Depending on your health, cost of your trip and your travel destination, you may want to consider travel insurance. Make sure you shop around to understand all your options before you make any decisions. Do this before buying or committing to any plane tickets, car rentals, hotels or other travel purchases.
My wife and I went to Italy last year so I did a bunch of checking around to see what the least expensive options were for the various aspects of the trip.
Credit Cards
First check with your credit cards, you may be pleasantly surprised that you already have some form of travel insurance if the purchase for travel is done with that credit card so call your credit card company. I learned that my credit card offered travel insurance free of charge. There were restrictions on what they covered so read the fine print. Also see if your credit card company covers auto insurance for any rentals.
Home Owners Insurance
As you know, I'm into photography and so I travel with $1000's in camera gear and lenses. I talked to my home insurance provider and learned that my homeowner's covered my camera's while traveling.
Buying Directly from the Service Provider
This is probably the most expensive approach, but they may offer a specific unconditional cancellation policy that you may be interested in.
Trip Cancellation
If you have to cancel a trip, insurance typically covers any nonrefundable costs. Usually there are restrictions on when you can collect, for example medical, illness, loss of job, etc.
Trip Interruption
If for some reason you start a trip but can't finish it because of illness, death or other covered events, you will be reimbursed for trip costs.
Emergency Medical
If you become injured or sick, you may need medical care. Medical insurance can get you to a location or maybe even fly you home depending on your coverage or the issue. Emergency medical treatments are also typically covered.
Is Travel Insurance for You?
Your circumstances will dictate if you should add travel insurance. Are you traveling with your grand children? Do you wan coverage for lost or stolen bags? Is it possible you'll miss a connecting flight? How expensive was you trip? Are you planning and international trip or cruise with significant up front costs? All of these could move you into wanting travel insurance.
