You are going traveling. You have lots of expenses to cover. You need to pay for your air fare, your accommodation, your food, your travel while away, cultural experiences and the list goes on. You want to save money so you decide not to bother with travel insurance. You are going on the trip of a lifetime so nothing will go wrong. It’s an unnecessary expense so you don’t need it. Wrong. Very wrong. Traveling with out insurance can be the biggest mistake you make when organizing your trip and a very costly one.
What is travel insurance? Well there are two kinds of insurance to look at when traveling.
1. Travel insurance, (sometimes called trip insurance) which covers cancellations, delays, lost baggage and emergencies.
2. Travel medical insurance protects you against any medical expense while traveling.
Ideally, you need a combination of the two when traveling.
Imagine these scenarios:
You are in Darwin, Australia when a cyclone hits the area. The city is devastated by the cyclone and all services shut down. You have to be evacuated and sent home. Your travel insurance will cover you for this. You do have travel insurance don’t you?
Your luggage goes missing in India. You need to buy new clothes and fast. Can you afford it in your budget? Of course you can, you took out traveler’s insurance – didn’t you?
Or what if you go surfing in Hawaii and take a big wipeout? You are so severely injured you need surgery and major medical assistance, and then are airlifted home. But that’s okay – your travel medical insurance covers all that. You have got it, haven’t you?
Travel insurance is there to protect you in case bad things happen on your trip. It is a necessary expense. Overseas medical costs can be astronomical if you are not insured. And if you are injured in a developing country, medical attention may not be as good as at home. If you are insured you can get flown home and attended to at no cost.
Every year the government deals with thousands of cases of travelers being injured, falling ill or dying overseas. This is a distressing situation for all involved, but made even worse when the travelers are not insured, often leaving them with huge bills to pay. Hospitalization in other countries can cost over one thousand dollars a day. Medical evacuations can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and if you die in Europe, it can cost over ten thousand dollars to bring your body back home. If you do not have travel insurance you have to cover these costs yourself (or your family will have to find the money).
Travel insurance is a cost you need to budget for. If you don’t take it out, your medical expenses could cost a whole lot more. Insure yourself and travel safe.
This article is brought to you by: Stuart S. Travel – Your Online Travel Guru
www.stuartstravel.com