Travel Insurance Review

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4 Benefits to Hiring a Private Travel Guide

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Hiring a private travel guideBefore you start envisioning your standard tour guide standing in the front of a crowded bus full of tourists – much like a moving fish tank for the locals to gawk at – barking out boring facts about things you couldn’t care less about, there are many different types of travel guides.

Many travel guides these days are independent, self-promoting individuals who are experts in a particular area. They usually take very small, intimate groups to see those sights and restaurants that only the locals know. Even travelers who prefer checking out things on their own may find that hiring a private tour guide, especially when you have a short amount of time and don’t know your way around, is the best way to really enjoy your time in a particular place.

There’s no right or wrong way to travel to and in a new region of the world, but how you go about it depends on a few factors:

  • Your budget
  • The amount of time you have
  • What you want to see and do

The kind of travel guide we’re speaking of here is not one of the fast-talking touts who pester anyone with a suitcase at the local point of entry. Instead, we’re talking about a real live local who knows the area you are visiting and can take you to the places you never knew existed – even introduce you to the locals.

1. Immediate access to things you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise

Something you may not know from the travel books is that many museums and monuments round the world work with independent local travel guides whom they can trust to bring in visitors and not require the services of the on-site staff too much and as a result, they’re more willing to allow privileges to those traveling with a known travel guide.

When traveling with a travel guide, you’re often privy to access to things you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. For example, if you’re traveling in Rome and want to see the Vatican, you’ll wait for hours in a line but with a guide, you’ll get in a lot quicker. A local tour guide will also best understand the quickest ways to get around the new area just like you know how best to get around in your home town.

2. The ability to learn about the culture from someone on the inside

One of the first and most important benefits of hiring a local travel guide is the chance it gives you to learn about the culture from someone on the inside.

A good local travel guide will be able to explain the local culture – that is, why people are doing what they do every day – from the insider perspective. They should also make sure you, as a foreigner in a new place, don’t feel out of place.

3. The flexibility to tailor your travel to what you want to see

While most travelers think of standard tour buses packages when they think of the term tour guide, there are many private travel guides who will tailor the experience to include the sights and attractions you want to see instead of taking the standard tourist route.

Hiring a private tour guide gives a traveler an individual experience with a personalized touch and avoids the crowds. Plus, in most cases, the tour price includes discounted admission into the attractions as well as all of the subway, bus, taxi and even boat fares – a fact that can help offset the cost of hiring a private travel guide to the budget traveler.

4. Insight, companionship, and a little more security

In some places of the world, the bureaucracy and red tape makes it difficult for a foreigner to get anywhere; in other places, it’s simply not safe to travel alone. For many travelers – and especially solo travelers – the value of having a local expert show them around and negotiate with the locals is priceless.

Of course, the added security of 1. knowing where you’re going (or at least looking like it with a guide striding by your side), and 2. having another person along with you when you explore means a little extra security. No one plans to get robbed or kidnapped, but it’s much less likely with a local at your side.

When should you hire a private travel guide?

There are some trips when it really helps to hire a private travel guide. These include:

  1. When you have very little time. Business travelers have learned the value of a private tour guide when they have just a little time in a place and still want to have a meaningful experience.
  2. When you are visiting a relatively dangerous or chaotic location. Anyplace with a reputation for being dangerous or unpredictable means a private travel guide can help keep you safe and out of tough spots.
  3. When you are visiting a particularly popular location. A private tour guide will know the tricks and tactics to help yoy get the most out of a heavily visited location by going before or after the crowds, for example.
  4. When you’re on a long stay and want to really know the area. Hiring a private travel guide at the start of a longer stay can help you get your bearings for the area and will often leave you with a list of things to explore on your own.
  5. When you’re taking an adventure trip. Unless you’re an expert at your chosen activity and the local region, weather, and topography, hiring a guide could be a matter of life and death. In some regions, foreign visitors are required to hire guides.
  6. When you want to hand over the boring logistics. The hassle of obtaining tickets, timing reservations, checking operating hours and figuring out the details is easy stuff for any experienced travel guide and often paying them is simply worth it for the value you get.
  7. When the language barrier is too severe. When you don’t speak the local language and the locals are unlikely to speak yours, hiring a private tour guide can be invaluable.

Finding a good travel guide can be a challenge since many don’t have a website or market themselves. Often, however, asking other tourists or the locals once you get there can garner a good recommendations. Some websites have begun popping up to advertise local guides as well as giving you an idea of their credentials.

