We have some exciting news today and I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be working as an ambassador for Admiral Travel Insurance!
Admittedly, booking travel insurance is not the most fun part of traveling. I also want to research hotels, activities, and restaurants. But travel insurance is one thing you have to book every time you travel. We all hope we never need it, but when we do, we’ll be so glad to have it.
I book annual travel insurance for myself and my family and always have insurance to cover all equipment and activities such as skiing. I went through the phase of booking separate insurance for each trip, but this may be better if he goes abroad once or twice a year. However, if you’re going abroad more than a few times, it’s usually cheaper to buy annual insurance. It also takes a lot of pressure off the admin, especially if you’re the forgetful type, so you don’t have to deal with any extra stress right before the holidays. Please let me know I’m not the only one who rushes to book travel insurance while traveling. To the airport!
I print out my travel insurance policy and tuck it inside my passport to keep it on hand while traveling in case I need it in an emergency.
Thankfully, I have only used travel insurance once so far. It was his 2011 and Sam and I were traveling through Indonesia. We took a late night bus from Bali to Java and arrived at Mount Bromo in Java around 3am to climb the volcano in time for sunrise. Everything went smoothly and we had the most amazing time. We stumbled and groped our way up the volcano in the dark, relying only on cheap flashlights and the moon to illuminate our path. I don’t remember much about reaching the top. I know I took a lot of pictures, and I think I saw a fiery ball of lava from the volcano, but I might have made that up a bit. I remember it raining for a moment, but I don’t remember it being cold. I think we sat on the top with a group of French backpackers and watched the sky go from black to deep blue to sweet pink.
I don’t remember much about this trip because after descending from the volcano, I ate sweet tea and stale bread and got on another bus, where both my cameras were stolen.
We were disappointed to lose our camera, which had been our prized possession for the past 18 months while traveling through Asia and Australia, but also all the photos we had taken on our amazing trip up the volcano. I was even more upset about that. We have lost those pictures of fiery lava balls and those beautiful sunrises rising over volcanoes, and at that moment we find ourselves covered in black ash, and the strangers who were our best friends in that special moment. I laughed out loud when I saw us showing up with a group of people.
We want to have good memories, but instead we rely on photos to remember special moments. Every day you do something amazing, and those moments blur into one, like a French backpacker meeting on a volcano merging with a German backpacker and a Dutch backpacker meeting scuba diving. They become even more important on a backpacking trip. I discovered rock climbing.
We didn’t stay in Java for long. Since my camera was stolen, I didn’t want to travel anymore, so I immediately flew to Singapore.
It’s somewhere! ^
To this day, we still have no idea how someone got into both of our bags and took the camera away without us noticing. We both slept with our backpacks as pillows, and the thought of someone rummaging through them makes me sick to my stomach.
However, within a few days I filed an insurance claim and a week later I had a new camera. In fact, we all had bigger and better cameras than before, and a new passion for photography with our flashy new devices. In fact, I had a lot of fun looking around Singapore’s huge malls and talking to the experts working at the small camera stalls to find out which cameras were best.
Since then, I have become extra careful about keeping my belongings safe. My main tip is very simple. Don’t have too many things. One of the reasons we didn’t realize we didn’t have a camera was because we had so much stuff. Even our daypacks were huge, packed with books, cables, tools, clothing, food, and a million other bits and bobs we didn’t really need.
I don’t travel with too many expensive gadgets these days. All I have is my camera, cell phone, Kindle, wallet, and bottle of water. If something is taken out of your bag, you’ll notice right away.
Travel insurance is a very sensitive topic for my family. Because my brother had a real reason for using travel insurance.
He was on holiday in Greece, and during a night out he fell and hit the back of the head, leaving him unconscious. He did not go to the hospital, but regained consciousness and went to bed. The next day he had a severe headache so he went to the doctor and was told that he was most likely suffering from a hangover and that he should sleep and let it heal. The next day, his headache worsened so he went to the hospital, where it was discovered that he had a brain hemorrhage.
I was at home with my mother at the time, and I still remember getting a call from the hospital and telling me to go to the hospital as soon as possible. It felt like every organ in my body had been removed and replaced with ice. My mother went into a strange business-like mode she didn’t cry. She didn’t crack at all. She quickly booked a flight over the phone, quickly packed her suitcase and was in a car heading to the airport within 10 minutes.
My father also joined her and they stayed there for about 10 days. His father had to go home, but her mother stayed longer and couldn’t take a regular plane because of the barometric pressure, so she ended up taking her younger brother on a low-altitude flight. I took him home on a plane. While my brother was in the hospital, he had a private room with a balcony and had daily CT scans, and my mom and dad were staying in a nice hotel nearby. They even wanted to joke that they had a fun holiday largely.
And, did you know, my brother’s travel insurance (which didn’t cost that much) covered everything. His medical expenses, special flight home, and his parents’ airfare and hotel expenses were all covered. I don’t know how much it cost, but I think it was a small amount of money. Here’s an infographic about how much your medical bills will cost if you don’t have travel insurance. It’s kind of scary!
This is the real reason I can’t even imagine leaving the UK without travel insurance, and why I’m so happy to be an ambassador for Admiral Travel Insurance.
Next year, an article about insurance will be posted every month. I also plan to write some travel articles for Admiral Magazine.