If you did not think it over when planning the travel budget and left the travel insurance expenses out of the ambit of the budget, it is time that you re-planned and included the latter in the same. There are several catches which will help you see why travel insurance is so important, and why almost every flight and every trip or tour operator offers a policy when you finalize a deal!

For starters, the costs of health services may be extremely high and personal accidents or damage to property can never be ruled out. The cost of hiring an ambulance to fly you out of an exotic location and into a hospital may overrun your complete trip budget itself.

There are added issues that need to be taken care of too. A run-in with the law or loss of baggage and documents could cost you a lifetime of savings, while trying to hire a lawyer or calling for legal help to get the documents re-published from the concerned authorities. Repatriation is a complex deal too, for which you will need counsel and professional help, all of which come at a cost – and your credit card can only bear that much!

A lot of travelers take the “this cannot happen to me anyway” approach and pay the price for the same. Just in this case, make an exception to the golden rule of life and become a pessimist. Travel insurance will bail you out in situations you would have never imagined possible!