In the comments of this website, we often get complaints from travelers who believed they were covered for an event but found out later they weren’t.

• They denied our claim because the departure date changed! I had no idea that was important.
• I thought our cancellation would be covered for any reason, but I didn’t read the exclusions.
• When he needed medical treatment, we thought it would be covered, but our claim was denied due to a pre-existing condition.

No more than you can assume your car insurance coverage will reimburse you for a particular event, you can’t assume that travel insurance will either. While car insurance is somewhat more standardized (at least in the States), travel insurance is a relatively new product in the insurance market. Plus, the risks of travel – the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. for example – are continually causing changes to travel insurance plans.

The situation is further complicated by a number of related products like cruise waiver plans, one-size-fits-all insurance you can buy when booking your flight, and credit card travel protection plans.

With all of these options, you have to read the fine print to know what you’re covered for because every plan is a little different. This is true no matter what type of travel protection you choose. In fact, you may be surprised to find:

• Cruise line waivers won’t reimburse your non-cruise costs (like airfare) and they only issue a voucher for future travel instead of giving your money back.
• Credit card travel protection has very few covered reasons for trip cancellation and severe limits on the maximum trip costs.
• Travel protection purchased on booking sites doesn’t give you the time to review the plan before you buy it – after all, you’re trying to score a ticket price!

Instead of making assumptions and sticking our heads in the sand, let’s sit down and review the steps to understanding your travel insurance plan. These steps will apply no matter what travel protection you choose although we should warn you that most waiver plans and trip benefits won’t stand up to all the steps. Only a good travel insurance plan will.

6 Steps to Understanding your Travel Insurance Plan

Before we start, if you already purchased your travel insurance plan begin by checking the dates of your review period. All travel insurance plans come with a unique benefit – the free look period which starts when the plan is purchased and lasts between 10 and 15 days. During this period, you can review your plan, make changes, and even cancel it if it won’t work for you.

Now, assuming you haven’t bought your travel insurance or you are within the review period, let’s figure out how to tackle this plan document.

1. Check that you have the right document

The marketing brochure is nice, it may have been what prompted you to buy the travel insurance, but it’s not the actual plan document. You can read the plan’s description of coverage before you buy it (even on booking sites), so take a little time and find the right document.

If you already purchased your travel insurance online, the document will have been sent to you by email. If you purchased your plan with a travel agent or cruise line, they should have sent you the document to read.

2. Start with the high-level details

While all travel insurance plans are different, their documents follow a basic pattern that begins with stating the high-level details first. Often, this is displayed in a table like the following:

This is the high-level overview of your coverage and the limits. Once you identify the most important coverage for your needs, you’ll want to review this list to be sure that it meets your minimum expectations. Notice that the coverage is per person.

3. Think about your risks

What are the risks on this particular trip at this particular time of your life?

• Is someone dear to you fighting a chronic disease? If they’re hospitalized while you’re traveling and you want to return to be with them you’ll need to have a pre-existing condition waiver with your plan.
• Are you traveling during hurricane season? Even if your travel destination isn’t directly affected, a hurricane can ground flights across many states and tie up travel traffic for days.
• Do your travel plans include connecting flights? Many travelers book nonrefundable tickets to save money, but can be left in a bind if their first flight doesn’t arrive on time.
• Will you participate in any high-risk activities? You may be surprised to find out that many travel insurance plans exclude activities travelers often participate in like skiing, diving, and whitewater rafting.
• Determine how far you will be from adequate medical care. If you’ll be traveling far from good medical care or in a region where medical care is inadequate, you’ll want a good limit for evacuations.
• Are you traveling to a region that’s considered high risk for political demonstrations, or earthquakes, or other risks? You’re going to want to verify your coverage will be viable in those instances.

4. Match your needs to the coverage and the limits

Given your identified risks, read the sections of the document that cover those risks and understand how the coverage will protect you in the event that risk presents itself.

• If you have to cancel your trip to return to a loved one’s side, will you be able to recover all your pre-paid trip costs? If your trip is expensive, is the plan limit high enough?
• If your vacation rental is destroyed by a hurricane the week before your trip, will you be able to recover those trip expenses? Is the plan limit high enough and are hurricanes specifically covered?
• If you miss your connecting flight, what will the insurance plan provide in the way of alternative flights, meals, lodging, etc.?
• If you go cut your foot while diving, will your travel medical coverage help you find and then pay for your emergency medical treatment? Is the medical coverage limit adequate for a real emergency?
• If the streets are suddenly engulfed in a civil riot and tear gas is being fired, will your travel plan arrange for your safe passage out of danger? Is the evacuation limit high enough and are non-medical evacuations even covered at all?

