Your tickets are booked, hotels are selected, passport is up to date, and bags are packed for a once in a lifetime backpacking experience through Southeast Asia, or maybe you are heading out to Germany for a weekend in Munich. As the date draws closer you check and recheck everything, but we bet there is something that might be missing: travel insurance. According to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), nearly 1 in 4 travellers don’t secure travel insurance when they travel abroad, a number which the ABTA believes will continue to increase.

Ask anyone who has been in an accident, needed to seek medical care or has even been delayed while overseas, and you will likely be told how expensive, time consuming, and frustrating sorting out care or alternative travel plans can be. Simply put, this could ruin your vacation. Travel insurance is a great way to ensure that, should anything go wrong on your next vacation, the costs are covered. As such, here are 5 tips on how you can secure the best travel insurance plan.

What is travel insurance and do I need it?

Before we look at securing travel insurance, it would first be a good idea to define what exactly travel insurance is. Simply put, travel insurance is a form of short-term insurance that covers you while you are away from your home country.

The vast majority of plans on the market will cover a wide variety of things including:

• Emergency medical expenses
• Emergency medical evacuation
• Accidental death and dismemberment
• Repatriation of remains
• Trip cancellation
• Trip delays
• Lost luggage

Because travel insurance plans cover a wide variety of things, they are often recommended by travel experts. But do you really need one? Yes! The main reason is that in many countries it is actually incredibly expensive for a foreigner to receive care. For example, if you go to Thailand and are seriously injured while driving a motorbike, you will likely first be sent to Bangkok for care, then possibly sent home.

By Andrew Ma

See full story at simplyholidaydeals.co.uk