Travel Insurance: Do you need it for a city trip?
Vacations are fun, they are chance to get away and enjoy ourselves. However the sad fact is that bad things can happen while we are on vacation. Even in the safest of places there is a chance of getting ill or robbed. Although this is not something that you should worry excessively about you do need to make sure that you are prepared if the worst does happen. The way to do this is with travel insurance. Travel insurance will make sure that if something bad happens while you are on vacation that it isn't a financial disaster. Nobody likes to pay for insurance but if you are going to take a trip you need to have travel insurance.
The number one reason that you need to have travel insurance is in case you get hurt or sick while on vacation. If you don't have travel insurance you are very likely going to end up paying a part or all of the bill. Most health insurance plans only offer limited coverage, or none at all when you are out of the country. The cost of medical care can be astronomical if you get seriously ill, it could literally ruin you financially. In many places you may not even be able to get medical care unless you can show proof that you can pay for it. There is also a good chance that if you become ill in a foreign country that you will need to be evacuated back to your own country. Again this can be very expensive and likely won't covered by your regular insurance.
The second reason that you will want to have travel insurance is to cover you in the event that something bad happens while you are on vacation. This could be having your wallet or luggage stolen or a natural disaster like a hurricane or earth quake or it could even be a terrorist attack. All of these will likely result in the loss or damage of some of your personal property as well as the need to get you back home. More importantly you will need to have access to emergency funds to tide you over until you do get home.
When you book a vacation a lot of the expenses are non-refundable, and even if they are refundable the possible exists that the travel company will go out of business and take your money with them. It is not at all uncommon for travel companies and airlines to go bankrupt and when they do their customers often find themselves stranded. Trip insurance can protect you from this, it will cover the cost of getting you home as well as refund the money that you paid for the trip. Trip insurance will also cover you in the event that you book a non-refundable trip and then can't make it due to things like illness.