Despite plans being flawless and preparations made to the hilt, circumstances still can crop up out of nowhere. Many unpredictable things can happen when you are on safari. You can expect these ‘unpredictable things’ to force you to call off your vacation to return home, or to deal with the emergency immediately while on holiday.

Can anything be done to prepare for these instances? Yes! Purchasing Travel Insurance will ensure that most, if not all the costs for these unforeseen circumstances will be covered. Travel Insurance is purchasable prior to making any significant steps towards your planned African safari. It will definitely serve as a safety net for you and the people you will be traveling with. Getting an insurance cover is important when traveling to Africa; in fact it is a requirement for your own good.

Before you start searching for a company which can assist you with Africa travel insurance, there are things that you should keep in mind. You should ask the following

- What kind of insurance do you need?

- Do you travel around the world frequently?

- Are you planning to make trips to other locations besides Africa?

If you answered yes to most of the question, try considering an International Travel Insurance Plan. As the name implies, this insurance plan would ensure that you are given sufficient “International Coverage” wherever you go. The policies set in these plans should cover you well when you travel to Africa.

Here is another thing to keep in mind. Say that a situation arises during your stay in Africa, and as a result, you or someone with you needs emergency medical treatment. After the medical treatment, you have to shoulder the bill for the meantime. In this light, try to check the insurance policy that you are interested in, and make sure that your insurance plan covers reimbursement for medical expenses.

You should also make it a point to look over the said policy to see if it covers one of the many activities you may participate in when you get to Africa. Does your Insurance Policy cover any injuries you might get when you take part on a wild and unpredictable safari?

Would the company cover you when something happens during white water rafting, bungee jumping, quad biking, dune boarding, or camel riding? The policy should be able to answer your questions in detail. Take note that there are certain programs and activities in Africa that you may not be able to take part in if you do not have travel insurance in the first place.

Be prepared to shell out a few extra bucks for premium payments for addendum to your policy to cover those unique activities that you plan to do in Africa. A few extra costs and effort is quite inconvenient, but you will see how vital they can get if something ever happens.

Keep in mind that the insurance company should provide you with a comprehensive policy. You will need this document in case there are problems on your repatriation when returning to your home country. A comprehensive policy should contain specific details surrounding unexpected circumstance: medical expense coverage, treatment services, and trip interruption, to name a few. These details will help in determining the extent of coverage of your travel.

The Insurance policy document is apparently as important as your passport in many cases. Before leaving for Africa, make sure to leave it at home and/or with somebody that the company can contact in case of emergency. While traveling or in certain situations, have a copy of the Travel Insurance Policy for the crew you are with, state clearly who to call when emergency happens.

Checking the coverage limits of your travel insurance is very important to find out how you are covered in case something happens. One other factor that you should not overlook in the same policy would be the rules regarding reimbursement in case something happens. Getting money back means more to spend on other vacations in the future.

Whenever you plan on an African Safari for business or pleasure, do not forget to consider purchasing travel insurance. It isn’t just for you, it is also for what you have with you. It’s bound to give you the peace of mind that each and every traveler deserves.

By: Ivan A Cuxeva

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Some people travel for fun, others for excitement, but perhaps the most alarming genre of tourists are the ones who get their kicks from visiting the most horrifying and ghoulish destinations from throughout history. If you plan on going to any of the top 10 most terrifying places on earth, you might just want to adjust your travel insurance cover to incorporate the possible outcomes…

1. Haunted House

Optional travel insurance: cover for potential ghostly nightmares.

The Winchester Mystery House in San Hose, California, is a well-known California mansion that was built continuously for 38 years from 1884 and 1922, and is thought to be haunted. It once was the home of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. Sarah Winchester thought the house was haunted by ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles and that only continuous construction would appease them.

2. Eerie Instruments

Optional travel insurance: for accidental execution.

Museum of Execution Instruments, Paris, Fountaine de Vaucluse – Its founder was personally acquainted with the issue – he had worked as an executioner for more than ten years. It comprises execution instruments of all times and nations. At first glance you may consider the giant guillotine to be the most dreadful instrument. But smaller instruments, so ordinary and harmless at first sight, may turn out much more dreadful.

