The following are the things to consider:

• exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions
• out-of-network policy services
• coverage for pregnancy complications
• exclusions for high-risk activities such as SCUBA diving and mountain climbing
• exclusions for injuries due to terrorist attacks or acts of war
• whether pre-authorization is necessary for treatment
• whether a second opinion is required for emergency treatment

Another consideration is whether there is a toll-free number the traveler can call 24-hours a day for plan information and/or to speak to a representative.

While Medicare and Medicaid will not cover services outside the U.S., some traveler insured by more liberal plans may find that they have some coverage available outside the country.

Typically, even if you are covered abroad, you’ll have to pay for your care out of pocket and submit a claim with the receipts and medical records for reimbursement. That being said, an injured or ill traveler should not wait to contact their health insurance provider until after they return. The sooner you can get in touch and let them know that you are in trouble, the better.

The liquid restrictions were introduced following a failed attempt by terrorists in 2006 to bring down several airlines departing London for North America. The terrorists intended to use liquid explosives carried onto the aircraft.

This new scanner uses a technology called Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy, or SORS. It uses particles of light to identify the molecules inside containers. Ultimately, the technology is hoped to be used to diagnose diseases in a non invasive way and be used to analyze counterfeit drugs and powders.

Either way, if this technology proves successfully, we’ll all be able to start taking our shampoo, conditioner, lotions, and water bottles on the planes again. Bottles of water, cosmetics, and perfumes may be taken through airport security as early as 2013.

• You can buy it with your airline ticket. Read why we don’t recommend that.
• You can buy it through your cruise line. Read why we don’t recommend that either.
• You can buy it from your travel agent. Read why we sometimes don’t recommend that either.

All those methods aside, here’s why buying your travel insurance online is still the best way to go:

1. The Internet is still the undisputed king of information.

When you research your trip, you do it online because the amount of information at your fingertips makes this a smart way to search for virtually anything. The same goes for travel insurance. Here at Travel Insurance Review, you’ll find reviews from actual travelers, comparisons of different products, and the latest news and information for travelers.

2. A comparison engine makes buying travel insurance simple

When you use a travel insurance comparison engine, you can customize your coverage for pre-existing conditions, coverage limits, and add options like rental car coverage, adventure sports coverage, coverage for your pets, and more. Plus, your travel insurance needs are put through an engine that gives you multiple providers and let’s you compare costs, coverage limits, and options all in once place.

3. You get access to all the best travel insurance companies, not just a few

One vital thing you miss when you purchase travel insurance with your airline ticket or from your travel agent is options. In most cases, an airline booking engine gives you one travel insurance provider, so you’re not even getting a useful price comparison. Most travel agencies focus on one or two travel insurance providers, not the entire spectrum, so again you’re losing out. Smarter shopping requires adequate comparison and the travel insurance comparison engine gives you just that.

4. You can see your travel coverage documents immediately and contact the assistance services representatives

Now, you can see your travel coverage documents immediately when you buy your plan with your airline ticket too, but do you read the details? It’s not likely. You’re focused on getting that ticket and you may not remember to read those documents. When you purchase your travel insurance online, you get the travel documents sent to your e-mail address. You can review them and call the assistance services representatives to ask questions and better understand your coverage or get clarification on the ‘fine print’.

Therefore, we recommend the following steps to making your rental car look like a local:

1. Leave no tourist papers lying around – put your airline tickets in your purse or suitcase, keep the car rental documents with you too. Any piece of paper that looks like you are passing through gets carried with you or tossed immediately.
2. Put a local newspaper in the car and take care to place it under the rear window so thieves will see it before they try to smash the window.
3. Put your suitcases immediately into the trunk and don’t open the trunk until you arrive at your lodging so a potential thief doesn’t happen to see what you’re hiding.
4. Leave your glove compartment open and empty so the thief can see it’s useless to break into the car. Same for leaving the cover off your trunk or lying down the seats so they can see there’s nothing available to steal.
5. Last, but not least, don’t leave your camera and other electronics lying around. If you cannot take them with, they are safer in the hotel room in the safe.

Remember to ask your lodging staff where the safest parking is to be found. Once you get there, take a minute to look around – is the asphalt is glittering with lots of small glass bits, it may not be the safest parking space despite the information you’ve been given.

If a thief does manage to smash the window of your rental car, be sure that you have car rental collision coverage – either with your own automobile insurance, through your credit card coverage, or with travel insurance. See our review of car rental collision coverage to be sure. If a thief does manage to make off with your baggage, you’ll want to have some protection for that as well. See our review of baggage coverage to decide.