5. Don’t panic if it’s not initially covered

Don’t initially panic if you read that something isn’t covered because while a travel insurance plan will have exclusions that are typical for all travel protection plans:

• pre-existing conditions
• adventurous activities
• security and political events
• and more

Many travel insurance plans also give a traveler options as optional riders that overcome the exclusions that most credit card plans and cruise waiver plans do not. This is one of the most important differences between those protection plans and a travel insurance plan.

You may have to read another section to find the optional coverage, and if it’s not there, remember that you can choose another plan or cancel the plan you’ve purchased and pick the right plan for your trip.

6. Do read the exclusions

Every travel insurance policy comes with a list of situations in which coverage is not valid – these are called the exclusions and it’s no different from your homeowner’s plan or your automobile plan (they have exclusions too).

See What Travel Insurance Does Not Cover for a detailed explanation.

Study the exclusions and you’ll have a much better understanding of what events are not covered ahead of time – fewer surprises later. Still got questions? Call the travel assistance services line and ask very specific questions about the coverage.

See? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Unfortunately, like many other natural disasters, a flu pandemic is impossible to accurately predict although there are some warning signs we can all pay attention to – including the fact that the WHO and others are closely watching the H5N1 flu virus strain for its potential to mutate into a human-to-human transmissible disease.

Travelers who could be caught in a pandemic include:

• Private U.S. citizens residing abroad
• U.S. citizens working overseas
• Students studying abroad
• Even short-term visitors and tourists

Understanding what happens in a pandemic and knowing your options is critical to surviving. First, we’ll start with some facts.

The type of flu matters

Seasonal flu (the common flu) season occurs every year. Seasonal flu causes headaches, fever, sore throat, coughing and exhaustion for most patients, and it’s easily spread from person-to-person through contact with respiratory droplets. Infected people sneeze and cough, releasing droplets in the air, and others get sick by breathing those droplets in or by touching their eyes, noses, or mouths after touching surfaces contaminated with the droplets. This flu is easily prevented by getting an annual vaccine.

On the other hand, pandemic influenza or pandemic flu is a worldwide outbreak of the flu caused by a new flu virus to which humans have little or no immunity. Because the flu virus is highly adaptive, experts believe that a flu pandemic is very likely to occur in the future. A pandemic flu virus would be spread just as easily and could cause a large number of people to get ill and die. The relatively recent avian flu outbreaks in Southeast Asia remain largely contained geographically and limited in scope, but if the virus were to mutate into a fully transmissible human pandemic virus, it would spread worldwide and affect all populations.

Flu pandemics are recurring events

On average, a pandemic has occurred every 30-40 years over the last 400. During the 20th century, there were three flu pandemics:

1. 1918 causing approximately 40 million deaths
2. 1957 causing over two million deaths
3. 1968 causing approximately one million deaths

Public health experts estimate that should a flu pandemic occur, 90 million people in the U.S. alone will become ill and over 200,000 may die as a result of a moderate pandemic flu scenario. If you’ve seen the movie Contagion by Warner Brothers, you have a pretty good idea of how quickly the abrupt surge in illness and death can overwhelm health services and cause significant social disruption and economic loss.

The national flu pandemic response strategy

The national response strategy to a flu pandemic has been fully documented by the Department of Homeland Security. Strategic actions to be implemented upon confirmation of the first human outbreak include such actions as:

1. Implementing screening mechanisms to limit the spread of a pandemic flu
2. Restricting travel to and from travel from the affected areas
3. Diverting inbound international flights with suspected pandemic flu cases
4. Closing the borders between countries entirely

In addition, the federal government’s ability to respond to lend aid to U.S. citizens who are living and traveling abroad in the event of a pandemic may be limited because travel into and out of an affected country may not be possible, safe or medically advisable.

