Is travel insurance important when traveling to Egypt?
If you have a health emergency, like contracting Covid-19 while in Egypt, travel insurance can be a huge benefit.
Let’s go over the basic types of travel insurance, how much they cost and where to get insurance, and why you might consider getting travel insurance to cover your Egypt adventure.
*I need to start this post by saying that I am not an insurance agent, and this post should be used for general informative purposes only, and does not replace the knowledge of your travel advisor or travel insurance agent. Always consult with your travel advisor and travel insurance agent before making any decisions regarding travel insurance.
*Thank you to my friend Shannon for helping add some more benefits of travel insurance to this post!
Imagine this—you book a trip to Egypt, and prepare everything you need for your trip. You arrive in Cairo and are wowed by the Pyramids and Sphinx, you travel up the Nile in a magnificent cruise ship, and you end the trip exploring the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. You get a Covid-19 rapid antigen test to return to the United States, it is negative, and you board your flight. You return home full of memories and beautiful photos from your adventure.
Now, imagine this—you book a trip to Egypt, and prepare everything you need for your trip. You arrive in Cairo and are wowed by the Pyramids and Sphinx, you travel up the Nile in a magnificent cruise ship, and you end the trip exploring the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. You get a Covid-19 rapid antigen test to return to the United States, and it is positive, but you purchased travel insurance, so you are immediately put up in a comfortable, 4-star hotel, are provided with three meals per day and internet access, and the entire bill is covered, including the cost to change your flight dates. You spend a boring 10 days isolating at your hotel, but otherwise are healthy, and you return home full of memories and beautiful photos from your adventure, along with a story about how you were stuck inside an Egyptian hotel for ten days, but didn’t have to pay a cent!
These two different stories highlight one benefit of travel insurance, but also a drawback—travel insurance is an expense that may not make any impact on your trip at all, but in certain circumstances, can save travelers a boatload of time, money, and provide ease-of-mind. Let’s go over what types of travel insurance there are, how much they cost, and reasons why travel insurance may or may not be for you.
Types of travel insurance
Travel insurance and international medical insurance are two different things. For the purposes of this post, we are discussing travel insurance only. The difference? Medical insurance only covers medical emergencies while traveling, whereas travel insurance can cover a multitude of factors, like a trip being cancelled, inclement weather, wanting to cancel a trip for any reason, and more.
Basic travel insurance: This insurance has different names depending on which insurance company offers it, but basic travel insurance usually includes protection from a range of factors. See below for examples from a basic travel insurance plan:
TRIP CANCELLATION
Trip Cancellation: Up to 100% Trip Cost
TRIP INTERRUPTION / DELAY
Trip Delay: $1,500 (up to $200/day - 3 hours)
Missed Tour or Cruise Connection: up to $500(3 hours)
Trip Interruption: Up to 150% Trip Cost
Change Fee: up to $250
Itinerary Change: up to $500
MEDICAL PROTECTION
Medical Evacuation and Repatriation of Remains: up to $1,000,000
Accident & Sickness Medical Expense: up to $100,000
BAGGAGE PROTECTION
Baggage & Personal Effects: $1,000
Baggage Delay: up to $500(3 hours)
RENTAL CAR PROTECTION
Optional Rental Car Damage and Theft Coverage—
Optional Rental Car Damage: up to $50,000
OTHER
Political/Security Evac & Natural Disaster Evac: $150,000
Single Supplement Included
Accidental Death and Dismemberment - 24 Hour—
Air Flight Only AD&D—
Accidental Death and Dismemberment- 24 Hour
…as you can see, it covers a ton of different things! However, one of these scenarios actually needs to happen in order to get any use from the insurance.
One would hope none of these situations occur on a trip, but if they do not, all the money a traveler paid for travel insurance is gone. You do not get a refund of the travel insurance if you do not use anything from the policy. Just like car insurance—if you never get into an accident or have damage to your car, and you never need to take any money from your insurance company, you still do not get any of the money back that you paid for your policy.
Cancel for any reason: Cancel for any reason (CFAR) insurance usually includes the coverage listed above, with a very important addition—travelers with CFAR insurance can cancel their trip, for any reason, and get a refund (usually up to 75%) of their total trip cost. That’s right! If you are traveling to Egypt and the trip costs $4000 total, and you decide two days before the trip that you are worried about travel because you have a sick family member, for example, you could use your CFAR insurance to cancel the trip and get $3000 back!