Some of the more common dangers travelers experience, however, are diseases such as the following:

1. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever – most common in the Southeast and South-Central regions (particularly in Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee), this is a tick-borne illness that occurs primarily in Spring and Summer. Immediate treatment with antibiotics can prevent progression of the disease and the potentially fatal outcome, but early detection is typically hard.
2. Lyme Disease – the country’s most common tick-related illness, Lyme Disease occurs usually in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states as well as northern California. Early treatment with antibiotics can lead to full recovery, but the initial symptoms resemble the flu.
3. West Nile Virus – transmitted by mosquitoes, most cases of West Nile go undetected as there are usually no symptoms. When and if symptoms do begin, there is little to do but wait it out. Some cases get sever and require hospitalization. Outbreaks can occur anywhere mosquitoes are active.
4. Influenza – because the flu is easily transmitted in confined spaces (such as airplanes and trains), and because the strains change and adapt, this respiratory illness is a seasonal menace and sometimes kills those affected.
5. Traveler diarrhea – one of the most common travel diseases, it’s associated with severe vomiting, fever and abdominal pain. Sometimes due to bacterial causes, such as Salmonella, or viral causes, such as norovirus, or parasitic causes, such as Giardia, this is a highly common problem.

Prevention for these common US-based diseases includes:

1. Wearing insect repellent
2. Examining yourself and others for ticks after outdoor activities
3. Annual flu vaccines
4. Good hygiene: washing your hands thoroughly and often, cooking food properly, and peeling or washing produce
5. Avoiding untreated or unsafe water

If you are traveling in the U.S. from another country, it’s important to have travel medical insurance in case you have to visit a medical clinic, or worse, you have to be medically evacuated to a hospital for care.

If you are a U.S. citizen, check your health insurance plan to find out whether you will be paying out-of-pocket costs if you experience a medical emergency where you are traveling.

Before you cruise

Before you choose your cruise, get a sanitation report on the cruise ship. That will help you know how the CDC scores that cruise ship’s sanitary conditions.

Prepare a ditch bag

A ditch bag is a small bag holding the stuff you may need if you have to ditch – ditch your room, ditch the ship, whatever. What goes in your ditch bag? IDs, passports, necessary medications, cash, spare credit card, spare eyeglasses, those kinds of things. Pack a few additional zippered plastic bags – to keep your medications and cell phone dry.

Ideally, the bag should be as small as possible and it’s especially useful if it can be thrown over your shoulder and worn under your life vest.

FYI: most life vests are equipped with a whistle and strobe light, so those are probably not necessary to store in your ditch bag. If you’re worried though, any outdoor equipment store will be able to sell you a strobe light that’s safe for water emergencies and a whistle.

Your in-room safe may not be that safe

So many of the cabin safes are left locked when passenger disembark that just about every crew member knows the bypass code for opening them. Your in-room safe may be fine for everyday items like your address book and tip money, and of course you shouldn’t be traveling with any real valuables that you aren’t wearing continuously. If you are traveling with something valuable, use the ship’s safe instead. There are records of what’s placed into and taken out of that safe.

Stay aware of your surroundings

It can be hard not to let your guard down on vacation, but it’s important to remember that unsavory characters lurk everywhere just like at home.  Sexual assaults, beatings, robberies, and more have and can occur – even on a cruise ship, which is, after all, a small self-contained city with thousands of passengers and crew members. Act as if you are in a city hotel rather than on a safe deserted island.

Watch the alcohol

Sure, you don’t have to drive home, but fights as well as stupid behavior can occur when you consume too much alcohol, as evidenced in 2010 by one passenger releasing the cruise ship anchor while underway.  Other reports of cruise ship brawls are further evidence that too much alcohol and too few security guards simply don’t mix. Gives new meaning to ‘you booze, you cruise, you lose’ doesn’t it?

Have travel insurance

As they are returning home, passengers on the Costa Concordia have told stories of having to jump into the water and swim to shore. Many made their own way to other towns and paid additional money to get back home. See how this disaster may have been made a little easier for the stranded passengers with travel insurance.

Related topics

Will Cruise Travel Insurance Sooth Traveler’s Jangled Nerves?

Will the passengers of the sunken cruise ship ever see their belongings again?

Wait! Passengers are told to put their valuable stuff in their carry-ons so they don’t get stolen from their checked luggage. We’ve established that luggage raiding remains a travel hazard, but how safe is that formerly carry-on bag now?

Not very safe apparently.

The airlines will not compensate for damage or loss to valuables such as cell phones, cameras, laptops and tablets, documents, copies of your passport, eyeglasses, jewelry … the list goes on. So, if you have to travel with those items you pack them in your carry-on right?

If you are told that the overhead bins are too full and you’ll have to hand over your bag, the flight attendants don’t follow up with: “and please take your valuables out because if they get stolen, you won’t be compensated.” The bottom line is that the airline is not accountable.

So what’s a passenger to do?