3. Frightful Field

Travel insurance: considered essential for the sinful or senseless.

The field of the Valley of Death in Tibet is full of bones – yogis go there to die; other people to find purification or obtain the secret knowledge. Few return with their original mental state, and it is believed that in the Valley of Death the human sole undergoes a special trial and that sinful or senseless lives are ended.

4. Mortifying Museum

Optional travel insurance: cover for general mental health.

The Museum of Anatomopathology in Vienna is a monument to pathologies, abnormalities, genetic mutations and harsh medieval medicine. Situated in the isolation ward of a former lunatic asylum, even the most cynical tourists agree that this place is horrifying.

5. Chilling Chapel

Optional travel insurance: for bone-related accidents.

The Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic is a small church filled with the sculls of plague victims from the Black Death. The macabre building contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human skeletons. In 1870, Frantisek Rint, a woodcarver, was employed to put the bone heaps into order, and he artistically arranged them to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. Four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners and an enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vaults.

6. Creepy Castle

Travel insurance recommended: against bloodsucking vampires and impalement.

Dracula’s Castle in Transilvania, Romania The medieval castle of the famous vampire is situated on the edge of an abyss. After passing through narrow passageways, dark rooms and resonant stone stairs, you find yourself in the bedroom, where, on the big bed with a canopy, the vampire used to suck his victims’ blood. This castle accommodated Vlad the Impaler, one of the most monstrous personalities of the Middle Ages, who had impaled hundreds of innocent people.

7. Horrendous History

Optional travel insurance: against historical fascist dictators.

The Auschwitz Museum is on the territory of the former concentration camp where millions died during WWII. In 1947, in remembrance of the victims, Poland founded the museum and by 1994, 22 million visitors had passed through the famous gateway. Not for the faint-hearted.

8. Terrifying Torture-chamber

Optional travel insurance: for torture chambers

Museum of Torture in Mdina, Malta has a tremendous collection of guillotines, tongs for pulling out nails and other instruments of torture. The application of torture instruments is vividly demonstrated by frighteningly lifelike wax figures.

9. Creepy Catacombs

Optional travel insurance: cover for Parisian entombment.

Paris Catacombs, France In the Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary or Empire of the Dead, far below the city streets of Paris, in the quiet, damp darkness, seven million Parisians lie motionless, their skeletons neatly stacked and aligned to form the walls of nearly one kilometer of walking passage.

10. Gruesome Gulag

Optional travel insurance: for disturbing memories.

Millions of people passed through Gulag in the Soviet Union for the twenty years of its existence. The camps had extremely hard conditions; elementary human rights were violated and minor breaches of regime were drastically punished. Mortalities from starvation, diseases and exhausting labor was extremely high. Today, under the northern sky in Solovki, you can see the deserted barracks, tunnels, punishment cells and depositories with prisoners’ clothes and shaved hair.

By: Patrick Chong

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The foreign and commonwealth office draws up an extensive list of countries that should not be travelled to quite regularly and it is from that our, and other global travel insurance providers’, underwriters decide which countries travel insurance should be provided for. We look at the government travel advice and decide from that whether or not we can provide insurance to travellers.

Although global travel insurance does, by its nature, cover the majority of the world, the current climate ensures that there are some places where the likelihood of incident means that UK travel insurance providers are unable to offer protection. Thankfully, the list is clear of the majority of popular holiday destinations, and you’re unlikely to have your big holiday plans affected. The most likely group to have their travel plans altered by the foreign office’s travel advice are business travellers.

