World First Travel Insurance Blog

It seems like the Foreign Office has ruffled a few feathers in Thailand. Following the political unrest and the simmering threat that everything might seriously kick-off, advice only to travel to Bangkok if it was really essential has been extended to the entire country.

The Tourism of Thailand authority is concerned that the advice is an over-reaction as trouble is centered on Bangkok and other tourist areas are unaffacted. The Foreign Office, for its part, is “watching the situation closely”.

The Foreign Office regularly monitors situations in countries that could become dangerous for foreigners. It issues various levels of advice rangingbfrom “be careful” to “don’t go there at all”. The only country is that category for now is Somolia.

The concern in Thailand now is the prospect of numbers of tourists cancellling their holidays because travelling would invalidate their insurance. For now, there has been no downturn in searches for flights on the Internet and it seems that many are ignoring the advice and going anyway. Watch this space.

Sounds great doesn’t it? I just renewed my home insurance with Direct Line (yes, I will name them, hello Google, I’m here!). The house insurance (more Google attracting) deal is quite good. It includes buildings and contents as you’d expect with a reasonable level of cover, I added accidental damage because I can never be sure what stupid things I’ll do at home. I haven’t yet put by foot through the ceiling as it says in the documents but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. I did put it through a ceramic cooker top a few years ago.

Then there’s legal support like most policies these days, they cover personal possessions outside the home and they’ll pay my salary while I’m on jury service. But what really caught my eye was the travel insurance. All for 250 quid a year. I know a little about travel insurance, I thought, I’ll have a look at that. (more…)

Whilst there are far fewer ads on the TV than there used to be, the holiday booking season is upon us. It’s time for our annual flock to the sun in search of a little time out of the rat race. So where are we going? It seems that the Costas are (finally) on the wane and our tastes are increasingly diversified. ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) has just released its report on travel trends for 2010. They make interesting reading and show how fashions have changed in the last 10 years or so. (more…)

Benny was really happy. He’d just come away from the Big Travel Agent in the High Street after booking his cruise with the Big Tour Operator. He was going to take his wife on a once in a lifetime cruise around the Caribbean. Everything was included, the entertainment, the meals and even a couple of excursions. He’d got his eye on trying some scuba diving for the first time in his life. His wife was looking forward to playing some tennis on the ship’s deck but was wondering how that was done without losing a lot of wayward balls in the sea.

Later that evening, he took a closer look at the documents. He had a particular look at the invoice. There were a lot of figures on it and, to be honest, he didn’t understand them all. One however did jump out. Insurance £103.34. He was flabbergasted. That was not much less than he’d paid to insure his car for a whole year! (more…)