Travelers Insurance?

I wouldn't leave home without it!

Travelers Insurance can encompass different components. * Trip cancellation insurance is something I never purchase as the potential loss covered is fairly low unless someone has purchased an expensive package tour. It wouldn't be nice to loose that money but I can live with it. * Medical insurance including medical transfers back home is an absolute must-have. Even the healthiest traveler might encounter an accident. And the cost associated with treatment abroad are usually not (fully) covered by your regular medical insurance. And flying back home can cost $50K easily if you have special medical needs ... Few people can recover from a financial loss like that without problem.

I agree with Beatrix. Cancellation insurance is something I tend to go without it tends not to be worth it in terms of how expensive it is coupled with all the restrictions and deductions. Repatriation and health insurance on the other hand in my opinion is necessary.

Agree with the others. We do not worry about trip cancellation insurance as it is seldom worth it in comparison to risk and expense. However, medical insurance is another issue and especially the medical evac. Go to Insuremytrip.com or squarejaw.com

I also would never leave home without Travel Insurance. It is important that it includes Medical Evacuation, Body preparal and transport back home. It was needed on my last trip to Israel by someone in my group. Cost of our plan was $139.

In 2010 we purchased travel insuranced (medical) for the first time ever.....and my husband was hospitalized in France for 3 1/2 days. The insurance also covered some of the cancellations we had to do. We purchased it through Insure my Trip and got it again this year - we will always get it!

Looks like we have some commonality. First always take travelers medical insurance. We have that! There are too many health risks going to a new country, and the stress generated by the trips (I assume most are somewhat stressed with the new surroundings, even if quite adventuresome!) create some health hazards. Second, there is a split decision on whether on not to take out the travelers trip cancellation or trip interruption, lost or stolen baggage, etc. package. I guess it depends on your comfort level for this choice. We have a long trip, 30 days in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. We are traveling by bus, train, plane, ferry, and rental car with a fairly tight schedule. So I am pondering this choice!

Lawrence, Whichever companies you consider for your trip insurance, be sure to check their exclusions pages (both for financial default and for reasons such as strikes). For example: Google TravelGuard (who we use), under customer service you can see a list of companies/carriers for whom they will not insure for the purpose of financial default (that list usually provides a good warning to anyone considering any of those companies for obvious reasons). Then under their other exclusions, normally there is a list of places/carriers for whom coverage would not be extended....for instance (I have not looked at it recently) but a general strike for Greece or a mechanics strike for XYZ airline. Before I book any travel (airline or tours), I generally check TravelGuard's web site to see which carriers/providers are excluded, as well as the State Department's travel advisories. Checking the State Department's site caused me to reconsider booking a trip to Egypt last January.....duh....wasn't I fortunate to have followed the warnings. Bottom line: for trip insurance. It is my opinion that if you can cancel all your various hotels, boats, trains, planes with minimal penalty, you might forego trip insurance. But, for expensive packaged tours, cruises, etc. I think it is a good comfort to have. Like any insurance, one hopes they never have to use it.

I Always get Medical Insurance, I rarely get cancellation or loss luggage insurance. The exception is this ,, when I cruise I do get cancellation insurance since you have to pay for whole cruise up front,, with normal land based trips I would only be out airfare,, since I book my own hotels and all so far have liberal cancellation policies that would have me suffer maximum of one or two nights penalaties.