What is travel insurance, and why should you purchase it?
Booking a photography vacation can be a significant cost. Suppose you have a medical emergency during a trip. In that case, evacuation and medical treatment costs can be substantial, particularly in remote locations, and your medical insurance may not cover you when in international locations. You might also want insurance for circumstances when you have to cancel your participation at the last minute. Travel protection plans that include trip cancellation may help you recover unused, non-refundable payments and deposits for various covered reasons as indicated in your plan.
When buying travel insurance, we recommend Arch RoamRight as they have various plans and excellent customer service. Purchasing travel insurance shortly after your initial deposit is prudent to maximize trip cancellation benefits.
Travel Medical Protection Plans
Unfortunately, injury and illness sometimes happen when you’re traveling. It’s essential to have insurance in place to cover these unforeseen events. Otherwise, you could end up with expensive medical bills.
Before traveling, you should check with your medical insurance plan to see if you are covered when you travel. Many US medical plans do not cover medical care received outside the United States and may be limited when traveling internationally. Canadians should also check their medical coverage when traveling outside of the province they live in.
Photography trips, in particular, may take you to remote locations far from medical facilities and treatment. Having emergency medical evacuation coverage is critical when you have a medical emergency. Evacuations to the nearest hospital or your home country can be expensive. While infrequent, these incidents can happen to anyone, and we’ve seen first-hand the benefits of having travel medical insurance when these incidents occur.
Tour Operator Cancellation Penalty Policies
Sometimes, you have to cancel a trip at the last minute. Perhaps you or your family member have a sickness or injury, a death in the family, or maybe you encounter a natural disaster or a job loss that may prevent you from taking your planned trip. While these unforeseen events are stressful, last-minute cancellations are subject to cancellation penalty policies that determine the amount of available refund, if any, depending on how close to the trip the cancellation occurs.
Most tour operators, including us, have cancellation penalty policies that determine how much of your trip cost will be refunded. As your trip gets closer and closer, your tour operator is incurring costs on your behalf that impact the amount of your refund, and at a critical point in time, no refunds are due. You should read our Cancellation Policy and always check the individual tour page for trip-specific cancellation policies.
While adding a travel protection plan to your trip does add cost, plans that provide trip cancellation benefits can help in these situations. For many people, purchasing a travel protection plan gives them peace of mind to protect their unused, non-refundable trip payments and deposits when unforeseen events happen.
Additional Travel Benefits
Other benefits are sometimes included in a travel protection plan. You may get coverage for trip interruption and delay, missed connections, and lost luggage. If you purchase your trip using a credit card, always check your credit card benefits to see if they also offer you this sort of protection.
Is Travel Insurance Required?
Travel insurance is generally optional but strongly recommended when booking a tour with us. However, on some trips, medical emergency and evacuation coverage is mandatory. We require this coverage for remote locations where the distance to the nearest medical facilities is substantial, and evacuation could be costly. You should check the description of each tour to determine if medical and evacuation insurance is required. If you have any questions or want additional information about Arch RoamRight plans, please visit Arch RoamRight or call them at (866) 891-6614.
Frequent Travelers
Those who travel frequently may find purchasing an insurance plan for each trip a hassle. If you take multiple trips per year, consider buying an annual multi-trip insurance plan. You can travel confidently knowing that all your trips are insured for the term, and it is often more economical than purchasing an insurance plan per trip.