Travel Insurance. Do You Need It?

When backpacking the most unpredictable events can happen and normally there is not much you can do about it. However, there comes travel insurance, to solve all those high risks of problems. Yet, on the other hand do most backpackers even consider travel insurance? Throughout my backpacking adventures I came across almost more than half of all backpackers don’t have travel insurance, some had reasons like; I will just call my parents, travel insurance is a waste money, or I don’t think I will ever really need it. Well I got to say I was like that in the beginning.

I traveled Europe with no insurance at all, well the only thing I did have was an open-ended plane ticket incase of any emergency. However, with my luck I came into contact with an unexpected circumstance. When I was in Barcelona I got an incredible bad case of bed bugs. Yes yuck!!! I was taking a train from Barcelona to Madrid at which I first noticed these red bits on my arm. I didn’t really consider anything of it, until I reached the hostel in Madrid. This guy came up to me and mentioned that my face was covered in little red bumps and that I should see a doctor. I was little freaked out, so I went over to a pharmacy to see if they had an idea how to correct this. With my luck no one spoke English, so I headed over to the hospital. Once I was at the hospital I received some medication to reduce the look and the doctor mention I was lucky. Well in the end, the only reason why I was allowed to see a doctor and get the drugs I needed was due to my British passport. Since I am European Citizen I was covered for health insurance. If I used my Canadian passport and mentioned that I had no travel Insurance I would have been out of luck. Overall I learned my lesson in not getting travel insurance because if I was in another country I would have been completely out of luck. So oftentimes in backpacking you may never use travel insurance, but when something like this happens it is a great way to cover all your problems. There are many ways that travel insurance can cover you; Cancellations (flights), Medical Expenses, Stolen or damaged luggage, thefts, or even loss of traveler’s checks/documents. Now, yes you may have to pay a little more to cover your steps, but in the long run I believe it’s worthwhile. What do you think?