Dream vacation or travel nightmare? Insurance tips for Canadian travellers
Booking a vacation to the Caribbean during hurricane season comes with risks for Canadians, but there are a few simple steps you can take to make sure you don't lose your vacation money.
The idea of being stranded in a tropical paradise sounds dreamy—until extreme weather enters the picture.
From hurricanes to heat waves, more Canadians are finding themselves grounded, delayed, or stuck paying out of pocket when storms disrupt their travel plans.
"Weather conditions can cause serious problems when you're away on that dream vacation—anything from a travel delay to significant problems in the event that you're caught in, for instance, a hurricane," explains Will McAleer, Executive Director, Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada. "Travel insurance can certainly come in to protect you, to make sure that you are insulated from the costs associated with the disruption.”
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But travellers be warned: Experts say that protection only applies if you purchased your plan before the storm starts making headlines.
"Once media starts picking up that there’s a hurricane coming for your destination, you need to have already picked it up… So our advice is always purchase the travel insurance when you're making your bookings,” recommends McAleer.
Standard travel insurance usually covers medical emergencies and cancellations prompted by official government travel advisories—but not always the kind of bad weather that simply ruins your itinerary.
In response, some insurers are now offering “weatherproof” add-ons that pay out if rain, heat, or hurricanes derail your plans.
According to McAleer, the most important thing is to know what you’re covered for when purchasing travel insurance. (The Weather Network)
"There are a lot of different types of policies that individuals can get to protect their travel investment," says McAleer. "In the event that you couldn't go on that trip tomorrow, and you were to have to pay all of that money and not go away, could you afford that?"
If you don’t have coverage, you could end up facing hefty costs—from cancelled flights to unexpected hotel stays—or worse.
"There’s certainly a lot of stories where individuals forget," McAleer cautions. "Where it really becomes a problem is if you suffer a medical emergency while you're away, and maybe that's related to being caught in a bad situation, and that could be being caught in a hurricane and you're injured and you need to have medical services performed… Those are the ones that can be catastrophic."
According to McAleer, the most important thing is to know what you’re covered for. In other words—ask all the questions before you go—not when you're sitting in an airport with nowhere to sleep.
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(Thumbnail graphic made using Canva by Cheryl Santa Maria, a journalist at The Weather Network)