Yes, weve all met him – but how many of us meet him six months after his holiday; insurance now a word burned like a brand into his regretful heart. Chastened, broke, stressed out and sorrowful, he spends his days not bragging of his travelling adventures, but moaning of his travelling disasters. Travel insurance – he coulda, he shoulda, he woulda. Trouble is – he didnt.

Things went bad about three days into his trip when he landed in Bangkok on a stopover to India. He decided to book a short flight up to Chang Mai for a couple of nights to see the sights. On his last night he ran into a couple of Aussie guys in a bar, and so started a pretty heavy night on the tiles. The next day, his flight (and many others!) went without him as he slept peacefully in a rice paddy field. Waking up at sunset, he had to shell out for another (very expensive) flight to try to get back to Bangkok to catch his connection to India. He didnt make it and had to purchase a new (extremely expensive) flight for that leg of his journey. Story number one – Travel insurance would have covered that.

Arriving in India, our hero put the disaster of his extra cash outlay behind him. After all, hed save heaps in India because it was so cheap. Leaving the airport in Delhi he got a taxi to a cheap hotel recommended by the driver, dumped his bag, grabbed his camera and iPod, and set off to explore the city. Arriving back six hours later, he pushed open the door to his room to find it had been ransacked, and all his clothes, toiletries and most disappointingly his two-weeks-wages North Face hiking boots had gone. Being a trooper, he took a long slug of water from the bathroom tap and resolved to keep his chin up. Story number two – Even cheap travel insurance would have covered that

Arriving in New York three weeks later, our young explorer (feet akin to tractor tyres from hiking barefoot around Southern India) looked forward to immersing himself in the delights of the city that never slept. He felt sure his luck was beginning to change. Celebrating with a cold beer under the shadow of the Empire State, he felt that finally he could begin to reminisce upon his travels without a bitter bile rising to his throat, when suddenly he began to feel very, very, very ill… Two weeks later with a stern warning from the doctors that his Giardia may reoccur sporadically throughout his life, he was discharged from hospital with shaky legs and a medical bill resembling a division one lottery win.

Story number three – Yes, you guessed it – holiday insurance would have paid for that.

After this last calamity, our unfortunate fellow immediately cancelled the rest of his world tour and returned home, (with an extra charge on his ticket for the changes) to recuperate at his parents house. Unfortunately he had to look after himself as they were both off on their package holiday to Tenerife with Beryl having a wonderful time – fully covered by their travel insurance.

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pPatrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journeys Travel. Their commercial travel insurance website, Insuremore, offers a target=_new href=http://insuremore.co.uk/ rel=nofollowcheap travel insurance/a for families, couples and singles with a quick and easy online claims feature./pbr
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In general terms, holiday insurance protects a travellers holiday costs against adverse events such as cancellation and interruption and also reimburses medical expenses, the loss or damage of property and transit delays. Travellers are compensated if they have to cancel or interrupt their travel, they will also be covered should they need emergency medical treatment, medical evacuation and other situations.

The main categories of holiday insurance:

Delays and cancellation – including curtailment

Delay: This reimburses travellers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay. Some plans also cover costs associated with catching up with a cruise should another delay cause the traveller to miss embarkation.

Cancellation: Reimbursement comes into effect if travellers have booked and paid for a holiday, but are unable to embark because of personal illness or injury, death (of the individual or of a family member), adverse weather conditions, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, jury duty or by sustaining serious damage to their home causing it to be uninhabitable due to fire or flooding.

Interruption: Insurance companies pay money to policy holders abroad if they have to cut short their trip due to illness, death (of the traveller or a family member), weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed, and other adverse conditions which mean that, due to events outside the control of the holiday-maker, a trip has to be curtailed.

Medical reasons

Medical and health reasons: Reimburses medical and emergency dental costs. Almost all holiday insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveller after they have paid locally for treatment. Claims are usually paid within 7 – 10 days. Pre-existing conditions are covered by most policies if the policy is purchased within (at the most) 21 days from the date the traveller made the first payment or deposit.

