But when you crash on the slope, or step on some sharp coral, or twist your ankle hiking in the mountains the first thing that hospital outside of the county is going to ask for is a giant deposit. So unless you happen to have founded a leading search engine someone recently, travel insurance is a good idea all around.
Nomadic Matt runs down the things you should consider when evaluating travel insurance.
His list of things to consider when buying travel insurance (it is a great list):
1. Covers most countries in the world
2. Make sure they cover electronics
3. Cover injury and sudden illnesses within the country and abroad
4. Twenty-four hour emergency services and assistance
5. Cover lost, damaged or stolen possessions like jewelry, baggage, documents, etc.
6. Cover cancellations such as the trip, hotel bookings, flight, and other transportation bookings
7. Cover emergencies, strife in the country visited, etc that cause you to head home early
8. Cover hazardous activities such as jet skiing, scuba diving, sky diving, paragliding, etc.
9. Policies should include personal accident coverage
10. Cover any legal expenses if incurred
11. Financial protection if any company you are using goes bankrupt and you are stuck in another country
The company that Matt recommends is one that we’ve also heard good things about but have never used – World Nomads. The team here at the Gator often equates diving with vacation so we do have experience with the folks at H2O Insurance and have had nothing but positive experiences with them. You’ll need to be a DAN member to take advantage of their equipment policies.
Here’s hoping you never need travel insurance but if you do, you’ll want to make sure it is from a company that will stand behind you no matter what.
The folks over at Matador have done a great job of running down a list of must haves. Our favorites included the "Dual Voltage Travel Clothes Steamer" and the "Multi-Purpose Lint Brush that morphs into a shoe horn, mirror, and comb, with a bonus sewing kit thrown in".
So many things we didn't know we needed! We know Bond would have approved.
Not that we are ready for snow just yet of course but day-dreaming with a cool drink in one hand while soaking up the rays is almost the best of both worlds.
Of course if that isn't enough, the folks at Keystone have whipped up some summer snow fun. Keystone's Adventure Point is offering a couple of lanes of snow every Wednesday through Sunday this summer from 10 AM until as long as the snow lasts. Runs in the white stuff will set up back $25 for a one-hour tubing session with unlimited runs and including gondola rides up the mountain.
A bit pricey but hey, where else can you go tubing in the summer? (ok...South America...but where else?)
A tip o' the hat to Gadling for the heads up on this one.
Gadling prompted the brain cells to start working with their post on the questions you should as when you check in and here are TravelGator’s additions to the list.
1. What floor is the fitness center on? We’re a bit fanatical about working out but for some reason the location of the fitness center is always buried in the information books in the rooms. So save yourself the hassle and just ask!
2. Is the room near the elevator? We recently learned this one the hard way when we got a room right next to the elevators and had to listen to them squeak all night. This one is even more important in old hotels where the elevators might not be quite as “whoosh” quiet as they should be.
3. Is the room near the WiFi port? WiFi strength drops as you get farther away from the base station and so does your access speed. If you are close, you’ll get solid performance (assuming of course that your fellow guests aren’t downloading movies from iTunes).
4. Does the room have a flat screen TV and if so how large? Flat screen TVs have ports into which you can plug your iPod or iPhone via a handy cable that Apple will sell you. Voila, movies for $4.99 rather than $15.99. One trick – sometimes you need to unplug the control cable from the hotel TV system to get control of the TV back and allow you to tell it to access the port you’ve plugged into. Of course bigger TVs are better!
5. What type of bed is in the room? If you don’t ask you might get stuck with two double beds, which is fine if you are traveling with a buddy but sucks if it is your better half. Even solo, small beds make you feel like you are twelve again.
6. Does the room have a window that faces the street? More often than not if you take advantage of the deal price you’ll get stuck in a room that faces an alley. They are smaller and face it, not nearly as nice. Sometimes all it takes is a smile directed towards the person checking you in to fix it.
7. Any upgrades available? If you stay in the same hotel more than once and they haven’t figured out you are a repeat, remind them and see if they’ll bump you up to the next level. It usually works for us!
Happy travels!
Our friends over at A Luxury Travel Blog post that the menu includes "chicken, spiced beef and baked ham with cloves and floury potatoes. For dessert, it’s plum pudding, custard with nutmeg, blancmange, red and yellow jellies, Samarian figs, peeled almonds, raisins and small chocolates."
Sounds amazing...almost worth a trip to Dublin to check it out!