What occurs during a pandemic

During a pandemic, the following is likely occur:

1. Social disruption could be widespread – this includes services provided by hospitals, banks, stores restaurants, hotels, and more. In addition, those services that remain open may raise their prices sharply.
2. Being able to work could be difficult – businesses may close to halt the spread of the disease, and those affected may have to work from home, use paid leave, or plan for the potential loss of income.
3. Schools may be closed for an extended period of time – if the schools are closed, those affected will have to arrange alternative childcare or stay home with their children.
4. Public transportation services may be disrupted – not only because there is a shortage of workers, but also to quarantine affected areas and stop the spread of the disease.

If you’re traveling outside the U.S. this means that you may not be able to get back home; ditto for those who are traveling inside the U.S. and reside abroad. If you are traveling, you may have to be prepared to stay longer than you originally planned even though services where you are could be severely limited and prices could be difficult to afford.

6 Steps to prepare for flu season travel

Travelers heading out during flu season should use the following steps to prepare for their trip:

1. Check the health risks for your destination before you plan your travel.
2. Purchase your travel insurance early to have the longest possible cancellation window.
3. Read your plan carefully to understand what it covers (and what it doesn’t).
4. Pack antivirals in your emergency travel medical kit.
5. Stay connected on your trip – keep up with the news and stay in touch with family (they’ll likely know more about what’s going on than you do).
6. Know how to find local medicare on your trip.

See our facts about travel insurance and the flu.

Additional sources of information:

• WHO Handbook for Journalists: Influenza Pandemic (PDF)
• Pandemic Flu Preparedness: Lessons from the Frontlines by Trust for America’s Health (PDF)

Getting robbed while you’re traveling is not only a hassle, it can leave a traveler feeling jittery, suspicious, and apprehensive.

Whether you’re on a business trip or a vacation, having to stop and make a police report, call the rental car company and your travel insurance provider, then replace the items that were stolen from your rental car can be even more time-consuming and daunting simply because the area is unfamiliar.

If you’re in a foreign country, the local rules and unfamiliar language may be additional barriers that make the process more difficult.

While the first and most obvious rule is to do everything you can to prevent rental car break-ins and theft, knowing the most popular items to steal from a rental car can make it easier to know what to leave at home or lock in your suitcase at the hotel and what you can safely take with you.

Top 10 Items Stolen from Rental Cars

Recently, a few insurance companies released lists of which items thieves most prefer to steal from cars, including rental cars.

The top items stolen from cars include:

1. GPS devices – portable GPS devices are useful when traveling in unfamiliar territory, but even if you put the device itself in your bag or hide it in the car, the mounting device left in the open (or the imprint of the suction cup) can be reason enough to break into the car.
2. Laptops – again, even if you store the laptop in a nondescript bag and carefully hide it under the seat, a strap or power cable left in the open can clue a thief in to it’s presence and inspire them to break into the car.
3. Car stereos – most rental cars don’t have fancy car stereo systems, but stereos remain one of the most often stolen items from any car because they’re quick and easy to de-install and they’re easy to resell.
4. Portable entertainment – lots of families with young children rely on portable entertainment like game devices and DVD players to keep kids quiet on a trip. These devices are also easy to carry and easy to resell, which explains why  thieves like them too.
5. Music players – most people don’t carry a lot of CDs along with them anymore, but they will carry their entire music collection on an MP3 player or iPod. A pre-loaded music player is a tasty treat for thieves.
6. Wallets and purses – we can’t stress this enough, but never store your wallet or purse in the car – keep it with you. Even a closed glove compartment is a hint to thieves that something may be stored in there, and locked glove compartments are very simple to break open with a knife or screwdriver.
7. Cell phones – cell phones, especially smartphones, are easy targets for thieves. These days, however, your phone may have a lot more on it than just a bunch of numbers to call. If you do mobile banking or access email, for example, an enterprising thief now has access to that information.
8. Cameras – again, these are highly portable, highly re-sellable items that can be converted to quick and easy cash by an enterprising thief.
9. Coats and clothing – oddly enough these items are very tempting to thieves, and not for their resale value (which is likely not much). Coats and outer clothing left unattended in a car is valuable not for itself, but for what items may be left in the pockets. Things like keys, money, identification, etc. are often left in pockets and these are valuable tickets to greater rewards.
10. Bags of new purchases – shopping bags filled with purchases or souvenirs are especially tempting to thieves because the items are new and they can be resold quickly.

What can you do to protect yourself?