Medical evacuation: This provides emergency transportation to either a local hospital in the event that the traveller is unable to get there by themselves or back to a hospital near the travellers place of residence. If family members are covered on the same policy they can return home also.

Death of traveller

Air Flight accident – this covers death or dismemberment during an air flight only. Usually provides the highest amount of coverage due to fairly low likelihood of this occurring.

Common carrier – Covers death or dismemberment while travelling on public transport such as a plane, ferry, train bus or taxi.

Accidental death – covers death or dismemberment at any time of your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to a higher risk

Loss or damage of personal effects

Baggage loss – reimburses travellers for lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is usually restricted to the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline. There are two policy limits, total claim and per item maximum. Some policies also place limits on the type of items that can be claimed for – such as precious jewellery, laptops and sporting goods

Rental Car damage – Reimburses travellers for damage or loss to a rental vehicle. It is designed to allow the traveller to decline collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage offered by the car rental companies. Liability coverage should still be purchased through the car rental company. Rental Car Damage coverage is also often included with the credit card used to pay for the car rental which is often matches the coverage provided in the policy.

Assistance services – provides a 24-hour collect telephonel advice and assistance service to travellers. This service can be used anytime a traveller needs advice. Make sure you dont leave home without it.

In conclusion

holiday insurance is the one product in the modern insurance-saturated world that really is essential. You will not regret taking it out, but not being insured for your travel mishaps is a source of huge regret for far too many holiday-makers every year.

Dont leave home without your toothbrush, a sketch pad, a bar of scented soap and a holiday insurance policy!br
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People who go for backpacking travels carry a limited budget with them. They, instead of staying in expensive hostels prefer staying in dorms, eat from cheap food joints, travel without much baggage etc. Though backpacking is fun, sometimes, all this fun can turn into a nightmare. Your health might get affected, you might get injured or you might face some mishaps; the treatments of these entire things can cost you a fortune. Since you are on a budget travel, paying for all these treatments can be a headache for you. But with backpacker travel insurance as found in UK, you can enjoy your travel without any tensions in mind.

Different types of cover that come under backpacker travel insurance in UK are:

? Emergency Medical Cover: This will cover all your emergency medical treatments.

? Rescue and Repartition: This will cover any emergency rescue.

? Personal Liability: It is a legal cover for any harm inflicted on any other individual by you.

? Cancellation of flights: If for any reason you have to cancel your holidays, backpackers travel insurance in UK will cover the cost.

? Baggage and possession: Any loss of baggage and personal documents will be covered by backpackers travel insurance.

Other features like ski and sports cover, providing protection for activities such as scuba driving, paragliding, bungee jumping can be added by paying a little extra. You should carefully check your backpacker policy document to ensure that the activity you intend to do is covered by your backpacker travel insurance in UK.

Before that you need to do an extensive research of the insurance market of UK and find out a backpacker travel insurance that will give you the perfect coverage. With internet facilities, you can easily carry on this job. Just by sitting in front of your computer and going through the websites of various companies, you can choose for yourself a perfect backpacker travel insurance policy in UK./pbr
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Holidays are just like the synonym of refreshment, relaxation, and enjoyment and thus getting yourselves away from all the worries and problems. But when you plan for spending your holidays with your friends or relatives in the unique locations of universe then the first thing which comes in your mind is your finance. But with cheap travel insurance you can plan your holidays and travel without getting into any financial trouble.

Generally holidays requires you to spend heap of money on traveling to various eye catching locations of world but cheap holiday travel insurance provides you the opportunity to travel hassle free. Cheap holiday insurance offers an excellent opportunity to spend some quality time with your relatives and family and exploring the hidden beauties of universe without getting worried about anything.

