By Julie Fratarcangeli
It’s pretty easy to talk yourself out of buying travel insurance, especially when you’ve just spent a ton of amount on travel. When I was a young traveler, I never gave it a second thought. Now though, with a longtime career in travel under my belt—and after a few unavoidable travel pitfalls and 20/20 hindsight—I wouldn’t dream of heading to the airport without a travel insurance policy tucked into my travel documents.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a family that loves to travel. My kids took to it right from the start, and now they’re practically professionals. Whenever we set out on our trips, at the top of our packing checklist is: travel insurance—whether we’re headed to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with the kids’ grandparents, or heading to Turkey to explore the underground cities of Cappadocia.
As we veteran travelers know, unpredictability might be the only predictable thing about travel. No one plans on coming down with the flu the night before you’re due to fly to South Africa for a wineland vacation. Nor do you plan for, your dad, who isn’t traveling with you, to take a fall and cause you to stay behind to help him out. What if your flight to Italy is delayed and you missed the last connecting flight? I hardly mean to sound like doom and gloom here, because there is little that will keep me from traveling as much as possible. But a basic, inclusive policy goes a long way toward making things better in the long run if it’s needed.
Here at Thomson Collection, whenever one of our staffers head out for a trip, we require that they have travel insurance. It’s company policy–though all of us would have it anyway.
So, when you’re making your personal plans to go anywhere—a flight a few hours away here in the U.S. to visit friends, or a private trip to Peru and Machu Picchu—be sure to purchase that coverage.