One thing that can help you enjoy your vacation is knowing that you have someone watching your back every step of the way. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would be great to have someone help you with the unforeseen problems that could arise during your trip: You buy your airplane ticketing and something comes up in the last minute but you don’t have to lose your investment. You make a non-refundable deposit to book an attraction or tour and then you have to cancel but you get your money back… It is like making “non-refundable” have a different meaning

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It may be obvious to you that we are talking about insurance. Travel insurance, medical insurance, car insurance, group travel insurance, holiday insurance… There are several options and a wide variety of packages and prices, but if you want to play it safe you may want to look into the different options to have your back covered.

There are two special circumstances that apply to home exchange:

1) If you already have your home covered, you may need to check with your insurance provider for the special case of having someone stay in your house in your absence.

2) As with your home insurance, if you plan to exchange vehicles during your swap it may be better to check with your insurance company to make sure everything is good to go.

There are even some companies that offer special packages for home exchange trips, so you may want to look into that too

You’ve long been waiting for your adventure across Europe and everything is planned out already. Everything is in its place but you suddenly stop to think of things: What if a snow storm comes and I get stuck at the airport in Prague? What if someone gets sick while you and your family are staying in your home swap in Barcelona? What if my travel bag gets lost in the baggage department in the airport in Copenhagen? Sounds crazy but possible, right? So what do you do for a better peace of mind? Get a travel insurance.

Travel insurances normally costs around 5 to 12 per cent of your total trip cost. But is it worth it? I say yes. There are many travel insurances available; you can browse the web for various companies and agencies offering travel insurance. Choose a company that is well-known or is recommended by most travelers. Remember to closely review the insurance policies they have too, as most of them have their perks and downsides. Choose what you think works for you and would suit your needs best. Most travel insurance packages covers trip cancellation or interruption, medical insurance, evacuation insurance, baggage insurance, flight insurance. It’s better to read closely and understand the mechanics of each aspect of the insurance package. Ask someone knowledgeable about the policies for any unclear issues you have.

Travel insurances doesn’t cost much, but will definitely be of big help in case any undesirable circumstance arises. It sure will cost you a price but you won’t regret it. Keep in mind that you are paying for your safety while traveling, and is not just something you are wasting your money on. It is better to be prepared for these undesirable situations than to regret you never considered thinking about safety.

We hope that it won’t happen but…What can we do if we get ill right before our home exchange holidays and we have already bought the flight tickets?

The probability of cancelling a trip is very low, but it can always happen that you feel sick at the very last minute.

If we have already bought our tickets then we may lose our money. And if it’s true that nowadays we can change our flights till the last minute, we should remember that maybe if we are ill we won’t be able to know exactly which dates will be suitable for our new journey. So…How can we avoid to worry about this problem?

The best solution can be assuring our trip. After a research in the web we saw that there are plenty of travel insurance offers. You normally can choose what areas you want to cover: medical and other expenses, cancelling and cutting short your trip, etc. Furthermore you decide if you want to cover a one-off holiday or lots of trips throughout the year.

To share with you an example, we considered the offers found at www.moneysupermarket.com/travelinsurance. This site gives us the comparison between different insurance companies and helps us to find the best offer.

In our example the parameters we entered were:
• single trip for two people (30 and 34 years old) to Australia, from the 20th of February to the 5th of March and the cheapest resulting travel insurance cost was £19.39. And, for instance, the cancellation trip insurance alone covers up to 3000 pounds. Other sections covered are:

1. Passport and Travel Documents
2. Medical and Other Expenses
3. Cancelling and Cutting Short Your Trip
4. Personal Cash
5. Personal Liability
6. Personal Belongings and Baggage

The countries included in this policy are: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Balearics, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Corfu, Corsica, Crete, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Eire, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Holland, Hungary, Ibiza, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kos (Greek Island), Lanzarote, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madeira, Majorca, Malta, Minorca, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rhodes, Romania, San Marino, Sardinia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tenerife, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Yugoslavia (Former).

The different companies give you plenty of options to customise your policy. You can choose additional covers (baggage, money, winter sports) and a number of excess options. You only pay for the cover you need. In the case of a house swap the most useful cover may be the trip cancellation one: it is likely that our flights are the most expensive part of your holidays given that we don’t have to pay for our accommodation.

Have good and safe home swap holidays.