With almost any task, there are fun parts and tedious parts – and that goes for planning a RTW trip, too. The fun parts include planning a route (it’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular topics on RTW forums) and getting new gear. Perhaps the most un-fun part of trip planning is making contingency plans for all those “what if” scenarios.
Of course, it’s decidedly more un-fun if something bad were to happen and you weren’t prepared.
You may have family members who are terrified at the idea that you might break a leg while scaling a mountain or get mugged at knifepoint by bandits. These things can happen when you get out into the world, but these kinds of things are far less common than the simple illnesses that are bound to come up. Just as you’re unfamiliar with your surroundings, your body is unfamiliar with whatever’s in the local water and food. Ailments are often referred to with names like Delhi or Bali Belly or Montezuma’s Revenge, but they boil down to the same kinds of gastro-intestinal issues – diarrhea, vomiting, etc.
Generally speaking, these are things that qualify as annoyances that will slow you down for a few days but won’t be life-threatening – unless you don’t take care of yourself. It’s very easy to get dehydrated on top of whatever stomach ailment you’re suffering with, and from there it’s easy to end up in a situation where you need to get to a hospital for fluids.
You might be thinking that if the worst you’ll deal with is the potential to spend a few days curled up in bed eating plain rice or pasta and recovering from your tummy troubles then do you really need travel insurance? If you could be guaranteed that Bali Belly was the worst you’d suffer through, then perhaps travel insurance wouldn’t be necessary – but of course there aren’t any guarantees, so getting travel insurance is a very good idea.
There are many types of travel insurance, but the main ones that RTW travelers tend to focus on are travel medical insurance and (depending on the type of activities you’re planning to engage in) things like emergency evacuation or accidental death insurance. The good news is that these types of insurance are far cheaper than you might think, and they offer peace of mind – not to mention critical assistance if something terrible happens. It might be the least glamorous part of trip planning, but don’t put it off – get a travel insurance quote today.
photo by nicocrisafulli