I Thought Travel Insurance Was a Waste of Money

Confession from a Travel Pro

I’ll admit it, I used to skip travel insurance.

It wasn’t because I didn’t understand how much a trip costs or how much planning goes into getting everything lined up. I would simply look at the price of insurance and think, “Do I really need this?” I usually booked changeable airline tickets, so I figured I had options if something came up. After paying for flights, hotels, tours, and all the fun parts, adding another expense for something I hoped I would never use felt hard to justify. Travel insurance felt like paying money for absolutely nothing—which is, of course, the best possible outcome with insurance, but it wasn’t a very convincing sales pitch at the time.

Then I watched The Impossible.

If you haven’t seen it, the movie is based on the true story of a family vacationing in Thailand (which looks amazzzzzzing BTW) when the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hits. What begins as a dream holiday quickly becomes a fight for survival as the family is separated in the chaos and desperately searches for one another.

Watching their vacation change so completely in a matter of minutes changed the way I thought about travel, too. One detail especially stayed with me: their insurance company helped coordinate the emergency assistance needed to get them home. That was when I realized I had been thinking about travel insurance all wrong. I saw it as protection against delayed flights or having to cancel a trip. I hadn’t really considered the much bigger value of having support when something happens far from home and you have no idea what to do next.

Now, I realize a tsunami is an awfully dramatic example. Most of us are not planning vacations with “escape natural disaster” anywhere on the itinerary. But plenty of much more ordinary things can send a perfectly good trip sideways. What if you trip on uneven pavement and need to visit a hospital in Italy? Slam your hand in a heavy hotel door? Wake up with an illness that clearly did not get the memo that you are on vacation?

I am reasonably coordinated most of the time, but I am also fully aware that I could be one cobblestone away from needing medical attention in a country where I do not understand the healthcare system, I don't understand it in my own country how can I understand it in another language? Standing on a street corner with a swollen ankle, a dying phone battery, and absolutely no idea how to say “I think I broke something” in Italian is not the kind of immersive cultural experience most of us are hoping for.

That is where medical assistance can be just as valuable as the insurance coverage itself. Having someone help locate an appropriate doctor or hospital, communicate with medical providers, understand what needs to be paid, and figure out what happens next can make a stressful situation much easier to manage.

That movie changed my perspective. Now, I almost always purchase at least travel medical insurance when I travel internationally. Depending on the trip, I may also choose comprehensive coverage that includes trip cancellation or interruption. I still look at the price—because I am still me—but now I understand what I am paying for.

I’ve also had clients tell me they plan to travel even when they aren’t feeling their best because they don’t want to miss a trip they have been looking forward to. I completely understand that. No one wants to cancel a vacation because of a suspicious sniffle.

But sometimes it isn’t just a cold. What if you wake up the day before departure with kidney stones, a scratched cornea, a seriously ill family member, or a pet that suddenly needs emergency care? Life has an impressive ability to develop terrible timing the moment a trip becomes nonrefundable.

These are not fun things to think about when you are dreaming about beaches, adventures, excellent meals, and someone else making the bed every morning. But that is exactly why insurance exists. Trip insurance isn’t about expecting something to go wrong. It is about protecting the investment you have already made and knowing there may be help available if life decides to rewrite your itinerary.

When you plan a trip, you think about the destination, the restaurants you’ll try, the sights you’ll see, and the memories you’ll make. Travel insurance deserves to be part of that planning conversation, too—even if it is admittedly less exciting than choosing the ocean-view room.

Because the best trips are the ones where you can relax, enjoy the moment, and know you have a plan if you lose an argument with a cobblestone.