CFAR insurance is great for folks who think plans may change, or who enjoy the peace of mind they get knowing that if anything happens that causes them to want to rethink travel, they can, and they get almost all the money back they spent on a trip.
How much does travel insurance cost and how do I get it?
Like I explain in this video, travel and health insurance are not required to travel to Egypt, but are still a benefit to travelers.
Cost
When getting travel insurance, the company (or your travel agent) will ask you a few questions:
What type of insurance do you want? (basic, cancel for any reason, etc.)
What is your date of birth?
What is the cost of the trip?
What is the destination of the trip?
The insurance companies use all of this data to determine the cost of a travel insurance plan, so it’s hard to exactly say how much insurance will cost. For a week long, $3000 trip to Egypt, basic travel insurance, and a younger traveler, the insurance will be cheaper than if the trip is more expensive, a traveler wants the cancel for any reason insurance, and the traveler is more advanced in age.
I usually tell clients that they should plan on spending between $200-$600 on travel insurance for the average Egypt adventure, and of course, getting a quote is free! Just getting a quote in no way obligates a traveler to purchase insurance.
How to get it
The best way to get travel insurance is to talk with the travel agent you are booking the trip with, because they will be able to get the insurance easily, and have companies they have worked with in the past that they know will take the best care of their clients.
For any traveler interested in traveling to Egypt with me, I always offer travel insurance, and am happy to get a free quote to any travelers booking their trip with me.
It’s also an option to research companies on your own and to buy your own travel insurance, making sure you provide completely accurate information about your trip.
Important note: travel insurance usually needs to be purchased within 21 days of paying the initial deposit on your trip, so if you are interested in travel insurance, act quickly after paying that initial deposit to get insurance quotes.
Why should I get insurance for my Egypt adventure?
So, let’s specifically talk travel insurance and Egypt—why is it beneficial to have travel insurance when coming to the land of the pharaohs?
Medical issues: private hospitals in Egypt provide high-quality care, but they can be expensive! If something happens while you are in Egypt (trip and fall, and break a limb, develop appendicitis, or something else), you want this covered, since your normal medical insurance might not pay anything, especially when you are having the initial medical emergency. Some travel insurance includes costs to have patients air-lifted to be treated at top-notch private hospitals in other countries, like Germany.
Covid-19: just like the example at the beginning of this blog post, travel insurance can turn the disaster of testing positive for Covid-19 into more of a nuisance, since you can get your hotel and meals paid for while you recover and isolate, plus, if you end up needing medical care, that will usually be covered, too.
Issues with local Egyptian tour companies: In Egypt, anything can happen. If working with a local company, travelers can sometimes have problems occur, like having portions of a trip canceled, or missing a connecting flight due to being late. If a traveler has travel insurance, it can usually provide a payment to alleviate some of these issues, and gives some protection against unforeseen problems with a local tour company.
Peace of mind: When purchasing CFAR (cancel for any reason) insurance, travelers can rest easy, knowing that if for whatever reason, they do not want to follow through with their trip, they can cancel it and get almost a full refund. This alone helps making it easier to purchase a bucket-list trip like one to Egypt, knowing that if anything does not line up, a traveler can postpone their trip, and still get most of their money back.
Pay nothing up-front: When you have travel insurance, depending on your policy, they will send a payment up-front to cover all medical costs, meaning that you can get immediate care on your trip without having to front a hefty deposit or hospital bill in order to receive medical attention.
Worst-case scenarios: If there is a severe injury, depending on the policy, insurance companies will have individuals who can help coordinate care if the traveler is unable to care for themselves, and if something terrible happens while traveling, insurance policies often cover the cost for repatriation of remains and other associated expenses.
Your tour company gets you to the airport late and you miss your flight? Under some travel insurance plans, your ticket change fee would be covered, and you may even get a small check to cover the inconvenience.
Final word: whether a traveler opts to get insurance to cover their Egypt adventure or not, it is important to at least know what types of travel insurance are out there, how to find travel insurance and how much it will cost, and what the benefits are to purchasing travel insurance. After all the options are on the table, travelers can decide if travel insurance provides enough benefit that they would want to purchase a plan.
