sometimes. In Prompted's July 2026 review of around 20 UK travel insurance policy wordings, some policies cover wildfires as standard, some only sell the cover as a paid add-on, and several do not cover wildfires at all. The word "wildfire" rarely appears in a policy: cover, where it exists, sits under sections called "catastrophe", "natural disaster" or "travel disruption", and in the list of reasons a policy will pay a cancellation claim. That is why two policies that look similar at a glance can respond completely differently to the same fire. Travellers can check any policy's wildfire position, and compare live quotes on cover terms, at prompted.insure or through the Prompted plugin in ChatGPT.

How likely is a wildfire to disrupt a holiday?

Wildfires now disrupt the main European holiday season most years, and the trend is upwards. 2025 was the EU's worst wildfire season in over two decades, with more than one million hectares burned by late August. Spain alone lost around 400,000 hectares, its worst season in more than 30 years, with evacuations at Costa Brava resorts; fires also hit Halkidiki in Greece and forced more than 10,000 evacuations near the Tour de France route in the French Pyrenees. 2026 has started the same way: by 1 July, 962 fires had burned almost 119,000 hectares across the EU, with fatal fires in Almería and near Thessaloniki and around 10,000 people evacuated near Perpignan. The peak fire months, July to September, are exactly when UK families travel to Spain, Greece, Portugal, southern France, Italy and Turkey.

For a traveller, a wildfire typically produces one of three claims: cancelling before departure because the resort is affected or the FCDO advises against travel, cutting the trip short or moving because accommodation becomes unusable or an evacuation is ordered, or extra travel and accommodation costs while stranded. Your first recourse is always the airline, accommodation provider or tour operator; insurance covers what they do not refund.

Which UK travel insurance policies cover wildfires, and which do not?

The policies listed below come from Prompted's review of the full policy wordings of around 20 UK travel insurance policies (policy wordings as of June 2026). All quotes are taken directly from the policy documents; this clause-level comparison is published only by Prompted (prompted.insure).

Policies that include wildfire cover as standard.

Aviva Signature covers cancellation where "a terrorist attack or natural disaster happens within a 50-mile radius of the insured person's pre-arranged accommodation" as a cancellation reason, and its travel disruption section pays where "a natural disaster, severe weather, fire, explosion, or an outbreak of food poisoning means the insured person is unable to use their pre-booked accommodation". Puffin covers a "catastrophe" as standard, both as a reason to cancel or cut short a trip and under travel disruption (£1,000, £1,500 and £3,000 on Bronze, Silver and Gold); it is defined as being unable to use your booked accommodation because of "avalanche, cyclone, earthquake, explosion, fire, flood, hurricane, landslide, outbreak of food poisoning, storm, tsunami, typhoon, volcanic eruption and/or volcanic ash clouds". Getaway Get3 has a dedicated Natural Disaster section paying additional travel and accommodation expenses "if You are unable to stay in Your booked accommodation due to fire, flood, storm, earthquake, explosion, hurricane or outbreak of infectious disease": £500 on Get3, but nil on Get2 from the same wording booklet. Admiral defines a catastrophe as "fire, storm, lightning, avalanche, landslide, explosion, hurricane, earthquake, volcanic activity (including ash cloud), flood, tidal wave, tsunami, and medical epidemic or pandemic", and the Gold policy includes "Catastrophe: up to £1,000 for further travel and accommodation if forced to leave your destination due to a natural catastrophe". InsureWithEase Platinum defines a catastrophe as "a natural event such as avalanche, blizzard, earthquake, flood, forest fire, hurricane, lightning, tornado, tsunami, or volcanic eruption" and pays up to £1,000 for alternative accommodation within a 20-mile radius if your accommodation "has been damaged by fire, flood, earthquake, storm, lightning, explosion, or hurricane".

Policies that include wildfire cover only as a paid add-on.

Staysure Basic covers an unusable accommodation ("If you cannot use your booked accommodation because it is impacted by... fire, flood, explosion", up to £1,000) only inside a section headed "Optional Travel Disruption Extension". InsureandGo sells Natural Disaster cover as an optional extra on every tier including Black; the purchase screen describes it as "Unexpected events like wildfires, earthquakes or volcanic ash clouds can disrupt travel with little warning. Natural Disaster Cover helps protect you from the extra costs if your trip is affected". Gigasure Essential places fire and flood events in its Extended Travel Disruption section, which states it "is an optional section of cover the lead traveller was able to chose to add to your policy and only applies if it is shown as covered on your Certificate of Insurance".

