Bubble and Squeak Blog

More and more people these days prefer to make their own travel arrangements rather than use a travel agent. That can give you your ideal holiday but it may also mean just a little bit more work for you in making sure that you have included all of the necessary, or just nice to have, travel extras.

So, in addition to your accommodation and basic travel arrangements, what are some of the other travel extras that could make your holiday one to remember rather than one to forget?

Travel insurance

Top of the list may be travel insurance. This may help protect you against the financial effects of things like some of those listed below, but do note that that exclusions and limitations will generally apply and terms and conditions as well as price will vary from provider to provider. So what is covered by one provider may not be covered by another Therefore, it is important to always ensure that you are buying the cover that is most suitable for your needs.

What may be covered in a typical travel insurance policy?

Cover may include all or some of the following:

• flight cancellations or delays;
• becoming ill abroad;
• needing to be repatriated for health reasons;
• having to cancel your holiday because of redundancy or the illness of a close relative;
• loss or theft of baggage or travel documents.

A European Health Insurance Card¹ (EHIC) may only provide basic medical cover. This may not cover 100% of the cost of treatment, hospital stays or ambulances etc.

Car hire excess insurance

If you’ve hired cars before, you’ll know that while they typically may have some elements of insurance included as part of the package, this is typically unlikely to include excess cover. (For USA rentals there may be no insurance supplied at all.) The excess is the first part of the claim that you will have to pay yourself, should you damage the hire car – the car insurance will only pay out for the balance over and above the excess amount. The car hire company may offer you this additional insurance when you pick up your keys and unsurprisingly this may be relatively expensive.

Arranging this type of cover in advance from an online provider like Protectyourbubble may allow you to save a fairly significant amount of money².

The journey

Without a doubt (unless you are setting off on a travelling holiday) getting to and from your holiday destination may sometimes be a stressful experience:

• getting up in the middle of the night to catch an early flight;
• struggling with parking at the airport;
• being herded into crowded departure lounges;

These sorts of things can all mean that you spend the first couple of days of your holiday recovering from the trip.

To help make the journey part of the holiday itself, you may want to consider a couple of these travel extras to make that journey a little bit more relaxing.

For example, booking into a hotel near to the airport may help ensure a good night’s sleep. Some of these hotels may also provide parking facilities and typically provide shuttle busses to and from the airport.

Once at the airport, treating yourself to the use of a VIP lounge may also help to get your holiday off to a good start.

You can arrange all of these travel extras online with Protectyourbubble. All you then need to do is enjoy yourself!

¹The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) enables easy access for people from the European Union’s 27 Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland to access health care services during temporary visits abroad.
² Terms and conditions including exclusions and limitations will apply to care hire excess insurance.

The news in late March that Spain continues to be highly favoured as an Easter destination* should have come as no surprise

Viva Easter!

Southern Spain continues to be one of the few parts of Europe that can get more-or-less guaranteed sunshine earlier in the year and its proximity to the UK makes it an ideal short-hop destination. So it was good news and Easter cheer for the Spanish tourist industry and the slightly beleaguered Spanish economy.

Although some travel agents and associations continue to forecast a steep decline in Spain’s popularity as a holiday destination, in reality this has been predicted since the 1980s but has yet to really materialise.

There is of course increasing competition from destinations further away such as Greece, North Africa, North America and the Far East but Spain still retains its magnetism for many.

Spain’s ongoing popularity

In 2008 approximately 13.8 million Britons visited Spain** making it by far the largest holiday destination for UK visitors.

Why this ongoing popularity?

• as mentioned above, Spain is within easy reach via relatively short and typically very affordable flights;
• it is a mature market which caters well for mass tourism;
• as an EU member state, Britons in Spain can benefit from local healthcare should things go wrong (though travel insurance may be highly advisable to protect against a wider range of risks);
• it is politically stable and offers almost guaranteed weather – or at least as guaranteed as weather ever can be!;
• for those that hate flying, it can be reached via ferry into Spain or driving across France.

Bargains galore

Of course, the financial news over recent years has mentioned many times that Spain’s economy isn’t in the best of health and few would dispute that. Yet this has led to opportunities for bargain holidays and great purchases once there as Spaniards work hard to keep the tourism industry going in the face of a global recession.

Spain has traditionally offered a wide range of holidays but with emphasis on value for money. This looks likely to continue into the future, as does the British love affair with the country.

*ProtectYourBubble 22 March 2010 http://www.protectyourbubble.com/insurance-news/spain-tops-easter-holiday-destinations-for-uk-travellers-333.html
**Source: Office National Statistics http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=178

You’re packed, your travel insurance is all arranged and now you are on your way! Travelling can be one of the best or worst parts of your holiday or business trip. Treating yourself to a little luxury through those travel extras may help ensure that the journey itself is memorable for the right reasons!

Travelling is tiring

Many of us find that once we’re past the age of 12 or so, the novelty of travel itself wears off a little. We typically find that we just want to get to where we’re going rather than hang around in departure lounges.

It’s also one of those things in life that our ferry, flight or train always seems to be the one leaving at 6am meaning a crack of dawn start.

All too often we end up arriving at our destination exhausted and in need of 2-3 days worth of doing nothing just to recover from the journey.

All of this may become many times worse and far more stressful if you’re also travelling with a young family and have kids to organise.

