You’ve spent months dreaming about your trip. I’ve helped you pick the perfect destination, the right hotel, the unforgettable excursions, and maybe you’ve even started counting down the days.
Then something unexpected happens. A family member gets sick. Your flight is canceled. Your luggage disappears. You have a medical emergency halfway around the world.
Suddenly, that dream vacation comes with a very expensive problem. That’s where travel insurance comes in.
Travel insurance isn’t just about canceling your trip. While trip cancellation coverage can be incredibly valuable, there’s much more to travel insurance than getting your money back if you don’t go.
The most memorable claims I’ve helped my clients file were for a stolen phone, missing an excursion due to a nasty case of vertigo, an emergency trip to the dentist for a chipped tooth, having to come home early due to a family emergency, having to cancel entirely because of stomach pain while sitting in the airport waiting to board, jury duty, and job loss.
Depending on the policy you choose, travel insurance can help protect you from some of the biggest financial risks associated with traveling, including trip cancellation or interruption, emergency medical expenses, emergency medical evacuation, trip delays, lost, stolen or delayed baggage and missed connections.
Many travelers assume their regular health insurance will cover them overseas. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Even when a health insurance plan does provide some international coverage, it may not cover everything, and Medicare generally does not cover medical care outside the United States.
Imagine becoming seriously ill while traveling in another country and needing hospitalization. Or imagine being injured in a remote location and needing to be transported somewhere that can provide appropriate medical care. Those bills can add up quickly.
Emergency medical evacuation alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars — and potentially much more depending on your location and circumstances. Travel insurance with appropriate medical and evacuation coverage can provide an important financial safety net.
Travel insurance isn’t about expecting something to go wrong. It’s about being prepared if something does. Most travelers purchase insurance hoping they’ll never need to use it, and that’s actually the best-case scenario. There’s just something reassuring about knowing that if the unexpected happens, you have a plan.
Think of it the same way you think about homeowners’ insurance or car insurance. You don’t buy it because you expect your house to burn down or your car to be totaled. You buy it because the financial consequences could be devastating if something did happen. Travel insurance works much the same way.
The bottom line is that travel is an investment. You can’t prevent every unexpected event from happening, but you can take steps to protect yourself from the financial consequences. Travel insurance won’t prevent a flight delay, illness or lost suitcase. What it can do is make dealing with those situations a whole lot less painful financially.
At Sunshine Journeys Travel Club, we want you to enjoy your trip, not spend your vacation worrying about what could go wrong. So, before you say, “I’ll take my chances,” take a moment to consider what you’re actually risking. Sometimes the smartest part of planning a great vacation is planning for the unexpected.
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