As an insured traveler, you have a few options to protect yourself from financial losses that result from items being stolen from your rental car. Unfortunately, however, neither the rental car coverage with your travel insurance plan nor your credit card travel protection will reimburse you for the loss of personal items stolen from a rental car.

Car rental collision coverage reimburses you for the cost of repairs if your rental car is broken into, but it does not cover items inside the vehicle. See our review of car rental coverage for further details.

There are, however, some alternatives for travelers seeking some protection from financial losses due to stolen items:

• Your baggage coverage will reimburse you for the value of stolen baggage and personal effects anywhere you are during your trip. If your stuff is stolen from a rental car, you’ll have coverage up to the policy limit to get replacement stuff. See our review of baggage coverage for full details.
• Your homeowner’s or special articles policy back home is another option for special articles like electronic gadgets, computers, and cameras. Most homeowner or rental policies allow you to schedule items worth a minimum value on your homeowner’s policy. The best thing about this coverage is that it doesn’t have a lot of exclusions.

The Yosemite National Park recently confirmed the deaths of two park visitors as a result of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS).

Park officials are now warning visitors of the risks of hantavirus, which is a rodent-borne virus. HPS is contracted through contact with the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, particularly deer mice.

Most infections occur as a result of breathing in small particles of mouse urine or droppings that are stirred up into the air.

Symptoms of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS)

The symptoms of HPS are flu-like and include fever, aches and chills, but the disease can progress rapidly to a life-threatening illness. The symptoms can occur from one to six weeks after exposure. Early medical attention is critical to your survival as the disease progresses rapidly to severe difficulty breathing.

Where HPS was found at Yosemite

Yosemite National Park has identified the Curry Village Signature Series Cabins (those numbered in the 900s) as the location where visitors contracted the disease. All reported cases were contracted in mid- to late-June this year in that location only.

The park closed and cleaned a large number of the tent cabins and increased rodent-proofing efforts. In addition, Yosemite National Park has set up a public information hotline (209) 372.0822, for individuals to call for additional information. The park is also contacting visitors by email to alert them to the symptoms and all visitors to the park now receive a brochure about the virus with details on how to protect themselves.

HPS Prevention

The following are the steps recommended by the Yosemite National Park and the California Department of Public Health to prevent HPS:

1. Keep food stored in tightly sealed containers and off the floor of tents
2. Minimize storing luggage and other materials on the floor
3. Avoid stirring up dust and do not touch live or dead rodents
4. If there are signs of rodent droppings in your cabin or room, contact housekeeping immediately

See the Yosemite park alert for additional information.

If there’s any certainty to travel it’s this: travel is uncertain. Every year, travelers around the world are stranded by disasters abroad.

It can be difficult if not downright impossible to predict what events you may encounter when you travel. There are, however, some common sense strategies that travelers can use to avoid a worst-case travel disaster of epic proportions.

The following are 4 tips to getting home safely when you’re in danger of being stranded abroad.

1. Know before you go

Take a little time before you settle on your trip plans to know the risks before you go. Taking care to check the local weather conditions and the current travel warnings.

See the country-specific information available on the State Department’s website for safety and security risks as well as crime information. It’s a good place to start to learn about where you’re going before you get stuck.

2. Avoid total digital blackout

While it’s tempting to shut off completely and avoid current events, it’s still important to maintain some contact so you know what’s happening where you’re traveling should something go wrong. This is where you might consider the U.S. State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, a useful tool.

When you sign up, you’ll indicate where you are traveling and when and you can add or delete trips based on your current travel plans. Once you indicate travel plans, you’ll receive the current information about the region to where you are traveling – helpful for #1 above.

During your travel dates, you’ll also receive travel alerts and travel warnings appropriate to your destination. STEP makes it easier for officers in the U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to contact you and those back home during an emergency. As they say, a well-informed traveler is a safe traveler.

3. Get out before the going gets bad

Some natural disasters hit without much in the way of warning, so this one is tricky. If you are aware of an impending risk, it’s better to evacuate early rather than waiting for others to evacuate you. This is where travel insurance plans with non-emergency medical evacuation coverage can be handy.

The covered reasons for non-medical, security, or political evacuations typically include:

• Natural disasters – like a hurricane or earthquake
• Civil uprisings, military coups, or political unrest
• Identification as a persona non grata or being expelled from the country you are visiting

That last one is a bit peculiar, but in essence, it means you are officially asked to leave a country you are visiting.

