Vieques, Puerto Rico – by © Brandon Elijah Scott / Eye & Pen
Well, that’s not completely true. To be fair, I hate BIG COMPANY insurance companies, like Allstate, Nationwide, and Progressive. They are heartless, money-hungry, corporate machines that are more than happy to accept your money, but will be damned if they pay their dues when the worst happens. As you may or may not know (depending how often you read this blog, or when you started to read Eye & Pen), I was robbed in Puerto Rico in September of 2012. I was hiking in the El Yunque Rainforest, where I parked my car in the busy public parking lot. There were vendors and families, and hikers all around, and it felt quite safe, but after a few hours in the jungle, I returned to pure mayhem. All of the cars parked in a row were smashed in and ransacked.
So yes, the worst had happened to me. They stole my bags, which had my money, passport, computer and camera equipment, and my clothes and toiletries in it. I was left with a few dollars in my pocket, and a shattered rental car – needless to say, my trip was over, almost as fast as it began. There’s little else that feels as purely awful when you’re traveling to find that your only belongings had been looted, and you now own just the shirt on your back. Now, I mentioned insurance in this, and I just stated that there’s ‘little else that feels as purely awful,’ BUT the next worst thing is having to spend the next nine months fighting a legal battle with your corporate and unsentimental insurance company – and ultimately losing out on a biased technicality. Perhaps, I should shop around for my car next time and base my decision more on insurance than the car's daily price for hire – because places like AVLUK Car Leasing may treat me better in the end anyway. Eh, it won't make a difference in some cases, I suppose.
Fast forward 17 months to now, and I’ve fully recovered and am back traveling, and it’s better than ever. But the fact remains that you really MUST have insurance when traveling, and from my recent experience, there are some good guys out there that are worth looking into. For my big eight month trek throughout Europe in 2013, I chose to have World Nomads Travel Insurance cover me – and for me, it was perfect. I was traveling alone, backpacking far from home, and they had creative packages that fit that sort of lifestyle. But now that my life has evolved, and my style of travel has changed, I am looking for more complex options for my future trips.
I’m heading out on my USA road trip in March, and I’m currently shopping around for an insurance company with heart, as well as quality coverage plans with no loop holes or technicalities that can be exploited against me. I mean, I can use Nomad again, but I’m looking for a plan that meets all of my needs. I really would like to find a small, close-knit, and honest insurance company... Is it really SO hard for that to exist – perhaps, it's simply a pipe dream, eh?
Am curious though, who do you suggest that I look into for my upcoming trips to Aruba and around the United States?
Fast forward 17 months to now, and I’ve fully recovered and am back traveling, and it’s better than ever. But the fact remains that you really MUST have insurance when traveling, and from my recent experience, there are some good guys out there that are worth looking into. For my big eight month trek throughout Europe in 2013, I chose to have World Nomads Travel Insurance cover me – and for me, it was perfect. I was traveling alone, backpacking far from home, and they had creative packages that fit that sort of lifestyle. But now that my life has evolved, and my style of travel has changed, I am looking for more complex options for my future trips.
I’m heading out on my USA road trip in March, and I’m currently shopping around for an insurance company with heart, as well as quality coverage plans with no loop holes or technicalities that can be exploited against me. I mean, I can use Nomad again, but I’m looking for a plan that meets all of my needs. I really would like to find a small, close-knit, and honest insurance company... Is it really SO hard for that to exist – perhaps, it's simply a pipe dream, eh?
Am curious though, who do you suggest that I look into for my upcoming trips to Aruba and around the United States?
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