Travel extras – easing the strain

Here are a few things by way of travel extras that may help to make your trip that little bit more relaxing:

• airport VIP lounges – if people are jammed in the main departure halls like sardines, for as little as just £13.50 a person* you can pay to wait in a quiet executive area with facilities such as internet, snacks, drinks and sometimes videos or other entertainment;
• airport hotels – most airports have hotels locally where you can stay the night before and park your car while you’re away. It may mean you get a night’s sleep before that 6am flight;
• airport VIP transit lounges – very useful if you’re on long-haul journeys and have to stop for refuelling because it’s amazing how much better you may feel if you get the chance for a shower and some exercise in-between flights;
• ferry cabins – trying to drive off an overnight ferry fresh and alert having just spent 7 hours trying to doze in a chair, may not be easy. A cabin may help you get at least a few hours’ good sleep;
• medication – your GP may prescribe some help if you’re a bad or very nervous traveller on things like boats and aircraft. Travel sickness pills may be worth thinking about. If you’re travelling by car and taking a pet, your vet may also advise on some gentle sedatives to help keep your furry friend calm;
• comfy clothes – purchasing a few extra roomy and casual clothes just to travel in may be a sensible idea. Travelling in your best clothes may look smart but not if after several hours on the road or on a plane you find yourself feeling hot, tight and constricted!

Yes, some of the above travel extras will cost a few pounds but they could make all the difference in you arriving at your destination ready to rock or being fit only for convalescence!

*with a pre-booked airport lounge service from Protectyourbubble

Getting ready to travel is something that is often a mixture of eager anticipation and sheer drudgery. Choosing those holiday clothes might be enjoyable but needing to think about things such as travel insurance may probably be less so.

Although thinking about insurance for travel probably won’t be top of your exciting things to do list, it may nevertheless be very important to you if things go wrong. Why?

People equal risk

Across the globe, travel is now a major and vast industry. Whenever you get millions of people doing anything, then statistically things are going to go wrong from time to time.

The potential problems are numerous but broadly speaking fall into three categories:

• troubles before you depart meaning you can’t travel;
• problems arising from your travel to or from your destination;
• difficulties while you’re actually there.

Problems of these types are likely to be inconvenient but also very costly and trying to fund them yourself without insurance may be financially difficult or in some cases perhaps even impossible.

High costs

Perhaps the most obvious example arises from the thought of you become ill or sustaining injury abroad. Medical costs overseas may be staggeringly high and if you need medical repatriation by air then these costs may become financially crippling if you do not have insurance to help*

Not obligatory

Of course, insurance for travel isn’t mandatory in most situations and you’re not going to be barred from boarding an aircraft because you don’t have insurance.

Yet given the typically relatively low cost of such cover compared to the sums you’re probably spending on your travel itself, is travelling without insurance either sensible or necessary?

Travel isn’t only abroad

It’s sometimes overlooked but it may also be worth keeping in mind that encountering a problem when you’re away within the UK, even if only for a long weekend over the bank holidays, can also have the same challenges in terms of inconvenience and cost.

If you’re unable to drive and need special transport home or are unable to travel due to last-minute sickness, you may find that your costs start to mount up very quickly indeed. That is why considering travel cover may be a sensible idea.

Insurance for travel tends to come either as single-trip insurance or annual insurance, often with different levels of cover too. You can also get specialised travel cover such as golf travel insurance; backpacker insurance; gap year travel insurance and winter sports cover. So finding the cover most suitable for your needs should be fairly easy.

Having insurance for travel in place may allow you to step onto that plane, train or boat with just a little extra peace of mind!

Do be aware that exclusions and limitations will generally apply and terms and conditions as well as price will vary for each travel insurance provider. Therefore, it is important to always ensure that you are buying travel insurance cover that is most suitable for your needs.

*Subject to policy terms and conditions.

This is a difficult question to answer – perhaps bordering impossible. The best life insurance for one person may not be the best for another.

That’s because our circumstances are different.

Let’s take the example of a family where one parent brings in most of the income through a conventional salaried position and the other spends their time looking after their young children. They have a long-term mortgage.

In that situation, the family may be particularly vulnerable should the working parent die. Having some form of life insurance that pays off the mortgage may be seen as a minimum requirement. It’s called:

• mortgage protection life insurance.

The policy would typically settle the outstanding mortgage debt upon the death of the insured.

The monies would normally be paid directly to the mortgage lenders. It is a form of protection often called a decreasing term life assurance policy because the amount it pays out will decrease over time as the mortgage debt reduces. It is not a savings or investment product and there is no maturity as such.

However, mortgage protection life insurance is not likely to be the best life insurance for everyone. For example, it will not necessarily help the family in other important financial areas.

To provide a broader based cover it may be worth considering:

• a level term life insurance policy.

In this case, the policy is issued to pay out a lump sum upon death. That amount may be used to settle the mortgage and leave funds left over to help support dependants. The sum paid out typically never varies over time and in the case of a young family, the sum insured may be fairly substantial.

Level term life insurance is typically a little more expensive than decreasing term insurance.

Either form of life protection can be combined with critical illness cover to provide a broad based cover for your loved ones should you die early.

By contrast, if a mature couple no longer have children that are financially dependent upon them or a significant mortgage to worry about, then their needs for life insurance cover may be different.

In such a case, a basic level term policy paying out a more modest sum simply to deal with post-death expenses may be seen as adequate and perhaps the best life insurance option for their particular circumstances.

In all the above situations, a life policy will contain conditions that will vary depending upon your age, health and amount of cover required. These factors may require close attention.

Purchasing life insurance is an important decision and advice may be required to help you decide what may be the best life insurance for you as an individual.