Solar eclipse chasers warned: your valuable camera equipment might not be insured in a Spanish field
Searches for 'solar eclipse Spain' are up 900% as thousands of Brits prepare to travel for the first total eclipse visible from mainland Europe since 1999. [1]
Many will be taking expensive camera equipment to capture the moment - but most won't have checked whether their gear is actually covered if it's lost, stolen, or damaged abroad.
On 12 August, cities including Bilbao, Zaragoza, Oviedo, and Valencia will fall into complete darkness for up to two minutes and 18 seconds - and thousands of photographers, astronomers, and adventurers are heading there to capture it. [2]
But Go.Compare's travel insurance expert Rhys Jones is warning that the cameras, telescopes, and gadgets that eclipse chasers are packing could be almost entirely unprotected, and most won't know until they need to make a claim.
Rhys Jones said: "A total solar eclipse is a once-in-a-generation event. It's completely understandable that people want to capture it with the best equipment they own but, according to our research, 83% of single-trip travel insurance policies only cover gadgets up to £3,000 in total - and that's before you account for single-item limits. [3]
“A DSLR body, telephoto lens, solar filter, and tripod can easily exceed that value combined, and specialist equipment like drones is often excluded entirely.
“Go.Compare data shows that the average price for travel insurance with gadget cover in Europe is just £12, and investing in this cover could be the difference between coming home with memories and coming home with a bill for lost, stolen, or damaged equipment." [4]
Fewer than 1 in 5 people take out gadget cover alongside travel insurance
The numbers behind the risk could be striking. Go.Compare research found that only 18% of travellers take out additional gadget cover alongside their travel insurance.
Around 39% of those who skipped cover said they were happy to take the risk, equivalent to 9.2 million holidaymakers. A further 22% didn't even know gadget cover existed as a separate option. [5]
Wild camping and remote outdoor locations compound the risk further: with no locked accommodation and no forced entry to prove, standard theft conditions are harder to meet.
Rhys added: "Before you pack your camera bag, check three things. First, does your travel insurance include gadget cover? Then, find out what the single-item limit is, as you might have expensive tech worth more than the limit. Finally, find out whether specialist equipment like telescopes or drones are explicitly included or excluded.
“If you're travelling to Spain for the eclipse with anything worth more than your policy's total gadget limit, standalone gadget insurance is worth considering if you want to protect your expensive tech - and it usually only adds a few pounds to the cost of your protection."
Travellers can compare gadget insurance options and camera cover at https://www.gocompare.com/gadget-insurance/.
Contact Information
Sophie Shuliakovska
Notes to editors
[1] Searches for 'solar eclipse Spain' are up 900% vs the preceding year. Source: Google Trends, correct as of 27 July 2026.
[2] Royal Observatory Greenwich.
[3] Defaqto Matrix research, correct as of 28 July 2026.
[4] Based on the median premium of travel insurance sales made through Go.Compare for dates between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 with gadget cover only by travel location.
[5] Gadget cover data: YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults conducted on 28 May 2025 on behalf of Go.Compare.
About Go.Compare:
Go.Compare is a comparison website that enables people to compare the costs and features of a wide variety of insurance policies, financial products and energy tariffs.
It does not charge people to use its services and does not accept advertising or sponsored listings, so all product comparisons are unbiased. Go.Compare makes its money through fees paid by the providers of products that appear on its various comparison services when a customer buys through the site.
When it launched in 2006, it was the first comparison site to focus on displaying policy details rather than just listing prices, with the aim of helping people to make better-informed decisions when buying their insurance. It is this approach to comparing products that secured the company an invitation to join the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) in 2008, and it is still the only comparison site to be a member of this organisation.
Go.Compare has remained dedicated to helping people choose the most appropriate products rather than just the cheapest and works with Defaqto, the independent financial researcher, to integrate additional policy information into a number of its insurance comparison services. This allows people to compare up to an extra 30 features of cover.
Go.Compare is part of Future Plc and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
More information can be found here www.gocompare.com or here https://www.futureplc.com/brands/