Here’s a worst-case scenario we recently read:  a group of girlfriends was traveling through Spain when a young man bursts around a corner, smashing into the group and knocking several of the young women violently to the ground. A second young man races by, grabs two of their purses, and sprints down another alley.

Ouch!

Inside each of those purses were their passports and every money-retrieving option the young women had: their cash, ATM card, and credit cards – all gone.

3 Steps to Being Prepared and Avoiding Purse or Wallet Theft

1. In crowded areas, consider wearing a money belt under your clothing and store your passport, cash, credit cards, and ATM card there instead. It’s very difficult to steal when it’s not hanging off your shoulder or in your back pocket.
2. Have a sheet of your account numbers and bank phone numbers with you, but have a system of switching the numbers by one or two digits (so the hotel staff can’t find it and use it illegally). If your wallet is stolen, you’ll have the necessary information to report it to the police and cancel the cards.
3. Make a copy of your passport identification page and leave one behind with a friend or family member, pack the other with you. (Again, store it safely when you arrive.) This will help if you need to replace your passport.
4. Before you leave, get a back up card from your bank or have a secondary credit card on hand and stored in a different place. You’ll still have the headache of reporting the theft and canceling all the stolen cards, but you’ll have a way to get around and continue your trip.

We’ve mentioned before that you should not travel with your debit card, for a number of reasons, but many of us forget to clear out our wallets when we travel – especially if we travel frequently.  See these top 6 strategies for protecting your identity on a trip for more information.

Many travelers prefer the personalized attention and unique ambiance of a bed and breakfast or an inn when they travel, but this type of travel comes with its own unique set of risks that travelers do not always consider.

How inns and bed and breakfasts are different

Bed and breakfast facilities are typically individually owned and run by an innkeeper who may or may not reside on the property. The same is true of many smaller and intimate inns. These are small businesses, and as such, they operate under very different rules than a typical corporate-owned hotel chain.

First, they typically require you stay a minimum number of nights (two is typically the minimum) and the full amount for your entire stay is required up-front.

Second, their cancellation policies are non standard and can be very restrictive. While with many hotels, you can call within 24 hours of your stay and cancel, that’s not true of inns and bed and breakfast facilities. Nearly always, the policy is that the innkeeper will attempt to rebook your room and charge you a simple cancellation fee ($20 and higher is typical). Unfortunately, it’s important to remember that these facilities are not drive-up types of establishments. If the innkeeper is unable to rebook your room with other guests, there is no refund.

In addition, you must cancel long before your arrival (many require 7 full days notice or more). If the inn or bed and breakfast is located near an annual event, such as a festival, or your stay is around a holiday, the cancellation notice period may be significantly extended or non existent.

For example, we’ve read cancellation policies like this:

Your deposit will be refunded less a $20.00 handling fee if we receive your cancellation request before the cancellation period. If a cancellation request is made within the cancellation period no refund will be made UNLESS your room can be rebooked, in which case you will receive a refund less a $20 cancellation fee. Our cancellation period is 7 full days before the check-in date EXCEPT:
* 14 days for holiday periods or 3 or more rooms or for stays longer than 7 nights
* 14 days for the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo (4th of July week)
* 14 days for The Lodge (30 days for holiday periods)
For all 14 and 30 day cancellation periods, guests will be charged the full amount for ALL room nights reserved less any amounts received for room nights rebooked.

Cover the risks of your bed and breakfast trip

• If you’ve long planned a restful getaway at a quaint inn in the mountain, but your boss cancels your leave, you could lose all your pre-paid costs. A travel insurance package with trip cancellation coverage will help in this instance.
• If you receive a call that your child has been hospitalized and have to abandon your weekend, you’ll lose the money you’ve already paid. A travel insurance package with trip interruption coverage can help in that instance.
• If the inn is hit by a natural disaster, but still open for business, you might prefer to book your stay somewhere else. A trip insurance package with ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage will help in this instance.

Staying at a unique one-of inn or bed and breakfast has it’s delights, but don’t risk your entire travel investment.  See our full page on travel insurance for inn and bed and breakfast stays.

New Year’s day 2012 is not one that Australian tourist Erin Langworthy is likely ever to forget. The 22-year-old nearly lost her life after the cord snapped during a bungee jump off the Victoria Falls bridge. The bridge is over 100 meters above the Zambezi River, a river well known to be inhabited by crocodiles.

When interviewed, Ms. Langworthy said she briefly blacked out after hitting the water and woke up when the current pulled her into the rapids below. With the trailing cord of her bungee snagging repeatedly on objects hidden beneath the water, and no one on the ground to help her, she had to swim down, yank the cord loose and regain the surface with her feet bound  together.

Ms. Langworthy eventually reached the bank of the river and was cared for at a local medical clinic before being evacuated to a South African hospital where she spent a week recovering.  Miraculously, she suffered only extensive bruising, cuts, and a fractured collar bone. Doctors kept her in South Africa longer than she originally expected because Erin’s lungs gave her continued trouble and she was not allowed to fly.

