When is Travel Insurance Worth It?

After seeing videos and reading news of the unrest in Tibet it's not hard to imagine that traveling there could be risky. But even your typical "safe" country harbours all kinds of dangers. Hepatitis could be hiding in those ice cubes sitting in your drink, you could be attacked by a scorpion, or you could get trapped in a local clash. Could be. And that's what the travel agent I spoke to on Saturday wanted me to be thinking about when she explained the travel insurance coverage. Medical fees, dental fees, medical evacuation, bedside visits, even dealing with my remains, should it come to that.

For short trips, travel insurance doesn't seem that expensive so it's not really a big deal to buy some even just for the peace of mind. Then again, if you're planning a trip for, say, a year, it adds up... to $867.60. I haven't shopped around yet so there might be a better deal out there but that's a fair amount of dough for a "could be." That's even more than my plane ticket from Vancouver to Scotland.

I've talked to a handful of people who've done the backpacking-in-Europe thing, all of them without any kind of travel insurance. I'm not sold yet, but right now I'm definitely leaning toward skipping the bill and hoping for the best.