There's one thing you simply cannot take a chance on when you walk out of the door and set off on your vacation - the unexpected!

  A few years ago my wife and I set off on a four week vacation in Germany - her home country.

 We were planning to stay separately in different parts of the country from time to time visiting friends and family.

  It was on one such occasion that I took a call from her brother some 600 kilometres away in Frankfurt advising that she was in hospital with serious injuries sustained that day in a horse riding accident in the forest.

  Before leaving home we had discussed travel insurance and I clearly remember we almost talked ourselves into bypassing it altogether and going without any cover at all.

  After all we were going to be with family, our flight was a direct one with just one refuelling stop, we were in good health - now really, what could possibly go wrong?

  But intuition told me that this was not a smart idea and we signed up for a comprehensive travel insurance policy the following day.

  Sure, we could have 'saved' a few hundred dollars if we had come home in one piece.

But, the sad reality was we didn't.

  Three weeks in a German hospital, flying home via the Far East as a stretcher case in first class, special ground transport to get back to our home after an eleven hour flight from Hong Kong. Total cost - a cool US$23,000!

  Of course we would have far rather that the accident had not happened, but I couldn't help reflecting all the way home the mess we would have been in if we had left home without that little piece of paper in our travel documents.

  A short time ago a survey conducted by the Chubb Group discovered some interesting facts about the concerns among traveling Americans.

  Of those surveyed 70% said they were most concerned about suffering an unexpected medical emergency, while being mugged rated 30.7% and falling victim and being injured in a terrorist attack just 23.4%.

  The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that about 27 million travelers fly out of the U.S. each year for overseas destinations with roughly a similar number entering the country - but still many of this huge number do not protect themselves by a comprehensive international travel medical insurance.

  One thing is for sure, with that experience now well behind us we have vowed never to put a foot outside the door unless we have full medical insurance cover.

  Ours was a very painful but valuable lesson and is one that has been well learned.

  My only advice to all our readers is - don't even think about it - just do it.

  Make sure you shop around and get the best product available that gives you complete protection from the unexpected with as little fine print in the policy as possible and preferably one written in 'plain' english.

With that said go out and enjoy your vacation - you've earned it.

Happy Traveling

Konrad Carlson