By Expedia Team, on February 12, 2016

A Quick Guide to Travel Insurance

This is our quick guide to travel insurance; we’ll look at what travel insurance is, why we think it is an important addition to your travel pack and a few helpful tips about how you should approach buying travel insurance.

What is travel insurance?

None of us are naïve; we know that whilst travelling is an incredible part of life, it isn’t quite as simple as sitting around at home doing nothing. Travelling is full of carefree moments that turn into the most incredible memories and travel insurance is that little investment that lets you sit back and relax. You can bask in the beauty of your surroundings knowing that travel insurance will take care of any unforeseen circumstances that could occur whilst away.

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Why get travel insurance and why is it important?

There are some things that are just totally out of our control when travelling and why should we let these pesky little things get in the way of a good time? Things like luggage getting lost or stolen, flight cancellations adding an extra cost to your holiday, losing important documents such as passports or even needing medical attention are all possible (as much as we hope not) and it is just better to be safe than sorry.

Having travel insurance can really benefit you if the case arises, so we recommend you take it seriously and do some digging into the best deals available out there.

What does travel insurance cover?

You can get all different levels of travel insurance from fully comprehensive packages to smaller levels of cover for domestic travel. There are also even travel insurances available for different types of people, e.g. families, students, individuals etc.

The type of cover you will need to have depends on your destination, duration of stay, what the purpose of your holiday is; premiums change depending on all of these things. If you are a keen traveller then there is the option to choose an annual plan that covers you for multiple trips.

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What to think about when buying travel insurance

We recommend you create a checklist of every eventuality you can think of, we’ve looked at several travel insurance companies and started the list for you:

Medical Treatment

  • Make sure the insurance company has 24-hr hotlines that you can call in case you need information about how to seek medical treatment or need clarification about your insurance in case of an emergency (you never know when these things could happen)
  • You want to ensure that your cover includes emergency medical insurance for every eventuality, including personal accidents and even death. This cover will change depending on the nature of your holiday, if you’re trekking the Himalayas things are likely to be more expensive than if you’re having a relaxing beach break in Karnataka
  • Check that pre-existing medical conditions are covered once you’ve declared them!
  • Ideally your medical travel insurance should be unlimited with regards to level of cover, if not it has been suggested that it be at least ₹2.5million

Personal Items

  • You want to be covered for the loss or theft of all of your really important items: personal devices, financial items (credit cards etc.), baggage loss and most importantly your passport!

Unwanted Events

  • Things like trip delays should be covered so you do not experience financial loss from cancelled flights owing to problems with the airlines or extreme weather conditions etc.

Travel insurance will come with an excess, this is the amount of money you’re willing to pay yourself to rectify the situation, so make sure it is something you can afford! Also, make sure you read the fine print! You’re likely to find important bits of information that could affect your claim.

Finding Travel Insurance Online

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Having travel insurance can really benefit you if the case arises, so we recommend you take it seriously and do some digging into the best deals available out there. There are a couple of useful comparison sites that allow you to see travel insurance options side by side and companies that offer great travel insurance deals:

Finally, don’t see travel insurance as a bad omen, but rather a comfy security blanket just in case! Enjoy your trip to the fullest extent, remembering that no cost will ever be able to compare to the incredible experiences you will undoubtedly have and the memories you will make!