What should you look for in a travel guide?

A good tour guide will have been living in the region for some time because they chose to. They may have grown up there and never wanted to leave, or they may be foreigners themselves and found the region you’re visiting and became a local. Either way, there’s a reason they are where they are and doing what they do – it’s because the love the area, they know the area, and they like sharing it with others.

Just remember while a travel guide is especially helpful when you don’t know the local language, the common language of smiling and knowing a few basic words and phrases will get a traveler pretty darn far too.

10 Important Tips for Traveling Seniors

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Important Tips for Traveling SeniorsEvery year more baby boomers retire and when asked about their retirement goals, well over half of all retiring seniors say they want to travel.

Many seniors make the mistake of thinking they can’t afford travel insurance, but actually, there are many plans available for seniors. See our complete review of Senior Travel Insurance for more information.

Here are 10 important tips for seniors planning to travel soon:

1. Choose an appropriate destination

Senior travelers have different risks than younger travelers do and it’s important to manage those risks for your health, your family, and your financial security.

Choose a destination that suits your interests but also your preferred activity level. Some seniors are very active and healthy, and so a bike tour through Italy is not out of the question. Just make sure you understand how many miles you’ll be putting on each day and choose an itinerary that allows for rest days.

2. Check your Medicare supplement plan

Check your medicare supplement plan for travel benefits. Medicare doesn’t pay for medical treatment outside the U.S., so many supplement plans have started adding emergency health care to their coverage.

Before you leave, understand your travel benefits by reading the explanation of coverage for details. If you discover you have limited, or worse no, medical coverage where you are traveling, a travel medical plan can fill the gap.

3. Check your medical evacuation coverage

A medical evacuation can cost as much as $200,000 depending on where you are traveling, how far you have to go to receive treatment, and what medical treatment you need inflight.

Medical evacuation, or Medevac, coverage ensures the coordination and the funds necessary for medical evacuations.

4. Check your repatriation coverage

Repatriation is the coverage necessary to arrange and pay for transporting an insured person’s body home should he or she die while traveling outside the country.

Transporting a body means navigating a complicated system of foreign and local laws plus expenses, so be sure your family has help getting your body back by having a travel insurance plan with repatriation coverage.

5. Arrange to carry your medications

Medications are not always easy to obtain in identical or trusted forms in other countries. Even when traveling domestically, experts recommend that seniors carry some, if not all, their medications with them in case of lost or stolen luggage.

Follow these steps to carry your medications:

  1. Order a 90-day supply ahead of time through mail order
  2. Combine the full supply of each medication into a single labeled prescription bottle (to save space)
  3. Carry a copy of your prescriptions as well – just in case
  4. Have travel insurance with good travel assistance services in case your medications are lost or stolen

6. Consider a pre-travel medical exam

Before traveling outside the country, you should see your doctor for a pre-travel exam (ideally at least 4 weeks prior to their trip) to:

  • Assess your general fitness for travel
  • Identify and prepare for any potential medical problems, such as altitude sickness
  • Identify and order any potentially necessary vaccinations
  • Get prescriptions for diseases you may encounter, like malaria

If you have any pre-existing medical conditions or your doctor makes a change in your medication, you will need to purchase a travel insurance plan with a waiver for pre-existing medical conditions.

7. Carry your basic medical info and a travel medical kit

All travelers should carry a personal emergency medical kit – particularly one that meets the needs of the traveler and the medical issues they are likely to encounter at their destination. That travel kit should contain your basic medical info, which includes:

  • The name, phone number, and email of your primary doctor
  • The name, identification number, and phone number of your medicare supplement plan
  • The name, identification number, and phone number of your travel insurance plan
  • A list of allergies and medications you’re currently taking

See this travel safety tip: What’s in your Travel Medical Kit for more details.

8. Decide on annual versus per-trip coverage

Seniors who travel often throughout the year may find an annual plan saves them time and money. There are a few benefits to having the same coverage all year long, including:

  • Less time researching travel insurance for each trip
  • Less time putting together the travel documents for each trip
  • One travel assistance hotline to call – all year long

The key, of course, is to look at where you plan to travel and how many trips you’ll be taking during the year to see if the cost savings work to your advantage. This is where using a travel insurance comparison tool is a great help.