It’s important to note that the travel insurance provider is the one to determine whether an evacuation is a covered event or not, based on the circumstances and the terms of your plan. In addition, you may not be evacuated immediately home, but to a place of safety first.

4. Take cover when it hits and be realistic

The Federal government does not automatically send out rescue teams for their citizens caught in disasters. Even when transportation is made available, it’s paid for by those who are rescued. In March of 2011, after the nuclear crisis in Japan, the State Department sent chartered planes to evacuate U.S. civilians who wanted to leave, but changing weather conditions caused delays.

Once a disaster hits, take cover immediately and pay attention to the orders from local authorities. You can’t assume that help will be immediately at hand when a disaster strikes, but if you’ve done your homework and purchased the right travel insurance, you can get in touch with the assistance services team for information and advice.

If you are unable to access the Internet due to blackouts or get through on your cell phone, having family members or friends back home with your travel itinerary and travel insurance documents on hand is a great backup.

Remember that SMS or text messages often get through when voice communications are jammed. In some cases, those back home have better access to information about unfolding events that you do on the ground, so stay in touch.

Travel insurance is designed to reimburse travelers for unexpected losses, and travel insurance plans with trip cancellation or ‘cancel for any reason’ benefits ensure that a traveler who has to cancel their trip doesn’t also have to forfeit their trip investment (provided they cancel their trip for a covered reason).

Most travel insurance plans require that a traveler insure all their non-refundable travel arrangements that are subject to cancellation penalties in order to have certain benefits.

These include but are not limited to the following:

• Pre-existing condition coverage
• ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage
• ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage

See 5 Reasons to Purchase Travel Insurance Early for more details.

This means that even if you purchase a travel insurance plan on time (within the required number of days after making your initial trip deposit), you might not be able to cancel your trip for a full refund if you haven’t covered all your pre-paid, non-refundable trip costs.

When you’re filling our travel insurance quote form, you’ll see the selection here:

When getting a travel insurance quote, you’ll need to calculate your total trip cost, which is the cash value equivalent of all arrangements that were booked and paid for.

What factors determine total trip cost?

Your trip costs are determined by adding up the total of the pre-paid, non-refundable expenses that would be lost if you had to cancel your trip. These include:

• All non-refundable payments, including deposits, toward your trip: hotel, airfare, cruise, etc.
• Pre-arranged, pre-paid transportation costs like taking a pre-paid shuttle to and from the airport
• Non-refundable fees you pay for before you leave, including those fees related to tours, conventions, classes, or retreats
• Any cancellation penalties that you’ll be assessed if you suddenly cancel, such as in the deposit for a condo on the beach (check your rental agreement for the cancellation penalty schedule)
• Non-refundable tickets such as those to the theater, special events, Disneyworld passes, etc.

What costs are not included in my total trip cost?

These costs are not pre-paid and so they should not be included in your total trip cost:

• Meal and lodging costs you pay after you arrive
• Day trips or excursions arranged for and paid for after departure
• Souvenir, gift, or other costs for items you purchase during your trip
• Emergency passport replacement costs (although many travel insurance plans have an allowance for those costs if your passport is lost or stolen while you’re on your trip)
• Any other costs that were not pre-paid

If you include these in your total trip cost amount, it amounts to over-insuring your trip because these costs will not be reimbursed to you.

Do not include these costs in your total trip cost!

Do not include the costs associated with any pre-paid expenses that can be changed. This is where a lot of travelers make a mistake. It’s important to remember that travel insurance only reimburses you for losses.

If the bed and breakfast you reserved in Paris doesn’t allow for cancellations, but they will happily reschedule your stay, then it’s not a loss and you won’t be reimbursed for those costs by your trip cancellation coverage even if you can’t take your scheduled trip for a covered reason.

To protect your trip investment, think carefully about where you book your lodgings, tours, retreats, etc. If their ‘cancellation’ policy doesn’t allow for true cancellations, then reconsider and don’t include those costs in your total trip costs because they won’t be covered anyway.

What about airline ticket purchased with points?

If you purchase your airfare with points or frequent flyer miles, check the rules of your plan. In many cases, if you have to cancel your trip, the airline will re-deposit those points minus a fee.

