Travel Insurance – do I need it for a UK holiday?
by Michael Challiner
Three weeks ago, my girlfriend and I decided to visit the lovely city of Dundee for our three-year anniversary. We live in Hampshire, a long drive away, so with only a week's holiday, we didn't want to spend half of it in the car. We decided to fly, and visited a travel agent to help us plan the break. I was surprised to see an extra £27.50 on the travel agency's quote for travel insurance, why would we need travel insurance for a holiday in the UK? I couldn't see the point at all, they have plenty of hospitals in Dundee, it's no different to England. But later on, while nestled in front of the TV, I started to think more about it. Things could go badly wrong wherever you are, not just on a foreign holiday - so I wrote down a list of potential circumstances that could affect our holiday: One of us could become ill before we leave, enough so that we would have to cancel the trip. Both the flight and hotel are booked and they don't offer refunds, so we'd be out of pocket. My girlfriend's Grandmother has not been very well recently, if she got worse and had to go into hospital, we couldn't go away – we'd have to cancel. Jury service – either of us could be called up at any time. Flights are often delayed and cancelled, we might need to arrange an overnight stay at the airport. Luggage sometimes gets lost at the airport, it happened to a friend of mine on a trip to Australia and she never got it back. Luckily, she was insured. I have a very expensive digital camera, I only bought it last weekend. If I lost that or it was stolen, I wouldn't be able to afford to replace it. After writing the list, I remembered my Home
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