NEXT time you’re packing your suitcase for a trip to maybe Spain or Italy just stop and think about some of the gadgets that you might be carefully placing alongside your socks or underwear.

It seems a typical British traveller will go abroad with more than £1,000 worth of electronic equipment and according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, of the British travellers who do have insurance, only 12 per cent of them read all their travel insurance documentation carefully.

To help consumers stay wired-up to the latest information, Airport Parking and Hotels has compiled a comprehensive guide highlighting the different policies available for travel and gadget insurance. This is available in the Know Before You Go section, at www.aph.com/gadgets.

The guide compares the costs and stipulations across 14 insurance companies including Barclays, Debenhams and Gadget Buddy, highlighting the policy type, what is included in the policy, cost of excess charges when travelling in Europe and Worldwide.

With regards to the cost of insuring gadgets, prices vary quite significantly between companies with on-line specialist insurers offering cheaper prices than the larger, high-street brands.

For example, Better Buy Insurance offers Worldwide Mobile and iPhone insurance from £6.99 per month with an excess from £25 and £50 respectively, including accidental damage, water damage, breakdown, theft, loss and unauthorised calls. Insurance2go.co.uk offers full overseas cover including theft, loss and unauthorised calls from £6.99, with an excess of £50 or £75 for loss.

Debenhams Insurance has some of the highest pricing, with Full Platinum cover costing £79.29, for travel in both North America and Canada, however this does not include any excess charges. Barclays Travel Insurance charges an excess of £150 for gadgets valued up to £500, whereas Gadget Buddy has a variable excess so consumers should be aware of this when confirming their gadget protection.

APH also found it is important that all travellers check their insurance documents and read the fine print. For example, Gadget Buddy only allows a maximum of five gadgets to be included on each policy and insurance2go.co.uk only covers loss of equipment on their Full Cover policy, but not on Basic or Lite.

It is also vital to check the regions that the policy covers as often Europe and the Americas are not as simple as one would think. For example Barclays' splits Europe into “Europe excluding Spain, Cyprus, Turkey or Malta” and Europe “Europe including Spain, Cyprus, Turkey or Malta”.

Airport Parking and Hotels is the UK's award winning long stay airport parking operator and booking agency, after winning the Best Airport Parking Company for a fourth year running at the British Travel Awards 2013.