Why Insure

True you probably won't be attacked by a school of killer sharks or hijacked by a gang of machete-wielding pirates during a fortnight in Blackpool or Benidorm.

But regardless of how safe you think your destination is - and as you read our site, you'll soon realise that there's nowhere on the planet that's safe - you should consider taking out holiday travel insurance.

First and foremost, holiday travel insurance gives you that rarest of things - peace of mind.

If the worst comes to the worst and you-know-what hits the fan, then you're covered for almost anything.

Holiday headaches

You can get compensation if your flight gets delayed, for instance.

Or if there's a baggage strike (now an annual event in the UK) and you're held up indefinitely then holiday travel insurance could cover you for the cost of hotel accommodation.

And what if something really awful happens - on the morning of your departure you wake up to find your house is on fire?

Or you've just slapped on the factor 25 on the beach when you get a call on your mobile telling you that your Mum has taken suddenly ill and has to undergo open heart surgery, like, tomorrow . . .?

Up in flames

These are major hiccups that could K.O. your holiday, forcing you to either cancel or curtail it and fly home early.

If you have no travel insurance, you'll lose everything you've forked out for.

But if you do have travel insurance at least you'll be able to salvage something.

Having experience our hotel going up in flames (on the first day of our holiday) we KNOW that it pays to have travel insurance.

We were left with the clothes we stood up in and that's all we would have had left with, if we hadn't had the foresight to insure ourselves beforehand.

Serious Money

So, pampered as we are (?!) it's hard for us Brits to get our head around the fact that when abroad we may have to cough up serious money if we fall ill or come a cropper.

This is true even in countries such as EEA states with which the United Kingdom has reciprocal health care arrangements.

But the arrangements are unlikely to cover all the medical costs you can incur.

And the price of bringing a person back to the UK- alive or dead - is NEVER covered, even under the reciprocal arrangements.

Hopefully you'll still be alive and kicking if you do fall ill abroad.

Killer blow - repatriation

But if you're not OK have died abroad, think what a killer blow any large expense will be to the folks back home.

The grieving will be faced with large bills for air transport, never mind the stress of organising repatriation, when they should be attending to funeral arrangements.
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Acts of God

Many companies have extensive exclusion clauses for Acts of God (Natural Disasters), so you need to read the small print and ask questions if you want comprehensive cover.