Don’t simply hand over your bag at the plane entrance. If you must do this, remove anything that is on the airline’s ‘valuables’ list, which are at least (but not limited to):

• electronics, including laptops, iPads, e-readers, anything with an on/off switch
• cameras, lenses, and associated equipment
• jewelry and watches
• designer purses and handbags
• designer clothing and shoes
• cash, credit and debit cards, passports
• documents of any kind
• fragile items, art, and antiques
• heirlooms, collectibles, and artifacts
• antlers
• CDs, DVDs, and games
• china, glass, ceramics, and pottery
• computer equipment and audio/visual equipment
• flowers and plants
• medicines
• keys
• perfume
• alcohol
• gift cards, gift certificates and money
• musical instruments
• natural fur items
• tools

If you’re not sure what’s on that particular airline’s ‘valuables’ list, ask the flight attendant. If you appear worried enough, they may provide the list or move some bags around so you can keep your stuff with you.

These violent clashes between the security forces and demonstrators have made travel in and around Bahrain dangerous without much prior warning. The U.S. embassy currently restricts employees from traveling to specific areas and continues to advise U.S. citizens to do the same. Current demonstration notices indicate where the latest problem areas can be found as well as mapping the recommended areas of travel.

At this time, there are no indications that westerners are specifically being targeted, but U.S. flags have been burned at some demonstrations.

Read the complete travel alert for Bahrain.

This travel alert supersedes the travel alert for Bahrain in November.

Start by doing an accurate assessment:

1. Examine your current medical insurance plan. Check whether travel medical insurance is available with that plan and find out if that travel medical coverage is primary or secondary. In most cases, your health insurance plan is primary at home and, if travel medical coverage is available, it is secondary outside the country. That means you will have to pay for your medical costs when you travel and apply for reimbursement after. See our page on understanding primary vs. secondary medical coverage for more information.
2. Determine your medical transportation coverage. In most cases, your need for transportation back home is covered through emergency ambulance services, but medical transport and medical treatment are two distinct sections of a travel medical plan, so you’ll need to look for both. The costs for emergency medical transportation can be quite high, and if you don’t have coverage, you’ll have to foot the bill yourself. See this story on one traveler who encountered a horrific situation on a vacation to Mexico. If you’re taking a Mediterranean cruise or a trip to China, your emergency transportation costs could run into the tens or hundreds of thousands, depending on the situation.
3. Rate your own health. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, such as heart disease or diabetes, then traveling without travel medical coverage and failing to get a pre-existing medical condition waiver is a recipe for disaster. Even if you’re very healthy, if you’ve visited a doctor in the past 180 days, you should be careful that a recurrence of the condition that caused you to see the doctor won’t reemerge because that situation won’t be covered by your travel medical insurance.
4. Determine your travel activities and relative risks. If you plan to bungee jump off a bridge on your trip, then you will want to be sure that you have a waiver for high adventure activities with your travel insurance plan. Most travel insurance plans specifically exclude activities like hang gliding, skiing, parasailing, whitewater rafting, and more, but purchasing either an adventure travel insurance plan or a plan with a waiver for adventure activities will provide the coverage you need.

Then, purchase a plan to cover those needs:

1. If you want your travel medical plan to pay the hospital and medical facilities directly, then you’ll want to be sure that your travel insurance plan offers primary medical coverage.
2. If you want protection for emergency medical transportation, then you’ll want to think about how far you will have to travel to get back home and have enough coverage. Remember, with a travel insurance plan, you’ll have coverage for medical transport to an appropriate medical facility and also back home after you’ve adequately recovered.
3. Depending on your current health, you’ll want to purchase coverage that will cover your medical costs if you experience the recurrence of a pre-existing medical condition. Any condition for which you’ve sought treatment in the past few months can be considered a pre-existing condition.
4. Depending on your current health, you’ll choose a travel medical plan with enough coverage for the risks you are taking

Travel insurance can be quite comprehensive for the price.

For example, if two travelers from Kansas, ages 32 and 36 find a great package deal on a week in Scotland for $3,000, they can have comprehensive travel insurance coverage for just $154 more. We ran these trip details through our travel insurance comparison tool and found a Travel Select plan from Travelex that includes:

• 100% trip cancellation
• 150% trip interruption
• $50,000 per person primary emergency medical
• $500,000 per person emergency medical evacuation
• $750 per person travel delay
• $250 per person baggage

Our cheap travel insurance recommendations

The following are our recommendations for getting an adequate, but perhaps cheap, travel insurance plan:

1. We recommend choosing an amount of travel medical coverage based on an assessment of your travel medical needs.
2. We also recommend not over-spending on your travel insurance plan. See our 5 Rules for Saving Money on your Travel Insurance Plan for details.

And don’t worry if you initially purchase the wrong policy - travel insurance plans come with a review period of 10-14 days and during that time, you can make changes to your plan and even cancel it (for a small fee).