It’s important for adventure travelers to remember that you’ll be expected to sign a waiver that expunges the operator from any liability – specifically, you bungee jump, sky dive, hang glide, ski, kayak (and more!) at your own risk.

Travelers who partake in adventure tourism should have adventure coverage on their travel insurance plan because nearly all travel insurance plans specifically exclude adventure activities like these from coverage. If you have any plans to partake in adventures on your trip, be sure to have adventure coverage on your travel insurance plan so your medical evacuation and treatment will be covered by travel insurance. Plus, with medical evacuation coverage, you’ll have a safe return trip home when you are well enough to travel.

These days, as work has become global and families are spread out, most of us have to fly. Unfortunately, the confined and often crowded space inside an airplane can quickly turn into a breeding ground for infectious diseases.

Not all passenger vessels are designed with air filtration systems. While most passenger jets have sophisticated filtration systems to keep airborne viruses from spreading, infections still spread simply because of the close proximity of other people.

Viruses and bacteria can survive for many hours on the surfaces of seats, tray tables, seat pockets, even armrests. High altitude and dry air compromises the body’s ability to defend itself, and fatigue plays a strong role in making travelers more susceptible to falling ill.

The recent death of rap star Dwight Arrington Myers, or Heavy D, after flying from England to L.A. underscores the danger of sitting for long periods of time. Myer’s death was a result of deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. The CDC has long linked air travel with the development of blood clots, or thrombus, which break off and travel to the lungs.

5 Steps to Staying Healthy While Traveling

The following are the recommended precautions to implement to stay healthy while traveling:

1. Stay hydrated with clean water at all times.
2. Wash your hands frequently, especially before touching food.
3. Bring your own pillow, blanket, and earphones.
4. Open the air vent above you and aim it in front of your face to blow virus-carrying particles away.
5. Disinfect the tray table, armrests and remote controls as soon as you are seated with individual sanitizer packets.

Also, it’s important to recognize the risk of blood clots is elevated when taking a long trip of any kind: by plane, by train, by automobile, by bus. Therefore, it’s crucial to get up and move around periodically or at least wriggle your legs, lift them up off the floor, point your toes, and jiggle frequently. Staying hydrated also helps according to the CDC, and consider opting for the aisle seat so you have more opportunity to stand and move about.

First, let’s take a look at what exactly are your winter travel risks. Winter storms are not generally predictable more than a week in advance (neither are summer storms, in fact), so travelers need to plan ahead to avoid spending the night crammed in an airport chair (those don’t recline you know). Travelers also have to prepare ahead to avoid forfeiting their entire vacation deposit because they are stranded due to flight cancellations during a storm.

Every year, winter blizzards and snow storms cause thousands of travelers to endure flight cancellations, delays, and mishandled luggage. According to the U.S. Weather Service, this winter is expected to be significantly colder and wetter than usual.

So when winter weather impacts a vacation or business trip, it’s helpful to have these travel insurance coverage benefits on hand to cover the following risks:

• Missed nights. Ski resorts and hotels will not usually refund your deposit for late arrivals or cancellations. Travel insurance will reimburse you for those lost non refundable costs if the trip is delayed or interrupted due to heavy snow or closed roads. If the airport is closed and you can’t arrive on time, travel insurance will refund you for your lost nights and help you find and pay for a hotel where you can wait out the delay.
• Flight cancellations. When the airlines cancel flights due to weather, they are no longer responsible for what happens to you. Their only job is to reschedule your flight and allow you to rebook. Travel insurance will reimburse you for the unused portion of your air ticket, letting you rebook at your convenience.
• Travel alternatives. If flights are grounded, you may be competing with hundreds – even thousands – of other travelers who all want the same thing at the same time – nearby hotel rooms and rescheduled flights. Calling your travel insurance assistance services team can help you locate and reserve hotel accommodations ahead of the pack. They can also find alternative transportation and reschedule your flights if your trip is disrupted due to severe weather.
• Unexpected costs. When you have to overnight in a hotel because your flight is cancelled, that’s just one of the  unexpected expenses you’ll face. There is also taxi costs, meal costs, and more. With travel insurance, you’ll have a daily reimbursement for those costs if your trip is interrupted or delayed by a winter storm.

To be sure you are protected on your winter trips, we recommend the following:

1. Purchase your trip insurance soon after paying for your trip. Many policies waive pre-existing medical conditions when you purchase the plan within a certain number of days of booking your trip, so don’t wait.
2. Print an extra copy of your travel vouchers, receipts, and confirmations in case you need to file a claim.
3. Read the policy when it comes in so you know what’s covered. All policies have a review period (usually 10-14 days) in which you can make changes or cancel your policy.
4. Keep a copy of your policy with you and record the toll free number in your phone so it’s handy when you need to call it on your trip.
5. Be sure to get written proof that your trip is delayed or cancelled due to bad weather. Airlines routinely provide this documentation upon request.