Insurance When You Travel

Many people plan their vacations out meticulously--planning all of the fun things that they want to do and all of the places they want to see in great detail--but they often forget about a very basic safety precaution to take when going on vacation and that is ensuring adequate insurance coverage that will take care of them if something horrible happens to them while they are on vacation.  Just here in Vegas I've seen tourists severely injured (one lady had half her face ripped open from an accident) and even dead (the Route 91 mass shooting, tourists run over and killed by cars, etc).  Nobody plans for these things but they can happen so it only makes sense to proactively plan for such contingencies by having the following types of insurance coverages:

• Medical insurance.  See if your current medical insurance will cover you, whereever you go.  Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't, and sometimes if you end up in a hospital in a foreign country they will hold you hostage until you pay them cash before letting you leave.  You can get a specific travel medical insurance plan if your regular medical insurance doesn't cover you abroad.
• Trip cancellation insurance.  There is an added fee when you book a cruise (as well as other types of travel) that will pay for trip cancellation insurance in case you can't make your travel due to illness/death/etc.  Note that some policies have very specific rules while others let you cancel for any reason.
• Medical evacuation insurance.  If you become seriously injured or ill in a foreign country, you can't just hop on a plane and come back home which is where medical evacuation insurance comes into play (if you were to pay cash to be medically evacuated and returned home it could cost $100k+).
• Kidnap and ransom insurance.  There is an entire industry built around people being kidnapped and ransomed while traveling abroad.  Generally these policies are for the wealthy and those who work in high profile industries but, depending on where you are traveling, this may be something to look into.
• Other types of travel-related insurance.  There are several other types of insurance coverages for travelers, either through specific policies or sometimes through your credit card, including lost luggage, rental car coverage, term life insurance, medical tourism coverage, etc.