Hi Marta – I would suggest you should consider getting travel insurance, no matter how young or old you are.

If you’re taking prescription drugs to control an ongoing condition, then that’s an expense you’d usually have, even if you weren’t travelling. Usually travel insurance is usually not designed to cover expenses you’d ordinarily have (i.e. not unexpected). However, if it’s for a condition that’s covered under the insurance policy and drugs prescribed by your treating doctor overseas, then there may be cover. Again, it depends on the policy you buy.

Our favourite claim story is for an unfortunate traveller’s broken penis (or fraenulum to be medically precise): https://www.worldnomads.com/claimstories.aspx?keyword=broken+penis+(frenulum)&type=general

Another good one, although not strange, is for this shark attack (graphic pics and all): http://journals.worldnomads.com/true-claims-stories/story/81116/Indonesia/Shark-Attack#axzz2mSlmkVw5

There’s 2 sides to this:

1. Travellers from a certain country not being able to buy insurance for their trip

2. Not covering travel to a particular country or region

Not sure exactly which one of these 2 you mean, so I’ll answer both:

1. We work with many different insurers around the world who we choose carefully based on their expertise. They allow us to provide travel insurance to travellers from over 140 countries. For travellers from other countries not on our list, we can probably refer you to an insurer who will cover you. We choose not to cover some countries as generally we want to be able to offer competitive prices globally. For certain countries, unfortunately there is a high risk profile for fraud, which might mean the cost of policies for travellers in other countries has to go up to pay for this fraud. So instead, we choose to protect ourselves as much as possible from this happening and not sell in these countries. Sometimes also, we’re restricted from selling in certain parts of the world due to strict licensing or compliance requirements.

2. All of the plans we offer provide cover worldwide (but not within your country of residence, within 100 miles from home if you’re a US resident or within your home province for Canadians). However, if there is a travel warning not to travel in a particular country or region, then the insurance cannot cover you if you choose to go there anyway. This explains this in more detail: http://www.worldnomads.com/govtwarnings.aspx/prices.aspx#axzz2mSYe0leO

You should consider buying travel insurance as soon as you start spending money on your trip. If you forget, you can buy it at the last minute (even if you’re already travelling/left home), however it’s likely there will be a waiting period on certain cover before full cover starts. E.g if you’re unlucky enough to have your gear stolen within the waiting period, then there’s no cover.