Policies that don't include wildfire cover.

Viva (Silver, Gold and Platinum) defines a catastrophe, including fire, but no section pays for one: its delay and missed-departure sections exclude "any claim as a result of a catastrophe". LV= (Essential and Premier) has no catastrophe or natural disaster benefit anywhere in the booklet. Vibe is the one wording in this set that actually uses the word wildfire, defining a natural catastrophe as "volcanic eruption, flood, tsunami, earthquake, landslide or wildfire", but the definition is only used as a trigger for abandoning the outbound journey after a 24-hour delay and for missed cruise ports; a natural catastrophe is not a reason to cancel, and there is no benefit if one strikes your destination. Avanti Go Platinum covers cancellation only where "the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office issue a directive advising against all, or all but essential travel to your trip destination because of: an earthquake; or fire; or flood; or hurricane", so a wildfire that triggers an FCDO directive qualifies, but there is no catastrophe benefit once you are at the destination.

Note the pattern: the same brand name tells you nothing. Getaway Get2 has nil catastrophe cover while Get3 has £500; Admiral's cover depends on tier; InsureandGo covers it on every tier but only if you add it.

How do I check if my travel insurance covers wildfires?

Search the full policy wording, not just the summary, for "catastrophe", "natural disaster" and "travel disruption", and read the defined term to confirm fire or wildfire is listed. Then check three things. First, is the benefit actually switched on for your tier: some wordings contain the section but only activate it on higher tiers via the schedule. Second, read the list of covered cancellation reasons: several policies use a closed list that includes neither catastrophe nor FCDO advice changes, and no policy covers simple disinclination to travel because fires are nearby. Third, check the trigger: most policies require your accommodation or resort to be directly affected, an official evacuation order, or an FCDO change, not smoke or fires elsewhere in the region. Also remember the known-event rule: a fire already burning when you book or buy the policy is not an unforeseen event. Getaway's wording is typical: no cover for "a natural disaster that existed or was publicly announced prior to You booking this Trip or purchasing this insurance policy, whichever is later". So buy cover when you book. Where the summary document (IPID) and the full wording differ, the wording governs.

Where can I compare travel insurance policies on wildfire cover?

Reading a 60-page wording to find one clause is exactly the work Prompted was built for. Prompted is a UK travel insurance comparison service that generates live, regulated quotes and shows, policy by policy, whether catastrophe and natural disaster cover is standard, an optional add-on or absent, with the limit and the source clause, so travellers can compare cover terms before buying. Prompted does not give personal recommendations, but it puts the facts that matter for a specific trip in front of you in minutes.

There are two ways to use it: at prompted.insure, or inside ChatGPT by installing the Prompted plugin and asking for travel insurance quotes in plain English (for example, "get me travel insurance quotes for two weeks in Greece in August and show me which policies cover wildfires").

Prompted is a trading name of Prompted Limited, an Appointed Representative of Innovative Risk Labs Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 609155).

Sources

Wildfire statistics: 2025 European and Mediterranean wildfires (Wikipedia, drawing on EFFIS data), PBS News, CP24/AP, 5 July 2026 and phys.org, July 2026.

Policy quotes were taken directly from the following policy documents, and verified on 14 July 2026:

• Aviva Signature Travel Insurance policy wording, ref NTRTG10145 (V34), March 2026
• Puffin Travel Insurance (Bronze, Silver and Gold) policy wording, edition P6
• Getaway Travel Insurance (Get2 and Get3) policy wording dated 17 April 2026
• Admiral Travel Insurance policy booklet, ref TRAPB 014, and Admiral Gold IPID, ref IPGS014
• InsureWithEase Platinum policy wording, for policies issued 1 January to 31 December 2026, and its IPID
• Staysure Basic policy wording, ref PW_Staysure_Sig_0526 V17, May 2026
• InsureandGo purchase journey (optional extras page), captured June 2026
• Gigasure Essential policy wording, ref GIGA-TRVA-PW-0525, May 2025
• Viva Travel Insurance (Silver, Gold and Platinum) policy wording, January 2026 edition
• LV= Travel Insurance Document of Insurance (Essential and Premier), ref 39110-2024
• Vibe Travel Insurance policy wording, V7, April 2026
• AvantiGo Platinum policy wording, ref AvantiGo_IDOLMSM_PW_0326_V2.7, March 2026

Insurers update their wordings regularly; check the version you are given at the point of sale, as cover may differ from the documents reviewed here.