Even the best planned vacations can be interrupted by glitches and emergencies. You lose your luggage. You slip, or catch a bug, and need medical treatment. These not only disrupt your itinerary, but can cost you a lot of money.

That's where travel insurance (also called travel protection) comes in. Specially designed to address the situations and risks involved in travel, it provides coverage from the moment you leave, to the moment you return to your home.

For example, travel insurance can reimburse you for any baggage or items that you may lose during your trip. This is particularly important if you plan to buy anything of high value, such as local antiques, or are carrying very expensive jewellery or electronic equipment.

Your standard medical insurance also tends to be limited to a network area, so without travel insurance, you will have to pay for any hospitalization or medical treatments you receive while abroad. This can be very pricey, not to mention stressful: imagine being sick and broke in an unfamiliar country! If you are visiting a place where doctor's bills and other emergency procedures are expensive, or where there are very real health risks, travel insurance is absolutely crucial.

Travel insurance is also very important if you plan to take a driving vacation. Many automobile policies will not extend coverage outside the country you live. The last thing you want to worry about is how to pay for a rental vehicle that got smashed by another driver, or take over the costs of repairing a car who you may have hit (a risk anyone takes by travelling through unfamiliar roads with unfamiliar driving rules).

Travel insurance can also provide protection against emergencies that are so specific to going abroad that they cannot be covered by your standard insurance policy. This includes trip interruption. Any fees or down payments that you may have made that would otherwise have been forfeited if you had suddenly cancelled your trip will be returned to you.

Travel protection plans can also provide assistance services like an emergency hotline and medical transportation services. This is very valuable when a crisis hits in a foreign country, where you may not speak the language or know your way around a city well enough to locate the nearest emergency facility. When you are distraught or distressed, or when time is of the essence and you need to get help right away, travel protection plans can be your safety net. You may be a stranger in a strange land, but you are not alone.

You may ask, "Why should I get travel insurance when I have really good regular insurance?" Many people are under the impression that their automobile, homeowners' credit card and medical policies are so "extensive" that they would automatically provide protection anywhere in the world. That is not necessarily true. You need to read the fine print. If you don't, and fail to take the additional coverage given by travel protection, then you may find out your insurance policies' limitation the hard way: when you are caught in an emergency, and spending a large amount of money (on top of the deductibles and co-payments) with the hope of compensation very far off. Travel protection is a sure guarantee of security. Now you can take your vacation with complete peace of mind--and isn't that what vacations are about?

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Travel is one of the life's greatest joys but even the most carefully planned trip can be complicated by unforeseen events. Whether it is lost luggage, cancelled flights, or medical emergency, an unexpected mishap can turn a relaxing vacation into a taxing experience. But by opting for a good holiday travel insurance policy, you can save your money, safeguard your journey and make your vacation a truly memorable one.

There are many things to consider when planning for a vacation - where to go, what to pack and what do once you reach your destination. No matter how well you plan, there are some things that go out of your control. This is where travel insurance comes to your aid by compensating you for the unforeseen emergencies while traveling.

What does travel insurance cover?
Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption: Reimburse travelers who are unable to take their trip due to illness or death, weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed or home being rendered uninhabitable due to fire, flood etc.

Medical/Health: Reimburses medical or emergency dental costs. All most all insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveler after he has paid locally for the treatment. Medical evacuation insurance covers the cost of an air ambulance, attending physician and nurse if you are badly injured or become so ill that you are unable to come back home.

Accidental Death:
Air Fight Accident: Covers death during an air flight only. Usually covers the highest amount of coverage due to lower risk.

Common Carrier: Covers death while traveling in public transport such as ferry, train, bus or taxi.

Accidental Death: Covers death at any time on your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to higher risk.

Travel Delay: Reimburses travelers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay.

Baggage Loss: The plan includes reimbursement to travelers for their, lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is generally for the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline.

Rental Car Damage: A specific amount is reimbursed to the traveler for damage or loss of a rental vehicle.

Is travel insurance necessary?
One issue that often strikes us while planning for a vacation is the necessity of travel insurance. Nobody likes to think of the odds that could make you cancel or shorten a vacation. No matter how well you plan for your vacation, things go wrong due some unavoidable circumstances. And it is here that you seek for shelter of travel insurance.

As with most things in life, we are exposed to a certain amount of risk when we travel. This is the sole reason why we require travel insurance. Now, whether a person is a student or a professional, it is applicable for both. For students, however, there are certain separate rules and regulations compared to the insurance policies for the other groups of people.

So before you finalize your vacation plans, be sure you have given careful thought to whether you need to purchase an insurance policy while you are traveling. There are circumstances that could cause you to cancel your trip, return home early or force you to seek emergency medical treatment while traveling. Travel insurance provides you with that extra protection cover you need.

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