World First Travel Insurance Blog

Cuba’s one of those places I’ve always wanted to go to. During the years of continued support from the Soviet Union and other Eastern Block countries and the US trade embargo, tourism was a largely ignored and underdeveloped sector. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in the last ten years or so, it has expanded exponentially.

Driving a course between the need to maintain its socialist credentials, a requirement to bring in hard currency and to keep the natives from becoming restless, Cuba has managed an incredible expansion in the number of tourists it attracts. No doubt helped by Ry Cooder filming the Buena Vista Social Club (now there’s a great film), the country is full of icons ranging form ancient Buicks, men playing dominoes outside and the ubiquitous images of Fidel and Che Guevara. People go to Cuba because it’s a welcoming place.

If you want to go there, you must have travel insurance

Since 1st May, foreign nationals and Cubans living abroad wanting to travel to Cuba must have travel insurance and more particularly medical cover. The new measures were first announced by the Havana Times on 7th March with much pomp who quoted the Government press release verbatim.

On arrival, you’ll be expected to present valid insurance documents that prove you have cover for the duration of your stay and you can be evacuated by air in case you have  a really bad accident.

If you’re one of the 20% that don’t take out travel insurance for Cuba, you’ll still have the opportunity to buy it from one of the (Cuban) companies when you arrive at the airport (or port or marina). And at Cuban prices of course.

I already have insurance, is it valid?

If you take it out before you leave, yes. There has been some debate in insurance circles about a list of approved insurers somewhere in the vaults of a Cuban Ministry of Something (Travel Insurance?). It has never surfaced so it’s fairly safe to say it doesn’t exist. In any case, World First Travel Insurance provides up to £5 million worth of cover and issues policies before departure and so meets all the criteria.

If you are a US resident, you could feel particularly targeted because you’ll have to buy your policy from a Cuban company before you go because under the embargo, US insurers cannot provide insurance for Cuba.

Related posts:

1. 14 travel tips if you’re going to Cuba
2. Must you take the insurance your travel agent tries to sell you?
3. The true cost of cheap travel insurance
4. Have a check list – the sensible guide to travelling
5. Confused.com? Ash, strikes and travel insurance

Tags: beach, Cuba, holiday, Travel, Travel Tips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Travel, Travel Tips, Travel insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.