9. Determine your cancellation risk

Many senior travelers are loathe to purchase trip cancellation coverage. After all, it can be expensive and you have no intention of cancelling your trip anyway.

Unfortunately, there are certain situations when it can be helpful, including:

  • If a member of your family gets sick, injured, or dies
  • If a hurricane or natural disaster strikes your destination
  • If a terrorist attack occurs at your travel spot
  • If your home is damaged or burglarized before or during your trip
  • If your passport is lost or stolen before your trip

No one likes to think a disaster like this can happen – especially when you have a trip planned – but they do happen and to ensure you can get all of your pre-paid trip costs refunded, you’ll want trip cancellation insurance.

See What determines my total trip cost for details on what to insure and what to ignore.

10. Getting home may be critical too

Even if you decide you don’t need trip cancellation coverage, it’s important to have a plan with trip interruption coverage. This coverage reimburses you for your unused trip expenses if you have to suddenly abandon your trip and return home (for a covered reason – see #9 above for a list of likely reasons).

Why Cruise Travel Insurance Can’t Rescue Passengers When the Cruise Ship Fails

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Stranded Cruise Passengers can't be rescued with travel insuranceLast week, the Huffington Post published an article with a misleading title: Carnival Cruise Lines and Why Third Party Travel Insurance Pays. The article goes on to imply that third-party cruise travel insurance would have helped those travelers who were stuck on some of the rather epic cruise ship debacles that have occurred lately, including mechanical issues, engine fires, and propulsion problems.

The result of these cruise ship failures have left passengers stranded at sea for days without power or working toilets, and in some cases, being flown home (at the cruise line’s expense) after debarking early.

While the HuffPost article goes on to clarify that neither suing the cruise line nor expecting a lot of concessions from them is likely to get an angry cruise passenger anywhere, it’s important to be clear that travel insurance isn’t going to rescue them either.

Stranded Cruise Passengers Can’t Expect Much Help from Travel Insurance

When you’re stranded on a boat with no power, no running water, no food, and no real answers as to when the situation will end, no one could blame you for wanting to get off the boat immediately and either go home or go somewhere else. After all, vacation time is limited and a cruise vacation is relatively expensive as vacations go, so you’d expect to be able to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, travel insurance – even third-party travel insurance – can’t help passengers in situations like these, and here’s why:

  • Trip cancellation claims have to be initiated before the trip starts. This includes ‘cancel for any reason’ claims too.
  • Trip interruption claims – that is, interrupting your trip and going home, have to be the result of a covered reason for abandoning your trip (you can’t be evacuated simply because you want to go).
  • Evacuation claims are isolated to medically necessary emergencies and, with some plans, security evacuations due to political rioting, terrorist actions, that kind of thing.

None of these coverage options fit the situation the stranded cruise passengers were in.

The Huffington Post article is correct in that insurance packages offered by the cruise lines themselves are not likely to help when the ship breaks down either. While a third-party travel insurance plan is always recommended by those of us here at Travel Insurance Review, as well as by many travel experts, even third-party travel insurance would not have been able to do much to help the travelers stuck in these nightmare vacations.

The fact that Carnival Cruise Lines also gave their passengers future credits and refunds means that the passengers were compensated, i.e., they were made ‘whole’ again. They may have had no fun, been significantly inconvenienced, and were probably downright unhappy about their cruise, but essentially the cruise line made things ‘right’ again to the level they’re required to and travel insurance won’t provide anything on top of that. After all, a cruise ticket is more than your pass to get onboard – it’s actually a legally binding contract that limits the cruise lines’ liability and the cruise lines don’t have to offer angry passengers anything at all.

When IS Travel Insurance Useful to Cruise Travelers?

Here’s how having a comprehensive travel insurance plan can help you when you’ve planned a cruise vacation:

