A person can buy Travel Insurance to insure against unforeseeable events that could occur while traveling.. events that lead to incurred costs on the part of the traveler.

An example would be if you booked a trip and then got too sick to go and had to postpone the trip. With traveler's insurance, and an appropriate doctor's signature as proof, your airline ticket change fees, your deposits on hotel rooms, etc. could be covered.

We were on a cruise and due back to port in Ft. Lauderdale the day Hurricane Katrina first hit land in Ft. Lauderdale (a couple of days before hitting New Orleans). We had to stay at sea an extra day and our ship was diverted to the port of Tampa for debarkation. Our travel insurance paid for a night's hotel stay, a per diem amount for food expenses per person during our extra day, car rental, as well as any airline change fees. It's a good idea to have travel insurance during hurricane season in the Caribbean!

But each policy has very specific and different rules, so you have to read the fine print of what each policy covers.

As an FYI, usually pre-existing conditions are not covered unless you buy the travel insurance within a certain amount of days after the trip is booked... it's often 15 days, but that varies too.

Take a look at www.insuremytrip.com. It's a great website that will let you compare the various polcies.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Jst another couple of thoughts, for what it's worth...

Depending on your health insurance, it may or may not cover medical transportation costs associated with getting back to your local area. Picture hit by a bus, multiple injuries, need long recuperation or a Level I trauma center...OK, granted, a bit of a "worst-case scenario", but possible. This is less of the problem within the US, but I consider this particularly when traveling out of the US. Depending on the trip insurance purchased, this could be covered.

Some cruise, resort, or other vendors also have fairly stiff cancellation policies. Depending upon how many travelers you have, and what these cancellation costs could be, it could be worth it. Picture again, hit by bus, this time the day before you and your large family are to leave on a trip that would mean lots of dollars in lost deposits.

However, this said, we usually do NOT buy trip insurance. I did buy it for our upcoming VI trip for some of the reasons I listed + what SoCaTraveler said about hurricane season. I think it's not only an individual choice, but varies by the trip. I agree with SoCaTraveler, that you should read the fine print carefully. Also note if you have kids in the travel group, for some policies they cover the kids expenses for "free" if the adults all are covered.

For what it's worth, we have been going to STT every year now for the past 14 years and still have not had a need for traveller's insurance. Just my two cents.

Of course now that I said that...... LOL!

Just as C_CMom said, I would only consider it if hefty deposits could be lost, change fees incurred, or to guard against large scale medical costs if we thought the probability of occurrence was high enough. We do know someone that, when on a Caribbean cruise, had some type of internal bleeding and had to be airlifted from the cruiseship to the nearest critical care hospital. Our family has 2 scuba divers, so there's always a very small chance that one day one of them could need to go to a recompression chamber (again, I'd have to read the fine print to see what was covered).

We're going to the USVI and BVI in June, but have not purchased travel insurance for this trip yet. We're traveling mostly on frequent flier miles and Marriott points, and due to my husband's status with the airline and Marriott, having to rebook wouldn't cost anything and, therefore, there would be little to lose. I will look into it, however, because of the scuba diving.

Last summer for our Europe trip we bought travel insurance because we had to change planes 3 times on the trip over, and 2 times on the return... plus we were on 2 different, non-coordinating, airlines. So it was worth it, to us, just in case we missed a connection.

Again, I don't usually buy it either, but another group of people who could really consider it would be those with medical conditions. In this case, the risk of an exacerbation of an existing condition could be high enough to make it worthwhile. As SoCaTraveler noted, coverage for pre-existing conditions may be limited, especially if purchased late.

I've never bought it either. But I've arranged a special 3-week trip to Italy this fall at a price that is waaay outside my comfort level and trip insurance seemed like a good ivestment, It really all depends.

Hi there everyone,
Coming from an manager standpoint of a villa, the question is, Is it fair to expect an owner to open his villa an extra week because you had a unfortunate situation and couldn't come the intended week you booked? This happened to us for both villas in the same week! We are always sorry to hear of any situations our pending guests may have prior to their trip, but it isn't fair to the owner to have to loose out also. If you can't make it the week you intended, then you should not expect your money back, that is not our fault and I hope noone takes offense to this! I honestly feel it is worth the purchase of the insurance, which from what I understand is not that expensive to protect both you AND the place inwhich you are going! Don't have time to get into more details, but wanted to share a little insight to the opposite end of the spectrum!

My greatest fear when traveling is death in the family. Both of our fathers are pretty old (mothers are deceased) and I worry about having to cancel at the last minute for death/illness in the family (I hope this doesn't sound like I'm heartless - only worrying about my lost vacation!) I purchased trip insurance for the airline tickets only (willing to risk the hotel deposit) because they were non-transferable, non-refundable, and also to cover lost luggage.

If I were staying in a villa or somewhere that required the entire amount before arrival, I would purchase for that too, but maybe not if I'm already 15 days away from my trip. life's a gamble!

We have never ever bought trip insurance for our travels to the Caribbean, Europe or Asia. (20 or so trips)

Some people buy as a bet against cancellation, but I see that as another roll of the dice.

When we traveled to India, I ended up in a New Delhi hospital. My regular medical plan paid for the cost of that. As an aside, I found that that the medical treatment in India was excellent and only a fraction of the cost compared to the US. The cost of medical treatment and pharmaceuticals in the USA is almost criminal. It's time to make some major changes.

Hi Merideth,
Sherri is right!
I work in the Property management industry as well and i can not tell you how many people have had to leave early because of a death in the family or someone in the family getting hurt or very sick (including your selfs)
We have had many people lose lots of money from not taking the extra insurance
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW!

I never bought it until I watched my mom and a huge group of her friends not lose a lot of money on a trip they'd scheduled to Biloxi in Fall 2005. They'd have lost thousands of dollars if the trip hadn't been insured. No one seemed to care that they could not take the trip because the places that had reservations no longer existed. Non-refundable is non-refundable.