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Preparing for the Summer Travel Season

It is protecting themselves, their family, and their vacation investment that a number of travelers are concerning themselves with now that the summer travel season is commencing. What you should get is travel insurance if you are planning a trip that involves a sizable financial outlay.

What can be covered in this case are missed flights, bungled connections, and illness. What you have here is a safeguard for financial loss of there are any trip cancellations, delays, or interruptions. You can expect variations when it comes to travel policies but these include accident, sickness, baggage loss and flight insurance, and financial protection in the event of trip interruption and delay. It is medical evacuation that is a feature rarely offered by conventional health insurance plans which is included when it comes to the best policies. For the cost, this is because one or more airplanes or helicopters are used to retrieve the sick traveler.

It is trip cancellation that is the most likely occurrence because of illness, accident, or weather. There are times when a traveler must cut short a trip to go home and this is where trip interruption becomes another possible scenario. Reaching a price of about 5 to 7 percent of the trip cost per person is the cost of travel insurance. If there is a $3,000 per person trip, it can include an additional $150 or $210.

Considering that you may be shopping for travel insurance policies, see to it that you look for one with a 24 hour hot line providing international access as this is essential for medical emergencies. What you should check before traveling abroad is the US State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. In this case, you can gain information on crime, medical care, drug supplies, and on areas prone to natural disasters and political instability from them.

With regard to experiencing robberies abroad, most US Embassies and Consulates maintain 24 hour operators or answering services to assist Americans in difficulty. Including dealing with local police, expediting the replacement of a stolen passport, canceling stolen credit cards, and assisting with language problems, they can help you with these. They can direct travelers to the right source for replacing airline tickets provide a list of English speaking lawyers and instruct travelers on getting money transferred.

You can receive temporary identification from them if you lose your passport. Normally, a passport could be replaced within 24 hours but this has since changed due to security reasons. While abroad, Americans can lose their passports and if they do, new passports with computer generated digital photographs will be issued to them. In this case, travelers should consider packing a notarized copy of a birth certificate, a copy of the information pages of the passport, and two passport size photos separately from the passport. You can expect this to speed things up if the actual passport is stolen.

Travelers are recommended by the State Department to pack photocopies of credit cards, airline tickets, and drivers' licenses and leave a second set of photocopies behind with a friend or family member as well. Keep a copy of the police report, which is necessary for making any insurance claims upon returning home. It will be wise for a traveler exposed to political instability abroad to contact the nearest US Embassy or Consulate for advice. You can obtain tips and advice on street safety, driving, and terrorism when it comes to foreign travel from the State Department's publication. It will be possible for the State Department to give you a copy or you can read about it at the State Department's Web site.

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