When Travel Goes Wrong

Traveling is one of the greatest joys of my life. I am always telling exciting tales about the experiences and memories I’ve collected during my world travels. While I often give tips and advice, today’s tip is one of the biggest travel tips I can give you.  I wanted to talk to you about something I’ve become a major advocate for: travel insurance. After having the scariest moment of my travels (and life), having travel insurance through World Nomads was the biggest travel-related blessing of the year for Matt and me. Thankfully we were prepared for when travel goes wrong.

When Travel Goes Wrong (A Little Background)

My regular readers may remember that Matt and I intended to travel for 12 months starting last fall. In August we started our year of travel and we kicked it off in Southeast Asia. After about 4 months abroad I started to have abdominal pain. Matt, luckily, insisted that I go to the doctor and have it looked at. It turned out that I had a fairly large cyst on my right ovary. It was right next to the main artery which meant flying home could’ve caused torsion or a serious bleed. After giving bedrest a shot for a couple of days, the worst scenario quickly became my reality. My cyst had grown even larger and I was going to have to have an emergency cystectomy in Bangkok, Thailand.

The same day as my follow-up, I found myself getting prepped for surgery and then I was separated from Matt and wheeled to a dressing room where panic slowly set in. I’m not a super laid back person when it comes to medical issues. I tend to think worst-case scenario. All of these terrifying thoughts like losing an ovary or not waking up streamed through my mind. I sobbed as I changed into my hospital gown and was then wheeled into the operating room, totally awake and alert. I pulled myself up on to the table and lay there, tears streaming down my face, as I stared into the operating lights and at the nurses cleaning the surgical equipment.

Luckily, everything went well. I’m here, ovaries in tact. Plus, my amazing surgeon skillfully removed the original cyst along with two others. The only things I was stressed about afterward were ending my trip early and the $6k bill. Luckily, thanks to World Nomads, these both ended up being less of a hassle because of the policy we selected.

The Claims Process

Matt was amazing and took care of the entire claims process. Luckily for him, the process was extremely easy to do online. Upon logging in the website has a “Make a Claim” button and you simply follow the prompts. My health insurance, which you have to try to make a claim to first, actually denied my surgery. Even with that, I took the doctor’s notes, photos from my surgery, etc and World Nomads approved my claim, no questions asked. We so appreciated that World Nomads stood behind their policies and didn’t make us jump through a million hoops. Just to prove that this wasn’t a one-time fluke of awesome-ness, they were amazingly helpful and covered all my medical expenses when I broke my arm in Thailand last summer too. Which leads my to my next point…

Why I Love World Nomads

I didn’t always travel with travel insurance. It wasn’t until I hiked the Inca Trail in 2014 that I started using it and from the beginning I’ve used World Nomads, and I’ve used it on every international trip since. It’s loved by several bloggers and even big brands like Lonely Planet. So, I felt confident using them because it’s only for an emergency, right? And those never happen, right?

Now that I’ve had the ‘When Travel Goes Wrong’ moments, I’m so relieved that World Nomads is who I was covered by.

HERE’S WHY:

⋙ THEIR POLICIES ARE AFFORDABLE – I’m often amazed at the affordability of their policies. Whether your trip is 1 week or 6 months, the rate is reasonable.

⋙ THEIR WEBSITE IS USER-FRIENDLY – I’ve never once been on their website and wanted to pull my hair out or cry (you know the sites I’m talking about). Instead, everything is cut and dry and the plans are in easy-to-understand terms.

⋙ THEY CARE – Like I said earlier in this post, they covered my surgery when my health insurance called my emergency cystectomy “elective”. Trust me, the last thing I wanted to do in Thailand was have surgery; it was not by choice. World Nomads covered not only the medical expenses, but the flights back to Missouri to spend my recovery at home.

⋙ THEY BELIEVE IN SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL AND GIVING BACK – World Nomads believes in making a difference. They give you the opportunity to make a micro donation when you check out that goes to non-profits and charities that help change lives. Plus, they have a blog with different tips and options for sustainable travels.

⋙ YOU CAN EVEN START A POLICY WHILE TRAVELING – Are you currently traveling without insurance and realized you need coverage before travel goes wrong for you? You can do that! (See policy details, of course.)

Obviously, when traveling, you hope that nothing goes wrong. It can be tempting to skip the travel insurance when you’ve purchased it a dozen times and never needed to use it. Let me tell you, when travel goes wrong, you’ll be glad World Nomads is on your side.

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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase travel insurance with World Nomads through For the Love of Wanderlust, you will help me stay on the road + keep my site running at no additional cost for you. 

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