The answer to that question likely depends on who you are and even where you’re headed. If you’re a parent taking the kids to Disney World, your emergency travel kit looks a lot different than that of child-free backpacker headed to Bangladesh. Some time ago, we noted that emergency kits are just one method of being a prepared traveler and recent disasters: earthquakes, floods, and more have prompted us to remind travelers of the necessity.

• Some kind of light. If the electricity goes out or you’re in a subway accident, a flashlight, microlight, even a headlamp can make being stuck in the dark a whole lot less scary. The fact that many light devices come in highly compact profiles only makes it easier to take them along. Put this item near where you sleep so you can find it in the dark.
• Water purifier or water purification tablets. Most travelers take these only when traveling abroad, but again, there are a number of small profile options, including objects as small as a pen that make it easy enough to toss them in your bag just in case a natural disaster strikes.
• Copies of your passport and credit cards. While keeping your passport and credit cards on you at all times is best, if they are stolen, you can get these critical items replaced.
• Duct tape. There are an infinite number of reasons to travel with a small roll of this. On a recent trip, the door of our hotel room had an odd rattle when people walked by in the hallway, and it kept waking us up. We used the duct tape to secure the door each night and slept much sounder!
• Nail clippers. Most of the time, even the smallest knife or scissors will be collected by security, so rely on nail clippers to cut small things.

Travelers should also take a basic first aid kit to handle minor injuries like cuts, burns, stings,  and splinters not to mention medicines to alleviate common symptoms of a cough, cold, nasal congestion or fever. To have one at home and hone for travel, you can purchase the individual packets and repackage the labeled items in zip-lock bags.

Many travel insurance providers offer group plans, which are designed specifically for groups (usually of 10 or more) traveling together. Groups can be comprised of family members, co-workers, fraternity brothers, and just about any other group of people.

The key to group coverage is that everyone in the group must participate in the plan in order to qualify for the coverage. Otherwise, group travel insurance is just like travel insurance for individuals, including the free look period to review the policy, the exclusions and conditions, and the process for making a claim. If one person in the group has to cancel their trip for a covered reason, the remaining travelers can continue with their travel plans.

The following is a list of plans that are specifically geared to group travelers:

• Group Go! from CSA – a package plan
• Worldwide Group Protector from Travel Insurance Services – a travel medical plan for groups of 3 to 100
• Protect-a-Group from TravelSafe is also a package plan for groups of 10 or more.

If you’re interested in purchasing a group travel plan, be sure to review the group travel information page, which outlines the risks of group travel and the coverage you’ll need as a group traveler.

Tourists often rush to cancel trips during a flood even if the specific region they planned to travel to isn’t affected at all. While the immediate effect of a flood is disastrous enough to local business, that’s not the end of the story. Because it’s common for natural disasters to have heavy media coverage, tourism is often affected for weeks, months, even years after a particular event. The current flooding in Bangkok is sure to be the same.

The scenes presented on televisions around the globe after a series of disastrous floods hit Queensland and Brisbane have ensured that Australian tourism still hasn’t recovered. The local economic impact is high and many travel suppliers believe it will take another year before full recovery is achieved.

In some cases, however, travel to flood-affected areas can be cost-effective. After Japan’s recent earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear crisis, tourism dropped to such low levels that a national campaign was begun and Japan is now considering an innovative approach to boost tourism: 10,000 free airfares to visit the country. The decision hasn’t been made about awarding those flight yet.

Travelers across America have been hit with airport service cuts, which affect small-scale airports far more than the larger airports. In the past few years, local airline service and regional airport locations have faced funding reductions and as the airlines have become more and more focused on costs, regional service is being cut due to weak passenger demand when compared to the demand at airports of greater size.

Do travelers using these regional airports need more travel insurance or can they do with less?

Because of the increased potential for flight cancellations and trip delays out of a regional airport, it’s recommended that travelers using these airports have more travel insurance.

The need for trip cancellation and trip delay coverage increases for trips that begin with long drives to the airport, for example:

• A pre-paid, non refundable airport hotel accommodation included in the overall cost of the insured trip for the night prior to flight departure may be covered under trip cancellation coverage (depending on the plan) if the insured must cancel the trip for a covered reason.
• Trip delays due to canceled flights or severe weather can mean unexpected overnight hotel and meal expenses and the hotel may not even be close to the airport!
• A traffic accident on the way to your departure may mean a trip cancellation, which could result in reimbursement for your pre-paid non refundable trip costs depending on the plan.
• A pre-paid, non refundable airport transfer service included in the overall cost of the insured trip may be protected under trip cancellation coverage (depending on the plan) if the insured must cancel the trip for a covered reason.

Unfortunately, no. Travel insurance companies don’t cover anything that is stolen from the car or destroyed in a collision –  just the car itself.

Specifically, most travel insurance policies read like the following with regards to car rental coverage:

The insurer will pay the lesser of:

(a) the cost of repairs and rental charges imposed by
the rental company while the car is being
repaired; or
(b) the Actual Cash Value of the car

Up to the maximum limit shown on the insurance policy’s schedule subject to the policy’s deductible.

The exclusions in a travel insurance policy typically list personal possessions as not being covered with the (often optional) rental car coverage.

If your rental car is broken into in a ‘smash and dash’, you’ll be responsible for the loss of anything stored inside it. This is true as well for anything destroyed in a collision. Read the full details on car rental collision coverage and who offers this with their travel insurance plans.

If you’ve flown in the last decade or so, you’re familiar with the TSA rules for liquids, but some liquids are important and cannot be neatly fit into these categories. They include:

• liquid nutrition like juice, formula or breast milk for really small passengers or those with medical conditions
• life-supporting liquids such as blood products, transplant organs, and bone marrow
• items used to augment the body such as prosthetic breasts, shells containing gels, and saline solutions
• frozen or gel liquids used to cool said medical items used by persons with medical conditions