Cheap holiday travel insurance provides cover for your medical expenses if during travel you fall ill and even in emergency situation you can get medical repatriation coverage and emergency ambulance. With cheap holiday travel insurance you can also get covers for flight cancellation, flight delays, flight interruption and loss of baggage and documents. Hence if you are planning to travel for spending your holidays and suddenly you find that your flight got delays or cancelled then you can get proper reimbursement with cheap holiday travel insurance.

Cheap holiday travel insurance also provides you the facility of lower premium. But before purchasing cheap holiday travel insurance it is very important to analyze the credibility and world wide access of the insurance company. So that in case of any kind of emergency during holiday travel in a foreign country you would not have to worry about anything and you could get help as early as could be possible.

It is important before buying any policy of cheap holiday travel insurance to analyze carefully and read the travel insurance documents properly. You should also first undertake a through study of the policies given by insurance companies and later on select the policy that will suit your financial condition and needs. With internet you can do this work of research about the insurance company without any hassle.

Online you can get a number of sites of insurance companies giving free quotes for cheap holiday travel insurance. Online you also have the liberty to select and compare as many quotes for cheap holiday travel insurance as you want to do until you get a policy of your choice. With online search you can perform this work of search about cheap holiday travel insurance quite easily within no time. So now you can enjoy your holidays with cheap holiday travel insurance.

We can all recall that at some point or other someone has recommended we take out some form of cover when we travel. Indeed you may have read one of the many articles in abundance on the subject. I myself have written many articles on the topic of travel insurance, including guides and coverage of news items worthy of interest. However, it suddenly dawned on me that I had failed to examine perhaps the most fundamental part of travel insurance; this being the cover it has to offer. I’ve maybe touched on it in earlier articles and made brief reference to levels of cover to aim for. Yet, I haven’t evaluated each aspect of cover and how this relates to you the potential purchaser.

The key features of the majority of holiday insurance policies are as follows;

1: Medical cover; this feature will cover the costs of hospitalisation and medical treatment you receive whilst on your holiday. If you are travelling in the E.U you will benefit from a European health card as this will cover initial emergency treatment, your insurance policy will pay out for treatment over and above this. Whilst travelling in Europe you should seek at least ?1 million in medical cover. The cost of treatment in the U.S.A is likely to bankrupt the average person so here this cover is essential and a figure of ?2 million in protection should be sought. It is important to remember to volunteer any health problems you suffer from, however minor they may seem, to your insurer. Failure to do so could result in voiding of the policy.

2: Personal baggage; this feature will cover you baggage if it is lost or stolen and also cover the cost of temporarily replacing items if it is delayed by several days. Under this feature you personal belongings will also be covered, subject to a maximum individual item limit and an overall policy limit. Failure to adequately look after you luggage and personal items could result in the travel insurance not provider paying out. The standard level of cover should be set to around ?1500 but this varies greatly between policies.

3: Theft cover; Although this feature comes under the same branch as personal baggage cover it is important to distinguish the fact that you will normally receive protection on your holiday cash and items such as camera’s when you are on your holiday. You should seek to have a minimum cover level of ?250 for your cash, and ensure you split your spending money into several different forms such as; cash, traveller’s cheques and credit or debit card. This will help ensure you have a back up if you are to have one method of payment stolen. Remember never to take all your money out with you and make use of a safe if provided in the accommodation.

4: Cancellation cover; this is a very important feature as it will usually protect you in the event your holiday is cancelled by the tour operator or yourself as long as the situation meets certain criteria (these vary from one insurer to the next, a typical exclusion would be the knowledge that you were likely to cancel your holiday at the time of taking out the cover). Usually covered are; illness, death (usually a close family member) and redundancy. You can expect anywhere up to and over ?3000 as a standard and certainly recommended level of cover.

5: last but not least we come to Personal liability cover; this can be important as it protects you if you are sued by a third party due to accidentally causing injury or damage to themselves or their property. You should aim to have a minimum cover of ?1 million in this area as it can be especially important in the current compensation culture.

Ensure that you have the above 5 features included on your travel insurance policy at the recommended levels and you should be all set for your holiday safe in the knowledge you are covered for these eventualities.