  • If you must cancel your trip before you leave – if you have to cancel your cruise trip for an illness, an accident, or other event, travel insurance will reimburse your pre-paid non refundable trip costs as long as you cancel your trip for a covered reason. The reason you’re cancelling must be covered by the travel insurance plan and the covered reasons are listed right in the plan document. If you want extra peace of mind and the ability to cancel for any reason at all, you can pay a little more and get ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage for up to 100% of your trip costs. See our review of trip cancellation coverage.
  • If you need emergency medical care or an evacuation off the ship – most cruise ships have some minimal medical treatment facilities on board, but if your illness or injuries cannot be treated by the staff, you’ll want to know that your travel insurance company will arrange and pay for your medical treatment and evacuation. See our review of travel medical and evacuation coverage. With emergency evacuation coverage, an insured traveler also gets repatriation coverage which assists their family in retrieving their body if they die on a covered trip.
  • If you miss your connection and the boat departs without you – air travel is more  unpredictable than ever these days and if you miss a connection and the boat departs without you, you could be out thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. The right travel insurance plan will overcome that problem by helping you find alternative flights to catch the boat at the next port. see our review of missed connection coverage.
  • If your luggage is delayed or lost during your trip – when your luggage fails to arrive on time, it can make the first days of your trip very difficult. Travel insurance can help a traveler by reimbursing their purchases for the essentials when their bag is delayed and replacing their personal belongings (including the suitcase) when the luggage is deemed lost. See our review of baggage coverage and baggage delay coverage.

Of course, most travel insurance package plans come with a range of benefits that can also be of use to cruise passengers as well, including:

Unfortunately, what you can’t expect from your travel insurance company – even though you might like to – is that they will rescue you off a ship in the middle of the sea when no one is having any fun.

15 Reasons to Buy ‘Cancel for any reason’ for Home Exchange Travel

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Why Buy ‘Cancel for any reason’ for Home Exchange Travel

Sure home exchangers are saving loads of money on their travel costs by swapping homes instead of paying for lodging, but one item you may want to spend a little extra on is travel insurance with ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage.

Here’s why: ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage lets you cancel your trip for any reason not listed in the standard plan coverage and get up to 100% of your total trip costs back.

This means that even though you don’t have pre-paid lodging expenses to worry about, you can still be reimbursed for your lost airfare and other pre-paid expenses.

Why not rely on standard trip cancellation benefits?

Standard trip cancellation benefits reimburse travelers for their pre-paid non-refundable trip costs if the trip is cancelled for a covered reason. This means that the reason must be listed in the travel insurance plan document to get reimbursed for your expenses.

This is an important distinction that catches many insured travelers off guard.

‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage is a catch-all benefit that lets you cancel your trip and receive between 50 and 100% of your trip costs back. No questions asked. After all, no travel insurance plan lists ‘our hosts changed their mind about exchanging homes’ as a covered reason to cancel your trip.

15 Trip cancellation reasons covered by ‘cancel for any reason’

‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage will protect you if:

  1. A terrorist attack occurs, and you’re uncomfortable about flying right now.
  2. The transportation workers strike and you can’t reach your destination.
  3. Your sister-in-law is very ill and you have to help care for her children.
  4. Your boss demands that you stay and finish the project before your trip – or else.
  5. The U.S. State Department issues a travel warning and you decide not to go.
  6. Your best friend is in a terrible car accident and you want to be at her side.
  7. A natural disaster occurs – either at your destination or at home – and you decide to stay home.
  8. Your son’s best friend commits suicide and you want to help him through his grief.
  9. You’ve been invited to interview for the job of a lifetime – during your vacation week.
  10. A flu epidemic breaks out and your babysitter cancels because she started running a fever.
  11. Your beloved pet is ill or dying.
  12. Your nanny is deported.
  13. You decide you can’t afford the trip after all.
  14. You change your mind.
  15. Your home exchange partners changes their mind.

These are all very real reasons that very real travelers have been forced to cancel their trips – and many of these reasons (depending on the travel insurance plan) are not covered by the standard trip cancellation benefit.

Important facts about ‘cancel for any reason’

It’s important to understand that ‘cancel for any reason’ (just like many insurance benefits) has a number of rules that apply and make the coverage valid.

Those rules include the following:

  • You have to purchase your insurance within a certain number of days after making the initial trip payment. In the case of home exchangers, the first payment is often the purchase of their airlines tickets.
  • You have to insure 100% of your pre-paid travel arrangements. For home exchangers, this is usually pretty easy and consists of your transportation costs and any pre-paid non-refundable tours, etc.
  • You should check the travel insurance plan’s per-person maximum limit to be sure it’s enough to recover your pre-paid and non-refundable costs.
  • If you have to cancel, it must be within the plan’s designated number of days prior to departure. For some plans, you can cancel at the last minute – others require 2 days’ notice.
  • Your reimbursement may be subject to cancellation penalties and depending upon the plan, you may not receive 100% of your expenses back (although you can get coverage for 100%, you have to choose the right plan).

