Planned a holiday to somewhere exotic, or the trip of a lifetime?

Chances are, you probably haven’t thought about taking out travel insurance! I know, it’s always the last thing to think about and more often than not it just seems like just one more expense. No doubt you’ll get the quote and think, is it worth it? Well trust me, it’s worth it if something goes unexpectedly wrong!

We’ve had our fair share of flight cancellations and delays. Generally, we’ve been able to get on the next flight or book with another airline to still get to our destination, but then again, so much can go wrong even when you and your bags do arrive safely on the other end.

Imagine this… cycling with friends on a bitumen road in Croatia, going up a hill to get to a beautiful lake on the other side. GoPro in one hand, lots of laughs to be had. Then, out of nowhere a car comes up over the hill and around the bend. You use the only free hand you have to slam on your brakes, which in this instance happens to be the front brakes.. sending you over the handle bars onto the bitumen road stopping only cm’s in front of the oncoming car. Well, this happened to me and it wasn’t pretty!

Thankfully I was ok, no major injuries to report but I did have some nasty gravel grazes on my shoulder and hand and it looked pretty bad. Needless to say, Jenna was freaking out. One of the locals had a van and was kind enough to take us (and our bikes) down to the medical centre. The doctor cleaned me up and checked for any serious damage before letting us go. 20 minutes in the doctors set us back a couple hundred EUROs… Now, that is not something you plan on happening, nor have in your holiday budget. All I can say is I am glad we had travel insurance as we paid our excess, got reimbursed for the hospital bill and also got reimbursed for the damage caused to the GoPro case. On a sad note, when I came off the bike, the GoPro paused a little… when we got it connected, it appears that the accident footage didn’t save due to the impact so I only have scars and photos to tell the tale. See pictures below!!

There are plenty of reasons to take out travel insurance…

• your flight is cancelled
• you miss your connecting flight
• you need to cancel your trip
• you get sick or injured (like me!) on your trip
• you need emergency medical evacuation
• you need travel assistance (don’t speak the language?)
• your baggage is delayed or lost
• your tour is cancelled
• your travel company files for bankruptcy
• your lost or stolen goods

Some things to remember though, make sure you read the policy itself, be careful if you’re planning on relying on your complimentary travel insurance linked to a credit card, and most importantly make sure you’re covered for the type of holiday you’ve planned! For example, if you’re going skiing (or any other winter sports) or going on a cruise, often you will need to select these in addition to the base policy.

There are plenty of insurance providers to choose from, we’ve had both great and also terrible experiences in the past where we assumed travel insurance is travel insurance and are generally the same (they’re not!).

We have been using 1Cover recently, the prices are reasonable, there’s a good variety of plans and for us, it’s been great. Click here to get an instant quote.

WARNING: The below photos could make you feel uncomfortable…

All is good here, cycling to the lake!

All of a sudden, not so good…. hello bitumen and hello car!

A trip to the doctors… quite expensive and a sad moment!

Where we were trying to go!

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous