We all know about the importance of preparing for a trip—packing the right clothes and shoes, making sure our passports and visas are in order, ensuring we know when to check in for our flights, and so on. But there is one preparation that many people don’t make, and that’s buying travel insurance.
Some people think that buying insurance is “betting against yourself,” and that if they don’t buy it, somehow magically nothing will go wrong on their trip. But the fact of the matter is that if you need it, you’ll be very glad you have it.
Take the story of Kay Rodriguez, a travel blogger who found herself with a severe case of appendicitis while traveling in rural Thailand. If she hadn’t had travel insurance, she would not have been able to get transportation to the city of Chang Mai, treatment at the best hospital in the city, and a place to stay for the two weeks of recovery she needed.
Sure, Kay’s story is a worst-case scenario, but honestly, medical emergencies are our worst fears while traveling abroad, too, and travel insurance that covers medical costs is a must-buy for us.
But travel insurance can provide coverage for everything from annoyances to major problems. Here are a few reasons to get coverage before you travel.
Trip cancellation
Most plane tickets and hotel room reservations are non-refundable. What happens if you have an emergency before you leave or you can’t go on a planned trip because you were hospitalized and are still recovering? (Yes, that has happened to me before I got travel insurance, and yes, I was out almost a thousand dollars as a result.)
Lost, stolen, damaged or delayed baggage
If you buy coverage for delayed bags, a service hotline will help you recover your bags, and you can get reimbursed for the essential items you need such as clothes and personal hygiene items. If you buy coverage for stolen or lost baggage, you can get reimbursed for new clothes, personal items, and even for a new suitcase to take your stuff home.
Lost passports
If you realize you’ve lost your passport somewhere along your journey, lost passport coverage can get you help in expediting the process of replacing your passport so you can keep traveling.
There are other types of coverage, such as emergency evacuation, terrorist event, transportation assistance, and even coverage in the event that your travel company files bankruptcy.
Insurance can be a tricky world to navigate, and we’re not going to lie—travel insurance can be pretty expensive for Americans—but if you choose your coverage wisely, you’ll be glad you have it. For example, if you’re traveling in Europe, you might choose medical coverage because medical treatment can be expensive in some countries, but you might not choose terrorism coverage because you know the nation to which you’re traveling is pretty safe in that regard.
We always get medical coverage, evacuation coverage, and lost passport coverage when we travel abroad. We then choose other types of coverage based on where we’re going to be traveling, what we’re bringing with us, and what we’re going to be doing on our trip.
The Travel Insurance Review website is a good resource to help you understand what travel insurance will cover, what it is and is not, and when it might actually not be necessary to buy it. We haven’t read through everything on this website, but we think it’s at least a good place to start if you’re considering travel insurance.