Many people regret not having taken out insurance before their trip when they have to face an emergency abroad. And is that when we travel outside of Spain, medical and travel expenses are at our expense and can be very high. Having a guarantee that we are covered before any unforeseen event will allow us to enjoy our stay more calmly and without worries.
When choosing your travel insurance you will have to look at different aspects that will determine the type of coverage you need. If it is the first time you are going to hire a policy and you do not know how to choose it, we can help you.
Travel insurance that suits you
If you decide to take out travel insurance, you will have to choose one or the other depending on the needs and characteristics of your trip. If you opt for a particular insurer because you have good references, check their offer, as they usually have a wide range of modalities with different coverage. In addition, you can usually set up your insurance according to your needs, expanding the amount of coverage for medical assistance abroad as much as you need, compensation in case of delays or cancellations and the luggage guarantee.
An insurance according to the destination
Traveling in Europe is not the same as traveling to the United States or an Asian country. The problems that may arise in each destination that we visit will be completely different, so you should adapt your travel insurance to the maximum for each country you go to.
It is not the same to travel by plane than by train or car. If you travel by plane you run the risk of losing your bags, while on the train you are more likely to suffer delays. So make sure your insurance is going to cover all possible contingencies throughout the trip.
For this reason, the first advisable step is to inform oneself widely about the country of destination: to inquire about its customs and local legislation. For this, you can consult the travel recommendations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, we could say that it is basic that the coverage is appropriate for the country where you are going to travel.
Coverage during the entire trip
The duration of the trip is another aspect that we must take into account when choosing our assistance insurance. Make sure that the contrasts will cover your entire getaway: that is, from the moment you leave home until you arrive. We can never know if, for example, the transportation that will take us from the airport to home will fail us. So it never hurts that our insurance contemplates it.
Broad health care
In general, health care abroad is not covered by the Spanish Social Security or by private health insurance in Spain or by the policy that is signed when buying a plane ticket with a credit card. So, to avoid unforeseen events, we strongly recommend you to take out insurance that has extensive medical and travel coverage that covers the corresponding expenses.
However, remember that in the European Economic Area and Switzerland the Spanish, thanks to the European Health Card (for this you must apply), have access to Public Health under the same conditions as the nationals of those countries.
Insurance for each type of trip
It is essential that your insurance is appropriate to the type of trip you are going to make. As we have mentioned before, it is not the same to travel by car, train, plane or boat. In fact, there are specific insurance for each type of trip. For example, those designed for cruise ships are well known.
Fit the insurance to your traveler profile
It is also important that you value the activities that you are going to carry out on your trip, since having an insurance contract does not guarantee that we will cover everything we do during our stay abroad. There are different types of travel insurance that adapt to the different traveler profiles: the adventurer, the beach and relaxer, the one that squeezes the cities, the mountaineer, etc.
The first thing is to be aware of those risks that insurance covers or not, so it is recommended that you confirm with the insurer the coverage of your, such as renting a vehicle, practicing activities such as surfing or cycling or doing extreme sports. In most insurance, accidents resulting from the performance of these activities are out of coverage. In these cases it is best to also hire an adventure policy or for extreme sports that have coverage such as location and rescue or rehabilitation.
In addition, if you are going to visit several countries, check that the insurance is covered in all of them, even at stopovers and short stays.
The age of the insured
You should bear in mind that there are insurances that exclude minors and those over 65, although it is also true that fewer and fewer people do so. The maximum age of travel insurance is usually between 60 and 65 years. Above that age, most insurances either are not issued or the price rises. In addition, it is probable that these policies present some peculiarities with respect to the general ones.
depending on the age of the insured (under 14 and over 70), there are some particularities in the policies, but only in the case of compensation for death or disability in case of accident.
Compare prices and coverage of various insurance
The cheapest insurance is for young people and adults because, as you know, insurance for people over 65 years of age tend to have higher rates. The decision to choose one insurance or another should not be taken only for the final price of the policy. And is that, although we always tend to choose the cheapest, our last decision should not be based only on how much it costs us. We should consult several insurances, compare what coverage they offer us for a similar price and stay with the one that suits us best.
Before travelling
Our recommendation is that you check that you have all the documents in an accessible place, but at the same time safe. As is your handbag or suitcase, or where you carry your ID or passport so that, in case you need your insurance, you have all the documentation together. It is advisable to take the original policy and write down the emergency telephone numbers in easy and quick to see places. If you want to be more effective, you can save them on your phone. Our last advice is to upload a copy of the policy to your email account on the internet and download it to your mobile to access it from anywhere.
Once you have contracted your travel assistance and you are sure that you are covered before any unforeseen event, you just need to leave your car in good hands to be able to fully enjoy your trip. Trust WePark: with us your car is guarded 24 hours a day.