The foreign office’s travel advice is not to travel to the following countries, even if it means losing business – the risk from the warzones listed below is just too great to make the reward worth the danger:

Here’s our top 10 countries to avoid travelling to, and the reasons for the high risk factor! The risk is far from conclusive (the foreign office’s travel advice lists many more countries), but to me, these are the ones that all travellers should avoid like the plague:

10) Liberia

Economic hardship in Liberia is currently making outbreaks of violence common, and foreigners (especially westerners) are at risk targets due to their affluence. This extra likelihood of incident ensures that no UK travel insurance provider would risk offering you cover if you choose to visit Liberia

9) Nepal

Occasional acts of terrorism and political violence in urban areas make Nepal off-limits for those who want to get travel insurance. In September this year, three nearly simultaneous bombs went off in the capital of Kathmandu, killing 3 and injuring many innocent bystanders.

8)Haiti

Haiti is considered off limits to many travellers on account of the high risk of kidnappings and civil unrest that is prominent. At the time of writing, there have been 12 kidnappings of American travellers in 2007 – mostly criminal in nature. In the past, these kidnappings have ended in physical and sexual assaults and shootings. The potential for spontaneous protests and demonstrations has also been known to result in unexpected violence, day or night. It’s no surprise that the government’s travel advice is not to travel here!

7)Yemen

Due to the high levels of terrorist activity in Yemen, westerners are advised to steer clear of Yemen. If this is not possible, then all travellers are encouraged to stay vigilant and to keep a low profile to avoid attacks or kidnapping. The situation is so grave that the US Embassy often restricts American citizens from certain hotels, restaurants and shopping areas.

6)Israel

The Gaza Strip and West Bank has seen immense violence in recent months between Israeli and Palestinian factions, and shootings, kidnappings and violence demonstrations have occurred in each. The region’s continued instability makes travel to Israel widely recommended against – the risk of abduction or worse makes travel insurance impossible to obtain.

5)Democratic Republic of Congo

The democratic republic of Congo remains one of the most dangerous places to travel in Africa, where violence, neglect and corruption has left the country distinctly damaged. Fighting erupted in the streets of Kinshasa in March this year, and the situation remains volatile despite the immediate threat of violence calming down. Travel outside of Kinshasa is difficult and dangerous with security, especially in the north and easy, being unstable. Any traveller brave enough to travel to the Congo should be extremely cautious, avoid the North Kivu district which is the backdrop to armed conflict between government troops and army rebels, avoid crowds and keep a close eye on local media.

4)Burma (Myanmar)

While the human rights situation makes Myanmar an ethically uneasy place to visit, currently there is a lot of personal risk involved as well. Throughout September, the anti-government protests sparked a violent crackdown from the authorities and made international headlines. Although the dusk-til-dawn curfew imposed in some of the towns has been lifted, it still remains an uncertain time to visit the country and you’re unlikely to find any global travel insurance company who will insure you.

3)Colombia

Colombia remains one of the most dangerous places to travel in the world thanks to the crime the country suffers from. The illicit drug trade in urban areas such as Cali and Buenaventura means that there is often a high risk of violence, while the more rural areas expose visitors to the country at risk from narcoterrorist groups who will often kidnap civilians to use for ransom or to gain media attention. Naturally UK travel insurance companies are loathe to insure travellers who choose to ignore these warning and travel to Colombia anyway.

2)Afghanistan

With the war on terror in Afghanistan still fresh in the mind, it’s no surprise that the country remains a big no-go area. Western tourists are obvious kidnap and assassination targets, as many of the disbanded Taliban and Al-Qa’ida forces remain at large and hostile to the new regieme. Additionally, the country remains unsafe due to tribal groups, explosive devices, landmines, military operations and acts of terrorism. Unsurprisingly, the government’s travel advice is to avoid travelling here at all costs!

1)Iraq

Given the high profile nature of western kidnappings by various insurgent groups, and the regular acts of terrorism and hostility to Western troops, it is no surprise that no travel insurance companies will insure travellers to the troubled country. The instability is caused by various groups – Ba’ath regime remnants, transnational terrorists and criminal elements have been known to attack convoys en-route to venues, hotels, restaurants, checkpoints and police stations.

While holidaymakers are unlikely to be affected by these less touristy locations, their riskiness means that business travellers will have to forgo their travel insurance if they are unable to cancel their trips.

By: Patrick Chong

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