Ever since the swine flu made headlines all over the Internet and printed media, more and more travelers are interested when travel insurance covers swine flu and whether they should consider getting a travel insurance quote while planning their vacations abroad.
Australia is not a third world destination, so who needs travel insurance? After all, what can happen that would ruin your vacation? You are always careful, right? And you have the stomach which can handle anything. Plus, travel insurance is an added cost which a backpacker prefers not to hear about.
Wrong. First of all, travel insurance is not expensive. Secondly, anything can happen to anyone. Adventurous or not, it’s better to think from the “better be ready than sorry” perspective.
You have just spend several hours on the Internet to look among those cheap air tickets and finally managed to find the best one for you. Flights to Australia are not hard to find, but as the summer approaches it’s wise to book in advance to get a good deal. Once that’s sorted out, you are looking for hotels in Sydney and managed to find the perfect one.
But you fall ill right before you need to start packing your bags. Your doctor tells you not to even consider a vacation. So what do you do? File a claim and get at least some of your money back. But that’s possible only if you have bought travel insurance which covers cancellation.
Let’s skip the getting sick scenario and assume you are already on the plane. Since your plans include some sort of adventurous activities, you had to check in one of your bags, filled with your hiking gear and clothes. But when you get off the plane, your bag hasn’t arrived with you. What to do? File a claim to get the money for the lost gear. Of course, it’s possible only if you bought travel insurance which includes covering for the cost of lost or stolen gear.
So you finally made it to Australia. And now it’s time to have fun. You meet with a group of fellow travelers and plan to do some hiking and exploring. On one day you stop in a small town and try the local food. But your stomach doesn’t agree with it and you need urgent medical attention. What to do? Use your travel insurance, which should cover the emergency medical expenses and, if needed, the cost of transport for bringing you back home.
These are some of the most common reasons travelers use their travel insurance. Worse things may happen. Accidents may happen when you try adventurous sports. Or you might have a car accident and someone wants to sue you.
It’s always a good idea to be prepared for the worst case scenario. It gives you the peace needed to know that should anything happen you have the chance to fight back. The worst thing during a vacation is to worry about the money you need to spend in order to fix something that a travel insurance policy could have fixed for you.
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