Travel insurance

Should I worry about buying trip cancelation insurance? (What if my
dad falls down the stairs in my parents home? Does it matter if it
happens just before versus after I leave for my trip?)

What did you do for your trip to Italy?

If you don't have travel insurance and you either don't go on your trip (trip cancellation), or have to cut it short and return home (trip interruption), then you are out all of your nonrefundable expenses. So you have to decide if the risk is worth not having insurance, and if you are financially able to take the hit. But before you do anything, check the credit cards you've used to book your trip. Do they already include insurance? If they do, would it cover your most likely scenarios?

If you want to look at the various types of travel insurance, check out insuremytrip.com. Read the fine print to see what's covered and what isn't. By the way- do you have out of country medical and evac for yourself?

Trip insurance is always a gamble. How lucky do you feel?

There are various types of insurance for your trip. Some may be provided by the credit card which you used to book your trip. Double check the fine print.

If your card doesn't have any insurance, then you have to ask yourself - if something happens which causes me to cancel my trip or if something happens during the trip which ends my vacation early, am I willing and able to eat those costs? I don't know of any insurance that will cover 100% of everything, no matter what, but you can generally find something that covers a percentage of a given cost. As another poster said above - always read the fine print to see what is/isn't covered.

Medical evacuation coverage is another animal entirely. It won't cover lost luggage or trip interruption, but it will cover the cost to return you to the US if you're hurt or ill and require that level of care to get back home.

I look at the cost and length of the trip to make my decisions. I tend to insure overseas trips more than domestic ones.

But definitely look at the website suggested above and see your options. Then you can make a better informed decision.

For a person your age the cost of trip cancelation insurance will be very small compared to the overall cost of the trip. Considering your circumstances it'll be, in my opinion, money well spent for the peace of mind it'll supply. Most travel insurance companies have various plans that include cancelation, medical cost, lost luggage, some aspects of evacuation, and so forth. Suggest you do some google searches and see what you come up with. The one thing to remember regardless of the company is to read and understand the details. The old saying "The Devil is in the details" definitely applies to travel insurance policies. Personally we've used Travel Guard for years and were very pleased with them on the one claim we had. The is a web site that allows one to compare various policies, but I can't remember the name of it. Perhaps someone else can supply the name of the site.

Should I worry about buying trip cancelation insurance? (What if my
dad falls down the stairs in my parents home? Does it matter if it
happens just before versus after I leave for my trip?)

What you should worry about:

Before you buy a trip cancellation policy, you need to read the fine print to verify that instances like the ones you mentioned above are included. Specifically, verify that there are NO EXCLUSIONS whatsoever to make sure an insurance company does not reject a claim you file for trip cancellation because a loved one gets hurt or falls ill, for example.

Also, verify the insurance company does not abide only by A RESTRICTED LIST of instances in which they will only reimburse you under specific situations.

This review on thewirecutter.com may be useful. The comments at the end of the review may also be helpful.