Tips for travelling with travel insurance
When you decide to go on holiday, you always try to make the most of this time to relax. But sometimes things can go wrong and turn the trip into a source of anxiety, stress and worry: for example lost luggage or a cancelled flight. That’s why, in situations like these, it’s wise to have taken out travel insurance. Below we’ll try to explain what it is, why it’s important to buy it, and we’ll give you a few tips for choosing the right travel insurance for you.
What is travel insurance?
In everyday language, when talking about trips and holidays, we very often hear about travel insurance. It is in fact a proper insurance policy whose purpose is to cover damages and unforeseen expenses during the trip that result from certain events, such as trip cancellation, lost luggage or a sudden health problem that prevents you from leaving. Very often insurance companies also include health cover, especially if the holiday destination is abroad. In these cases, the policy covers the costs you’ll have to pay for medical expenses, hospital stays and any treatment needed on site. Obviously the cost of the travel insurance policy will depend on the cover you decide to include, but generally speaking we can say that it depends both on the cover and on the destination of the trip.
Why it’s important to take out travel insurance
The reasons why it’s important to take out travel insurance are easy to guess and come down to the fact that it allows you to get reimbursed when certain events occur during the trip that also involve costs. Generally speaking, the cover that insurance agencies offer their customers concerns health cover and cover against trip cancellation.
The latter provides for the cost of the trip to be refunded, minus a small amount, if you are unable to leave. Alongside these two, you can then add cover for lost luggage, which is not such a remote possibility.
Besides these reasons, taking out travel insurance is also important because it can step in in other cases, such as:
- travel liability, i.e. all those cases in which, during a holiday, you unintentionally cause damage to people or property;
- reimbursement of hospital expenses, if you need to be admitted to a hospital and incur expenses, in the event of an accident or sudden illness during the trip;
- legal assistance, if you need a lawyer in relation to damages you may suffer during the holiday.
Regardless of the cover provided by the travel policy, it’s very important to read any clauses that may restrict reimbursement to certain cases.
5 tips for choosing the right insurance
1. The country you’re about to visit
The first thing to pay attention to is the country you’re going to visit. In many countries, such as the United States or Russia, health insurance is absolutely mandatory to enter the country.
2. The insurance coverage limit
The coverage limit is the maximum amount the insurance company is willing to pay if needed. In many countries, such as the United States, a hospital stay can cost an exorbitant amount, so it’s good practice to rely on companies willing to cover these costs.
3. Advance payment of medical expenses
In case of a hospital stay, to avoid nasty surprises at the end, it’s advisable for the insurance to pay the medical expenses up front, so that when you get home you can settle the bill with the insurer without stress.
4. Extreme sports
If you want to do extreme sports, such as skydiving, mountaineering or climbing, you should know that these are typically not covered by insurance. So you need to make sure you take out insurance against every type of injury.
5. Travelling with expensive items
If you need to travel with expensive items, make sure you can insure them. It’s not unusual for luggage to get “lost” or, if you’re travelling in some of the more dangerous parts of the world, there’s a risk of being robbed.
In that case you could turn to your insurer for a refund, after filing a police report.
All that’s left is to decide where to go, safely, and set off!
Have a great trip!
