A basic checklist

Costs

Every year, people living in the UK go on more than 60 million trips abroad.When you go on holiday, you are not legally obliged to take out travel insurance, but it makes good sense to protect yourself in case you fall ill, lose your passport, become the victim of robbery or are forced to cancel your holiday.

There are some things to remember when taking out a policy. If you get ill while abroad and need to be returned home, the cost of repatriating you could be in the region of tens of thousands of pounds. Without proper financial cover this could have major repercussions on your life.
Cost of going home
The figures below come from FirstAssist and give an idea of how much you could be looking at to get home after an accident:

• £30-35,000 Air ambulance (Jet) – East coast of USA
  
• £12-16,000 Air ambulance (Jet) – Canaries
  
• £10-12,000 Air ambulance (turbo-prop) – Balearics
  
• £1,200-3,000 Air taxi (propeller driven light aircraft) – Northern France
  
• £15-20,000 Scheduled flight, stretcher and Doctor escort – Australia
  
• £9-12,000 Scheduled flight, seated club, with a nurse escort – West coast of USA
  
• £1,800-4,000 Scheduled flight, seated economy with a Doctor escort – Mediterranean
  
• £100-£800 Scheduled flight, seated economy without an escort – Mediterranean
  
• £3,000-£6,000 Scheduled flight, stretcher and Doctor escort – Mediterranean
  To avoid paying this, make sure that you have adequate travel insurance.
  Most likely places for injury
  According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the five locations where you are most likely to injure yourself are on roads, beaches, hotels, remote locations and ski slopes.
  When taking out an insurance policy it is crucial that you check EXACTLY what it covers. If you are going on a ski holiday, bear in mind that you may find new activities while on the holiday that you want to participate in. Popular snow sports include bob-sleighing, ice-skating, and toboganning, as well as skiing. If you’re the kind of person drawn to spontaneous changes in scene, make sure your insurance policy will cover you for eventualities off the skiis as well. Some winter sports insurance packages exclude certain sports from their policies, even though they may seem closely-related to skiing.