1. To Ensure You Can Receive Medical Treatment if Necessary
Falling ill or suffering a serious injury while traveling can be stressful and expensive, especially in countries with high healthcare costs. Taking out a travel insurance policy with solid medical coverage ensures that you can cover the cost of emergency treatment, hospitalization, and medication.
In serious situations, medical evacuation back to your home country can be required. Without insurance, the cost of this can range to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is prohibitive for most people.
Medical coverage is essential for everyone, even if you’re generally a healthy individual. Accidents and medical emergencies can happen at any time without warning, and your vacation can quickly turn into a nightmare if you can’t access the appropriate care.
2. Trip Cancellation or Interruption Coverage
No matter how well planned and thought out your vacation is, there’s always the chance that you’ll have to cancel it. Unforeseen events including sudden injury, illness, or family emergencies can interfere with your plans.
However, many travel-related expenses, such as flights, accommodation, and tour packages are non-refundable. This means that you could find yourself suffering significant financial losses if you’re forced to cancel your trip.
Travel insurance allows you to recoup these expenses and focus on dealing with the issues at hand rather than on the potential financial burden. You’ll be able to rebook your trip at a more appropriate time and enjoy the vacation that you’ve worked hard to pay for.
3. Emergency Evacuation
Although small, there’s always the risk of a major emergency occurring while you’re traveling. This could include, for example, a natural disaster, political unrest, or a major medical crisis.
I experienced this at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when I ended up stuck in South America. Thanks to my travel insurance, the potentially impossible trip home was made significantly easier.
With coverage that includes emergency evacuation, you can also receive assistance returning home if you find yourself in a difficult situation. Without it, the cost of an emergency evacuation is simply too high for the average person to be able to cover.
4. Trip Delay Coverage
Unfortunately, delays aren’t all that uncommon when you’re traveling, especially in less developed parts of the world. I can think of numerous situations where I’ve been left sitting in an airport or bus shelter for hours. A couple of times, I’ve even been forced to stay in an airport overnight as the result of a delayed flight.
Along with the obvious inconvenience of delayed travel, you can experience a range of unforeseen expenses. For example, you may have to rebook connecting travel or pay for accommodation or meals due to the delay.
Trip delay coverage ensures that you won’t be stuck with these kinds of extra expenses, offering you additional peace of mind.
5. Travel Disruption Coverage
In some cases, your vacation can be disrupted after it’s started. Let’s say, for example, that you were planning to visit three countries for a week each. However, a major terrorist attack occurs in the second country after you start your vacation. This means you need to leave earlier than anticipated and have to book new flights, accommodation, and activities.
Trip disruption coverage will help pay for such unforeseen expenses, and can cover you in situations such as the following:
Civil and/or political unrest
Terrorist attacks or terrorist-related activity
Natural disasters including earthquakes, floods, fires, and tsunamis
Economic unrest leading to increased danger to foreigners
Medical emergencies and epidemics
If your trip is disrupted, you’ll have enough on your mind trying to find alternative accommodation and rearrange your schedule. You don’t want to worry about running out of money as well.
6. Lost or Delayed Baggage
Lost baggage is an unfortunately common occurrence, and it can significantly impact every aspect of your vacation. If you lose your luggage completely or experience a significant delay, you’ll have to replace your belongings.
This can get expensive, but fortunately, most travel insurance plans include lost luggage coverage. With this, you’ll be able to replace essential items like clothing and toiletries immediately. You’ll also receive compensation if your luggage can’t be recovered.
What’s more, your insurance company will deal with the airline and its compensation process so that you don’t have to. This saves you from a potentially stressful and time-consuming situation and enables you to get on with enjoying your vacation.
7. Theft or Personal Loss Coverage
Theft and personal loss coverage is one of the most important parts of a travel insurance policy, especially if you’re carrying expensive electronics or other belongings.
I’ve suffered from theft three times during my travels, but thanks to my insurance, I was able to replace my stolen items quite easily. The most notable of these times was when my rather expensive laptop, which I use for work, was stolen from my accommodation in Melbourne, Australia. My insurance company quickly processed my claim, and I was able to replace my computer and get back to work within days.
You’ll be covered for virtually any type of theft—for example, if your wallet or purse gets stolen with a significant amount of cash in it. Many policies also cover personal loss if you misplace a valuable item when you’re overseas.
8. Protection From Travel Supplier Insolvency
With the uncertainty of the modern economic space, it’s not unheard of for major travel suppliers to face financial difficulties and go bankrupt. If this happens, you might find yourself losing prepaid expenses on accommodation, flights and other transportation, tours, and more.
A policy with supplier insolvency coverage will enable you to recover any lost costs caused by this. In some cases, it’ll also cover other costs associated with the insolvency, such as booking alternative transport or accommodation.
9. Rental Car Coverage
If you're planning on renting a vehicle during your trip, you’ll want to look for a travel insurance policy with rental car coverage. Driving a car has its risks, so ensure you’re covered if you have an accident that damages your rental car or someone else’s vehicle or property.
On top of this, many vehicle rental companies won’t let you rent a car without some sort of insurance. If you don’t have travel insurance, they’ll force you to sign up for one of their own insurance packages, which can be very expensive.
10. Assistance Replacing Lost Documents
Losing an important document like your passport or visa overseas can cause a world of problems. Replacing them can be difficult and expensive, and you may have issues returning home.
A decent travel insurance package should include some level of lost document coverage. This can include, for example, covering the costs of replacing lost documents.
You should also receive support getting these documents. If required, your insurance representatives can also liaise with your embassy and other relevant parties to ensure you can return home in a timely manner.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, travel insurance provides coverage for a wide range of unexpected expenses and situations that can occur when you’re on vacation. These can include everything from medical expenses to emergency evacuations and support replacing lost documents.
Having solid coverage should provide you with the peace of mind to be able to enjoy your adventure rather than worrying about potential issues.
Remember, though, that not all travel insurance policies are the same. Ensure you read the fine print so that you understand what’s covered, and select optional add-ons if they’re relevant to your situation. Check out our list of the best travel insurance companies to find out more!