In brief, you’ll include these costs in your total trip cost amount:

• The fee to re-deposit your frequent flier points or miles
• The taxes paid on the airline tickets

Essentially, the fee to reimburse your account with your points is non-refundable, but the ticket cost itself is not.

What if I don’t know all my trip costs – should I estimate?

If your total trip cost is unknown, and you want to purchase your policy in time to take advantage of certain benefits that require early purchase (typically between 10 and 14 days of your initial trip deposit) to be in effect, including but not limited to:

• Pre-existing condition waivers
• ‘Cancel for any reason’ benefits
• ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage

It’s wise to round up in order to avoid being precluded from access to these coverage options.

If you later discover that you’ve over-insured your trip, the policy can be updated to reflect the accurate trip cost and the difference in the premium will be refunded to you as long as the changes were made prior to your departure.

Motor vehicle accidents – not crime, not terrorism, and certainly not natural disasters – are the highest cause of American deaths in foreign countries.

As worldwide economics change, many more people in many more countries are gaining the ability to drive, crowding roads even further and causing road safety issues around the globe.

While local residents bear most of the risk of death and injury, travelers are particularly vulnerable because of their lack of familiarity with the local surroundings, road conditions, and driving laws. In cases like these, it’s good to know that travel insurance covers rental cars.

Get the Facts about Driving Overseas

In 2004, the World Health Organization and the World Bank published a joint report: World report on road traffic injury prevention, indicating that 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes each year and as high as 50 million are injured or disabled.

Even worse, 85% of those deaths are in low- to middle-income countries, and predictions indicate that worldwide traffic fatalities will increase to 2.3 million by the year 2020.

While traffic accidents occur everywhere, much of the most recent growth in motor vehicle usage is in developing countries where the roads were built to standards less than we’re used to here in the U.S. Many of these roads are also used by pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, little to no signage, few traffic regulations, and very little enforcement of those laws are further compounded by poor emergency response capabilities.

Be Prepared for Safe Driving in a Foreign Land

Driver unfamiliarity – unfamiliar cars driving on unfamiliar roads with unfamiliar signs – is a big contributor to car crashes abroad. Yet, many tourists prefer to drive on their trips abroad.

If you’ve decided you will drive on your next trip, start preparing before you leave home:

• Research the driving laws where you’re going (go online, speak with friends, etc.)
• Get an International Driver’s Permit, but take your U.S. license with you too
• Research your automobile insurance options and have the right coverage
• Know the local numbers to contact the police (hint: it’s not 911)

Your auto policy back home plus your credit card benefits may be enough coverage, but check the details carefully. Many auto policies don’t cover driving overseas or even renting a car abroad, and there are significant limitations to the  car rental collision coverage you get with your credit card travel protection.

At the Scene of a Car Crash

If you’re involved in a car crash abroad, it’s important to understand that the training and availability of emergency responders may be well below typical U.S. standards. That means, you could be waiting for help for a rather long time.

The rules at the scene of an accident are similar in a foreign country:

1. If you’re able, contact the local authorities immediately. You may have to request an English-speaking representative.
2. If anyone is injured, tell the operators you’ll need emergency medical assistance.
3. Take down information – driver’s names, the make and model and color of each of the vehicles involved, the address where the collision occurred, and registration plate information.
4. Take pictures of the accident scene using your phone and/or camera.
5. If you have travel insurance or car rental insurance, contact the insurance company as soon as possible. Depending on your coverage, they may be able to help you with getting through to the authorities, sending emergency medical support, and even a tow truck.
6. In many regions, you’ll be asked to fill out and sign a statement – get a copy of that.

Provided you did your insurance homework, you’ll know whether you have to wait to return home to file a claim or do it immediately.

Know Your Coverage Limits and Limitations

Neither your credit card coverage or your coverage from back home are complete coverage if you’re in an accident overseas, and the coverage you get with travel insurance has its own set of restrictions, like only covering cars up to a certain value.

In addition, there are country-specific limitations you should look for, such as some countries requiring the driver to have adequate auto insurance. In some countries, you’ll be required to purchase coverage from providers based in that country. That means your credit card coverage, your auto policy back home, and your travel insurance coverage are useless to you there.

See our review of car rental collision coverage for the full details.

The media is full of stories that can put nervous people off traveling, but the statistics still show you’re more likely to die crossing the street than in a plane crash.

Unfortunately for today’s traveler, losing your life in a plane crash, a civil riot, or a sinking cruise ship is the least of your worries.