See a full review of ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage and get a list of companies and plans that include this coverage.

4 Steps to your Best Travel Insurance Purchase Every Time

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your Best Travel Insurance Purchase Every Time

These days, travelers are offered travel insurance at nearly every turn in their travel planning process – from their travel agents, online booking sites, at the airport – anything to make an extra fee off the traveler.

It’s important to understand, however, that there is a best way to buy travel insurance.

In this post we’ll tell you the steps to your best travel insurance purchase every time you travel.

1. Get prepared

You know the minute you book your first flight or reserve your cruise, you’re going to be offered travel insurance. Stop right there! The travel insurance offered on booking engines and by cruise lines may not be the right coverage for you. In fact, if you’ve purchased their coverage before, did you even read it to see if you’d have the coverage you need? If your mother or your child is hospitalized, for example, and you want to be by their side, do you have coverage for that trip cancellation?

Many travelers make the mistake of taking the first insurance offered to them thinking it’s one less thing to cross of their list and they can get it done quickly.

Unfortunately, our comment forum is full of travelers who feel they got scammed when that impulse buy let them down and they lost even more money on their trips. The truth is that they took a shortcut and bought a policy they didn’t understand and that didn’t suit their needs.

Figure out what kind of coverage you need before you start booking your trip. Use the information here to select the coverage you need.

2. Buy your travel insurance early

Travelers enjoy some big benefits when they buy their travel insurance soon after their first trip booking. Why? Because some coverage in travel insurance plans requires booking within a certain number of days of that first trip booking.

One of the biggest ‘got-chas’ that travelers complain about when their claims are denied is due to pre-existing medical conditions.

Travel insurance companies need to exclude illnesses and injuries that happened before their coverage starts to keep their costs down. If you’re diagnosed with a condition or have a change in an existing condition but didn’t buy your coverage soon after your first trip payment, you won’t be covered if you have to cancel your trip. You can, however, buy pre-existing medical condition coverage as long as you buy your plan early in your trip planning process.

3. Compare quotes and coverage

When you look for airfare or hotels, you probably use a comparison engine like Expedia.com or Hotels.com to compare features and quotes and get the right flight or hotel room. It’s the same with travel insurance and it’s the smart thing to do.

Once you know what coverage you need, you can enter your trip dates and a few other details (age, country of origin, etc.) into our travel insurance comparison tool and get quotes from all the major travel insurance providers at once.

Need a specific coverage for your trip? Select that coverage to filter the list of available plans, then review each plan’s details to better understand the coverage. Once you find the right policy, click to buy it and you’ll get your plan documents delivered to your email in minutes.

See our instruction for getting quotes and comparing plans for more detail.

4. Use the free-look period

Unique to travel insurance policies, a traveler has the right to review the plan document and make changes or cancel their travel insurance coverage if it’s not right for them. You’ll even receive a refund of your premium (minus a small processing fee in some cases).

The free-look period is the 10-15 day period after you make your travel insurance purchase in which to review the plan details – that means sitting down with a cup of something and carefully reading the policy.

Don’t worry – these policies are not the huge documents you have to understand to get to know your homeowner’s insurance better (you read those, didn’t you?). Compared to those larger, more complicated insurance documents, travel insurance plans are relatively easy to read and pretty short.

Look carefully at these items:

  1. Read the exclusions – so you know what isn’t covered and you won’t be surprised that para-sailing isn’t a covered activity, for example. Call the 24/7 assistance line and ask questions if you don’t understand. These are the reasons your travel insurance claim can be denied, so it’s important to understand them.
  2. Check the coverage limits – the coverage limits are the maximum amounts that will be paid out for a claim and they may be too high or even too low:
    • If your cruise is costing you over $7,000 does the trip cancellation amount cover that and airfare and other costs?
    • If the plan limits are much higher than what you’ll need, call and modify the plan and the difference in the premium will be returned to you.
  3. Look for optional coverage for special circumstances – many plans provide extra coverage for special situations like ‘cancel for any reason’ or ‘cancel for work reasons’ and pre-existing medical conditions, extra sports equipment coverage, and hazardous sports for example.
  4. Double-check your trip details – be sure that the trip details you entered to purchase the plan are accurate, including trip dates, ages of each of the insured parties, and more. Many claims get denied simply because the original trip details were incorrect.

Take a look at our Travel Insurance 101 for more details that can help you buy the right travel insurance policy every time.