Travel medical and trip cancellation

www.insuremytrip.com offers a wide range of policies, but I'm not sure what is available in Canada. You'd have to check with your tour company to see if they have comprehensive travel insurance (most do).

I am planning on booking one of Rick Steves Tours.

We've never taken out trip cancellation insurance. Your potential loss should a case arise would definitly be no laughing matter, but it is managable. Check with your credit cards, some include trip cancellation coverage if you paid your tour with it.

Medical insurance for travelling outside the country is a completely different matter. The potential for a catastrophic event is there, no matter how old or healthy your are, and in addition to your personal health problems you'd have to deal with a financial disaster as well as bills can quickly reach 5 and 6 figure numbers. Most of that will not be covered by Alberta Health Care! Some of it may be covered by Blue Cross or any other additional insurance your employer may offer. But to my knowledge none of those cover the costs of bringing you back home ($50,000 and upwards). So we never travel without it.

In our case, we cover the travel medical insurance through an addition to our home owners insurance. That way we are covered every day of the year and can leave at a moments notice without worry. And it is very affordable to do it that way, especially if you need to cover a young family. For seniors the cost may be different.

You could also check with the AMA, they have several plan options and very competetive pricing.

Thanks Beatrice
I did already try AMA and they refused to give me quote due to it being a Rick Steves Tour and that is not on their list. Also you cant pay for this tour by credit card.That would be ideal. The stuff included with Rick Steves Tour is good but its not comprehensive and that is what I want. What if there is a travel advisory. I just want to be covered but for some reason am having trouble. I did find one place but it was very expensive. ING Insurance has an all inclusive plan for trip cancellation to a maximum of $3000.00. Rick Steves 21 day tour is $5000.00 US Funds. hmmm

I don't know where you are looking, but check www.insuremytrip.com, as I suggested originally. Every package policy I looked at for someone from Canada includes cancellation due to a travel advisory issued by the govt. There are five different package policies of various prices. You tell them how much your trip costs, and they show you policies that cover that much. It doesn't list "travel advisory cancellation" but if you read the trip cancellation information, a travel advisory is one of the listed reasons that is covered.

Thanks I will try it

Try the CAA/AMA package...at least for supplemental out of province medical coverage.

CaryAnn. I always book medical insurance,, even though we have good coverage with husbands extended plan,, I want to be sure to have good excuation coverage.

I also went on a RS tour last year.

I got my insurance through the Royal Bank, RBC, it was fairly cheap as I recall. I also got insurance for my trip for this summer( not on tour) and it was just under 100 dollars for 14 days. Includes medical and cancellation.

I do not always get cancellation, but I always get extra medical.

thanks for all your help!! Nancy, that website was the best, thanks, I will be using one them. www.insuremytrip.com

CaryAnn,

As you're planning to book a RS Tour, note that Trip Cancellation / Interruption insurance is provided with these tours (with some exclusions of course). You'll have to check the Tour section of the website for specific information, or contact the RS tour department.

If you're going to be dealing with a travel agent to book the flights for your trip, you could ask them about trip cancellation as well as medical or other insurance. Here in B.C., T.A.'s can provide that. I normally use BCAA, but not sure if the equivalent agencies in Alberta provide the same range of services.

Which RS Tour were you considering?

Cheers!

Pat,

"just under $100" for one trip - was that per person? That's what we pay for the entire family for the entire year through our home insurance. Mind you, it doesn't cover trip cancellation but all our medical needs.

I'm going on a RS tour this fall. Here's a quote from some of the material sent to me. "ETBD strongly encourages all tour members to purchase separate travel insurance to cover possible additional costs (airline tickets, loss of luggage, trip delay, medical evacuation, etc). You may want to review Rick's Travel Tips article on "travel Insurance: To insure or Not to Insure?" to determine if this type of coverage would be beneficial to you." I have coverage thru TravelGuard. you might check with them.