If you have a dream vacation planned with the social club that you belong to or even with your classmates at school, you might want to look into buying group travel insurance.  Unfortunately as with almost everything in life, things may not always go as planned on a vacation.  For example, if you’re going on a group trip to the Grand Canyon, there might be a raging brush fire that keeps tourists away.  Or you could be going to see the sights in Greece, but the area got hit with an earthquake.  Or what if you break your leg just before heading off to the slopes in Aspen with your ski club?

Unless you have no schedule and lots of extra cash to leave right away, it is more than likely that you have been planning your group trip for at least several months and have spent a lot of money to pay for your vacation.   Unfortunately, most players in the travel industry are not so willing to give back money just because something happens to cause you to be unable to take your trip.  That’s where group travel insurance comes into play.  This type of insurance has lots of different coverage for many, if not most of the things that can go wrong before and during vacation.  If you need to cancel that trip because of a sudden illness, that is possible with travel insurance.  If flash floods cut short that wilderness trip to the Rockies, then the travel interruption part of your coverage would kick in.  Some group travel insurance policies can help you if get hurt on vacation, need money, have your stuff stolen or even land in jail overseas. 

Group travel insurance is designed to offer a lot of coverage for a low cost because, as the name implies, it covers members of the traveling group.  So the value is in the volume pricing.  The best time to learn about group travel insurance is before you take your trip.  You do not want to call your travel agent after you ram your rented jet ski into the side of a foreign diplomat’s yacht in the Mediterranean and dislocate your shoulder in the process.   You also want to make sure that these kinds of losses will be covered by your policy because not all group travel insurance is created equal.  If you do not understand the policy then has your travel agent or the issuing company explains it to you.  There is little sense in buying something that will not help you when that rental place wants their jet ski paid for, or the diplomat demands that you pay for the damage to the boat. 

Finally, you need to decide if you really want this type of coverage for your vacation.  Some people might think that they have already spent enough money for their trip and want no extra costs.  Others might not be able to enjoy themselves as much if they don’t have the extra peace of mind that the coverage could provide.  Depending on your comfort level, it’s a good idea to at least take a look at what protection group travel insurance could offer you before you take that trip.