Yacht Charter: How To Find Good Travel Insurance

When you plan a yacht charter in a far-flung locale, the expense for the entire trip – not only the charter itself, but the airfare and hotels - can be significant. While nobody wants to dwell on being forced to cancel a trip at the last minute, unfortunately, life events sometimes happen. These days, airline travel delays are also a concern. Extended delays can mean cancellation of yacht charters that have been booked with specific and irrevocable start-and-finish dates. And once you've arrived in paradise, even if you're a seasoned traveler you may be unpleasantly surprised to find that health insurance coverage usually does not cross international borders; in the event of a medical emergency while abroad, it's likely the coverage you have in your home country will not be accepted. For these reasons, most brokers recommend that clients purchase at least basic travel insurance. Some are licensed to sell insurance and can provide it; others can refer you to reputable travel-insurance firms.

But if you haven't booked your trip through a broker and you want to purchase travel insurance, where do you start? A Google search yields a mind-boggling list of companies and agencies who provide it, but how do you decide which are reliable? The prospect of poring over the information on each individual website may be daunting enough to prevent you from pursuing it further. Fortunately, there is a solution. By far the easiest way to find travel insurance from a reputable company is to use a travel-insurance comparison website. Again, there are many, but three of the best are: Quotewright.com, Squaremouth.com, and Insuremytrip.com.
Travel-insurance comparison websites do three things: they provide lists of reputable insurers, they provide at-a-glance comparison of prices and policies from each company; and they allow you the option of purchasing the policy you select directly through them. Policy types vary from the simple to the sublime—you can click to read each policy's specific terms of coverage and then decide on the level of coverage you want. The most popular by far are basic, one-trip "vacation" plans, which compensate for forced cancellation of trips, interrupted trips, medical emergencies while traveling, emergency transport back home, trip delays, lost baggage, and more.
All comparison websites will ask you to provide some information about yourself and your upcoming trip so they can provide a list of companies and price ranges for the coverage you want. They will ask for your departure and return dates, total trip cost, destination country, your state/country of residence, your citizenship, the number of people you wish to insure, and their ages. All of these have an impact on the rate that will be charged for your coverage. Once this is done, all you do is click a button to get one-screen, at-a-glance comparisons from major and reputable insurance providers. From this, you can choose which companies you want to pursue further, click for individualized quotes for you and your trip, then click again to buy. There will be many companies displayed, but according to Travel Insurance Review the following are among the most popular: Allianz; CSA; Travelex; Travel Guard; and TravelSafe.
Anticipation is part of the excitement surrounding any impending vacation. Travel insurance will ensure that you spend your valuable pre-trip time dreaming about "when we get there" rather than "what if we can't go?" Compared to the amount you could potentially lose if you had to cancel a trip or needed serious medical attention abroad, the cost is well worth the peace of mind.