There are actually many unconventional ways that travel can kill you if you’re not careful.

1. Nibbling the latest Asian delicacy

Both China and Japan feature amazingly diverse cuisine and part of the appeal lies in the wide variety of unique ingredients.

The puffer fish, for example, is considered a delicacy, but it can only be prepared by licensed chefs for a simple reason: the puffer fish contains tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that is over a thousand times more deadly than cyanide.

The first recorded case of tetrodotoxin poisoning was found in the ship log of Captain James Cook from 1774 when the crew of the ship ate some local tropical fish and then fed the remains to the pigs kept on board. The crew experienced numbness and shortness of breath while the pigs were found dead the next morning (likely due to eating the body parts that contained most of the poison).

Unfortunately, a growing number of restaurants have been known to serve the fish to risk-taking tourists. With no antidote for tetrodotoxin, it’s safer to stick to the chilis and wasabi.

2. Slogging through the jet lag

For many travelers, jet lag is simply a minor annoyance that causes them to feel a little out of sorts – a condition that leaves you with jangled nerves, severe exhaustion, and a lack of appetite.

Unfortunately, recent studies have found that a person whose circadian rhythms – that is their internal bodily clock – are scrambled are at a greater risk of heart attack. They’re also at risk of being severely confused and distracted. Sometimes travelers who cross multiple time zones can distracted enough to forget they are in another country and walk into the street without checking for cars in the right direction.

Jet lag is no joke. Take enough time on the other side to get properly recalibrated before you head out to see the sites.

3. Forgetting your vaccinations

For some travelers, coming home with a weird disease amounts to bragging rights. Even travelers with healthy immune systems need to check their vaccinations before heading out because access to adequate local medical care may not be available.

Here are the top traveler diseases that are preventable by vaccines or treated with antibiotics:

• Tetanus – this one can occur anywhere, but it’s most common in places like India and central Africa. It’s called lockjaw for a reason too – this disease affects your nervous system, causing muscles to spasm and seize. Get a booster every 10 years.
• Cholera – this disease is caused by poor sanitation, so it can occur wherever there is contaminated food and water. It often occurs in areas affected by natural disasters that disrupt the sewage and water treatment facilities. This one can kill.
• Typhoid – this one is most commonly contracted in India, parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. It develops slowly and in the majority of cases it’s not fatal. It’s caused by consuming contaminated food or water.
• Hepatitis – while there are various incarnations of hepatitis, travelers need to worry most about types A and B, which are found in developing countries including Mexico, Latin America, India and parts of Africa. Both types can lead to severe damage to the liver, but only Hep B is considered fatal.
• Yellow fever – another disease spread by mosquitoes, this one is mostly found in tropical regions of South America and Africa. Patients usually end up with jaundice, which gives cause the the name ‘yellow’ fever and untreated cases can lead to death.
• Meningitis – found in an area stretching across Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia, this disease starts with a fever and neck stiffness and untreated cases are often lethal.
• Japanese Encephalitis – again, blame the mosquitos but this one affects the central nervous system and is most common in agricultural regions like Cambodia, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Be aware that while getting the jabs is all well and good, the effectiveness of the cholera and typhoid vaccines are in dispute (some say they are only about 50% effective).

There are also some diseases travelers pick up for which there is no vaccine, including:

• Dengue fever – featuring headaches as well as severe muscle and joint pain, Dengue is found in tropical regions of Africa, Singapore, and Taiwan.
• Malaria – one of the trickiest diseases for travelers because the medication has to be taken before, during, and after the trip and it can cause unpleasant side effects.

In both cases, bite prevention is the best medicine because these diseases are spread by mosquitoes.

4. Failing to fidget

Travelers who are in a situation of prolonged immobility – in planes, cars, busses, and trains – are at risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a life-threatening complication caused by blood clots that travel through the bloodstream and into vital organs causing:

• Chest pain and pressure
• Shortness of breath
• Sudden collapse and even death

Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, indicate that between 60 and 100 thousand Americans die each year from DVT. Death can even occur hours after the traveler has returned to normal mobility because the general pain is typically dismissed as a pulled muscle or soreness.

The primary key to preventing DVT is movement, so travelers are warned to keep moving. Standing up, jumping or wriggling around, and even fidgeting can keep blood flow moving.