Travel Insurance is not the most glamorous of subjects. It is probably not the first thing you think of when booking a holiday. However, you should give Travel Insurance as much thought as any other aspect of your trip. I know what your thinking, Travel Insurance is boring, it’s just another expense, the travel agent will take care of it, and so on. Well, give me a couple of minutes and you might see how important Travel Insurance is and save some money into the bargain.
The reason for writing this post, apart from the fact that this a site is about L’Estartit, which means travelling for most of us, is that I have both good and bad experiences when it comes to Travel Insurance. Let me give you a couple of personal examples of what can happen and you might understand why I am writing this article.
Example 1
My parents were on short break in Sitges when my Father had a heart attack. He had a private room in hospital for the three weeks of his recuperation. When he was discharged he was flown home to England in an air ambulance. The insurance company paid for his stay in hospital, the treatment and the flight home.
So the problem? For my Father there was no problem, the service he received was first class. My mother, on the other hand, is a different story. As you can appreciate, my Mother wanted to stay with him while he recovered. The trouble was, their policy did not cover her extended stay. Her hotel and all other expenses for that three-week stay had to be paid for by her.
Example 2
A friend of mine goes to Spain regularly for both business and holidays, so he has an annual travel insurance policy. He has been with the same company for five years and had never made a claim. That was until last year.
While on a business trip to Barcelona, he had his money, camera, passport and phone, stolen form a safety deposit box in his hotel room. You would think that there would be no problem making a claim on his insurance, right? Wrong, his policy only covered safety deposit boxes, if they are housed in reception. As his box was in his room, he was not covered. This is worth bearing in mind as many of the hotels in Estartit allow public access to deposit boxes.
So, having given you these examples you might be thinking what was my point. Well, my point is that I strongly advise you to look more carefully at what is not covered by your holiday insurance, than what is, before you purchase it. This brings me to another point.
If you are going to book your holiday to Estartit with a travel agent, they will try to get you to purchase travel insurance through them. Do not do it! Generally, it is between 5 and10 times less expensive to purchase your policy separately. Last year I saved £168 on my holiday by doing just that.
I hope I have not dampened your holiday mood. However, it is worth remembering…
You never appreciate Holiday/Travel/Home Insurance until you need it.
Have fun in the sun and thank you for reading Travel Insurance A Holiday Must!
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